primero semana en Chile

So we have been around for more than a week now, it's time to start getting into the swing of things. I just received my last payment for the work I did while we were back in Australia, so that's the end of the line as for money coming from there.

So it is time to start looking for a job, though I must say I'm not in a huge hurry to get one, I would much prefer to take in the new surroundings than get trapped in the work grind immediately.

Y hoy, por qué no? (and today, why not?)

Within the first week we have been to the beach at Viña del Mar, explored Valparaiso with some new found friends, went up into the mountains and wandered around the city. My good friend Doug, who I lived and studied with back in the early days of the Bruce house has been visiting us, he just left yesterday morning for a surf camp in Peru.

It was a good chance for him to pick up some Spanish for the rest of his trip. He will be back to see us for the second round of our wedding, which is in just a couple of weeks.

Earning power...

Tomorrow we head off on our journey, and of course I am not entirely "ready to rock". There is still some more work to do before they will give me a visa, we are still going through the process of getting the marriage recognised in Chile.

With my very limited amount of savings (more like none), I will have to make do, until I can begin working. A website I have been using for a long time is called Rewards Central. Unfortunately I haven't kept consistently at it, although I have decided that now is the time to do that. They give lots of rewards for online shopping etc, but also for answering surveys and clicking ads etc. Of course it's not a good earner, but I have been able to cash out my points into money a few times before, and should be able to cash out some more soon. I just did a survey this morning, about meat pies, of all topics! I would consider myself very well qualified to answer those questions :)

Anyway, hopefully that can add a little bit to my finances, which would best be described as "unstable". Of course going travelling in Asia just before moving overseas probably wasn't the best idea, but everything should work out well (hopefully). I am also going to look more into some of these writing websites, like Triond, which claim to give you money in exchange for writing. If I'm going to become a Master of Writing, that would be a good start...

As for Francisca, she is quite likely. She has been working as a research assistant at the ANU, focusing on Internet Research, and will actually be able to continue some of that work from overseas, which is a great opportunity.

Let's see how everything goes...a good challenge in life...

Being a manager is pretty stressful.

This morning, in the time just before I woke up I had this dream. I had started renting a place in Sydney, but had just kind of forgotten about it, and now the real estate had some goons out to chase me to pay for the caught up rent. I wasn't feeling the best when I woke up soon after that, so I had a swim in the hostel pool. Every time I swim in there I think about conjuring up some excuse so that it would need to be drained "for maintenance"- Dogtown style.

The work part of the day was quite stressful today, a lot of errors made the previous day, plenty of them by me, made things difficult for the morning. I then learnt one of my quite small team of receptionists is out of action for at least 3 weeks. I am wondering if they will let me hire a new staff member, I have a feeling the answer would be no, unfortunately. I have rostered myself on for some extra shifts, I wonder if I can use this time in lieu I build up for when I go to PNG, which I've currently booked in as leave without pay.

The weather is looking a bit rough. It looks like rain but nothing has begun yet. Hopefully I will get myself on a daytrip out to one of the islands on Friday, that's one day off that I have in the near future. Not sure which one to go to though. Might do a bit of a ringaround tomorrow, see who will take me.

Going to go buy some beer, make a small party maybe...