Matt Down Under

There’s quite a lot to tell. The last few weeks were probably the most crazy ones I had since I based myself here. Hopefully you don’t mind that I put this all into one big post.

Retrospection

I haven’t forgot. I’ve been in Australia now for more than one year, and I think it’s also more than one year now since I arrived in Tasmania. A lot of things have happened, but I’m not going to write another boring retrospection.

A few weeks ago I received emails from my former travel mates, reminding me that it’s now one year since we met at Frankfurt Airport to start our adventure in Australia and spend a few days/weeks together until everyone goes it’s way. So of course I spent a lot of time thinking about what has happened and the future, but the only thing I can come up with is, I don’t know.

It’s great to be in Australia and it’s great to be in Tasmania, but lately I noticed that something seems to be missing to make it perfect. Germany is not perfect and I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life there. Everything it so negative and this is also what people are telling me, that they can’t stand the negative perspective. But Tasmania is not perfect either, I’m not sure yet if I will spend the rest of my life here. I’m not even sure why I’m looking for perfection. There’s so much do here if you like outdoor activities, but then sometimes I really miss the high living standards in Germany. But of course you can’t go to a different country and expect everything like at home, it’s simply a different culture and I am guest here.

When it goes to protection of the environment, or pollution for example, in Tasmania it feels like 20 years behind which is really really sad. But on the other hand there are great beaches and National Parks (even though the whole island should be a National Park), and hiking routes and wildlife. And people are incredibly friendly. It really depends on what you are looking for. From time to time there are things that really surprise me in a positive way. Today for example I bought new sunglasses at an optometrist in Hobart and I was simply blown away by the great service and professionality. I’ve never seen this anywhere before.

Personally, I’m not sure what I’m looking for, that’s the problem. Maybe I should do more travelling in order to find out. There are still so many places in Australia I haven’t seen, and countless of countries around where you can take a cheap flight to. But right now my place of residence is Tasmania and so far it makes me happy enough to stay here. So I guess I will spend the next years in Tasmania with the aim of receiving a permanent visa.

My current application for a 3-year visa is already being processed. The only missing part is a HIV blood test, since it wasn’t part of my medical examination and it turned out that I need to do the ‘big’ medical examination (not the normal one without blood test) since my visa will have the option of turning into a permanent one.

I’m not quite sure why I have to waste money on an HIV test anyway, since it’s so easy to fake it! When I went to the doctors today they didn’t even ask me for an ID like my passport. I only had to fill out a contact form and that’s it. No details about passport, visa application number and so on. Nothing. Someone could be terribly sick and simply send someone else to do the blood test in the sick person’s name, and voila, the test says you’re healthy. After all the hassle they made with my x-ray, with passport copies, sealed envelopes and so on, this is kind of ridiculous.

So yes, everything looks pretty good. Visa is coming, I will stay in Tasmania, and we will see what happens then. Plans change too often, I don’t make any longterm plans anymore.

Fubar companies

Sometimes plans change more quickly that I am hoping for. Today I can only laugh about it, but last week I really got fired from my job. Yes, fired. I could write for hours about the reasons and about all the crap I’ve seen in this company in the last 6 months, but I think it’s not worth it. Maybe I will do another post about this soon, you wouldn’t believe some of the things that happened, but right now I have more important stuff to do. I can only say that I’ve never seen such an unprofessional company before.

Imagine two websites. The first one is a static website without dynamic content or content management system or databases. It’s full of coding errors because the one who created it only thinks he is a developer, but he actually doesn’t know what he is doing. Someone who only uses Internet Explorer and of course, table-based layouts. Two signs of incompetence. That website is only about one year old, but it looks and feels like 10 years old, simply because it uses 10 year old design and technology. Someone completely missed the train here. But since the website got approved by management he might not even be the only one.

The second website is the project I was working on in the last 2-3 months. It’s a rework based on a sophisticated content management system, it connects to an external data warehouse, it uses modern design and typography, Flash, Mootools transitions, accordions and 100% valid code, it is search engine optimised and it allows non-developers to update content, like it is on every modern website since the year 2000. Maybe I’ll post links or screens next time. It would have been the start of a whole new corporate web strategy.

So if you imagine for a second that I had to leave, and the one who created the digital crap on the first website is now head of web development, then you instantly know it wasn’t a lack of talent on my side, but rather a lack of talent at the employer side. People who don’t even know how to change their email signature better shouldn’t take leading positions at web companies.

The reason why it still doesn’t cause me too many headaches now is simply that I already started looking for a new job months ago, after it quickly became apparent that it doesn’t have a future there. Luckily for me, today I found a new job, at a modern and professional web development company. I’m really looking forward to start on Tuesday (Monday is public holiday here - Hobart Regatta Day), it’s a more challenging position with interesting tasks in a small professional team. I couldn’t be happier right now, that’s a massive improvement for me.

Flash-hiking

After I got the great news today I decided to go on a spontaneous 3-day hiking trip to beautiful Freycinet to do some relaxing before starting on the new position next week. Actually I had planned this some weeks ago, I simply studied bus tables and made a plan for a possible short hike from Friday to Sunday. Then I waited for great weather. Now I only have one weekend left and quickly decided to go this week.

On Friday morning I will take the bus to Coles Bay, from there I will walk to beautiful Wineglass Bay and spend the night on the camp site right at the beach. On Saturday I will walk from Wineglass Bay to Cooks Beach via Mount Graham, it will be a very long and exhausting walk, but the scenery should be gorgeous. After yet another night of camping right at a lonesome beach, on Sunday I will walk from Cooks Beach back to Coles Bay via Hazards Beach. From Coles Bay I will take the bus back to Hobart and should be there around 6pm. Sounds like a fantastic weekend to me.

I’m still a bit unsure whether it is realistic to walk from Cooks Beach to Coles Bay and catch the bus transfer at around 3pm, but we will see. I probably have to get up early.

So when leaving on Friday morning it leaves me exactly one day and the rest of today to prepare a 3-day hike, that’s what I call flash-hiking. I will make a plan today, and tomorrow I’ll organise food, a decent map and probably some water tanks. I’ll try to walk lightweight this time, most of the weight of my luggage will come from water supplies, since I will have to carry lots of water. You can’t rely on water supplies in Freycinet, sometimes there is water at the camp sites on Wineglass Bay or Cooks Beach, but sometimes there is not, so I need to be prepared and bring my own.

You can probably look forward to some nice beach reports next weeks. The weather forecast doesn’t look optimal for the weekend, but you never know in Tasmania. For today it also looked bad, and then it was bloody hot and sunny. And at the east coast in Tassie temperatures are always better than anywhere else. So I’m looking forward to 3 days of beach beach beach!! By the way, what’s the weather in Germany? I always read news about snow storms and record temperatures of -30°C… I guess that’s one of the positive sides of living ‘under down under’, mild climatic conditions all year round.