Wanna know what REALLY bugs me about stores' websites in Australia? The only thing they tend to use them for is to PUT UP A COPY OF THEIR WEEKLY CATALOG! Can't they put anything USEFUL there? Like, if you're looking for one particular item, say a fridge with a frost-free freezer twice the size of the one you currently use which retails for just over $400, unless it's on sale at that store this week, it's not listed. At all. And THAT is annoying. Do they have any idea how much trouble it is to get on a bus and GO to all these stores that stock this particular brand to find out if they carry the exact model you're looking for? Of course not. Not only that, doing web pages like that reeks of a lack of creativity. Really, how hard is it to scan each page of the catalog and post it on a web site? Our cat could do that. In his sleep.
Not that I'm against having the ad available online. That is useful to a degree. But to have ONLY that? Ridiculous. If that's all they're gonna do, and still send out PRINTED catalogs, why bother having a web site at all?
You might remember me saying I'd sent my passport to Melbourne to have my name changed. And it arrived back today. And they spelled my first name just fine, and my last name just fine (hard to misspell "Smith"), but guess what they didn't spell correctly? My middle name. My middle name is Carrie. They printed Claire. They are idiots. Now I have to send it back AGAIN and spend ANOTHER twelve dollars on postage to get it changed to read the CORRECT name.
And not only that. Oh no, they couldn't be content to screw up just the name. I also asked on the form for them to add more pages to my passport. Since it didn't cost anything, I thought, why not? And they didn't. I received the same twenty-four pages I sent away.
Friday May 28: Wander into the Manpower office downtown to see about them finding me some work. The lady there, Stephanie, said she remembered me. This is good, since she was the one who offered me a job at the end of my stay last year. She tells me to come in on the following Monday to watch some videos and answer some questions. We set up a meeting for 11 am.
Monday May 31: I go back to the Manpower office and Stephanie puts me in a meeting room with a TV/VCR combo. She gives me two videos to watch and two quiz-type papers about the content of the videos. She then leaves me to watch the videos. The videos are very boring. They are about safety procedures, things I'd heard over and over again working at Smead. When I finish watching both videos, I go find Stephanie and she says she'll be in in a minute. She comes in a bit later with some paperwork for me to fill out, since she seems to have lost the papers I filled out last year (and I had new address/bank details anyway). I fill out the papers. She asks a few questions; I answer. She gives me some papers - harassment policy, privacy policy, contact info for her and the office. I leave when we're done and do a little shopping.
Monday June 7: I get an email from Stephanie saying there's cleaning work 3 days a week at a private girls' school. She asks if I want it, and says they need an answer quickly because they want someone to start tonight. I write back & say I'll take it. She says to be there at 3:30 so they can show me around (regular time is 4pm-7pm). So I get there at 3:10 or 3:15, wander around till I find the guy I'm supposed to meet, and start working. Yippee. So what if it's only 3 hours 3 days a week? It's something. At least now I can say I've worked in Australia.