The Rationalist Manifesto

There has been very positive progress regarding a job for me, but updates will come later.

Christmas Day was celebrated under a sunny sky, as it is the usual in the southern hemisphere. To commemorate our first Xmas, a celebratory BBQ was organized by yours truly. Originally planned for five, it ended up for three. Note that no trees, real or otherwise were harmed in the making of this celebration, and this included a mutually-assured no Christmas Cards policy.

The BBQ menu included yummy Chicken tenders that were marinated all night in a Piri-Piri based solution using a recipe which I’ve pulled out of the air, as well as savory Scotch Fillet (that’s OzSpeak for Entrecote or as Americans call it - Rib Eye) steaks. There was no salad due to the no-shows! They will be duly reprimanded.

Shelly unfortunately had to have her steak Well-Done due to her pregnancy, thus coining the phrase: “Bad Steak Better Than No Steak”, however Damien (new friend) and I enjoyed ours Rare and it was quite delicious.

Now that I have your mouths watering, I’ll admit that I can now post frivolous news such as this due to the fact that Damien generously allows me to tap into his Internet connection via a wireless network card I installed in his PC. While we can’t get the signal in our room, we can from the accommodations’ terrace. It is slow, but it is there!

No longer will I have to collect a couple of days news to post, and instead can just allow you to read every time I go to the Gentlemen’s.

Shelly finally had a good non-tired, non-sick evening the other night and I took her to the Townie (Town Hall Hotel) which is a pub in Newtown where there’s good music (British Indie) and good beer (Toohey’s Old Black Ale). We met very cool people there which we hope to meet again later this week or next.

One thing I’ve got to explain about Sydney. Pubs here are called Hotels — this is for a really stupid reason which I’ll now explain. See, gambling is VERY big here in Australia, and every pub will have a room with gambling machines and sometimes even a horse-racing betting station. Now, because of a regulation that allowed only hotels to have gambling machines, every pub declared itself a hotel by putting up a couple of crummy rooms in the higher floors and having unfortunate boarders move in.

Now you’ll understand that when I say that I’m staying at the Lewisham Hotel (aka Live House) we’re actually living above a pub with gambling machines, friendly staff and bad music…

More to come!

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The moment you’ve all been waiting for. It’s just a sampling but maybe enough to quench the curiosity overflowing the lines from Israel ;)

Me and Gabe on our first day about:

Meg and Shelly on our first day out:

Gabe in a baseball cap:

Cambell St.:

The Lewisham Hotel, where we are staying. Second and third window from the right are ours:

Some guy next to Paddy’s market with an unknown instrument:

Window view from a cab, the green trees:

Some weird chimney like statues, that look like Treblinka:

Shelly on some street:

Shelly on the X-mas Bus:

Gabe in his kitchen, with Babush the cat:

Shelly in corporate attire:

Some building in St. Leonards:

St. Leonard:

Park in St. Leonards:

Shelly marching back from her first interview:

Gabe’s street:

The Beautiful Babush:

Babush and Tinkerbell:

Me in my new uit:

Better photo of me in my new suit:

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Sydney has been rainy in the last two days, and it seems that aside from rain I am also flooded with job interviews. I doubt any of said interviews will culminate in a job before the looming Christmas or new year’s eve but I still hope to keep this job search short and sweet.

I’ve already had two interviews and I had to wear my new suit. Shelly says I look like I’m getting married again, however, apparently this is the appropriate attire for job interviews in the I.T. sector here in Sydney. Personally, I think I look like a politician.

When I picked up the suit, the shop clerks inquired whether I’ll need more suits in the future and I replied: “After these interviews, I’m hoping that the suit will only come out on weddings and funerals”, to which the clerk replied: “I hope more weddings and less funerals”…

The bottom line:

Suit: $720, Shoes: $160, Business Shirt and Tie: $150
The look on Shelly’s face: Priceless.

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Sorry about not updating more frequently, the place we’re at right now doesn’t have Internet access. I’m going to spend today looking for better short term accommodations so hopefully we’ll have an Internet-enabled residence soon and the updates will become more frequent.

Shelly began her new job last Wednesday, and is so far enjoying the work although the training for it is a bit boring. She especially enjoys the people at her workplace and has made interesting friends there.

As for myself– While I heard from several recruiters, I haven’t gotten a job interview yet. I’m wondering why that is, as I’m honestly over-qualified for most of these positions.

It might be that these jobs take time and it is right before Christmas here so the ‘after-the-holidays’ effect is felt, or it might just be too early — the Ozzies at the accommodation tell me that I don’t need to worry until I’ve looked for work for at least six or eight weeks and it has only been one and a half. Hopefully it’ll take less, so I’m hoping the recruiters will call me today with some good news. Because it is so new, while time flies it also seems like much longer than it is, we’ve only been in Australia for 18 days so far, not even three weeks have passed!
We’ve celebrated Hanukah just a bit this Sunday by accompanying our friend Maayan and her significant other to a Jewish community celebration in Hollis Park. It was quite surreal, to tell the truth, with a Habadnik DJ that played very bad hip-hop with creepy messages like “Every Jew believes in the Messiah, the Saviour” and “Hashem entrusted Eliahu HaNavi, The Prophet Eliahu” and other messages. There was even a Pinata filled with Kosher Treats for the children to smash.

The Habadniks are true missionaries, their techniques are very similar to the ones used by the more outgoing priests to reach out into their own community. They are not trying to make anyone Orthodox but they are trying to inspire their own brand of Jewish identity. While experiencing how the holidays are celebrated in the Diaspora was an interesting anthropological experience, I think I’ll give it a miss next time.
The night before (Saturday evening) after speaking to the family through a really bad Skype connection (always is when talking to Dad, for some reason… ;) I’ve went out on a King St./Oxford St. pub crawl with Damien, a new friend from the Lewisham accommodation. He’s a really nice and intelligent guy from Hobart (in Tasmania) and we have a good time talking world politics while drinking beer and observing the mating rituals of the Australian Youth. While Tazzies are also Ozzies, they seem to have their own perspective.
Almost forgot, just before speaking to the family and barely a week after having learned Poker from my brother (AKA King of Poker) — I’ve won 2nd place in a small (free) tournament in Newtown and got $20 worth of credit in the venue’s bistro (pretty good one too) and some free drinks to boot! Yay me!

Love to all!

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Shelly had a group job interview at a company in the Sydney CBD which went rather well, and this morning she received word that she was accepted and will begin this Wednesday. Its a medium paying job (~$18/hr) and she can do better, but usually the more the job pays the more stressful it is, and this is not a time for Shelly to be stressed so we’re happy with this prospect.

On Saturday I had my CULT assessment which wasn’t very difficult. Unless I’ve managed to somehow wreck it, I have a very good feeling about it. Which doesn’t matter, because any passing grade is enough ;-)

Having used Saturday morning for doing the exam, it was quite useless as an apartment hunting time… As ninety nine percent of apartment inspections are on Saturday between 9am and 2pm, the CULT basically terminated our apartment search for this weekend, but we’ll gear up for the next with renewed energy.

Today we went to enroll Shelly into Medicare and she got her temporary Medicare card — Her permanent one will arrive in about a week. However, for my own Medicare enrollment I will apparently have to provide more documentation such as an employment or lease agreement here in Sydney, as Medicare doesn’t believe that I’m really back for good and the documentation we provided was not sufficient. I’m not worried, as my travel health insurance is much cheaper than Shelly’s and provides quite adequate coverage (better than Medicare, actually…)

Shelly and I are still due to apply for our respective tax identification numbers, but that will be the last of the formalities that we have to take care of. It can be done from CentreLink which basically is an office you can do EVERY government formality from. You set up an appointment and you get a personal treatment and help filling the forms.

Tomorrow I’m supposed to hear back from two recruiters, one of which has promised me a job interview at a major bank. More to come!

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Well, it has been a busy couple of days.

First I’d like to report that you can now reach us at our new mobile numbers:

My number: +61-409-605-703
Shelly’s number: +61-448-737-703

Other than that, we moved to a new temporary residence for the next month. It costs less than half the price of the one we were at and is less shabby, but it is farther away from the city center (about 15 minutes by bus). It’ll allow us the breathing room to find the apartment of our dreams and not settle for a semi-dump ;)
We went grocery shopping for the first time in Sydney and made ourselves our first self prepared meal in Sydney. It is funny how all kinds of really silly ‘firsts’ seems like real milestones when moving to another country. We’re really building a whole new life for ourselves.

Shelly went on her first job interview, which was a recruiting agency that places people with academic degrees in all kinds of professional sales roles. For example becoming drug companies’ sale representatives and such. Shelly doesn’t know if that’s the kind of job she wants but the pay is quite good. Base salary is $50,000/year before bonuses which means about 14,000 NIS / month, plus a company car. Shelly still has some preparations to do before they send her on interviews with the drug companies, and she’s still wrestling with the idea. Photos of Shelly’s new corporate attire will be forthcoming when I finally can upload photos onto the site…

The place we’re staying at now has no available Internet so I’m trying to set up a way to access the net from my laptop through my mobile but because this mobile is from Israel I’m having some difficulties and will have to get the firmware flashed by Nokia here first.

I’m going to try and find a 3 month work contract here, there are several offers that I’ve seen already that are for this period, I’ll see how it unfolds

More updates to come!

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Yesterday we went to view some apartments on the market, only one of which raised any sort of interest for us. It was on the border of Chippendale and Darlington suburbs.
We also found a backpackers’ accommodation which is cheaper than what we are paying here and will give us the leeway to find the right home for us. It is just 15 minutes away by bus from the city center and the University.

The weather is funny, as the same day can be hot and then turn cloudy and rainy and then quite freezing at night time. Just like everyone said, it is still quite funny to experience. I’m getting to know more of Sydney, I likey ;)

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We woke up to a new day in Sydney much refreshed, Shelly felt much better and we began our day of chores and errands. First we went to a pharmacy to get some essentials and then met with Gabe and Meg who were kind enough to go and authorize photos copies of documents I needed for the University application at the Justice of the Peace.
Shelly unfortunately developed a pain in one of her feet. Maybe a strained muscle or so, and had trouble walking around although she was a very brave soul and insisted on joining us all over, however, she got terribly frustrated with the impediment — not to worry she now knows she has no choice other than to rest.

Nevertheless, we managed to open up a bank account, get the medicare forms and requirements, make a list of apartments to see tomorrow and already see one apartment in the Ashfield suburb of Sydney. T’was quite a full day!
Meg and Gabe are great and are a great help and wonderful company and I’m really having fun getting to know Gave again and Meg for the first time.

Sorry about the lack of photos, I promise I’ll make up the loss as soon as we have some time to ourselves!

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