Happy New Year. A lot has transpired over the last 12 months; here's the synopsis.
January 7
Brisbane and SE Queensland hit by significant flooding. We are fortunate enough to be on
holidays and miss the flooding, unfortunately some of our friends were less
fortunate.
The media rhetoric paints the flooding in biblical terms,
which is later demonstrated as the city returns to more “regular” maintenance
after the six days (and a day of rest) of concerted clean-up activities. Major infrastructure to require months
of repair and reconstruction.
Both the Commonwealth and State governments provide various
forms of flood relief and then later additional taxes to pay for the flood
relief and infrastructure rebuilding.
Those that were eligible for relief are exempt from the new tax, perhaps
because their cars were washed away and are now not expected to be placing any
demands on the rebuilt infrastructure.
Our claim for flood relief is denied. Apparently,
“holidays in the Whitsunday Islands” isn’t a sufficient enough reason to be
“unable to return home” during the floods and not eligible for relief funds. We will also not be receiving relief from the additional
taxation.
Post Script – as a result of an investigation into the flood
events of 2011, it has been determined that a convergence of abnormally high
rainfall amounts and a higher than usual King Tide event where exacerbated by
human error which is no ruled as the ultimate cause of the flooding.
February 1
Hamilton Island (part of the Whitsunday Islands) is
evacuated due to Cyclone Yasi, that later escalates to a Category 5 storm with
an approximate size of the continental United States.
February 2
Hamilton Island gets nuked. Both the Commonwealth and State governments provide various
forms of relief and then later additional taxes to pay for the said
relief.
Our claim for flood relief is denied. Apparently,
“memories of Hamilton Island” aren’t the types of assets that the governments
a) consider to have been destroyed in the storm and b) were intended to be
covered by relief. It’s bad enough
to have the claim denied, but they were so derisive and condescending about it.
February 8
Nicole get’s promoted to Drilling Team Lead at Linc Energy,
the company that brought us over here.
A portion of her duties involve overseeing operations in North
America. Seems like a long move to
be traveling to Wyoming and Alberta.
Nicole tries to negotiate a “surf location only” (precluding travel to
both Wyoming and Alberta) provision in her new contract but fails. She also receives a pay raise but the
raise doesn’t offset the additional flood relief taxation.
February 9
Linc Energy and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)
commence an investigation into an alleged press release announcing Nicole’s
promotion, it’s source and the veracity of many quoted comments.
March 15
Spencer announces at the end of her swimming lesson, in a
pool that is both heated and covered, although outside, “Daddy…I’m, I’m, I’m
cold.” Of course she is: the water
temperature is 23c and the air temp is 21c. Nicole and I start coming to grips with the fact that our
daughter is not going to be Canadian.
April 4
Nicole turns 40!! Among her disappointments she lists as the
largest being “having only spent ¼ of my life with Duncan”. She was drinking.
April 27
Ran home wearing a long-sleeved shirt for the first time
since July 2010 because it was a frosty 19C. I stopped en route
to take it off because I was too warm.
Here we are, lamenting the fact that we’re rounding the corner to Autumn
(they don’t use the term “Fall” here) and it’s really tough. What’s even more difficult is not
feeling smug that there is still snow on the ground in Calgary.
June 2-3
I was also warned to be careful heading back to the hotel,
because “it’s pretty cold tonight mate!” It was 11 C.
June 7
Spencer’s first rock’n’roll show. Despite the vast quantity of high quality Aussie acts,
Spencer saw Yo Gabba Gabba live on
the “Party In Your City” Tour. For
those who are unfamiliar; Yo Gabba Gabba
is a children’s program that realistically features DJ Lance Rock as the hero
and central character, but only to imaginary monster friends. These monsters provide various lessons
and examples through song and dance that in turn allow parents to focus their
attention on meal preparation or alcohol consumption rather than parenting,
since after all, the television and DJ Lance Rock have that under control. Magic. What did parents do before kids? Perhaps that’s where the expression “tie a pork chop around
his neck and let the dog play with him” came from.
Spencer, as she’s wont to, took a considerable time to warm
up but then by the second half of the show was dancing and smiling. Part of the charm of the Yo Gabba Gabba show includes guest
appearances by established recording acts or actors, notably Jack Black, the
Shins, Elijah Wood. In our case,
Gold Coast recording artist Operator
Please (www.operatorpleaseband.com)
played something saccharine.
Another regular appearance is made by Biz Markie, (www.bizmarkie.com) a moderately over weight
(only by Texan standards) afro-american who sports teeth that look like he uses
them for crushing gravel and a scar across his face that appears that his
parents really did tie a pork chop around his neck so that the dog would play
with him. Right, so this is the
guy you bring in for a live show?
“Wit’ kids?” Wait, there’s
more…his skill or talent you ask?
Well it’s “Biz’s Beat of the Day” of course, wherein he makes a series
of hip hop noises with his mouth.
Whilst impressive, he still seems frightening. How did the kids react? Seems like a reasonable question that
seems to suggest terrified screams for an answer. Imagine a dark theater that is full of people that your kid
has never seen, the setting is unfamiliar, dark, loud, there are belching smoke
machines that further frustrate the already compromised visibility and then Biz
launches onto the stage. If you
imagined a reaction that could only be replicated if Santa Clause, Peter Pan
and the Pied Piper had a love child, you’re right. No sooner than when Biz sat himself down on the riser to the
stage, he was swarmed. Swarmed. Absolutely swarmed by kids. He looked like the first tank entering
a liberated a city during WWII, there was so many kids hanging off him. Then he did his beat of the day, but
also had the kids call back the beat.
Good times and some of the kids were pretty awesome. Spencer wasn’t quite up for the Biz,
but had a great time all the same.
In the end, Spencer agreed with DJ Lance Rock and thinks that “listening
and dancing to music is AWESOME!”
June 25
News reaches us that the Vancouver Canucks are locked in
mortal combat with the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
July 2
I realize that Game 7 was played June 15.
Note to self: find bookie to take NHL bets next year. Second note to self, lodge said bet
through a local proxy, so as not to alert said bookie that I am Canadian and
may have an inside track.
July 6
Queensland wins a historic 6th straight State of
Origin. It’s ok, I don’t really
understand either, but it pertains to one of the rugby teams or types that is
played throughout Australia. This
is Rugby League. (A more fulsome explanation is left to
the other updates.)
July 9
For the first time since inception the Queensland Reds win
the Final in Super XV Rugby.
Rugby Union. This is the different form of rugby
that’s played, not State of Origin, but the origin state of the game. For sake of clarity, it’s the same form
of rugby played in the Rugby World Cup, hosted this year in New Zealand. Incidentally, the kiwis also play both
league and union rugby. (A more fulsome explanation is left to the other
updates.)
August 14
August 18
My Principle, with whom I articled under, drinks a toast
with the bottle of scotch I bought him, celebrating the two year anniversary of
my bar call, and more importantly being off of his Professional Liability
Insurance. After his brother
reminds him that the two years is only to initiate (file) a claim, which still
allows for a year for service, he has two more drinks, makes a note to conduct
a court search in the morning, has another scotch, curses my name once again
and then loses the note.
September 14
I lodge my third application for admission to become
admitted as a solicitor in NSW. In
so making application I include copies of references, transcripts from
completed courses and a copy of the previous response from the law society
which outlined what was outstanding from my application.
September 21
I am advised that my application is incomplete because I
have not provided the original copy of my first application nor originals of
the first set of documents.
I respond by telephone and in writing that the law society
has not only seen and approved my original documents, but has also retained my
original documents until such time as I am finally approved.
September 25
I receive a letter of apology from the law society for their
oversight in retaining my original documents from my first application and the
return of same.
September 26
I receive a letter from the law society requesting I have
provide the original copy of my first application nor originals of the first
set of documents.
September 27
I provide a complete application to the College of Law for
consideration, and receive written confirmation of this fact by the law society
on October 3.
October 3
Attached to my confirmation letter is a hand written note
suggested that I could have simply referred to my previous applications or
provided copies of them to make things easier.
I ask Nicole to pick up Spencer from school and go for a
short, quick 4 km run. I stop on
the way home from my run to swim laps for 30 minuets and then, upon arriving
home drink an entire bottle of wine.
Concerned, Nicole asks if something wrong and I reply, “Not anymore”.
October 7
After 18 1/2 months of being in Australia; 5 assignments; 4
separate courses; 4 exams; 4 trips to Sydney; 1 year of supervised practice; n number of references; 73 pages of
submissions, plus copies and certified copies of transcripts, my Law Society of
Alberta Admission Certificate, copies of my CPLED transcripts and materials;
and one application to the Supreme Court of New South Wales, I gain admission
to an Australian Law Society as a solicitor.
Nicole and I fly to Sydney to attend the ceremony. Fortunately we are able to leave
Spencer with friends so we have our first “adult night” away without Spencer
since we left Calgary. The
ceremony is duly completed and anticlimactic, after being admitted previously
and also by contrast to the Alberta admission ceremony where your Principal and
the presiding judge take turns roasting the candidate in a private ceremony. In NSW, I was one of 56 inductees during
my session, that were sworn in en masse
and the College of Law provided a solicitor to move the applications for all of
the candidates. At least my name
was pronounced correctly.
Air conditioning is one of the many mysteries about
Australia that strikes me as impossible.
While I know that it’s not really imposible,
because it happens, it seems impossible.
Not like winning the lotto or being admitted to the law society after
practicing in Canada, which is merely improbable,
but impossible. How can a country that is renowned for
its hot weather not be the intergalactic leaders in HVAC systems. Really I would have assumed that the
Aussie expertise in the HVAC field would rival the Swiss watch making
industry. Perhaps [elevators
(lifts) and HVAC]
After celebrating with Nicole in fine style, I wake up from
a nightmare that Australia had moved to a civil code and I now have to
re-qualify in order to practice.
In my nightmare, I start again.
October 10 (first business day after admission ceremony)
My first day as an Australian qualified solicitor. Notwithstanding last nights fitful
sleep, I notice a spring in my step, a confidence in my stride and a renewed
steeliness in my resolve. I’m
wearing a suit that has just been returned from the dry cleaners, my shoes
freshly polished and my shirt is crisply ironed.
Upon arriving at work I requisition new business cards,
change my e-mail signature and set the scales my parents gave me as my (first)
Bar Call Ceremony gift on my shelf.
I am once again a lawyer.
At 9.10 the mailroom clerk comes by with a letter from the
Law Society that contains a request for my insurance premiums, proof of
employment, a request to file a CLE plan, a request for enrollment on the pro bono roll and a solicitation for a
gala dinner with tickets priced at $500 ea. The mailroom boy says, “So you’re a solicitor right mate?” Proudly, I respond in the
affirmative. “Too right, can you
help me with a house deal I want to buy off me mate? I’ll shout you a carton of VB.”
By noon I’ve had requests for another house deal, 4 wills
and a Drink Drive (read: Impaired Driving) defense “not for me but a mate….”
and assistance with a family law matter.
I long to return to last night’s nightmare in which I’m no longer
qualified. I spend the rest of the
day researching qualifications to become a surf instructor; a barista; a City
Cat operator; a museum attendant; a novelist; and a dog catcher. At the conclusion of my research, it
appears that I’ll remain a lawyer.
November 4 – 21
For some reason that would seem to defy logic, I agreed with
Nicole to travel back to Calgary for a visit. After all it had been nearly 20 months since we had moved to
Brisbane, and in that time all the friends and family that we had left behind
had only seen Nicole a couple of times during short business trips back and had
not seen Spencer at all. It's also
true that no one had seen me during this time, but there were far less people
asking for that to be remedied.
Actually I think the number was “zero”.
The trip was to coincide with business for Nicole, so it was
easier to justify all of us traveling back, with one of the tickets paid
for. Still how is it that I agreed
to return to Calgary in time for the first snowfall when Queensland was just
rounding
The can only be one answer. I love my wife.
Within two days of arriving in Canada, I became fearful of
going into a hardware store, because my skin had become so dry that I was
worried that I'd be accused of shoplifting sandpaper by wrapping it around my
arms.
Have I gotten soft?
Well let's just say that I thoughts was suffering from a stroke during
some moderate exertion in my mother-in-law's Garage where we had some things
stored. During the 90 minuets that
I was in the garage, my arm went numb. Obviously then I thought I had suffered a stroke. Turns out that I had lost the sensation
in both my hands, but merely because of the cold. Cold you ask?
Yes, the cold. 4c, which in mid to late November is perfectly balmy by Canadian
standards, but there I was suffering and miserable like a cold wet lamb.
I love my wife.
Of course wives don't always believe that their husbands
love them and sometimes simply following your wife to Calgary in winter and
leaving the lush summer of Brisbane behind isn't enough. So in this case I was also asked to go
to Edmonton. Not Edmonton at any
time of the year, Edmonton in the winter.
Yeah, Edmonton in November.
I love my wife.
If I were forced to tell the truth, I would admit that it
was a good trip; we saw some friends and family, perhaps not as many as we had
wished (sorry to all who we missed) and Spencer got to meet her second cousin
as well as other extended family.
The trip also reinforced my feelings for Edmonton, and the Kicking Horse
Pass in winter.
December 21
The rain has tapered off, the temperature is becoming
notably warmer and more humid every day.
Spencer is teaching us Christmas carols about kangaroos helping Santa
(Snow White Boomers); the holiday season is well upon us. We have made it to the end of another
calendar year and will take some time off to reflect upon the year. We will also of course, BBQ, drink
copious amounts of wine and make repeated trips to the beach.
Not a White Christmas, but pretty good.
We hope that you all had a great 2011 and are looking
forward to 2012 as much as we are.
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