A couple of weeks ago, I asked my friend Marjaana to “send me that package now”. We had an agreement, that since I helped her out with her company logo, she would then later send me some chocolate from home when I would be desperate for it. The time arrived. Read the rest of this entry »
I just received a big envelope from the Immigration, and they have made their decision. Indeed our marriage is genuine, we’re in it for real and the sort… Things you know already. 
This calls for celebration and we’ll be eating out tonight. 
We never have to leave if we don’t want to. So cool!
This is one of the coolest things about Tassie. You get all the same groups of young people here as anywhere else - the fashion gurus, nerds, rappers, slackers, goths… The difference is though, that these youngsters are scaringly polite. I was walking along this street in the Hobart center, when a group of black rappers was approaching me. The first one walked backwards almost, trying to get the rest of the group to speed up and catch up with him. As he was doing this, he then turned around to see where he was going, saw me about 5 meters away - I almost expected him to pull a knife on me - but instead he goes: “Oh, excuse me.” I mean, he was’t even close to pumbing on me, just that if he had taken 5-8 more steps he might have brushed against me.
Another funny thing was when I was walking my dog along a narrow path following the bay shore, and two teen aged boys passed me with their bikes. Now I had to actually move away to let them pass, but what the other said threw me off guard: “Sorry, ma’am.” Ma’am? I can’t even spell it let alone use it in context. And again, not a hint of sarcasm, but pure respect and politeness… I could have just given him a big hug and go “oh that’s quite all right my dear boy, you just made my day” but I think that might have been a tad odd, so I just said “No worries mate” and gave him a big smile.
This happens all the time, kids approach you with “excuse me but” and young men with their pants hanging down below their butts tell you they’re sorry for giving you any trouble for what ever minor reason… Like passing you in a CD store. Maybe I just look old and teacher type to them, but who cares if that’s the treatement I get for it!
On Sunday, our Aussie Mom and Dad left back home. After two months of sharing the house, I can’t honestly say I was sad to see them go. :p It’s always a bit stressing sharing space with other adults with their own ideas how things should be done and so forth. Added to that, this is the first time since the First of March that we’ve had a place to ourselves, so I suppose everyone can relate to the relief.
My migration process should be finished soon enough. I can’t wait to get my paperwork done so I can start working - I can’t believe I’m saying that. Everyone who knows me know that I’m not what you would call a career oriented person. :p For some reason everything here seems more worth the trouble.
As some of you may have read/heard, I too got bitten by the dog… I can’t be bothered to go into long details about it, but I was stopping the big dog from getting to my dog again, in a situation that shouldn’t have happened in the first place, and got bitten in the face of all places. I got 11 external stitches and I don’t know how many internal ones, but there would have been a few. (And no, the dog hasn’t been put to sleep. #1 question I get after telling the story.)
Anyway… We’re settling in… Brett’s exergaming thing is going great in Finland, so we’re happy about that, and also he’s had a great start with the family business here.
I had my first short moment of home sickness yesterday. I was thinking that now that we’re by ourselves, what should we do, and I thought about going to have a meal at the New Bamboo Center on Annankatu in Helsinki. I was then thinking about a cold, dark and damp weather, the kind we have during winters in Helsinki these days, and that made me home sick. Of all things, the awful weather!
The big dogs had a good one the other day. They were alone with the in-laws so I cannot say exactly what happened, but Primo ran to Phoenix and he didn’t back down this time. Mom-in-law had to hose them down to make them stop, which wasn’t a bad idea at all… But Primo ended up with a good rip in his ear, puncture hole in the other and in the end, a few stitches. We ended up with the bill. Oh man that dog has some breeding to do to make up all this. 
You didn’t think there was anything good about spam, did you? Neither did I, until I put in a spam filter that really does it’s job, and does it well. For few days now, not one spam message has found it’s way to my inbox. The thing is now, that I feel utterly unimportant. The amount of email I receive has crashed down to one or two a day, which feels like none for days. So now I realise nobody wants to talk to me.
So, at least spam makes you feel wanted. Can’t help but think the Kath and Kim episode, in which Sharon was getting married to a spam bot…
I am sorry I haven’t updated the blog earlier, but I’m sure the people who were the most anxious to hear the news, have already. Primo arrived as scheduled safe and sound. He was thin, worked up and utterly exhausted, but other than that everything he has ever been. We have spend the couple of days getting used to the surroundings and getting settled in, with some difficulties mainly in the form of the other two dog boys in the house.
I’ve been taking him for walks and the sort, and today was a fantastic day down at Clifton beach and 7 Mile beach. I will have to ask you to just check out some photos on Primo’s website at http://www.fieldspanieli.com/photos/index.php and the albums “arrival to Hobart” and “First days in Taz”. That’s why I haven’t had time to update here, so many pictures! Also I’ve been working on the Fieldspanielit Ry’s newsletter.
Now I need to go to bed, tomorrow is another exciting day in the paradise.
Primo is getting home on Thursday with Jet Pets. Hopefully he’ll be home safe and sound and not like in my nightmare last night, in which he had gotten some fleas or something and lost all hair of his snout and left ear. In my dream he was tired and sickly but still happy to see us, but I was livid at the quarantine people for neglecting him like that. I am sure he’ll be more than fine though, maybe a bit thin, but gives a good reason to pamper him with extra treats when he comes home, doesn’t it?
I am so anxious to get him back, that I don’t know how I’m going to be able to concentrate on anything for the beginning of the week. I can’t wait to take him for a walk and show him his new home, which I know he’ll love. We will take long walks on beaches and on hills, drive up a mountain to walk around a mountain top, sit together watching the views, like we did back in Tampere on our hill. He’ll be able to sit in the garden by the ancient tree and look around, endlessly, and in the night time curl to sleep not far from us, and wake up in the morning with us. In a while the time at the quarantine will fade away and it’ll be like we’d never been apart.
As we all know, in Australia, people stand up upside down on Earth. That is not the only thing that they do upside down. To give you an idea:
Their summer is winter and winter is summer.
They drive on the wrong side of the street and give way to the left.
Their front doors open towards the inside, which is, obviously WRONG.
Their light switches are on when they seem off and vice versa.
Their Sun moves from right to left making the shadows move the wrong direction.
The water in the drain swirls the wrong way.
Their fatty milk is in blue and the fat free milk in red carton. In addition, they have a type of milk that is in a yellow carton, which of course is a designated colour for juice and should not be utilised in such manner!
That is the few things I’ve noticed so far. :p
I’m missing my dog so much I think I’m going bonkers. I’ve been searching for a pet travel agent to get him from Melbourne to Hobart, even though we first thought of picking him up ourselves… But it’ll cost a lot of money to go there and back - 600 dollars by boat, can you believe it, and that doesn’t include the dog yet. Although, we left some stuff back at Leigh’s place… Like all of my Barbies, but quite frankly I’m not too worried about the Barbies at the moment, just want my dog back. If we go ourselves it would most likely mean staying the night too, meaning one more stop for the dog potentially, so it may be a lot easier on all of us if we just get someone ship him over. We’ll see how it goes though. I’m waiting for prices.
One option is to go there by myself by a plane, come back on a boat with the dog, but there’s two big flaws in that plan: the time on the boat is about 8 hours or so and I don’t feel like putting myself or the dog through that… And I won’t know where the F I’ll put the bloody dog sky kennel as they have their own in the cargo. Getting the dog to Tasmania is almost as bloody difficult as it was getting him into the country. :/ Anyway, I can’t wait to have him here and show him around the place… The local veterinarian had never heard of a field spaniel - I think he’s the only one in the state.