Good News/Bad News

Do you want the good news first? Of course you do.

I passed my Drivers License test. With a perfect score, no less. Exciting, huh? It was only my second try! For a thirty question, multiple choice test it was surprisingly challenging. It was all that “Give Way” stuff that threw me off the first time. But, hey! I’m legal now! Never mind that Jorge passed his the first time...

Getting a license to drive a car in Australia is apparently harder than getting a license to sell real estate here.

One realtor we spoke with, a hilarious Canadian named Mike, who you must use if you are ever in need of some property in the Port Douglas area, explained the steps to us:

1) Take week-long real estate course

2) Take real estate exam. Have exam scored on the spot

3) Incorrect answers will be circled in red. Sit back down and answer those questions again. Have exam scored on the spot again.

4) Repeat Step 3 as necessary until Passing Score of 100% is achieved.

Oh, right, I almost forgot, the bad news...

We had an appointment in Cairns today with the immigration people. No answers yet. We can’t expect to have visas issued until we’ve been here for several more months; one month in country ain’t gonna cut it. So we’ll try again later on. They also want to see the kids enrolled in an educational institution as part of our commitment to residency, so it looks like they’ll be starting SCOOL July 11, when the locals finish up their holiday and the second semester begins.

Owning property does not help our case at all. Because the house we’re presently renting is on the market and we are not interested in purchasing it, we’re probably going to just move right into Port Douglas, rent a place and be done with it.



All the news that’s fit to print.

-- Adolph Simon Ochs (Motto of the New York Times)