Hujan sajaaaa....

Its been raining since I woke up this morning. Now baru je berhenti, with some sunlight yg sesaat ada sesaat takde.

Aku ni memang pantang tengok cahaya matahari, rasa cam nak start the laundry je. Walaupon aku ni most of time pemalas, aku suka basuh baju, jemur kain, angkat kain (yang di jemuran ye, bukan kain yang aku pakai).. tapi nak lipat tu malaaaaas gila. Unspoken rule yang aku buat, sapa start the laundry/jemur/angkat the other one kena lipat. Hehehhehehe. Oooppppssss...!! Oh lagi satu since zaman muda remaja lagi aku sangat suka iron baju. Rasa sangat therapeutic tengok all the keduts hilang with one swipe of the hot iron. And banyak kali jugak tangan/kaki aku kena iron yg panas tu.. wooohh.. huduh jadinya tangan/kaki aku full of burn scars. Macam kena dera.
Apa aja la aku membebel hari ni.

Well, looking at the weather forecast on The Age, tension gua December will be a wet & cold December.. tak serupa typical summer langsung.
Yet, what is typical summer in Melbourne... winter is the only season that has a consistent feel to it. Yang lain-lain, sejak azali lagi fluctuate. But we know that peak summer is definitely suicidal (ingat tak aku bebel pasal temperature 40°c & above hari tu?), average summer is 28°c-35°c & weird summer is like this one we are having now. Yeah, Melbourne weather.. each season ada its own personality, so to say. So kawan-kawan, kalau nak visit kami di Melbourne ni, sila la ke weather forecast webbies e.g. this one on The Age or Bureau of Meteorology so that boleh plan apa nak bawak from sana to here.

Hmm.. kalau cam ni la weather sepanjang December ni.. cam mana aku nak gi cherry picking, ferry to Queenscliff, outdoor activities nanti ni. Yang penting, cam mana nak buat laundry ni.. rumah aku takde dryer. Mebbie kena pegi to that launderette kat hujng jalan ni kot. Hmm... bersyukur je la musim kemarau dah berakhir & I hope that mild warm weather je this summer. And mebbie ini jugak petanda yang winter will start late & its going to be a mild winter. Tahun dulu when it was a severe summer, we also had a terrible winter.

Okay, tadi dalam The Age keluar pasal how Victoria is going to be after the change of the state government recently. Gambar kat sebelah tu tribute to theage.com.au. So, last Saturday was the state election. Seb baik aku tak payah mengundi, hubby saja yg wajib. He did his the day before through the early voting service. Terasa gak nak mengundi for the sake of the healthcare system here. In this article the author ada jokes about the Victoria slogans under each leader, latest & still on is the "The Place To Be" being under the Labor Party, Mr. Brumby. Kalau u guys datang Aussie, you can see different slogans on the car license plate. My new baby takde. Tapi yg lama ada. Hehehehe. Kind of interesting.

Contoh slogan kat plet kereta. Ni kereta lama aku.

Now Victorian government dah bertukar kepada Coalition party (mainly Liberal lah), led by Mr. Ted Baillieu (or org sini panggil Big Ted) as the Premier (Victorian government).
Kenapa aku di Victoria? Itu kena tunggu entry lain for my explanation.

No one knows how Victoria is going to be under the new government since its been a looooong time Brumby's government memerintah. And all I could hear is orang kutuk his gov kat tempat kerja. Aku tak tau menahu coz jarang baca hal-hal politics kat sini (dan juga di mana-mana sahaja).

All I care is how the government is spending all our tax payers' money, especially on the health care system & hal-hal yang mempengaruhi kehidupan kami kat sini. Professionals here pay a hell lot of money for tax that 3/4 of the time we dont really merasa the benefit of it.. e.g. aku bayar tax in the past fortnight hampir mencecah AU$2000!! Cekik darah betul! Bila bukak pay slip hari tu.. huhuhu... nangis aku :'(( Penat aku kerja bersungguh-sungguh tapi bila tengok tax.. :'(( Bayangkan setiap dua minggu itu tax yg aku bayar to the government here. Gaji bersih hanya cukup makan bayar itu-ini. And during tax return.. cuma dapat seciput saja balik. Hmm.. nanti dah tua dapat super annuation pon kena tax jugak. Barang-barang pon kena bayar GST. Semua pon kena tax. Begitulah nasib professionals kat sini, semua gigit jari je setiap kali tengok payslip. Mungkin yg earn AU$500ribu ke atas tu tak berapa gigit jari coz gaji bersih mereka still berganda-ganda dari yg kami middle class ni dapat.
Tax naik melampau, harga barang makin naik melampau, gaji jugak tak naik-naik.. Adoiii...

Teringat pengalaman merawat seorang pesakit di pedalaman Victoria beberapa tahun dulu. Aku sedar aku orang luar, bukan Aussie, dan tidak berminat pon nak tukar segala menjadi Aussie. Masa tu cerita pasal tax that year dikurangkan by 1.4% than usual kot. Si pakcik yg tengah baca suratkhabar masa aku attended to his care boleh je slamba cakap kat aku "Wah, tax untuk Australians dah turun (ni translate ke BM, dan dia menekankan perkataan Australians tu), baguslah. Hmm, I suppose this doesnt apply to you or 'others'.. do you pay tax?" Haram betul pakcik ni.
Aku tak ingat apa aku jawab, tapi bunyinya macam ni (dah translate ke BM).. "Of course aku bayar tax, pakcik. Kami kerja sini like everyone else & wajib bayar tax like everyone else. Kalau TAK bayar tax, orang-orang di pedalaman akan mati with all sorts of penyakit sebab takde hospital/clinics/lab/radiology di kawasan-kawasan pedalaman nih." Dia tak tau ke 85% of medical workforce kat rural areas dipenuhi oleh orang-orang luar, (despite rupa sangat lain dari orang-orang putih, some of them dah jadi citizen Australia)?

Waaah... banyak betul aku membebel hari ni ye. Geram aku tengok sunlight yg macam lampu kelip-kelap kat luar tu...