A new development

As you will see below, I have joined the dark side and bought an
iPhone. This is the first blog post from it. Enjoy it, won’t you?

Sent from my iPhone

mobile networks

hey what mobile networks are people with?

Mint and I are currently on Optus prepaid, but I think we’re getting
ripped off. M&D are on Virgin prepaid, and get good value calling each
other free.

So calling within the network is the cheapest, so I want to find out
what network everyone is on and then I’ll look at the network which the
most of my regular callers subscribe to.

what’s news

Well, what’s news you ask?

Friday night we went to the organ concert, at which Jack was an angel.
Saturday we hit the West End markets with Amy and Woo, voting on the
way, and then our neighbours visited, on Sunday I briefly helped Michael
move out of his shareplace at “the Bunghole” into Red Hill, and then
played cards with the gang at Glara’s. Good weekend.

Yesterday I took the afternoon off, and joined the fam for dinner at
family friends G&R’s. We thought we might visit the Gold Coast on the
way home, but were kinda exhausted so went to Coles on the way home instead.

Today I went to Centrelink and waited for an hour before lodging our
form. That pretty much covers it all.

happy birthday to Mint!

Today for Mint’s birthday we celebrated by going to Medicare and Suncorp
to get Medicare cards and bank accounts opened.

Such a wonderful day she’s having!

cute story

Mint’s mum is staying with us at the moment. She’s helping by taking
care of Jack (and getting a good amount of quality Jack time in the
process) while Mint madly does driving lessons, goes to Bangkok to
collect her visa, goes for a driving test (this afternoon) and I work
and/or pack.

Last night, Mint and Jack slept in her mum’s bed. As she went to bed I
said, “good night, wife.”
She replied “Good night, custard.”

Is she calling me fat?

Visa situation

Things move quickly.

Friday, our case officer at the Australian embassy called Mint and
asked a series of questions about our relationship etc, based on the
information we’d provided in the application. She was then put on to
me, and I was asked a set of questions - mostly about my finances and
ability to support a family in Australia. As a self-employed person,
the department required either a letter from my accountant, or my tax
returns for the last two years. I supplied the letter from my
accountant, my tax return for 2007, and a copy of my group certificate
for my not-yet-lodged 2008 return. The case officer was not certain
that the group certificate would suffice, but would consider it and
call back within a week if a formal interview at the embassy in
Bangkok would be required or not. The combined interview took about 30
minutes.

We’d been to Central Airport plaza on Thursday night, and Mint was
doing her “slowly slowly” method of shopping … one trip to look,
then you sleep on it, and then if you still want it, you buy it on the
second trip. She decided after the interview to go and buy the outfit
she was looking at, and toddled off, leaving Jack asleep. She called
me about a half-hour later. “Honey! Sathantuut (embassy) call me. They
say can visa Monday!”

I couldn’t believe it. She had been approved for her temporary spouse
visa in a little over two weeks. I was completely thrilled, and
couldn’t sit down. Jack woke up around that time and we went outside
to look at motorbikes ride by while waiting for Mint to come home.
When she came home, we talked about the call, and she thought it would
be a good idea for me to call the case officer and just confirm that
she had understood. She had. There was an appointment booked for
Monday for her to collect her visa.

Then we had some serious discussions to have … I had booked a flight
back for Andrew’s wedding, departing Thursday. It was a return flight,
but no changes could be made to it. We eventually decided that Mint,
Jack and I would all go to Andrew’s wedding, and we would then fly up
to Brisbane and settle there immediately.

Flight details:
Thurs 05-Mar dep CNX 2100, arr BKK 2210
Fri 06-Mar dep BKK 0015, arr MEL 1325
Dean W: Mon 09-Mar dep MEL 1105, arr BNE 1215

So things are happening, super fast. Packing has started. Things are
insane. I’m sorry if I’ve promised anyone anything, please bear with
me as I struggle to get everything done in time …