My apologies all, yesterday we went to Sydney and did not get home till nearly half past eleven. I’d planned to write this last night and add it to Sunday Selections but that did not happen.
The Canberra day trip was great – mostly shopping. My parents had to do a stocktake and sadly there was no time for Floriade as one of the other people assigned to the stocktake did not show up. I was roped in to count for the couple of hours when I had planned to take myself to Floriade. More about that day trip in the next Sunday Selections, with photos.
I’ve written here before about my Uncle and my Chinese Aunt. In February he wanted to move back to Adelaide but my parents and I talked him out of it. At that time, we spoke with him about some very specific and important things that he needed to do as a matter of urgency –
– see his doctor and get a mental health plan and referral to a psychologist as his OCD, anxiety and depression were spiraling out of control. As in opening and closing the car door 10 times, turning his computer on and off for an hour, that kind of thing..
– organise English lessons for his wife – she gets 500 hours of tuition free but you have to *organise* that. He’d already been given all the information to do that when he first arrived here and 6 months had passed with no improvement in her English at all.
Six months later and he had done neither of those things, and suddenly he decided it was time to move to Adelaide. We were so over his behaviour by this point that not one of us tried to talk him out of it. He has many serious issues – all of which he knows about and admits to – with zero intention of addressing any of them.
My Uncle cannot ever do things logically or in a sane manner, so he chose to ship his vehicle back to Adelaide rather than drive it, and fly over with 6 suitcases, 2 carry on suitcases, and 5 boxes. He sold all his furniture for way less than he paid for it and once his car left, he had no way to get to the airport. He just assumed my parents would take him.
Well my parents have driven to Canberra last week, they go to Sydney next week, they were short staffed this weekend, and they were quite tired. They’ve had the unexpected issue of an air-conditioner break down at work and have needed to go and lock up the shop at 1am every night this past week. Wisely, they declined an airport run.
I put our hand up for 2 reasons –
– IKEA trip!
– the chance to have a Korean BBQ buffet dinner with friends.
And so yesterday we packed all his worldly goods into the back of my parents van and drove them to Sydney.
My uncle had spent 7 days cleaning his unit, including cleaning the gutters with Windex. His anxiety level was high. His wife is *over* him at this point. If she leaves him once she gets her permanent residency, I will not blame her at all. I will miss her much more than I will miss him, which is kinda sad in its own way.
Anyway, IKEA was awesome as always, dinner with our friends at Se Jong was amazing – I did not take any photos to share with you – we were too busy cooking, eating, and enjoying – but here are some if you want to know more about the place.. I ate so many prawns!
This will become a regular trip we think. Except the dropping off the uncle part and thank the deities for that, because next time we can go in our own car.
sad that your uncle won’t do the things he needs to in order to live a more normal, productive life. I hope his wife gets her English lessons.
It is deeply sad, especially when I know these issues can be worked on and relieved because I have all 3 of them myself. Oh well, not my monkeys, not my circus! :)
We have a friend who seemed to be on the cusp of making odd life changing decisions. Fortunately they did not go ahead and it turns she has had mental health issues and is now medicated with some but not total success. Yes, many wives born overseas and marry anglo saxon Australians leave them, and often for good reason.
What surprises me is that the Australian Government *knows* this stuff is going on, and even so they do not tighten up the rules on it. It feels to me like it should be a longer amount of time before spouses get their permanent residency, and a lot more careful work and research when approving these situations.
I’m glad your friend is getting help – it can sometimes take a while to get the medication right.. ;)
It sounds like a great trip! I loved the Korean BBQ we went to in Korea. :) It is sad and hard when people won’t do what they need to. I see that a lot as a teacher(and a parent!).
It was an awesome time.. I really loved the Korean BBQ. Cooking the prawns was a lot of fun, but they were laughing at my peeling of them. I probably should have peeled them before cooking them, or at least cut the heads and tails off. My Chinese Aunt showed me a new way of peeling uncooked prawns recently which I should blog at some point. :)