Down but not out, Down Under

Since my last post on 12 December 2007, much has happened. My family of 4 emigrated to Australia in June 2008 (kids and I came first, Hubby came 6 months later after liquidating our meagre assets) and in December 2009, we welcomed our third child, a gorgeous boy. Between our arrival in Australia and younger son's arrival into the world, we held down 5 part-time jobs between the two of us, moved house three times and worked hard at building new friendships and understanding a whole new culture.

One of the first things we learnt about how things work in Australia was this: they don't, at least not in the Christmas holidays (although Christmas is technically on 25 December, the holiday period can stretch through all of December and January). That meant that Hubby couldn't secure any interviews upon arrival - people had better things to do (family holidays, DIY projects etc) than to think about expanding their workforce (and workload). He did end up getting a part-time job at a fish shop, but only because he accepted a lower rate of pay. The upside was that we ended up with lots of unsold fried food, although by the third day, I had tired of it and would gladly have traded it for fresh seafood instead!

Hubby's second job was in fact very similar to my very first job in Australia years ago when I was a student. This job involved dropping off shopping catalogues into letterboxes, then returning again after about a week to see if anyone had placed any orders, then forwarding the orders to the company, picking up stock and going back a third time to the relevant houses to deliver stock and collect payment. In a sense, it was harder work than what I did - in my case, I only dropped off the junk mail once a week and didn't have to deal with any orders or payment. I'd like to say that Hubby was rewarded handsomely for his efforts (trudging around in the hot Queensland sun with a big bag full of catalogues is hard work),but that would be a huge exaggeration. He did get fit, develop a tan and slim down a lot; so you might say that the work made him more handsome, anyway. He also made friends with elderly and mainly housebound Australians, who appreciated the magnified reading glasses, long-handled grabber tools, mobility aids and other assorted stuff the catalogue offered.

For a long time after he quit this job to start work in a position that made use of his qualifications and paid enough to support a family (ie a job which offered prospects and financial security), I still tried to look for little items to buy from the catalogue that was delivered to our house, hoping to help the person who was doing the job that Hubby once did. I finally stopped when I realised that most of the stuff ended up unused, adding to the clutter that seems to follow us everywhere we go.

Looking back, I have to say that it was a difficult time in our lives. Although we had some savings, the fact that Hubby felt unable to support his family placed him under emotional and mental strain. Because neither of us had full-time jobs, it was hard for us to be even considered for rental properties - weekends were spent dragging the kids to view one rental property after another, putting in multiple applications and ultimately being rejected.

One particular instance stands out in my memory. We had left the kids with my parents and gone to view a rental property on a street aptly named Lemon Street. The agent was late, probably because he thought there would be no takers for a property that was quite possibly not fit for habitation. It was an absolute dump! When he weakly apologised for his tardiness and the condition of the property, one prospective tenant replied "That's ok. I was looking at it as a place to house my dogs, cos they don't allow pets at the place where I'm currently staying!" Out of desperation, we put in our application anyway; and at that point, I wondered if this is what depression feels like.

On the way home, we were stopped by the police for speeding and copped a whopping fine (I can't remember the exact amount, but when you have no money coming in and the savings you have is whittled down to 1/3 thanks to a weak Malaysian ringgit, any amount is 'whopping').I remember thinking that this was a fitting end to the day, right before I was seized by an absolute certainty that we had hit rock bottom. And in that certainty came an immense sense of relief, because from now on the only place we could go was up!

Testing

Testing. Testing. I'm coming back from the dead after a 7 year break! Let's see how long this burst of activity lasts...