gbazz

Ok, craigslist. I’ve always known what the site was for, but until today I never really visited it. The first time I heard about it was in that story about the guy who traded up from a paper clip to a house. You know the one I’m talking about.

Anyway, yesterday I was talking to some random people on the chatroom of this site I’m a member of (I know, chatrooms are old. But in my defense, I was really bored!), and someone mentioned craigslist. Since I’m a bored little busybody who has to know about everything, I went to the site to have a look around. I found some really cool furniture sales, but unfortunately nothing that interested me. I also found this, a listing for a free four month old Golden Retriever puppy!

Unfortunately I don’t think my housemates would like having a noisy puppy around, even though I personally would love it. I miss having puppies.

But that’s not why I’m giggling. Being the mature, curious twenty one year old I am, I went clicking through the personals listings and omg, I could not stop giggling after reading the first one. Sure, you could say I’m immature, but the frankness (haha, frank) of some of those guys in the ads… And the pictures… oh the pictures hehehe.

Oh I’ve seen personals on other sites, but for some reason the ones on craigslist just have me giggling.

Go take a look.

written by Brian \\ tags: craigslist, funny, personals, puppy

Well, this last week’s been really exciting…

Did you notice the sarcasm in that sentence? No? Oh… For someone who really likes sarcasm, I really have to work on conveying it through text.

Anyway, ignore what the first sentence said, this week was not exciting, just vomit inducing. I’ve just graduated from university and am a fully registered nurse now living in Australia on a student visa. I’m in the process of applying for an eighteen month visa and some of the requirements are ridiculous!

For example, before I can apply for my visa, I have to take the IELTS test, which is meant to prove to the government people that I can speak English. Why do I need to take this exam? I can understand that people who’ve just come from another country should take it so that the people hiring them know that they can communicate properly with people. Imagine telling the nurse that you have a heart attack, and five minutes later the nurse comes in with two panadol, because she/he didn’t understand what you said. Sure it is needed for some people, but there should be some sort of exemption for people who’ve studied here for more than five years!

Seriously, how could I not know how to speak, read and write English over the last six years? Surely my English teacher in high school and the various lecturers in uni would have said something if my work wasn’t good enough.

Another thing that bugs me is the fact that anyone who applies for a visa has to have a skills test, to prove that they can carry out anything that their profession requires. Again, this testing is important too, since you can’t have people working as nurses, and not know what they’re doing. The thing is, I’ve just graduated and registered with the nurses board, so really, I’ve proved that I know what I’m doing! Since the testing authority is the Australian Nurses and Midwives Council, and they’re the ones who’ve approved my uni curriculum, it should follow that I’m already qualified to practice according to their standards.

Oh well, at least the tests should be easy. And no, migration is not more trouble than its worth. I love living in Australia, and over the last six years it’s become the place that feels most like home to me.

You can probably expect a post further in the future commenting on the citizenship test, but that will come when it comes.

written by Brian \\ tags: anmc, australia, dimia, english, ielts, migration, visa

Ok I never though I’d say this, but here goes:

I wish our stopover in the Hong Kong airport was longer. =(

That’s weird right? I mean, who in their right mind would want to stay in an airport? Every traveller knows that an airport is almost hell on earth, at least if you’re an economy passenger and don’t have access to the lounges that business and first class gets. There’s nothing to do, the seats are uncomfortable, and the food is crap.

Hong Kong airport though, I would be lying if I described this airport like that. It has stores! (The stores!) It has a food court! (The fast food!) and it has free internet! (Love the speeds!) All that this place lacks is a cinema and a swimming pool, and they’d be set.

It’s a pretty sweet setup though and I wouldn’t mind being stuck here for a day or so. Hopefully that won’t happen any time soon though, because I do want to get back to Australia. ^^

written by Brian \\ tags: airport, hong kong, travel

That was awesome! The New Year’s Eve fireworks have got to be the best thing about the end of the year here in the Philippines. The lightshow started at about 11, and even though it’s already 12:20 you can still see the bright lights and hear the extremely loud noisemakers in the neighbourhood.

My family spent the last 30 minutes standing on the back porch watching the fireworks, and by midnight you could barely see more than a few hundred metres away because of the smoke. Ordinarily the smoke would have probably been annoying, but the light from the fireworks in the whole neighbourhood gave the smoke a really beautiful glow.

When you think about it, a lot of families here in the Philippines are poor, but at the end of the year, it doesn’t matter how little money a family has to spend on fireworks, because come midnight, the explosions of fireworks just overwhelms you. Once once family starts fireworks, everyone else follows suit, and within minutes the sky is nearly as bright as it is in the early morning.

I have to admit that it was really nice to lose myself in the lights and sounds of the explosions, not having to think of any problems and just being able to enjoy something that I haven’t seen since I was much younger.

On one of the forums that I visit frequently, someone said that they tended to see New Year’s as the end of a year rather than a beginning, and even though it really is both, I agree with him.

I see this New Year’s Eve as a night when a really good year has passed by. And even though I’m gonna miss it and the people I got to know in it, I can still look forward to another year that just as good, if not better than the last one was.

Happy New Year everyone! Behave yourselves and enjoy 2008!

written by Brian \\ tags: fireworks, new year