My goodness how time flies when you are busy. There I was sitting at work, bored out of my skull and wishing and praying for something to come up to help me get through the 8 hours in each working day. Being bored I then applied for an internal position and did not think that I would be considered as I have little exact experience and is probably over qualified. I regarded this as a long-term solution to my fear of losing my job if this company should go belly up. After a lot of ructions and misunderstandings among management and the preferred guy, I was eventually offered the job and I accepted.
I am now the EMS Service Rep for Asia pacific area for support of the Cospas-Sarsat Satellite equipment that EMS Global Tracking supplies worldwide. This system has several Satellites in Low Earth Orbit (weather satellites) and Geo Stationary satellites that receive signals when a distress beacon (EPIRB) is activated. The satellite relays the signal down to earth to strategically placed antennas and receiver systems. These systems decode the signal to determine where it originated and then assist rescue personnel to guide the rescue effort to locate the beacon.
I am responsible for the Pacific area consisting of Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Taiwan, and also South Africa. I will visit these sites at least once a year to do preventative maintenance (like servicing your car) and to update it when required.
I am travelling quite a bit at the moment and on average is away from home 3 of 8 weeks. This will reduce (I trust) when I have completed my training. It was nice to visit new places like Albany and Bundaberg where the antennas are located as well as Canberra where the Control Centre is.
I was just wondering if I should be pleased that they are willing to pay me a Senior System Engineers Salary to do maintenance work or whether I should be upset that they have been paying me a maintenance technician salary all along!
Carina also managed to move to a different centre as she just could not get along with the boss and her sidekick. Although the atmosphere and work conditions have improved, we have decided that she will quit the studies as it is disrupting our family too much with me away from home so much and her not being here and tired most the time. They are really treated like slave labour: have to work most weekends and public holidays with leave being refused because others have higher priority while being paid minimum wage. Michael and I to take a lot of blame for this decision as we also did not keep our side of the bargain to assist with cleaning and helping with the house chores. We did some but we could have done so much more. At least she tried her best.
Michael won 4 of the 7 athletics events that the school hosted for his age and came second in another. They are now competing in ever widening local regional events till it gets to state level and country level. He won the 100, 200 and 800m races as well as the ‘ball “gooing” thing’ (shot-put) but was only selected for the 800m and shot-put. We are giving little extra training as I don’t want to push too hard this early stage.
I got the first really big gout attack in Oz and discovered that the usual Cortisone & Voltaren injection is not available here. It is a government medical aid and they are scared of being sued by 0.03% of cases where it can become infected when the Dr messes up the injection. Needless to say I have been suffering for over a week. Given that I could now only consume a few food types also coincided with Carina deciding that I should lose a few kg. We got the Body Trim System diet from our neighbours Di and John. It should actually not be called a diet as you have to change the way you eat for life. It is based on the many low carb or high protein diets doing the rounds at the moment. You are not allowed carbs or starch after lunch, eat 3 meals and 3 protein snacks every three hours but can eat as much green veggies and salads with every main meal. The centimeters are going fast and the kilos are slowly coming down. Hope that I don’t have to bend the rules too much with all the travels coming up, especially 2 weeks to Taiwan.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
January 2010
On the 4th of January I was married to the lovely Carina for 18 years. Everyone agrees she deserves a gold medal! At one stage these celebrations were very elaborate and we always had a fancy dinner somewhere with us swapping the selection and bookings every year. We have become complacent but we had a nice lunch at BonJourno’s with Michael. I did try to book at Ned Kelly’s but they were closed for January to relax after the Xmas season!
It was back to school for Michael and he will be with his first male teacher this year. It started off quite nicely and he seems pretty keen although he “hates school”. For me it was also back to work. These days it consists of sitting around, surfing the web and counting the minutes till it’s time to go home. The parent company in Canada took a beating end of last year and we are suffering in “sympathy” with the dip in airline business.
I have to get my Ozzie drivers license by February. I did the learners test and failed the same question twice in one day. Here you have to get all the “give way” questions 100% correct before moving to multiple choice questions. There are many intersections in the suburbs that are not controlled by any traffic regulations like GiveWay or Stop signs and you have to know the rules about who gives way for the system to work.
I have managed to get a bit more active and cycle to work en hope to start swimming in the mornings shortly. The swimming is quite expensive but should give quick reslults in burning some of the excess padding around the waist.
Carina is still very unhappy with her work and will possibly stop with the course after her evaluation in a few weeks. There seems to be a lot of unhappy workers at this one specific institution. It will be a bit sad that she’s put in so much for so long and walk away with nothing so she may transfer to another location to complete her appreniceship.
January has been a really good month on FaceBook. It felt like someone put out the following challenge:”find Hansie”. I have made contact with several people that I last saw in Burgersdorp Laerskool in 1971, some from Potch Technical High and some colleages that worked with me a few years ago. One guy is even here in Oz. I don’t particularly like FB but it is really good to hear news from the folks back home.
It was back to school for Michael and he will be with his first male teacher this year. It started off quite nicely and he seems pretty keen although he “hates school”. For me it was also back to work. These days it consists of sitting around, surfing the web and counting the minutes till it’s time to go home. The parent company in Canada took a beating end of last year and we are suffering in “sympathy” with the dip in airline business.
I have to get my Ozzie drivers license by February. I did the learners test and failed the same question twice in one day. Here you have to get all the “give way” questions 100% correct before moving to multiple choice questions. There are many intersections in the suburbs that are not controlled by any traffic regulations like GiveWay or Stop signs and you have to know the rules about who gives way for the system to work.
I have managed to get a bit more active and cycle to work en hope to start swimming in the mornings shortly. The swimming is quite expensive but should give quick reslults in burning some of the excess padding around the waist.
Carina is still very unhappy with her work and will possibly stop with the course after her evaluation in a few weeks. There seems to be a lot of unhappy workers at this one specific institution. It will be a bit sad that she’s put in so much for so long and walk away with nothing so she may transfer to another location to complete her appreniceship.
January has been a really good month on FaceBook. It felt like someone put out the following challenge:”find Hansie”. I have made contact with several people that I last saw in Burgersdorp Laerskool in 1971, some from Potch Technical High and some colleages that worked with me a few years ago. One guy is even here in Oz. I don’t particularly like FB but it is really good to hear news from the folks back home.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
December 2009 News
Bit late with December news but hey it was holidays. Decided to take 3 weeks leave and what a great idea it turned out to be. We didn’t do much because Carina was still busy with the practical part of her diploma. They really worked her like a slave over this period.
Happy to say that the new Canon camera is a beauty. Put it through it’s paces when we visited the Adelaide Zoo for the year-end function. I have posted some pics on Picasa.
We camped at West Beach for a few days. An ex-cyclone passed over the centre of the country and caused strong winds in Adelaide. Kids still had a good time though; being able to have the run of the grounds without us hounding them was good.
Bought a few nice tools: 18V Li-I cordless drill (Very impressive) and a mitre saw to make the job easier. I finally finished my workbench and the model train bridges. Now the scenery modeling can begin.
Little Wian de Wit made his appearance the day before Marilene’s parents arrived from RSA. He is quite a delightful little guy that loves eating as much as Wynand. We had the pleasure of them visiting us twice already.
Rest of the time Michael and I hung around the house or with Shaun in the pool. This is the high temperature season and we are really cooking at the moment. We tried to purchase one of those inflatable pools but because of the drought and various rules and safety regulations we will have to give it a miss. We need to get permission from the city council to fill the little pool and it needs a proper swimming pool fence around it before they will come and inspect the area to consider granting permission.
I have to get an Oz drivers license as my RSA one expires in March. Actually should have done so 3 month ago when we got Permanent Residency Visas. I simply cannot believe that I failed the learners test twice on one day! Will take the test again some time this week.
The local town council of Tea Tree Gully sponsored several events to show movies in the park opposite Tea Tree Shopping centre. This really brought back some childhood memories of attending the drive-inn with us kids watching on blankets. We joined around 250 other people to watch Twilight with picnic baskets, beer and wine. It still amazes me to be able to do this without any disorderly behaviour in the crowd. The kids are free to run around when they get bored.
I want to add on a sad note and say that I will miss my friend Chris van Rooyen very much. He passed away in the early hours of 29 December after suffering a massive heart attack. Chris and I started studying at Stellenbosch and stayed in Helshoogte. We then worked at the same companies till last year. He made quite an impression with the lion’s tooth he had around his neck and suspender belts he always wore. I consider him a very clever and extremely “sharp” engineer who achieved results on the projects he worked on. He departed much too soon!
I also remember my brother Rassie who was killed last year. I hope and pray that this is not a pattern that will continue the end of this year.
Happy to say that the new Canon camera is a beauty. Put it through it’s paces when we visited the Adelaide Zoo for the year-end function. I have posted some pics on Picasa.
We camped at West Beach for a few days. An ex-cyclone passed over the centre of the country and caused strong winds in Adelaide. Kids still had a good time though; being able to have the run of the grounds without us hounding them was good.
Bought a few nice tools: 18V Li-I cordless drill (Very impressive) and a mitre saw to make the job easier. I finally finished my workbench and the model train bridges. Now the scenery modeling can begin.
Little Wian de Wit made his appearance the day before Marilene’s parents arrived from RSA. He is quite a delightful little guy that loves eating as much as Wynand. We had the pleasure of them visiting us twice already.
Rest of the time Michael and I hung around the house or with Shaun in the pool. This is the high temperature season and we are really cooking at the moment. We tried to purchase one of those inflatable pools but because of the drought and various rules and safety regulations we will have to give it a miss. We need to get permission from the city council to fill the little pool and it needs a proper swimming pool fence around it before they will come and inspect the area to consider granting permission.
I have to get an Oz drivers license as my RSA one expires in March. Actually should have done so 3 month ago when we got Permanent Residency Visas. I simply cannot believe that I failed the learners test twice on one day! Will take the test again some time this week.
The local town council of Tea Tree Gully sponsored several events to show movies in the park opposite Tea Tree Shopping centre. This really brought back some childhood memories of attending the drive-inn with us kids watching on blankets. We joined around 250 other people to watch Twilight with picnic baskets, beer and wine. It still amazes me to be able to do this without any disorderly behaviour in the crowd. The kids are free to run around when they get bored.
I want to add on a sad note and say that I will miss my friend Chris van Rooyen very much. He passed away in the early hours of 29 December after suffering a massive heart attack. Chris and I started studying at Stellenbosch and stayed in Helshoogte. We then worked at the same companies till last year. He made quite an impression with the lion’s tooth he had around his neck and suspender belts he always wore. I consider him a very clever and extremely “sharp” engineer who achieved results on the projects he worked on. He departed much too soon!
I also remember my brother Rassie who was killed last year. I hope and pray that this is not a pattern that will continue the end of this year.
November 2009 News
2009 has finally entered the home straight! Amazing how this has year simply flew by.
Carina finished TAFE (college) or formal classes and is now only doing practical or may we call it slave labour. Amazing how the attitudes at the institute changed since they became full-time apprentices. She is suddenly very disappointed and the sad thing is that it is the old residents that suffer under these poor attitudes!
I have decided to become a Bulls supporter! Before some of you cheer and others start going for the rifle: this is the local Tea Tree Gully Cricket Club and it is a yellow bull on red background. Michael has joined the club and they play and practice on Friday evenings. Hopefully he will be able to join the U12 league next year.
Bought myself a digital SLR camera with 2 lenses covering 18-55 and 50-250mm. Long and hard decision to decide between Pentax and Canon. I had a Pentax SLR in the old film days before someone applied affirmative shopping after we moved to Edgemead and was very happy with it. I never replaced it because it wasn’t used much and film was very expensive. We later bought a Canon compact and is still very happy with it. I miss the speed of the SLR so I have taken the plunge and got the Canon EOS-450(Rebel Xsi in US) from an online store in the US (www.bhphotovideo.com), they are a few 100 $$ (20-30%) cheaper than local Oz prices. It is still a lot of money but I am looking forward to honing my skills again over the holidays.
We are camping again for a few days at West Beach here in Adelaide. Shaun and his family will join us. Carina is unfortunately working some of the days and will commute from the campsite. It is actually closer than travelling from home. I am still toying with the idea to take an additional week’s leave over that period as well. If we cannot get Michael enrolled in Sport academy for the holiday period I may be forced to take off the days that Carina is working
Carina finished TAFE (college) or formal classes and is now only doing practical or may we call it slave labour. Amazing how the attitudes at the institute changed since they became full-time apprentices. She is suddenly very disappointed and the sad thing is that it is the old residents that suffer under these poor attitudes!
I have decided to become a Bulls supporter! Before some of you cheer and others start going for the rifle: this is the local Tea Tree Gully Cricket Club and it is a yellow bull on red background. Michael has joined the club and they play and practice on Friday evenings. Hopefully he will be able to join the U12 league next year.
Bought myself a digital SLR camera with 2 lenses covering 18-55 and 50-250mm. Long and hard decision to decide between Pentax and Canon. I had a Pentax SLR in the old film days before someone applied affirmative shopping after we moved to Edgemead and was very happy with it. I never replaced it because it wasn’t used much and film was very expensive. We later bought a Canon compact and is still very happy with it. I miss the speed of the SLR so I have taken the plunge and got the Canon EOS-450(Rebel Xsi in US) from an online store in the US (www.bhphotovideo.com), they are a few 100 $$ (20-30%) cheaper than local Oz prices. It is still a lot of money but I am looking forward to honing my skills again over the holidays.
We are camping again for a few days at West Beach here in Adelaide. Shaun and his family will join us. Carina is unfortunately working some of the days and will commute from the campsite. It is actually closer than travelling from home. I am still toying with the idea to take an additional week’s leave over that period as well. If we cannot get Michael enrolled in Sport academy for the holiday period I may be forced to take off the days that Carina is working
Monday, November 2, 2009
September and October News
School Holidays is all of a sudden a problem for our household as Carina is no longer at home to look after and entertain Michael. This sort of caught me unawares, just like the time he got sick when I had to take off work to look after him the very first week she started studying. Sometimes I take things like this for granted. Michael spent a week with aftercare where they did some interesting stuff and the second week I took leave and stayed with him.
We had a long weekend and were lucky to be invited by the Bosch’s from Gawler to join them for 2 nights camping at Coorong. The Coorong is the wetlands area where the
I used two old doors that I found in the “roadside store” (people leave stuff they don’t want beside the road in front of their houses) to build a table for the Model Trains. We have laid out the tracks and will start soon with the scenery (trees, buildings, cars, animals and people). Hope this will keep us busy for some time.
I was planning to join the Army Reserves as one of the advantages was that we could get a concession for Citizenship and get it within 6 Months instead of 4 years. I went for the aptitude testing with a bunch of kids only to be told that the requirements changed a few weeks ago and that I now need to be a citizen to be considered for defence jobs. The recession has resulted in them being flooded with applications and they can now pick and choose. They have to specially nominate me for a job and explain why a citizen cannot do it.
I eventually succumbed to the pressure and also bought a portable chemical loo and tent so Carina can enjoy some comfort on the camping. Still find it hard to understand why she needs this when we have done several hikes through the
Thursday, September 3, 2009
August 09 News
We have finally received Permanent Residency in Oz! It is a Company and State sponsored visa, meaning I have to work here for 4 years and I can only work in South Australia. I can apply for Citizenship after 4 years but in our case in 3 years time as the part year counts as one of the 4. We have also received Medicare Cards which provides virtually free medical care in state hospitals. We will also apply for financial support for Michael which equates to them paying us to send him to school and sadly that I don’t earn enough money!
Carina started studying as an Old Age Carer. We always joked in RSA that she will have to look after us old ones one day and now I am just making sure she will be able to do a good job. The studying has resulted in quite an adjustment for the men in the household. Michael is really missing his mom in the afternoons and I miss the cooked meals and clean house! The system here is amazing: they pay for her 30 week course as well as $$ for every hour spent studying! It is not much but it covers the house rental for the month. There is also no commitment to have to work for them after the studies are over.
I lodged my first TAX return here in Oz and got quite a few $$ back, paid into my account within 8 days! Still waiting for my money from 2 years ago in RSA. So we spoilt ourselves with a coffee table, dining table and chairs as well as recliner chairs for the TV room. I am tired of waking up in front of the TV with a stiff neck, shoulders and cramps in my legs from falling asleep on the 2-seater cane furniture. At least now I can sleep in comfort.
Work is looking a lot more positive and the prototype work we did will now move to a full-scale development. Hopefully I will also be in a position to visit the family in Canada when the project kicks off in the next few weeks.
We were looking at buying a house as the rates here are very low compared to what I was used in RSA and repayments are close to what we are paying in rental. We are also not allowed to have pets in the rental house. Unfortunately we have discovered the “other little costs” like insurance, water, Rates & Taxes etc are a bit too much to handle now. We will also miss our neighbours terribly! Wish I could sell my house in Cape Town but I believe it will be a year or two before the housing market will recover.
Carina started studying as an Old Age Carer. We always joked in RSA that she will have to look after us old ones one day and now I am just making sure she will be able to do a good job. The studying has resulted in quite an adjustment for the men in the household. Michael is really missing his mom in the afternoons and I miss the cooked meals and clean house! The system here is amazing: they pay for her 30 week course as well as $$ for every hour spent studying! It is not much but it covers the house rental for the month. There is also no commitment to have to work for them after the studies are over.
I lodged my first TAX return here in Oz and got quite a few $$ back, paid into my account within 8 days! Still waiting for my money from 2 years ago in RSA. So we spoilt ourselves with a coffee table, dining table and chairs as well as recliner chairs for the TV room. I am tired of waking up in front of the TV with a stiff neck, shoulders and cramps in my legs from falling asleep on the 2-seater cane furniture. At least now I can sleep in comfort.
Work is looking a lot more positive and the prototype work we did will now move to a full-scale development. Hopefully I will also be in a position to visit the family in Canada when the project kicks off in the next few weeks.
We were looking at buying a house as the rates here are very low compared to what I was used in RSA and repayments are close to what we are paying in rental. We are also not allowed to have pets in the rental house. Unfortunately we have discovered the “other little costs” like insurance, water, Rates & Taxes etc are a bit too much to handle now. We will also miss our neighbours terribly! Wish I could sell my house in Cape Town but I believe it will be a year or two before the housing market will recover.
Monday, August 3, 2009
July 09 News: Mt Hotham and Canberra
We managed to get everything in place for our Permanent Residency (PR) Visa or so I thought: Federal Police Clearance required on Form 1101 which the case officer eventually sent me as I just could not figure out what to do. Heard today (2 weeks later) the instructions on the form were outdated: they returned our forms as the cost increased by $7! So we wait another month for bureaucracy to run its cause!
Our ski holiday in Mt.Hotham was very nice. I somehow missed the WOW factor of it all, maybe just like I don’t get the joy of fishing. Michael and Carina struggled in the beginning but really enjoyed it in the end. We had brilliant sunshine days after good snow falls and experienced heavy snowfalls on the last day.
The Canberra sights were also very good and I enjoyed driving in the city: the streets are well laid out and wide and traffic was easy (the politicians were on leave!). Parliament house and the War Museum were definitely the highlights although we spent the longest time at the Science centre.
The IELTS exam was something else to experience: 900 people in one hall and everything running with military precision, with a spread of about 70% Asian, 29% Indian and 1% Europeans. Carina beat me at listening and talking! I am still amazed but congratulations to her. My Writing and Reading skills pulled me through to have the higher average though! So now we are officially English literate.
I also collected “Beetle Baily” in Wagga-Wagga and what an absolute gem I got. Apart from a few small electrical problems with Hooter, Indicator Lights and the bumpers which took the brunt of Amanda’s driver learning experiments, everything else is in excellent condition. I started it there and drove it all the way to Adelaide (900km). I fixed the wiring problems and had him inspected (road worthy test) and transferred without any problems. Will slowly start replacing stuff but there is no rush.
Our ski holiday in Mt.Hotham was very nice. I somehow missed the WOW factor of it all, maybe just like I don’t get the joy of fishing. Michael and Carina struggled in the beginning but really enjoyed it in the end. We had brilliant sunshine days after good snow falls and experienced heavy snowfalls on the last day.
The Canberra sights were also very good and I enjoyed driving in the city: the streets are well laid out and wide and traffic was easy (the politicians were on leave!). Parliament house and the War Museum were definitely the highlights although we spent the longest time at the Science centre.
The IELTS exam was something else to experience: 900 people in one hall and everything running with military precision, with a spread of about 70% Asian, 29% Indian and 1% Europeans. Carina beat me at listening and talking! I am still amazed but congratulations to her. My Writing and Reading skills pulled me through to have the higher average though! So now we are officially English literate.
I also collected “Beetle Baily” in Wagga-Wagga and what an absolute gem I got. Apart from a few small electrical problems with Hooter, Indicator Lights and the bumpers which took the brunt of Amanda’s driver learning experiments, everything else is in excellent condition. I started it there and drove it all the way to Adelaide (900km). I fixed the wiring problems and had him inspected (road worthy test) and transferred without any problems. Will slowly start replacing stuff but there is no rush.
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