Small Business Owner

I just completed the first couple of days of work, so I feel i can tell people about what I have spent the past several weeks doing. After talking to two different milking equipment dealers in the area I have found neither one of them has the resources to hire me as a full time employee. But there is plenty of work if I can split up my time and work as an independent contractor. After studying small business models, Australian tax code and consulting with accountants, lawyers, an Australian tax office representative and a small business mentor I have decided to begin my own business. Being an independent contractor is fairly common in Australia and the tax rules make it pretty simple. So far I have WestfaliaSurge dealer about an hour away that wants me to work with him Installing, upgrading and repairing milking equipment in an area from 45min to 1 1/2 hours way from Gold Coast. I would work from home with my own Ute (pickup) and tools but he would stock the parts I need. A second Dealer about 3 hours drive away wants me to come down and work on installing a couple parlors, I would stay for a week and return home on weekends. Third, WestfaliaSurge Australian headquarters based in Melbourne wants hire some of my time as well, I would work at home probably doing over the phone tech support. I will learn more about this option next week when I meet with one of the managers. Hopefully between the three I will be busy and get to see a lot of different milking setups. All I got to do now is save up some money to buy a Ute.

David's Birthday

To celebrate David's birthday we cooked a nice meal at home. We ended up making a cake with no bowls larger than a cereal bowl; it was quite the challenge. We ended up mixing the cake in the aluminum cake pan with forks (no mixer either) that we baked it in. It actually turned out pretty well considering our improvising. We also had some excellent cider.

Hiking in the rainforest... in the rain

In spite of less than desirable weather (more rain) we decided to head out the rainforest. We drove to Lamington National Park located in the Hinterlands, about an hour drive inland from where we live. We visited the Binna Burra section and hiked a couple kilometers of trails to see the caves. The trail was quite wet, muddy, and slippery and it rained the entire time. We decided to walk the road back to the parking lot instead of another 3 kilometers through a wet and muddy trail. We didn't see any wildlife of note other than a wild turkey on our drive into the park. We plan on returning and doing much more hiking when the weather is nicer.

 

 

5th Wedding Anniversary!

Anniversary dinner

In celebration of our 5th wedding anniversary on the 8th of October we went out to dinner at a nice seafood restaurant (Omeros Brothers) on the marina. The food was excellent. David had calamari for his main entree and I had barramundi a local fish found in freshwater and mangrove estuaries. For dessert we both had chocolate terrines which were delicious.

 

October 1st- First day of new job

Outside my work building

My desk

Today was my first official day of work. I had been into work a few times to take care of some paperwork and meetings. The day was quite uneventful as my boss was on vacation for the entire week for school holiday and I did not see the lab manager, he was likely in Brisbane where he works 50% of the time. I did get my desk area setup and organized after assembling the shelves. (Andrea, please note the giant Malaria parasite resting on my computer). I was able to get my work email up and running, catch up on emails, attend a student seminar, as well as read and perform literature searches regarding my new research area of malaria immunology. The office area has an open plan design and probably can hold a hundred plus postdocs and graduate students.

View from behind my desk into office area

To walk home it takes about 15 minutes and the university has its own bridge that crosses over the Smith Street Motorway. Like most days of the past two weeks it began to lightly rain on my walk home but luckily I had an umbrella.

University bridge

The Gold Coast is know for its 280 plus days of sunshine but we have had maybe one day without rain since arriving just over two weeks ago. It is spring here and supposedly the wettest on record since the 1950s. Everything is quite green which is nice but it has been raining and wet so we haven't done much exploring.