Assets and pension cuts

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, Assets and pension cuts
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Assets and pension cuts

After the new assets test that has started the 1st of January 2017, there are a lot of pensioners that are lamenting the way that this government has treated them, because that are going to lose some pension. So, they think the money they are losing.
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Assets and pension cuts  

Dear readers, as we have said in our last article, Australian pensioners alarmed, here we are continuing to talk about the pensions cut and the effect it has on some pensioners. Depending on what sort of pensioner you are, these changes affects you in some different ways. So, there are some pensioners that their pension does not change at all, some pensioners that will be losing part of their pension, and some will lose it altogether. So, if the pensioners are upset about this change, they are right to be upset.

Anyhow, now let us discuss that example that we have started in our last article, about Mr.  and Mrs Day, who own two houses, they live in one house and rent the other one. Then, we will talk about other cases, if we can and what some pensioner think about doing, because for every action there is a reaction, so, also the pension changes may bring some other changes.

Mr. and Mrs. Day, case about pensions.

First how much they received before, then how much they receive now, and then compare this with other pensioner, whether they are being discriminated, meaning that they are losing more pension that the others. Anyhow, we are only setting this case, in a way the it is easy to understand, so all figures are well rounded figure, and therefore they have not been worked out mathematically.

So, Mr. and Mrs Day have about $580,000 worth of assets beside their own residence;

Before the 1^st January change they received about $450.00 per fortnight each;

After the 1^st January change they will receive about $350.00 per fortnight each;

So, they will be losing about $100.00 per fortnight each, this is very upsetting because they have problems with renting the house. When the house is not rented, it is hard to live on $350.00 per fortnight. One should keep in mind that a single pensioner that has no assets, receives $873.90 per fortnight, and even they sometimes complain about living a modest decent life. So, let us talk about owning and renting a house, whether it is worth to keep things as they are, or they need to change a few things, to live their life at the level of everybody else. So, how renting a house affects the pensioners. 

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Owning and renting a house

People believe that owning and renting a house is the way to go; if you talk to any real-estate agent they will tell you that, but one should ask oneself, is it so all the time, or are there times when it does not work out in your favour, or the way you want, therefore, owning another house is not the best thing to have, which is the case of Mr. and Mrs. Day.

As we have said in our last article, today the Days’ and any house owner find it hard to rent their houses, because there are too many vacancies here in Brisbane. So, Mr and Mrs Day have rented their house for $400.00 per week, and they hope that the tenants will pay the rent on time, and will not damage the house while they are living there. They have worked out that as things are, after paying all the bills, they could average in a year over $200.00 a week net rent. They must estimate a conservative figure, because there are too many vacancies, and there have been times when their house has been vacant for months.

After going over all this stuff, one start to think that there is something wrong with the way things are set up. So, one would ask. Did the Day’s couple make a mistake when they invested in this property? As they were thinking that by having a property for rent, they could be better off when they retied and would have some extra money to enjoy in their old age; because as you can see, it did not work that way at all. In facts, they are worse off, because if they had only the house they are living in, they would have received a lot more pension, than what they are earning from their investment. They could have more good time for themselves, instead of trying to run their property for rent. One could almost feel sorry for them knowing what they are going through now.

One needs to ask, what sort of government is this, can they work out properly what they are doing? They tell the people to save their money for their old age, so that they can live a better life in their old age. But when the people reach their old age, they turn around and take that money away from you, by changing the laws. But that is not all, because they don’t take the money away from their own pensions, if anything they increase it, because their pensions is not assets tested.

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What some people could do?

When those things that you have worked hard for, they don’t earn what you expected them to earn, and for that reason, you are ending up In a financial disaster, since you are losing money. You may start thinking many things including about what you want to do, and what you could do with what you have.

In the case of Mr. and Mrs. Day they are losing so much that they may have to think about a different set up, so that they can receive a lot more pension and live an easier life.

As we have said in our previous article, Mr. and Mrs. Day are not on the best terms and they may divorce soon. So now that the pension has gone down more, this thinking of divorce comes back to their minds. Because if they are divorced, they will receive a single pension each. But that is not all, they will own a house each, so they have no more assets, so they will receive the full pension. Now let us see what difference it will make.

Today they receive about $350.00 per fortnight each.

If they are divorced they will receive, $873.90 each per fortnight.

Which is a lot more than what they receive today, the only question left here is will they do it?

Anybody that is losing that much money will certainly do it, to make sure, let us look at those figures again, but this time let us see, how much money they are losing in a year, if we work both pensions together:

Now, they would receive about $700.00 per fortnight, in a year they are receiving $18,200.00.

If they divorce, they will receive 873.90 each per fortnight, which will be $22,721.4 each.

Or 45,442.8 per year. So, they are losing $27,242.8 government pension in a year.

Our own views on this is this.

If people start divorcing, or doing something that entitles them to a full single pension in the future, you cannot blame them, because they have been pushed from the government to do it.

Now, before we finish talking about owning properties that affect the pensioners, let me say my point of view here-under.

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Pensioners owing properties

The pensioners that own a rental property today are in a lot of trouble, because everything seems to have turned against them. First of all, the government cuts the pensions, then they cannot rent their properties unless they rent cheap, and also, they cannot sell their properties easily, because there are too many properties up for sale.

Some of you my readers think that I am exaggerating, because everybody things that the properties are always going up. But I tell you what, the boom on the property market for me is already ended, but people are not aware of it yet. When I drive around the street of Brisbane, there are too many signs of places for rent and for sale, when a few years ago, there were none. So, everybody that owns some real-estate should brace themselves now, for the rough ride ahead, this will also affect the pensioners.

Anyhow, we want to conclude this article now, by saying that the pensioners are having a hard time no matter where they turn they find problems.

Therefore, in the future, they better plan to own just a house, and then collect the full pension from the government.

I believe that I have said enough in this article. So, see you in our next article when I have something else to say. Perhaps about the Italian homeless.

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Genzano it story
Pensioners alarmed
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, the Italian homeless

Australian pensioners alarmed

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, Australian pensioners alarmed
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Pensioners are sick or old people that are not able to work anymore. Because they don't have an income, the government pays them a pension, that enables them to live a modest life.
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Australian pensioners alarmed

Let us start from the beginning

Dear readers, we apologize for not continuing writing this time our old man story, but you see I have something that is happening right now to write about, which is about the Australian pensions that are changing.   

Now, let us start from the beginning and talk about the man that brought in this disaster, because he was unable to see what his budget would do to the Australian pensioners and other institutions. This disastrous budget was delivered from the then treasurer Joe Hockey the 13 of May 2014, today we are still finding how terrible this budget was. Because the 1^st of January 2017 some Australian pensioners have lost some pension payments, which we are going to talk about in this article. But first let us see how the expert have described this budget at that time it happened.  So, here I quote:

The austere budget faced widespread criticism and was overwhelmingly rejected by the Australian public as reflected in all opinion polls after its release.^[3][4][5] Opposition to "unfair" budget measures came from the opposition and cross-bench, pensioners, economists, the union movement, students and welfare, community and disability groups with some taking to the streets in protest. The budget included changes which were contrary to pre-election commitments and promises made by the Liberals in opposition.^[6] Critics argue that every one of the following pre-election commitments made by Tony Abbott were broken in the first budget: "No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS."^[7][8] Echos of the "dead and buried" Fightback! policy package from the 1993 election occurred with proposals to defer unemployment benefits for six months for under 30s and the removal of GP bulk billing. Most proposals have since been shelved, dumped or modified.

End of quote.

Anyhow today Joe Hockey, has moved out of politics, but the politician have given him a very good job, with a very good pay. Meanwhile the Australian pensioners are hurt from those changes to the assets test that he proposed. Here one would ask, if he really wanted to save money to the government by cutting the pension, why he didn’t propose to cut his own pay and the other politicians pay, since they seem to receive a ridiculous high pay for their services they do. We think that this is only fair, since we are all in the same boat of Australia. Now, let us talk about the Australian pensioners.

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 Pensioner are alarmed   

Yes, dear readers, today the Australian pensioners are alarmed, they are alarmed because they feel that the Australian government is ripping them off. They feel ripped off because the changes that are taking place from the first of January 2017 are unfair to some of them. We believe that they are right to feel alarmed and upset, so, we are going to view and write what they are concerned about.

Therefore, in this article let us talk about these Australian pensions, since most of us would be personally interested about. I should admit that I am not an expert in politics and government matters, however sometimes we try to have our say. As you know we have talked about the Italian politics in a few articles, we have written one about Obama the American politics too. So, now let us talk about ourselves, the Australian politics and a few things that affect us directly, we are going to talk about the Australian Pensions that are changing, from the first of January. This change is going to hurt a lot of people that rely on part of the Australian government pension in their old age.

Here we are talking about retirees that have not got enough of their own funds to retire and live a modest decent life, so, they rely on the Australian government for a full pension or part pension. This article is being written to express the alarming views of these part pension retirees, which are going to be affected from this change. In their views, what hurts most here is that the people that have got no assets, because they have never worked hard and tried to save money they will still receive the full pension from the government, but those that have worked hard and saved their money, hoping to have just a bit extra cash when they retied will have the pension reduced and in some cases completely cut off. we believe that that is not right, because it is the people that have worked hard and saved their money, these are the people that have paid most taxes in the past.

Anyhow, here are some figures that have been published on the net.  

About 330,000 Australians will find their pension cut from the 1^st of January- 90,000 will be losing it entirely, because of the tighter assets test. I believe that it is not fair, because it is already hard for pensioners to live a modest life peacefully.

So, if the federal government loses next election, because of what they have done, they deserve it. Anyhow, let us look at some possible outcome, and how people could react to these pensions cut. Here we are going to write about some imaginary case of what some people could do, because they feel that they are being discriminated and punished for being good honest citizen.

Anyhow, here we are going to talk about a case or two, as an example. You see, before this pension was cut, this couple had accepted that the government would give them only a part pension, so, they tried to live with that, but now that pension is being cut, so they don’t know what to do, because it is going to be hard for them to live a decent modest life. Let us talk about their concerns.  

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Some pensioners’ concerns

Here we cannot use real names, so, the name that appear in here are not their real names.

Mr. John Day and Mrs. Ann Day are two aged pensioners, they have received a part pension for few years now, as they are both 70 years old, so, they are aged pensioners.

Anyhow let us describe how this change will affect them, in this case of Mr. and Mrs Day.

Mr and Mrs Day own two houses, they both live in the same house, even though they are not on the best terms with each other, and it is said that they will end up divorced soon. Anyhow they are still living under the same roof as husband and wife, so they receive their pension as a couple, which is less than if they had the pension paid as single people, so they start thinking if they are doing the right thing, or they should do a few things to improve their financial position. So, let us compare what is happening to their pension first.  

 As we have said, Mr and Mrs Day have two house one they live in and another one they rent, so, the house they rent is calculated as an asset, the value of the house is set at 520,000 dollars, add to that a few more things they have, they have 550,000 dollars’ assets, so their pension is calculated on these assets, as it was before they told me that they were getting from the government about 450 per fortnight each, from the 1^st of January, they are going to get about 350 dollars per fortnight each. This is not enough to live with even if you try hard.

The house they rent, today it is rented at 400 dollars per week, because they could not rent it any higher, now, that is not net money, because they should pay all the fixed expenses, like the rates, the water and other urban utilities, the insurance, the maintenance. But that is not all, because sometimes the house is vacant for several weeks until a new tenant is found. So, there are times when in a year, they can average from the house only a bit more than 200 dollars per week.

Here one needs to ask, where and how the government people work out this new law about the assets and how much you earn. I believe that it should be worked on a real possibility that you would be able to earn at least as much money as the full pension, before they cut the pension.

Anyhow, at this point of time I believe that this article is becoming too long, so, the facts and figure about this example will be discussed in our next post. Where we will be talking about, Assets and pension cut.

See you soon.

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Genzano it story
Pensioners alarmed
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, Assets and pension cuts
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Welcomed at my Brisbane address

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to out blog, Genzano it story
and this post, welcome at my new Brisbane address
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At my new address
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This is just a view of the Story Bridge in Brisbane.









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Some Brisbane views seen from the Brisbane river.









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Just a typical wooden house in Brisbane suburbs in the sixties.

  

At my new address

Welcomed at my new address

Dear readers, this post is the continuation of our last post, Welcome to Brisbane.

Now just to keep my life story going in a way that it makes sense, let me talk about in a more personal way how I was welcome at my uncle house in Brisbane; we reaching my uncle house and were greeted by the people that were in at that time of the day, as there were some that had gone to work, you see there were quite a few people living at my uncle house already and they were all from the same town that I came from, so we all knew each other somehow. Here I am not going to be very personal and tell you their name, I am not going to do that for a couple of reasons; you see, if it happens that any of these people read these hubs, I don’t know whether they like the idea of being mentioned here; therefore, I am going to tell you in a general way just things that happened and keep everything impersonal if I can.

So, I was saying that I had reached my final destination in Brisbane city, which was at my uncle house and greeted by those that were there at that time, then we unloaded my luggage and we started to talk about the town I came from Genzano di Lucania with the people that were present, because they were all from the same town as I have said already, and they wanted to know as much as they could about their relatives. While we were unloading at the same time I was telling them about the presents that I brought from my own family to my uncle, they were mostly some local town produce the largest of them was now a seven litre demijohn of wine, since the ten litre broke on the way, I had also some 6 litre of pure olive oil and a large tray of homemade large biscuits that we make in Genzano when somebody gets married, there were also other presents that I was going to give them as soon as I would unpack my own luggage.

Soon everybody came back from work, and I greeted every one of them and told them as much as I could about things that they wanted to know. Evening came and we had dinner and after that I retired to my bedroom, where my new bed that my brother had bought me was ready for a good night sleep on firm ground after being a whole month on the ship. Now before we go on about telling our readers the timber houses of Brisbane city, I think that it would be more appropriate, if I tell you first about some positive sights that one can see in this city of Brisbane.  

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Brisbane city views

Wherever you go there are always some interesting things to see, also Brisbane city has got several thing to show the world, so, we have taken the liberty of showing you a few photos of this city that makes us proud; I know that most people that come to Australia would say that Brisbane does not look as good as Sydney, but so what, it is still a nice city to live in and has got a few things that we are proud of; like the Story Bridge, City Hall with its clock tower that strikes the time every quarter of an hour, the city centre with all its shopping centre, Parliament House and the botanic gardens next to it, where we could go walking around looking at the garden or the pond, with its ducks and swans or sitting on the lawn on a hot summer day and listening to a band playing music during the weekends.

Now there are many more parks in Brisbane and most of them have a playground for children, so most people used to go to these gardens or parks in those times, perhaps today they are not used as much as they used to be then; of these parks the most important after the City Botanic Garden would be New Farm Park, this park is well known for the roses that are grown there, so some of us call it the park of the roses, it is also a sight to see early in spring when the jacaranda trees are in flower, this park has also a large playground for children, it has got a kiosk, where you can have a cup tea or buy an ice cream for the kids and a few other things, on hot summer days one could sit under the trees near the Brisbane River and fill almost as if you are at the beach; you see Brisbane River is a very wide river and it is navigable for many miles, so, while we would be sitting in the shade of the trees we could see the traffic of bouts on the river, some of these boats would be carrying just people that were sightseeing on the river, or going to another pleasure destination.

Another important garden that that needs mentioning here is the new Botanic Garden at Toowong Brisbane, near Mt-Coot-Tha forest this is a western suburb on the fringes of Brisbane city, this new botanic garden has been opened because the old botanic garden in the city lost some of its land, as they have built another university there; now apart from seeing what we can see and find in a botanic garden; from this new botanic garden, you could visit also this observatory; 

The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium is a planetarium located on the grounds of Brisbane Botanic Gardens^[1] in the suburb of Toowong, Brisbane, Queensland,Australia. The Planetarium was officially opened on 24 May 1978.

Now, let us forget again for a moment that this article is mainly to talk about the early sixties here, as we have done above, so let us add what else could be attractive today in Brisbane, here we are talking about the year 2014 and we can add also that in Brisbane there are many shopping centre that are the size of a small town, and they are all well organized and air conditioned all under one roof that it is a pleasure to go shopping specially in those hot summer days, when one can go in there and stroll from shop to shop doing the shopping and keeping cool at the same time, what else would you want?

Anyhow let us go back to talk about the sixties and those wooden houses.

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The wooden houses

Living in Brisbane wooden houses

At my new address in Brisbane Australia, even though it was a wooden house I was welcomed and soon I felt no difference at all to live in it, after all that is the way that most of the local people live in these parts of Australia. But now, just for the sake of knowing what I am talking about here let me describe this house for you. It was a four bedroom house, in addition to the four bedrooms there was a lounge room, a large kitchen where there was enough room for a large dining table, there was a bathroom with bathtub and shower that had a gas heated hot water devise that you could light up and have a hot shower, the toilet was downstairs under the house; now all this large house and floor space was set on wooden stumps, I know that those people that have never lived or seen a house on wooden stumps before are saying; what is he talking about a house on wooden stumps, I have never heard of this before what a strange country Australia is.

I know it might sound strange to some people, and it might feel a bit strange too to live in these houses at the beginning, but anyhow they are there and they have a pretty good reason why people built them like that in these parts of the world. After all is not even a new idea when we think about it; you see when I was at school I remember that my teacher was saying that a long time ago for safety reasons, some people that lived by the sea would build their house on stilts over shallow water, so that they could defend them easily if they were attacked; Now we could say, okay that was a good idea then but what are the reasons for these houses to be built like that here?

This is how we migrant saw Brisbane city when we arrived to Australia for the first time.

I believe that we may have to tell you in our next article about these wooden houses, because it would be more appropriate, as we will write about it and explain some of the reasons why these houses in Brisbane were built with timber and they have been built on wooden stumps.

 See you soon.

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Genzano it story
Welcome at my Brisbane address
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, Brisbane wooden houses
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Welcome to Brisbane

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzanoit story
and this post, welcome to Brisbane
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Welcome to Brisbane
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Brisbane city Hall in George Square with its clock that chimes every quarter of an hour, one could say that this is the Big Ben of Brisbane city. There is also the Story Bridge and many other things to see in Brisbane as well.










Welcome to Brisbane

Dear readers, this post is the continuation of our last post, next stop Sydney, and then we went to disembark in Brisbane. So, what we are going to write here next is about the first impression that I had about Brisbane city, when I disembarked in 1961, and the views that I found interesting, as seen through the eyes of an emigrant arriving in Brisbane by boat in the early sixties and other things about Brisbane city as well; we are also describing how I was welcomed to Brisbane by my relatives and friends.

Dear readers as we have said in our last hub, in this hub we are going to tell you about my first impression of Brisbane city, which are those impressions that we keep with us our entire life; so let us start from the docks where I have just arrived and disembarked; as soon as I disembarked in Brisbane I met with my brother and other friends, so, I let them guide me what to do next, after all they were here before me and they knew what we had to do and where we had to go, as we know all newcomers arriving from a foreign country have to go through custom to check all their belongings out, so, we did that and then we were free to go to our own destination, in Brisbane or any other place in Queensland, since this was the last stop that the ship made in Australia, so all the new comers coming to Australia disembarked 

Anyhow after the customs cleared us, we left the port in a car and they took me to one of our friends house not far from the port, here the lady of the house had prepared something to eat for everybody and while we were eating and everybody was trying to make me feel welcome, we were also talking about my native town Genzano di Lucania and the people that I had left behind in that town; you see all those relative or friends that came to pick me up, they were from the same town, and I had brought presents and news from their families. I should say here that in those times when transport and news travelled much slower that today, anybody that arrived from overseas and from where one had come from was very welcome, especially if one brought presents and news from their relative and friends, I thought it was a good thing and it also helped us new comers, because one did not feel that complete detachment from your country of origin that we had left behind, in my case a month earlier.

Here we guess that everybody that has migrated or moved away from home for a long period of time knows what being home sick is; therefore, this finding that there is a group of people from your own town and they are staying in touch with each other is helpful wherever one goes, because they make the new comer feel welcome. So, I was welcomed from this group of relative and friends, who soon made me understand among other things that I was welcomed to Brisbane the land of the kangaroos and this is how my relative and friends made me understand we would be labelled from now on. Anyhow it was a welcome in the best possible way that one could expect.

Now, I have to say that at first sights Brisbane did not look as good as Sydney, the port of Brisbane where I disembarked was an old timber dock, and we went through customs in an old and large timber building, but I thought anyhow Brisbane is still a city and our friends live here; so, we went to one of our fried home, it was a unit in a brick building, so that was not bad, after all one has to accept whatever there is available when one goes to a different place. But little did I know that I was going to have a surprise soon, because I was going to see that in Brisbane most houses were made of timber.

Later on, after having eaten and talked for a couple of hours with our friends, and given them those presents that I had brought, I was driven to my final destination a few kilometres away, where we had to go was on the other side of the river, we went across the Brisbane River on a bridge called the Story Bridge, which is a very important bridge in Brisbane, but perhaps not as important as Sydney Harbor Bridge. So, Brisbane has also its own unique land marks the Story Bridge and City Hall are the most important, there is also Parliament House and the city centre with tall modern tall buildings, these were the things that gave us migrants some hope, because to us migrants it meant that Brisbane city was a growing prosperous city.

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My final destination

Reaching my final destination

My final destination, was at my uncle home, where my brother and a few other friends and relatives were also staying. My uncle had been in Australia by now 9 years already and somehow very recently had been able to save enough money to put down a deposit to buy a house; the house was a large wooden house typical of the houses in Brisbane of those times. I will come back to talk about these wooden houses later.

Now, for us that were coming from a country where almost everything was masonry or built with bricks and mortar and cement, these houses in Brisbane city make us feel a bit strange at first; but, they were still houses and they still provided a roof on our heads; therefore, even knowing that they were made of timber, I was pleased to have been offered that accommodation. My brother knowing that I was coming had already bought a bed for me, so, I was already set up very well. You know it is a great help when you go to a new country and find that somebody has already prepared everything for you. I believe that for this reason I have been lucky and I have escaped some very real hardship. Otherwise it could have been a lot harder to start a new way of life away from your original home.

Let us just imagine you reach your destination, as I did when I reached Brisbane city. Now let us say that you don’t have much money to pay for accommodation, you don’t know where to go or what to do next; you don’t know even how to speak the local language, you might end up in deep trouble you know. Therefore, I think that I have been lucky somehow when I found that I was welcomed. I believe that when we see some new arrivals we should try to understand that they have left their own country in the hope of finding a better way of living, or perhaps they were forced to leave their country for safety reasons. So, I suppose that if we could make feel welcome, it is a good humanitarian gesture.  

Australian Travel Videos

Anyhow, above I have pasted some links about Brisbane and Australia, if you are interested to view them.

I believe that I have said enough in this post, so, see you in my next post called, at my new Brisbane address.

See you soon.

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Genzano it story
Welcome to Brisbane
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, my Brisbane address
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Next stop Sydney

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano iy story
and this post, next stop Sydney
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Next stop Sydney
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The Harbour Bridge Sydney, and a ship docked nearby, very much the same picture when I arrived in Sydney by ship.
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Next stop Sydney

My next stop of this first journey to Australia is at Sydney

Dear readers, this post is the continuation of our last post, first positive impression. Now, before I tell you my life story about what happened when I reached Sydney, I want to tell you my impressions of Sydney. Because I believe that Sydney is one of the few towns in the whole world, or perhaps the only town in the world that make people feel welcomed at once, because this has also happened to me. Anyhow, now let me tell you my life story.

We docked in Sydney a short walking distance from the harbor bridge, and soon we were aware that some people were already there on the dock waiting for us, so, I went to look to see if my family friends were there also to greet me and collect their presents; and sure enough they were there on the dock waving at me and I knew then that I could take their present to them. But what should I do to do that, because in Australia everything that comes in has got to go through the custom to be checked out? This procedure was something new to me, although I had heard people talk about it on the ship. Anyhow I got their large parcel and took it down the ship under the direction of some people that directed all people carrying anything to a large building on the dock, and here I learned for the first time that the custom can look at everything you bring in Australia and if they find anything forbidden you can get in trouble. Anyhow there was nothing forbidden to enter Australia, as the people that had made the parcel knew what would be allowed in. After that I delivered the parcel to my waiting friends.

In Sydney I had good time with my family friends and exchanged all the news that we had, besides going to a restaurant to eat and then went to see Sydney Harbor Bridge together, as it worked out, they had to leave early because they came to meet me from another town, so I was left on my own in Sydney looking at the tall building around the harbor and walking around, where I saw the site of the future Sydney Opera House, at that time construction had stopped and there was plenty of steel bars stacked on the site, so, I guessed that this was going to be some large and important building, I also visited a garden nearby, and by the time we left, I knew that those sights of Sydney harbor and everything else around could even last a lifetime, they are very impressive to anyone that is lucky enough to see them.

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Journey ends at Brisbane

My journey to Australia ends at Brisbane

We left Sydney and next stop would be Brisbane my port of destination; I was looking forward for this journey to end, because to stay on a ship for a month is a very long time for anybody that has never been to sea or gone on a boat before. And to tell you the truth I really wanted to see my relatives and see how they were doing, so that I could have a better idea if my coming to Australia was a good thing for me. You see, one can never be sure what it is going to be like and whether your decision was the right decision until you are there and see it for yourself. Of course what I had seen already in Australia seemed very well, but that does not really mean much until one finds out what sort of living an unqualified manual worker can earn and other things. Of course I knew that whatever job I had to do I was going to work hard, because that is the only way to earn your living for yourself and whoever was going to give you a job. These were the thoughts that most times would come to my mind during the journey and more so towards the end of it. On reflection I have to say now that to migrate to a country that you have never been is a very hard thing to do, so, lucky are those people that during their lives do not need to migrate anywhere. Anyhow I will come back to these discussions later on, because now I want to tell you about the end of my journey at Brisbane.

We reached Brisbane early in the morning and our ship was slowly navigating at the entrance of Brisbane River when some sailors told us to look in the river for a rare sight, because this event was too rare to miss as it happens rarely so far south of the equator, we looked and we saw hundreds and hundreds of jelly fish that early morning, for us that had never seen them before we thought that the jelly fish are strange creatures they look like a large mushroom or a very small umbrella, they have tentacles attached at the edges and swim slowly by pulsating their entire body, what a sight it was indeed that early morning in March, at the mouth of Brisbane River.

Finally, we docked at Brisbane at this merchants dock to disembark, thanks God I had reached Brisbane my destination and was eager to see my brother and other relative and friends.

We disembarked and I went through customs with all my belongings and presents that I was bringing to my relative and friends. And here is when I got caught and learned something that all travelers should know; anyone of us that goes to a different country should make sure that what they take into that country is allowed; anyhow I was caught just because I had bought a small toy at Port Said that toy could contain some forbidden substance and it had to be treated to enter Australia, so it cost me a fair amount of money. The demijohn of wine and all other stuff that I had with me was all right; after all I had dumped my wild anions in the Indian Ocean, when I found that they were not allowed. After going through customs, I was free to go with my brother and friends. The friends of course were there not only to welcome me to Australia, but also to collect their presents that their families had sent them and to hear news of their families and their native town. I believe that I have said enough in this post. So, see you soon in my next post where I am going to talk about my first impressions of Brisbane Australia.

See you soon.

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Genzano it story
Next stop Sydney
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, first impression of Brisbane
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First positive impressions

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, first positive impressions
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First positive impressions

Map of the port of Fremantle and some of the town, the first port that we stopped when we came to Australia, it gave me a good impression. I new then that I had made the right choice.

First positive impressions

Dear readers, lately we have written a few posts about today Italian situation, the earthquake, the refugees, their politics and a few other things, that we were somehow concerned. Having done that, now we would like to go back to tell you our life story, so here-under are written my first impression when I came to Australia.

The first positive impressions when I came to Australia

The first impression that I had of Australia was positive, as I could see from what we saw near Port Fremantle. I have to say that it was not much what I saw, but it was enough to make a good impression on me. Strange as it may seem the very first time that I set foot in Australia I saw an emu, I don’t why or how but somebody took us to this place where there was this emu and another animal that I don’t recall what it was. Anyhow because we stopped in Fremantle for a while I was able to go down twice, and the second time guess what I saw, I saw that here in Australia they build single houses on a block of land, and they grow a nice green lawn around the houses by watering the lawn with the town water, in fact these little houses look so pretty that they seem like dolls houses. No bad for a country that is supposed to be the driest continent on earth, and it was also great as my first impression. And also seeing that they water the lawns with town water my fear of water restriction disappeared.

But anyhow Fremantle was only the first port in Australia, but I had to disembark in Brisbane, so there were a couple more ports to go past and another week on this ship before the end of my first journey. Anyhow we left Port Fremantle to cross the Great Australian Bight, which took us a few days to navigate, during this crossing I could not help thinking, how vast is this country of Australia was compared to the European countries since it takes days to navigate from one port to the next? I suppose these thoughts came also because I was starting to be tried of this long journey as it was taking too long, and we the passengers all longed to reach our final destination; anyhow next stop would be Melbourne, in port Melbourne there wasn’t much to see or say as I had already seen Port Fremantle and Melbourne was very much the same, the only thing was that by now most of the people that I had become friendly on the journey were disembarking in Melbourne. Anyhow we left Melbourne and next stop would be Sydney, where I was going to meet some people that I was bringing some presents from their families, so, I knew already that Sydney was a very important city of Australia and therefore I was eager to see what it was like.

I am going to make this post short, since we are changing from todays’ happenings to my old life story, I believe it is better this way, so that the people can follow us better.

So, see you in our next post, next stop Sydney

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Genzano it story
Rirst posirive impessions
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, next stop Sydney
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What is happening in Italy now

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, what is happening in Italy now
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Paolo Gentiloni is the new Italian prime minister, we are sure that he has got to work hard to solve the problems that exist in Italy today. The Italian politics is always complicated, today is even harder than usual, there are many things to fix.

What is happening in Italy now?

Dear readers, I am writing this article about what is happening in Italy now, because even though I am far away from Italy, I would like to say how we Italians see all these political things that are happening over there. Perhaps I could have ignored them, since personally they could not affect me very much, but I want to write something about that because we are following what is happening there, so, I have formed my own point of view and we would like our readers to know that. So, I am going to write this last article about how I see what is happening there, then we will have a break about these Italian politics that never seem to end, because, as soon as they fix something, something else seems to go wrong.

Anyhow, as we have already said in our last article, this election about the Italian constitution has taken place and the result has been negative, therefore, there will not be any change to the constitution. But what other change this election may trigger.  Some of us would be concerned about what could happen next.

Perhaps, now they have to form a new government, since the prime minister is going to resign, therefore, there could be many other changes as well. Now if that is going to be the case, with a new government in charge, one may ask; what about all those promises that this present government has given to the Italian refugees, that now are homeless, because of the earthquake, we wonder if those promises are still going to be kept?

Anyhow, today while I am writing this article, we know that the Italian premier ‘Mateo Renzi’ has resigned and after a few days later a new premier has been elected. So, now it is the turn of this new premier, ‘Paolo Gentiloni’. This new PM seems a calmer person compared to Mateo Renzi, now because the Italian politics today are a bit ruff, we wonder if his calm personality is going to help him, or disadvantage him. I suppose only time will tell, because these are very difficult times that we have in Italy these days.

What is happening now

Now that Paolo Gentiloni has become PM, it seems that Italy has solved the first obstacle by electing a new premier, but there are lots of problems over there, because of the overseas refugees, the earthquake refugees and finally the terrorist. You see, the terrorist that carried out the Berlin attack has ended up in Italy, now even though he has been killed by the Italian police, while he was trying to kill two policemen with his gun, this matter might not end there. Anyhow he got killed and that is the end of him. But there is a question to be asked, why he has gone to Italy after he killed 12 people and wounded many others in Berlin?

One cannot help to think that he might have some friends in Italy that could have helped him by hiding him somewhere. There is also the possibility that his friends may try to carry out some violent acts against the Italians. You see, these people don’t have any respect for humanity, they only think about themselves and how to punish others.  If we want to look for a real reason why they carry out these violent acts, we see only a mixed way of many things that don’t make sense to us of the western world. You see, we of the western world help them when they are down, we take them in our own country and feed them, we go to help them and pull them out of the sea before they down on humanitarian grounds, and what we get from them for our help completely nothing. But that is not all, because after all the benefit that they have received from us, they turn around and kill us.

Here I would like to make my own personal comparison of what I think they are like. To me they seem to live in the past, they behave like mediaeval people as far as I can see, because what is happening now in the Middle East that would be the only thing that would make sense to me. This also makes me think that they behave like the people of a thousand years ago, when they would arm themselves and try to conquest anything in their ways. They don’t want to see that we are living in the third millennium of this present era that started with the coming of our lord Jesus Christ, because it is not convenient to them. Anyhow, we better stop talking about them, because it very likely would not help much.

Let us look at what could be done

Now let us look at the problems that they have in Italy after the new PM has been elected. In our opinion it is very likely that everything remains the same as it was before and the priority remain the same, in the hope that these existing problems may be solved as soon as possible. You see the government over there needs to give better temporary shelter to the earthquake victims, because it is very hard to live is substandard accommodation when it is very cold, and in winter times it can be very cold over there, after the temporary accommodations and other things they need to restart rebuilding all the houses and other building that have been damaged and this may take even years to fix everything, but let us hope that they can do it in a reasonable time.

Then they have the overseas refugees that they should provide also, not only feed them but also give them some accommodations, now, this may arise a conflict of interest, because there are a lot of Italians that don’t have a house, so, how can the Italian government give some houses to the overseas refugees, when there are Italians that don’t have one?

All this becomes more complicated when we think of the terrorist attacks. You see how a government could help these refugees, when they turn around and kill you? It would be completely out of place to help those ungrateful refugees, even if some of them might deserve help, I don’t see how it is going to happen.

Now that we have gone over the main problems that the Italian government needs to address, let us hope that prime minister Paolo Gentiloni would be able to guide them in such a way that most of these problems would be solved.

Anyhow, I believe that we have talked enough about the Italian problems, just because I am an Italian and still worry about my native country, even though it does not affect me personally today. So, I am going to put an end to this talks, because there are other important things that affect me in Australia and I am going to talk about that in our next article. Which will be about the pension cut to some pensioners.

See you soon.  

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Genzano it story
What is happening in Italy now
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, since next post is not about Italy, we will go back to tell you our life story
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