TrojanLand Welcome to TrojanLand

So in Tasmania we have a new detention centre located in Pontville, which has been met with mixed responses. For me though it has given me a great opportunity to go and met some of the detainees.

So far I have meet with four different fellows who are all Hazara and are from central Afghanistan originally. Where they were living they were surround by fighting and corruption, as one explained to me if you needed to go to the hospital firstly it was dangerous to get there and you needed to pay bribes to be able to travel to the hospital but once you got there you also needed to pay bribes to be able to see a doctor – sounds expensive to me.

So in short all of the guys we have here in Pontville have fled Afghanistan to either Iran or Pakistan, and from there have sought to get asylum here in Australia.

The process takes a very long time usually 2 – 3 years sometimes longer, one fellow I meet has a little daughter of 18 months back in Pakistan that he has not yet met. We only have single males in detention in Pontville but most still have families waiting in either Pakistan or Iran waiting for their husband to get given asylum or be returned back to them. Long time to go without seeing your family.

I spoke to the guys to see what they thought of the Pontville detention centre as they have already been held in either the Western Australian or the Christmas Island centres and one then they told me that they liked about Pontville was the guards. In all of the other centres they are only referred to by their number that they are given when they are entered into the system but down here they are given the decency of being called their own names by the guards. So far on my two visits all of the guards I have met have been very supportive of all of the Asylum Seekers.

Each time I have gone into visit the guys they have treated us like their guests bring in snacks and making us hot drinks (had to explain that you cannot microwave foam cups as some of them have never used a microwave before) and some have even made us presents in their spare time.

Going again on Tuesday evening to visit a couple of guys who follow Christ and are escorted on Sundays to attend church, a very dangerous thing to follow Christ in a Muslim country so looking forward to hearing their stories about this.

So we found a house we really liked, and then started all of the haggling.

Now up to this point everything I and my wife have ever purchased we paid for with cash so they have all been relatively simple transactions. When I bought both my motorcycle and car I bought them new from a shop, I walked in new what they wanted for it and made my offer and left owning a vehicle.

Now buying a house is a whole different kettle of fish, we found a house we liked and saw what they wanted and then we said great we will pay you this much.

They come back and say no how about this amount? Now my wife was worried about some concrete that was going to have to be pulled up as they did not have council approval for it and she also liked a couple of pieces of furniture they had so she started getting a little created with her next counter offer. So how about this much and you remove the concrete or this other amount and you leave behind your couch and the old wood cupboard.

They came back and said ok this much with the cupboard but we have sold the couch already, I informed the wife and she said yes let’s do it.

By this time we had been going back and forth for over a week and I was really getting into the swing of this offer and counter offering, so with instructions from the wife to go ahead and make the deal I called the realtor and said yes we accept…. as long as you through in the painting in the house I really liked.

After a week we finally got a yes from the owner. Woohoo we are buying a house. This is fun.

Then the meetings with a lawyer and paper work started and the back and forth trying to get an agreement on the clauses in the contract. This took another two weeks and by this stage my interests in the whole adventure have seriously started to fade.

But now we have a contract and are one step closer to have our first family home, now we just need to have the place checked out to make sure it’s all ok.

the house was advertised as being recently rewired but we still needed to have it checked, sure it might have been rewired but the add did not stat the guy doing it was a hillbilly with a roll of electrical tape and using his remaining teeth to strip the wires.

Quote to fix electrical wiring: +10k

At this point we were a little worried but decided to press ahead and have the septic system checked. System was installed in the 1930s, and i guess back then people only did small poos and the council did not mind if you let the run off flow into the local creek… Sorry to say but things have changed since then.

Quote to fix septic issues: +10k – 13K

So after wasting a month going back and forth making offers we are back to looking for a house.

Still think they should let me keep the painting.

As mentioned in my previous post we have been looking at a few houses lately and most of them we really nice but just probably nice for someone else not us.

One house we looked at was quite nice and had a small loft. The loft was all wood, the floor, walls and roof but someone had done a really dodgy power point hack which to me just screamed house fire death.

Another house we looked at was currently being rented out. When we pulled up the grass was a couple of foot high and there was a unregistered 4WD in the front yard….. not looking too good so far.

We got to the front door and the realtor had to push a little puppy back as he tried to open the door, so as you could imagine the little puppy was not toilet trained and had been locked up in the house all day so I think we know what that means.

The house really smelt (and not just of puppy) and as we maneuvered through the lounge room there was a bong on the bench.

We then moved into the backyard which was as long as the front yard. In the grass there were beer bottles and car doors lying around.

The house itself would have looked really nice if it was cleaned up, the yards we large and fenced so would be great for kids. It is just too hard to imagine what it would look like having to look past its current state.

I felt sorry for the realtor as it would be quite embarrassing having to take people to houses that are in this state but on the other hand it is their job to make sure the houses are being cared for.

Currently my wife and I are looking around for our first home to purchase.

Buying a house seems to be a really big decision and quite rightly so. There are a million things to take into account to determine if a home is right for you, and after you find the right house you then need to try to figure out if you can actually afford it.

So we have found one we like but like everything else in life it has its pros and cons

Pros:

• Room for animals
• No neighbors
  
• Has a large work shed
  
• Fenced yards
• Established veggie garden
• Wood heaters
• Nice roofs to setup solar solutions
• Lots of wood in the house
• Spacious kitchen

Cons:

• Loan commitment
• Commuting
• Slower Internet
• Further from town

Hmmm looks like pros win

I wish that buying a house was like buying a new shirt. Try on a few and find the best fit, do I really want to spend $50? Yes I do and now I own a new shirt.

Ok so I will update later on how the house hunt is going…….

I was on my way to work this morning and I while I was riding along I was counting “My Family” stickers on cars, hey it is a fun game to play.

I was up to 5 stickers when I came up behind a Holden station wagon with a collection of stickers on the back window. So there were 7 stickers on the back window, we had a few southern crosses (both the stars and a flag), a couple of Australian flags, a outline of Australia with the explanation that apparently out country is full and lastly a huge one taking up the top portion of the window explaining that as we are Australians we drink beer, eat pies and speak English.

Now while riding behind this car looking at his collection of stickers it made a few questions come to mind. How many Aussie stickers do you need to cross the line of being Patriotic and entering the world of Bogans?

The second thing I wondered is how are we full? Did you get a memo from the PM when you bought the sticker explaining to you that you are doing the country a great service by informing the rest of the nation to the fact that apparently we are full?

Looking at this map it appears that we do in fact have quite a lot of room left over  so I am really unsure of where they are getting their information from.

Funniest part was when I overtook him he had more on his side windows.

Going to try a new restaurant tonight near my work, thinking it should be an interesting dining experience.

I was looking yesterday to find somewhere for dinner that was close to work as we are going straight from work. I so I did a google search for restaurants in this area and below are some of the places came up:

• Subway (sandwich)
• Souvlaki Hut (greek)
• Chilli (comfort food)

This makes me wonder a few things; firstly why are the only places coming up fast food /takeaway food? And secondly what is comfort food?

Ok so after some slim pickings I ended up choosing a Malaysian “restaurant” and gave them a call. I know my first warning sign should have been when the first person had no idea what I meant by “can I book a table?” and put me onto someone else. I then sent the address for dinner to my work colleague who mentioned that the address was near her house but as far as she knew there were only houses in the area.

Ok second warning sign was that the address listed in the yellow pages was their home address and the “restaurant” was somewhere else.

So when we got to dinner it turned out it was a small takeaway shop with a table right up against the counter.

So we ended up having Chinese.

Since moving to Tasmania last year I have not a game of pool, so my wife decided to surprise me by taking me out for a few games.

Back in Brisbane my buddy Dan and I would often go off and play pool just to catch up or we would go and play some comp pool, one of the main things I miss about Brisbane.

Growing up pool is something that I have always had in my life. I remember when I was a kid my dad would go out and play pool comps and then every now and then he would take me to a pub and let me hit some balls around. I remember as a kid that I wanted to be good at pool just like my dad and the day I was finally able to complete against him awesome.

So we had our first night out playing pool the other night, and we went to the Welcome Stranger. Next we are off to the Telegraph to test out what they have to offer, all I want is a decent table to play on – is that too much to ask.

Last night I settled in to watch Reign of Assassins which is a John Woo film and Stars Michelle Yeoh from Crouching Tiger Hidden Awesome.

The movie is distributed by Eastern Eye and is subtitled but if you like awesome movies and you can read then you should watch this movie.

Basically what this movie is about is Zeng Jing (Michelle Yeoh) finds herself in possession of a mystical Buddhist monk’s remains (after killing a few people). She begins a quest to return the remains to its rightful resting place, and thus places herself in mortal danger because a team of assassins is in a deadly pursuit to possess the remains which holds an ancient power-wielding secret.

Ok so I love Asian movies and I will tell you one of the main reasons why, in most movies we have our hero – let’s call him Warren.

So Warren is getting chased by huge gangster alien zombies that are trying to destroy the planet, Warren is a white collar worker who spends most of his time behind his desk stapling things – definitely not doing hero type stuff. But now out of all of the people in the world it is up to Warren to save the human race and while he is doing this he will save some ridiculously hot girl from certain death, we will call her Holly.

At the end of the movie Warren will be amongst a pile of dead gangster alien zombies, he will most likely be covered in dirt and blood and will either have a bullet/stab wound to a non threatening part of his body and or a 45 degree cut to his head.

And now our lady hero (she will be now classed as hero as she would have save our hero at some character changing moment in the movie) will still be looking hot and will be still mostly clean. At this point they will express their love for each other.

Ok now let’s pretend this is an Asian movie.

Warren could be running down the road away from the gangster alien zombies when spots Holly also running away from them, Warren catches up to her and pushes her over so they stop to eat her allowing him to get away.

While battling the gangster alien zombies Warren could very well lose an arm or hand or even his whole leg, to which Warren might shove the kilt of his sword into the stump that used to be his arm or leg and turn this lost into an awesome weapon.

Now let’s say Holly did not get feed to the gangster alien zombies earlier on and they both survive to the end of the movie, they could be standing there together and then our hero turns around and cuts of Holly’s head as he already has a girl waiting for him at home.

Alternatively Holly might kill Warren right after he has saved the planet and just before he can bask in his awesomeness.

Point being the fantastic think about Asian cinema is that he hero does not always need to survive or win.