So, anyhow, following earlier rant RE Fuckwit, I went and made breakfast...muesli and toast...not the greatest Sunday brunch, but enough for the time being...and my dear friend was trying to ask me, oh what am I doing today? Fair one, mum never brought up rude children, so I said, probably some notes, maybe get some reading done, laze about a tad, it's Sunday after all, and the weather's shite...
So, anyhow, the conversation got to what I was doing at university (again, the condescending starts), and one of the courses I do is called "Contemporary Australia". He did a similar course a few years ago at a different place (or so he says), and was like oh yea, your English has to be good enough (!?!?) to pass the essays and have a good command of speech and all that blah blah blah blah...I stopped him and explained that we were discussing child abuse in the NT, and is it right for us (meaning "Australia") to deny the aboriginals access to their welfare payments if it means stopping the child abuse? Quite obviously it's a fluid discussion that we have in class, so I won't write anymore about it here on pain that it might be taken in the wrong light, but rest assured, the conversation can get heated at times, but civil to be understood by a casual bystander...just as in any spirited debate at around 2000hrs on a Friday night...:)
At this point, his jaw was on the ground, and was trying to defend that I had to do an English level test, at which point I said that my presentation and class discussion topic (I have to speak and present for three minutes, then lead a class discussion for 15 minutes, unmoderated by the teacher unless it's looking like I'm going to get killed) was "Should Australia have free trade with South East Asia and the Pacific?", and that my essay proposal was "Australia's social security system is a failure".
And I walked away with my toast and muesli.......
In other news, I've gotten the link to Mike and my sis' dinner reception located with this post...this is a continuation to the video on my YouTube site...I've already ripped the video, and will upload it later...
Also, to clarify something that I forgot to say in my earlier post RE the psych evaluation, the documentation is time sensitive. It has to be at the HSA doctor by at least Wednesday next week, so, four days, so that they can send the recommendation to the Immigration department by Monday 24 March, which is 35 working days of the life of my visa. Unfortunately, my first consultation (if I wish to accept it) is 31 March...a bit useless isn't it?
N
Who Is The Black Chinaman?
- Nick
- Kuala Belait, Brunei
- Saving someone's life is like falling in love. The best drug in the world. For days, sometimes weeks afterwards, you walk the streets, making infinite whatever you see. Once, for a few weeks, I couldn't feel the earth - everything I touched became lighter. Horns played in my shoes. Flowers fell from my pockets. You wonder if you've become immortal, as if you've saved your own life as well. God has passed through you. Why deny it, that for a moment there - why deny that for a moment there, God was you? I realised that my training was useful in less than ten percent of the calls, and saving lives was rarer than that. After a while, I grew to understand that my role was less about saving lives than about bearing witness. I was a grief mop. It was enough that I simply turned up. Living and working back in Brunei, after a 14 year absence... Also known as: Brunei, NASA, Bruise-Eye, Bru, Cheesecake, Nick, BruNick, BruMedNick, Two Step etc etc etc
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