Mobile Hi Tech Telecoms

Tuesday 8th April 2008
We tried to get ourselves a couple of Mobile Phones today, the idea was that we would get them through the business because that’s what business people do over here and we can also claim for them through the business. Unfortunately, Telstra the biggest telecom company in Australia had other ideas, to get any form of credit or to open an account of any description over here you need to pass the 100 point check. You can go to any Bank or Government Department and virtually any business in this country and pass the check with an Australian Driving Licence 70 points and a UK Passport 30 points, unfortunately Telstra have their own set of rules and only allow 60 points for an Australian Driving Licence.
The other criteria they require that would enable us to gain the extra points are; an Australian Passport (if only we could get one of them we could have saved a fortune on Visa fees), a Shooters Licence (we probably shouldn’t apply for one of them until we get residency over here) or 6 months business utility bills (if we’d been in business 6 months we’d have a phone bill). Telstra appear today to be what BT used to be before every other telecoms companies started nicking their business and it occurred to them that they might need to look after their customers.
So after wasting over an hour in the shop trying to get the account set up we decided to leave and give it another go some other time, we’ve already opened home phone and internet accounts with another provider, maybe we can find another company that are willing to do it and then Telstra will have none of our accounts.
We did the email bit in the Café just for a change and went home to move bedroom furniture around because some of Ians’ family came down today.
Sharon who we stayed with when we first arrived over here and Ians’ youngest sister Bev, her husband Paul and their tribe who came over here on holiday a couple of weeks ago have come down to see us and to find out what is so special about Busselton that it has made us want to settle down here.
At 2.15 this afternoon we got a phone call from the settlement agent letting us know that we now had our own home, 2 minutes later we were in the Realty Agents office picking up the keys. We drove straight to the house and just about had enough time to unload all the decorating gear from the car into the house before we had to get to school to pick up the kids, when we told them that we had the house they were ecstatic, Marisa was in tears she was so happy. Now they are all looking forward to the removal van turning up on Friday so that we can get moved in.
We drove them to the house after school and they had a good look round before going over the park to play, we got out the masking tape and started getting the place ready for painting tomorrow, it is going to be a long job and we don’t have much time.
In the evening all the family turned up at the rented house and all 12 of us sat down for dinner together, we just had enough time to finish the washing up before we had to go to the school P&C meeting (PTA). We left the kids with Ians’ family which they all loved because the kids get on so well together, although we don’t know what the neighbours thought of it because the noise of them playing in the garden was deafening and it was only a couple of days ago that the neighbours were telling us what wonderful kids we have because they never hear them.
The P&C meeting went on for just over an hour and was interesting, we kept our heads low because we want to be sure we understand the politics before we start getting too involved. Like most schools it needs more money and is always looking for ways to raise it, we were amazed to find out how much they get off the state. Eighty Six Thousand Dollars for the year, which has to pay for everything apart from Teachers wages, Gas, Water and Electric, and we found this out the day the day after the press were making a big thing about the number of schools in WA that have hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of dollars sitting in their accounts with no intention of spending it in the near future. It actually resembles the North – South divide back in the UK, but because we are on the other side of the world it is a South – North divide.
Ian has a theory on this and to make a long story short it goes like this, wealthy people don’t like the cold so live in the most temperate parts of a country, politicians like wealthy people so build Parliament near wealthy people, politicians then have to pay themselves very well so that they can buy nice houses and cars to keep up with these wealthy people and in turn become wealthy themselves, wealthier areas must have well funded schools because if they didn’t the wealthy people would move out and political funding would dry up. The poor people are the ones that live closer to the Pole because they can’t afford to live in the warm with the wealthy, they do the manual work that keeps the country fed and don’t worry so much about the cooler weather because they keep themselves warm by working, the politicians love this group also but wouldn’t want to get too involved with them (1) because its cold (2) because wealthy people don’t do that sort of thing. Poorer areas have schools that are less well funded because if too many bright poor people went off to the city to work there would be nobody to feed the country, then the wealthy would blame the politicians and cut back on their political funding. So whether in the UK or Australia the closer you are to the Pole the further you are from power and the easier you are forgotten.
Here ends the rant for today courtesy of Chairman Ian.
**The political sympathies expressed here do not necessarily represent the views held by the whole of the Hoyle-Johnson family.
After P&C we went home and had a chat and a couple of tinnies with the family before having an early night so that we can get an early start on the house in the morning.