Hello Everyone!



I got payed today... nice indeed. I did have some trouble cashing the cheque though, these Aussie banks are wiggy indeed. Firstly, interest is calculated daily, but it is only payed out monthly. If you owe money to the government because of taxes, they can take it from the interest the bank owes you. Secondly, you cannot cash a cheque that has been drawn on another bank. So in my case, I use Westpac, but the cheque was drawn on a Australia National bank cheque. Normally I would have to go to a Australia National bank to cash it, but this cheque says "Non Negotionable" on it, which means its for deposit only. Dumb eh? So what I ended up doing was depositing the cheque, then withdrawing the cash.



I took the money and got my self a nice pre payed phone. I am going to put the phone number on my contact page as soon as I figure out if I can receive incoming international calls. Otherwise, it's just for my use for people here in town to get a hold of me. Since it is a GSM phone, I can do some pretty cool things with it. One I can see if I have e-mail wating. I can send e-mail to anyone, I can get other info like weather and traffic reports. I can even send ICQ messages to people.. sweet eh?



So while the phone is charging, I am going to do some laundry. The laundry facilities are on the roof of the hostel, so I don't have to go very far. Its $3 per load, which seems a little expensive, but then again a lot of things are here. Like my cell phone is charged in 30 second blocks at $0.50 / 30 seconds... eeek! I am so used to paying $0.10 / min. Chcoloate bars are expensive too, $1.25-$1.40 is the norm. And gas (petrol) well, the cheapest I have seen was $0.98 / litre. I get about $255 / week from work, so I can manage to stay here indefinately. I also spend about $40 a week in groceries. A cool thing is that the deadline to file for taxes is July 1st. So when I file for my taxes I will get everything back because I will make less than $5 100. So in the end everything works out great!



I havn't been able to get a hold of Lisa... so I am giving up. She was supposed to get in touch with my via phone/icq - that never happened. I am going to call her cell phone and leave a message stating my NEW phone number. That way she can call me when she feels like getting together. It would seem like a waste of time even to come here if I don't see her, since like I have known her for three years.



Everything is still on for next weekend. I am going to do some research as to places to stay, and costs of tours and such other wonderful things. It's sunny outside now (yet a little chilly, about 15 C), so thats always good. Just hope the weather stays this good all week long.

Post a comment