Maxblog: now officially living in Sydney!

King Monkey · Post by **King Monkey** » 29 Nov 2007 07:02

OMG your apartment is amazing!
You'll be disappointed when you get to Oz

max · Post by **max** » 29 Nov 2007 07:30

Damn didn't see the appartment post was the last on previous page.

Yeah I know what appartments are like in Syd. That said, there are a couple of advantages that Sydney has over Brussels. One huge one is the weather. It's freezing here right now, has been raining for the past 2 weeks, we missed out on summer and we're up for a long cold winter..

dasreen · Post by **dasreen** » 29 Nov 2007 08:14

Somehow I thought you were french ... I guess b/c you spoke french. This apartment is even better than the one in Paris, right?

Rene

max · Post by **max** » 29 Nov 2007 08:29

Hey Rene,

yeah I'm French but living in Brussels.

Is my appartment better than the one in Paris? I'd say it's about as big but not really "as good" as the one in Paris. Also, I'm only renting this one, the one you stayed at in France is actually my parent's flat (not mine

)

max · Post by **max** » 14 Dec 2007 06:00

Played yesterday. It's getting very cold here in Brussels.

Didn't hit much, but managed a styley bedwetter > ss symple swirl, a flip tapping drifter (first time?) and had whirr x2 off my foot.

Oh yes also a swirl > reverse swirl.

max · Post by **max** » 27 Dec 2007 03:21

Played (real, not footbag) golf on 24/12 for the first time in over a year. It ROOOOCKED. I really need to get my g/f in on this sport, it's really awesome.

I was really rusty and playing without proper shoes on a soaked course and with rental clubs but played alright anyway. Couldn't hit a wood for the life of me (but haven't really been able to for the past decade so no real surprise there).

however, my short, mid and long irons were on-par (haha) all the way and I did manage to hit 7 pars (including three in a rwo), be on regulation on 5 or so occasions, putt for eagle on a short par-5 (bombed a 240m drive followed by a 170m 6 iron.. all downhill, then three-putted but I was far away) and hit some irons that really made the entire day worth it. I had a couple of nice sand saves also.

Anyway I really need to start playing again.

Christmas was great, ate enough to have me full for the rest of the week, and came back to Brussels with 3Kgs worth of foie-gras (stuffed liver) and other assorted goodies

Other than that, am planning a BIG new year's party at mine here in Brussels. Guests start arriving from France tomorrow.. the next 4 days are going to be VERY tiring for me!!

max · Post by **max** » 29 Jan 2008 01:18

New Years. Wow what a turnout. Basically everyone I invited came, a lot from overseas too. The theme was "Black Yellow Red" like the Belgian flag, yes we do our part for the reunification of the country (it's going through some hard times these days! anyway, place was packed, about a 100 people came, we had champagnes flowing from 11:30pm to 8am. Here's a photos of the hosts:

max · Post by **max** » 29 Jan 2008 01:33

Other news = new post.

Well I had a chat with my boss yesterday. To sum it up, I was announcing the news that I'd be leaving the company later this year, and I detailed my plan for the next couple of years.

Well the plan itself is nothing too complex. It involves getting a fast-track Australian Work Visa for my girlfriend (she's a nurse). This is still a lengthy procedure and I've hired an Australian Immigration lawyer for help on this. It's ongoing and I'm hoping she'll have the Visa mid 2008.

While this is going on, I'm gathering the pieces required for applying to the top MBAs in Australia. This is also quite a lengthy process but it's well underway and I'm quite confident that I put up a good case for admission for the 2009 curriculum (it starts in January).

Anyway, the chat with my boss yesterday was to see if he would agree to be one of my referees needed in the MBA applications. He agreed straight away ! Hurray! So the plan is to move to Australia (Sydney or Melbourne depending in if / where I'm accepted) between September and December.

I'm quite confident about all this.

max · Post by **max** » 01 Feb 2008 00:56

Hurray I kicked yesterday!

With excessive work (and therefore long schedules) and cold winter weather I haven't kicked as much as I would have liked to these passed couple of months. But I had a quick 90 minute session with Jul yesterday... blowing the dust off the old lavers so to speak.

Absolutely nothing spectacular was hit by yours truly, some whirrs, ripwalk > barrage bsos, a new 55 link with pdx blender > ps whirl, a flip swirl, 41 infinities.. as I said, not much but it was good to sweat a bit. I can't wait till the sun comes out again (in a couple of months)

max · Post by **max** » 21 Feb 2008 05:10

Alright... heading to Argentina tomorrow! STOKED!
Two weeks of well deserved holidays

I didn't manage to locate any keen freestylers in Argentina though. I might take my lavers anyway though.

MBA + Oz immigration plans are still on track. I've been cramming the GMAT these last couple of weeks. It's a rather tough test (even for native English speakers I imagine)

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 22 Feb 2008 08:38

max, i just did some digging on my own australia visa needs. Turns out it's going to be stupid easy. The Canadian government has an agreement with the australian where anyone 18-30 years old with a valid passport and no criminal record can get 1 year work visas. The only regulation is you can't hold the same job for more that 6 months once you get to your destination. this is supposed to encourage you to travel or something. anyway, i hope to see you down there next year.

Colin · Post by **Colin** » 22 Feb 2008 11:16

In the interest of creating a streak of off topic posts in other people's blogs...

Are you serious Andrew? This is really appealing to me. I'm 24, bored, and need to get the fuck out of dodge, so to speak. My requirements are pretty simple - a footbag scene and a gentler winter. Is this info easy to find?

max · Post by **max** » 15 Apr 2008 04:58

Well Argentina was incredible:

I could have spent months there!

Other than that, since I've been back I've been bogged down with a big work-load and neck-deep in Australian Visa and MBA applications. Things are still on track and I still have an arrival date set between September and December 2008. Destination is still up in the air between Sydney and Melbourne and I'll know when I get MBA application results back.

Footbag-wise I've so over-worked that I haven't been able to play during the week. I try and fit a quick session during the week-end though, but I've been plagued with a frequently injured ankle. So not much on that front unfortunately. I did hit spinning whirl > scorpion's tale and vortex > ws and some long runs on Sunday, but nothing much else of note.. but summer is just around the corner

Does anyone know of any way to resize images with BBCode?

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 15 Apr 2008 05:08

Nice photo. I hear you on the overworked part, but hopefully it'll pay off for both of us, and allow us to play more footbag in the future.

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 15 Apr 2008 08:28

just think about how sweet it'll be when you're kicking back and relaxing on one of sunny Sydney's many beaches, sipping a cold one after a long shred on a blisteringly hot sunday in JANUARY! It's the only thought that keeps me going these days, haha!

max · Post by **max** » 15 Apr 2008 08:52

haha yeah def.

That along with Christmas..... AT THE BEACH!

dyalander · Post by **dyalander** » 16 Apr 2008 17:23

Looks like nationals will be in Sydney next year - would it be preumptuous to include you in our plans?
Would you compete or judge?

It's funny, we're all complaining about the weather because its rained regularly and its now getting "cold" - i.e. its down to 19 degrees. With el nino over the weather on the east coast is much wetter and a little milder than the past few years but coming to modified always puts it all in perspective.

I look forward to a round of golf and a few beers - hopefully I'll have finished my thesis by then.

max · Post by **max** » 17 Apr 2008 05:50

A round of Golf and beers????? YES!

When are Ozzie Nationals next year? I think that you can count on me to at least be present if I do land in Sydney. Still I think it is a safe bet that I'll be in Australia before 2009.

I'm currently attending to the "Proof of de-facto relationship" part of my immigration application. The questions they ask are shocking! Look at this:

Include in each statement:

* How you met, where, when (month and year) and in what circumstances
* Why you fell in love
* Why you are still in love
* Details of your courtship â€“ how your commitment to each other developed
* When (month and year) and where you started to live together. This will need to be repeated in each statutory declaration you submit.
* The pattern of your day-to-day life - your weekly routine, how household tasks are divided, if there are children how their care is managed
* Interests you have in common
* Your present financial commitments â€“ who pays for what, do you operate a joint bank account
* Your plans for the future
* How a separation would affect you â€“ personally, emotionally, financially
* How often you visit your partnerâ€™s family, in what circumstances and related comments.

and that's just for the personal statements! I'll spare you the never-ending list of phone bills, leases, present receipts, letters, bank statements, photos, family statements etc. that I have to add to that.

dyalander · Post by **dyalander** » 17 Apr 2008 18:22

Yeah its crazy, my mate went through it all a couple of years back - you'd almost never know we're in a skills shortage - you'd think the gross nurse shortage in particular would mean it'd be a lot easier.

Nationals will most likely be in March-April. We're looking at a few different options - Either the Easter Show whcih would be huge, otherwise some sort of festival that one of the local councils put on for youth week - which is in April.

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 18 Apr 2008 19:36

max, as foreigners it would be really funny if we won at the aussie nationals. wanna start training doubles?