Random Updates!

The other weekend was the 23rd Annual Byron Bay Bluesfest! Its one of the biggest weeks every year here in Byron, and we simply couldn't miss out on it. We acquired some tickets to attend Thursday (opening day!) and had a blast! We saw Ziggy Marley (Bob Marley's oldest son), as well as a really fun cool group called Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. We had a really great time, but sadly, all good things must come to an end. In this case a fairly early one, as Krissy had shift in the bar at 10:00, so we left the festival around 8:30. That will definitely be one very cool memory from Byron!




Also, the less fun stuff... work. Krissy is running up against the limits of her visa with her job at the Great Northern Hotel here in Byron Bay. We are only allowed to work for a single employer for up to 6 months. Since her first night was Halloween, that means the end of this month no more work for her! Since I had been not working for a while, its only fair that she take some time off! Yay! We will likely be heading out of Byron not too long beyond that anyway. The good news is that I am working again! Apparently Krissy spent enough time moaning about me not working, that her boss offered me a job! I started on Easter weekend working in the restaurant, making pizzas! Apparently, now having worked at the two best pizza spots in Byron, and with two separate Italian Pizzaiolo, I have picked up a trade. Strange how life works! Regardless, if I do say so myself, I make some amazing hand-tossed pizza! Maybe we should open a restaurant when we get home?


We are VERY excited that Krissy's dad, Paul, is coming out to visit! He will meet us here in Byron, in the middle of May, and we will travel a bit from here. Very excited to show him our home away from home, and have some family here with us! Right now we are planning on going north to Cairns with Paul, and when he heads home, we will go to Asia! We are looking at spending 1-2 months (lets see how far we can stretch our cash) travelling through Bali, Thailand, Java, and potentially Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and more! Those are very very popular tourist destinations for Australians. Not only is it beautiful and tropical, but there is great surf, and its DIRT CHEAP. How cheap? A nights lodging in a private room is likely to cost us between $5 and $10. Food and water (bottled) for two people for a day? $15. Based on our Australian salaries, that's something less than 1 hour of work to support us both for a day. Not bad! For comparison's sake, a night in a hostel (8 bed shared dorm) here in Byron was costing us over $40/night! Food? How about another $30-$40 per day (and that's eating cheap!). Ouch.


Finally, one last note, our tenants moved out last month. Apparently, and we should have realized this before (or at least our real-estate agent who we hired to deal with this stuff should have told us!) since he is in the military and received orders to leave, he can just break the lease with no recourse for us. As a result, the house is sitting empty for all of April, with no rent coming back to us. Lame! Then, the rent we earn in May gets paid to the agent as his fee for finding another tenant, and getting the house rented. Ouch. The good news is that we did find a new tenant, and received notice just today that the lease has been signed. Unfortunately again, its another 12-month lease. That means we wont have the chance to get back into our house until May 2013. We have talked about renting an apartment in Kirkland or Seattle for the winter, but we will just have to play it by ear. So, that's all rather sad, and was slightly stressful. I'm all for supporting our troops, but its kind of hard to loose out on several thousand dollars as a result of military personnel being able to break all contracts when they receive orders. It seems to me like there should be some sort of way to recuperate some of that cost, but sadly I did a bit of looking, and I think we are just out of luck.


 Wow, a lot said there... So I really should have been blogging more. I'll try to be better!