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AusGAF 11 - Twice the price, a year late but still moving forward
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Darren870
Member
Yea of course it is. But its also expensive in the US and the UK where the Minimum wage is £6.50 and $8.75 (NYC).
However, saying that. When you get out of a major city its still expensive for things here. Unlike the US and UK where you see prices decrease and sometime dramatically.
Ruthless_Barbarian
Member
Booked my Euro trip, thanks again for the help and tips Darren 
Now, any suggestions on accommodation and inter-country travel in Europe? I know trains and buses are convenient and cheaper than local flights, so I'll stick to those...what about renting a car and driving around? Is that feasible / affordable?
I have 24 days and plan to cover Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic and couple of days in London.
Maybe Zurich and Paris if I have time and feel like it. Would have loved to visit the nordic countries too but they are further north so not sure if I have time to visit.
Now, any suggestions on accommodation and inter-country travel in Europe? I know trains and buses are convenient and cheaper than local flights, so I'll stick to those...what about renting a car and driving around? Is that feasible / affordable?
I have 24 days and plan to cover Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic and couple of days in London.
Maybe Zurich and Paris if I have time and feel like it. Would have loved to visit the nordic countries too but they are further north so not sure if I have time to visit.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
My thoughts about living in this part of Queensland is that everything except housing is cheap. Especially food.
Darren870
Member
Damn, 24 days is a small amount of time for all that! But so be it.
I would say hostels & airbnb for accommodation. I probably have coupon and referral codes for both if you are interested. The referral code is $34 dollars for airbnb off first bookings for new users.
Transport, Yea buses and trains. Again, I might have coupon and referral codes for those too. I'd have to check. As for car, I've only hired a car in the UK, Ireland and in the Baltics. Never anywhere else in Europe. The part you are traveling in is very well connected by public transport so you don't really need a car. That being said, it is nice to drive at your own pace. The problem comes when your pickup and drop off locations are in different places. Especially if they are in different countries. You just start paying out the ear. I think with the short amount of time you will be pretty hard pressed to have the chance to actually drive around.
I would say hostels & airbnb for accommodation. I probably have coupon and referral codes for both if you are interested. The referral code is $34 dollars for airbnb off first bookings for new users.
Transport, Yea buses and trains. Again, I might have coupon and referral codes for those too. I'd have to check. As for car, I've only hired a car in the UK, Ireland and in the Baltics. Never anywhere else in Europe. The part you are traveling in is very well connected by public transport so you don't really need a car. That being said, it is nice to drive at your own pace. The problem comes when your pickup and drop off locations are in different places. Especially if they are in different countries. You just start paying out the ear. I think with the short amount of time you will be pretty hard pressed to have the chance to actually drive around.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
I can't help but cringe whenever I see this being the sole part of a visit to the British Isles. Especially one where the holidaymaker is spending a shitload of money and is crossing continents.
Try to extend your stay and at the least spend a few days in Edinburgh.
Yeah, I spent 3 months in Britain years ago, only spent about 2 weeks total in London. Then again, time poverty is a real thing, only so much you can do if you are visiting multiple countries in 4 weeks.
Ruthless_Barbarian
Member
London only because I have to go, old childhood buddy lives there and he's invited me. Else I had no plans of going to UK at all.
This is my first trip to EU (Turkey aside), so I want to see and do as much as possible in that time. Also have friends in various cities so planning according to them.
This is my first trip to EU (Turkey aside), so I want to see and do as much as possible in that time. Also have friends in various cities so planning according to them.
reptilescorpio
Member
Yeah my main issue is that housing and rent is similar price here to Geelong despite being 250km further out in the middle of nowhere!?!
Hard to save for a house when rent is so high.
reptilescorpio
Member
How many years income to get to a 20% deposit?
Darren870
Member
Yea, that didn't make much sense to me honestly. Definitely agree on that sense. Doesn't seem to be proportional at all.
1 mil? Chump change! Bet it only gets you a shoe box too...
Didn't they predict a housing price crash in Geelong though, with the upcoming unemployment?
What is the housing market in Warnambool like? It so far away from everything, there's no way people would commute to Melbourne right?
For what it's worth living in the outer Western suburbs is still affordable. We're building a decent sized house
actually is more than what my girlfriend and I wanted but people still call it a starter home which shits me
Here For The Free Feed
Member
my mate just bought a great house in a very nice area in warrnambool for 260k
im from there so it kills me to see the price of a house there compared to my current bayside melbourne area prices haha.
no way people commute to melbourne though, its 3.5 hours away. there are 3 trains a day between w'bool-melb, also flights have been introduced recently but i dont know the details around that.
Had the realisation that I will no longer be an Australian resident by the time the Ashes are over.
Work is full-on, and I've come to accept that I'll realistically only have about two weeks in which to experience Australia before making the big move. It will be years before I'll have the freedom of exploring my home country whenever it suits me.
I did my thesis on fossils in the Macdonell Ranges in the territory but have only ever seen Uluru from the air. As a geologist, it's a pretty big gap on my life resume not having visited. That's looking like the only bit of travel I'll do as an Australian resident.
Any must-do things as an Australian before I depart? I only just went to my first AFL game a month ago, and after years of wanting to, I am going to the Coopers brewery tomorrow.
Work is full-on, and I've come to accept that I'll realistically only have about two weeks in which to experience Australia before making the big move. It will be years before I'll have the freedom of exploring my home country whenever it suits me.
I did my thesis on fossils in the Macdonell Ranges in the territory but have only ever seen Uluru from the air. As a geologist, it's a pretty big gap on my life resume not having visited. That's looking like the only bit of travel I'll do as an Australian resident.
Any must-do things as an Australian before I depart? I only just went to my first AFL game a month ago, and after years of wanting to, I am going to the Coopers brewery tomorrow.
Towed back a boat yet?
reptilescorpio
Member
ClivePwned
Member
you're overthinking it. At your dinner with Solozzo and McCluskey, fire two shots each and then let the gun drop. You'll be back once Don Vito straightens things out with the heads of the Five Families. And don't let your new wife drive the car.
One day, you'll be Don Bernbaum Corleone
I would kill to work from home but do not know where to start, in terms of looking for potential roles that allow it.
Heard really good things, hope I get time to check it out.
Really keen to watch that Father Bob docco on iview too.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
Take a trolley from Coles to the airport before you depart and leave it there.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
So does anybody want that copy of Batman: AK I got bundled with my video card?
Like, for free.
Like, for free.
reptilescorpio
Member
No thanks, thanks for the offer though!
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Just went to find the E-mail code and somehow it found its way into my trash can. HOW.
Anyway PMed you the instructions for redemption from Amazon now.
Darren870
Member
Hopefully it still has the $1 or $2 coin in it!
Once I found a trolly about 500 meters from Coles with a $2 coin in it. You bet your ass I brought it back for that $2.
Maybe a good ol Aussie Punch Up before you leave?
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
Between Gold Coast, Caboolture, Morayfield and Caloundra; I've never seen a trolley that needed money to be usable.
Darren870
Member
Must be a Melbourne thing then. We are constantly stealing trollies down here!!
Even has one for the Costco in Ringwood, which drives me crazy! Since I always seem to forget to bring a coin if I go there. Thankfully the Docklands one doesn't.
ClivePwned
Member
no they have them in parts of Queensland. or more accurately, they try them out every few years and then get rid if them because they are so unpopular and $1 is still cheaper to walk a trolley home than getting a cab .One Woolies near me that did have this a few years ago got rid of it and now they have signs claiming the trolly will stop moving beyond the shopping centre perimeter.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
Coins for trolleys piss me off. Although you can just ask at the smoko counter and they'll give you a token thing usually for free.
reptilescorpio
Member
Yeah just buy a token and put it on your keychain.
bodyboarder
Member
Anyone had any dealings with mightyape?
I have purchased a few things from them and received them relatively quickly and in good order.
reptilescorpio
Member
They are generally good even if postage can be expensive on some stuff.
Also they had the wrong measurements on a tshirt
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Bought the SG: Atlantis bluray set from them. Posted super fast from NZ.
This one time I bought a pink, scented, macaron-shaped, coin purse from Mighty Ape for my wife. It didn't occur to me just how much like a vagina it would look like it real life. She doesn't use it.
Wonderful.
I sold Metroid Prime 2 on eBay and the lady sent me an email after she received it that the case was caved in. She wanted a refund (whilst seemingly keeping the game).
Needless to say, the case wasn't caved in when I sent it in a padded bag to her. I said if she wanted to send it back I'd give a refund but I haven't heard anything since.
eBay support the buyer basically no matter what now right? So if she raises a case I'm screwed?
Also my work laptop (Macbook Pro) died. And we're not allowed to do backups because we're not allowed to plug any storage into the USB ports. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh
Needless to say, the case wasn't caved in when I sent it in a padded bag to her. I said if she wanted to send it back I'd give a refund but I haven't heard anything since.
eBay support the buyer basically no matter what now right? So if she raises a case I'm screwed?
Also my work laptop (Macbook Pro) died. And we're not allowed to do backups because we're not allowed to plug any storage into the USB ports. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh
bodyboarder
Member
Have you found anything interesting or worthwhile as far as working from home goes?
I quit my job in management(construction industry) at the end of May after just being burnt out by it all. I've just been cruising since then and enjoying life but I've got the itch to start working again. I'm pretty good with computers and I was the go-to for fixing everyone's computer issues(yay..), though I could use some work on programs like Excel.
I'm sort of looking at getting into IT but then I'm not sure if that's a road I want to go down. I'm 37 as well, so not sure if that may count against me going into a new industry. I'm also thinking of starting my own business but again, not sure of what I want to do.
I'm still "on the books" at my old company, they didn't want me to leave and are prepared to wait up to 18 months for me to go back. I feel kind of stupid for leaving as I was on a pretty good wicket. The option to go back is there, but of course I'd rather try something else.
I'm in a fortunate position as I'm financially stable, so I have time on my side. I was planning on taking a year off work altogether and going overseas but I think I'd rather get something going sooner rather than later. I just need to figure out what that is now. I'm open to suggestions anyway.
Maybe I'm naive, but I didn't really think of vagina while looking at that. In reality it kind of has a few extra folds.
Darren870
Member
You might be okay actually. Let her open a case. She will have to send it back and if she doesn't (with tracking) they will rule in your favor. Someone won an item of mine once. Guy said I misrepresented the item, even though there was a picture of the item... Ebay sided with him (for whatever reason) but actually reimbursed me out of their own pocket since I refused to pay for return shipping.
It was a £5 electric screwdriver. Guy thought it was a drill...
Oh and don't you have like shared drives and those sorts of backups?
Edit: I'd Unzip that ^
Not as of yet. I have been getting back into programming, specifically C# and have a few ideas for some mobile apps and games, probably won't turn into a full time job but I enjoy it and thought I would see how it goes. I don't have a huge programming background but did study software development many years ago at uni (C, Java, Perl, PHP) and regularly use Perl at work so it's coming pretty naturally, it also doesn't hurt that my gf is a fulltime C# developer.
She is very supportive of my want to work from home but as we have a hefty mortgage we might struggle on a single income so we need to get me earning money before I throw the towel in at my current job. Going to give it a good go for a couple of years and see what comes of it, and if that fails will move on to something else, the sky is the limit
. Good luck with your own ventures but if you like IT, try and get a job at an IT helpdesk, it's pretty much the de-facto standard for your first IT job unless you do a degree. Also, I wouldn't personally waste my time doing a degree in IT, Tafe have much more practical courses and if you want to fix PC's, something like an A+ would be beneficial. Again, good luck, I know that feeling, I am 38 myself .
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
In place of a zipper that design should have been a certain button press to open.
If the colour had of been chocolate there would be no vagina.
Yeah, they had one. I don't remember why I chose pink but that's definitely part of the problem: https://www.mightyape.com.au/product/Scented-Macaron-Coin-Purse-Chocolate/22874557
By the time I discovered the problem, the price had gone back up to what you see there, so I didn't bother getting a replacement.
Darren870
Member
I don't know why you would want to get into IT...after being in IT myself since I graduated uni.
That being said, here we take in Uni Grads for placements. There was new guy who just joined a few months ago. He must be in his 40's, so its never too late!
Oh, and for sidework check out AirTasker. My missus does it and pulls in some big income and gets repeat clients. She is making more per hour then she was making as a property manager. There is always like low level IT work on there, but if your doing nothing it doesn't hurt to put yourself out there! I always see come fix my computers for Melbourne, just don't have the time since I have a 9-5. Can easily build a small business, my missus did it in less then a month and just about has filled up her week with clients and is now working for herself on her own hours.
I think she still dreams of the days she was a coal miner though.. at least for the money.
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