Illegal alien.... no more!

I (Dayle) was just greeted with such fantastic news that I had to share- the Australian government has just approved my second visa! So I'm no longer an illegal alien anymore, on an endless "bridging visa." It's good to know that my 3 months (oh sorry, 88 days!) of slaving away at fruit picking and tomato sorting, my $400 or so for the application and the medical checkup (you know, to see if I am bringing a deadly disease into the country a year after I already would have infected people from Victoria to Queensland and back), and my unpaid hours of boredom sitting in the Health Services waiting rooms have paid off! The gracious Aussie government has kindly assured me (for only $223!) that my eyes are just as bad as they always were, I'm still the same height and weight I've been for ages, and also had me go for two pee-in-a-cup tests (ew) AND a chest xray. Hey, at least I got an afternoon off work. Hallelujah, the doctor must have checked off "Normal", instead of "Abnormal", in the question about the patient's intelligence on Form 26A! I've got myself another year in the country- maybe I'll go pick some pears to celebrate.... uhhh, or maybe not. Adrian's another story though-- maybe they've figured out he really is an alien. Fingers crossed he gets his visa soon...

In other news, we had a happy Easter (hope all of you did too!) eating chocolate eggs on the beach, and camping out along the Great Ocean Road again. We watched a 360-degree lightning show at Johanna Beach (where we'd camped about a month ago and fell in love with the spot) and soaked our hiking boots on a beach hike alongside what we're pretty sure were at least 15-foot waves. Crazy! It was a gorgeous scorcher of a weekend, though now it's been pouring really cold rain for days in the city.

We also watched some of the Rip Curl Pro Surfing Competition at Bells Beach, where the surfing girls got a little festive and tossed a big chocolate egg around while surfing some waves. And we've learned that eating hot cross buns is the major Aussie/Kiwi Easter tradition this time of year (think Easter, the cross, etc)-- and it's really the only time of year you can get them here. Crazy!

And then there was my own Easter treat- quitting my overworking, underappreciated office job. I even copied my resignation letter straight off the web to hand in. Liberation! And Adrian's got an exciting gig in a CBD bank tower, to start next week. So as he's going all corporate, I'm on my countdown to the 4th of April, my last day. I've got a few plans up my sleeve but will reveal more as the time comes. For now, I'm almost on vacation--Yippee!
(Oh yeah, and we're buying ourselves a "Take Me To Your Dealer" poster to celebrate!)