Successful weekend and surprisingly good week!

Despite all my depression on the visa issues, the weekend turned out to be really productive and rewarding. First of all, I submitted my final assignment on Friday night and that marked the end of my study. Yes! Although it was done in a rush and I felt a bit sad that I could have done it better as it was for my favourite subject, I was glad I submitted it in before the weekend. Jo and I walked home at 1.30 am and fixed something to eat because we had not have dinner. We were very happy that that was going to be the last time that we had to stay up that late because of Am's work and her bad habit of doing things at the last minute. Thank you, Jo, for putting up with me.

Then, the real weekend began. We went car part hunting on Saturday. We called a couple of car wreckers to find out if they have the car model that we are after. Many didn't have it and that made us a bit worried. The last one we called happened to have the car but we would have to take the part out by ourselves. The price for the part was 4 times cheaper than getting the brand new part and this wrecker was not so far from our house, just about 20 minute drive, so we thought we gave it a go. It was interesting seeing almost a hundred of cars in a smash, rundown condition in this place. Yet, there seemed to be a lot of people who find treasures out of all these non-running cars and that included us. We got the part we want including a new headlight to replace the old one that has a fracture in it. We also got some treatment liquid for the engine and all that were for less than 60 dollars. What a bargain! Luckily, we got all the things quite easily as Jo had the tools we needed and he was very fast in taking things apart. It would have taken me at least twice as long to just get one screw out. So, we achieved a great deal that day.

Sunday, Jo started putting the new parts and other stuffs back together at about 11 am. It was quite demoralising to find more problems as we tried to fix things. It turned out that the thread in the hole for the screw that was supposed to be underneath the cam sprocket got detached from the surface of the hole and came lose. So there was nothing to hold the screw anymore and that's probably what caused the problem in the first place. So Jo had to find other way to fix this screw. He did so by using adhesive substance that hardens like a rock after 5 minutes of mixing the 2 parts of that stuff together. He also used that to secure the inner component of the new headlight as it was not firmly fixed to the frame. I was amazed how quickly Jo did all these things and actually finished them before dark.

Meanwhile, what did I do? Well, I managed to wash all the laundry including bed sheets and quilt covers, put on new bed sheets, vacuumed the house and did a little bit on tightening the screws for various parts. My jobs were not quite technical or physically demanding but somehow I felt extremely exhausted by the end of the day. Finally, just slightly before 6 pm, Jo started the car and.... it worked again! Yes! We drove around the suburb for a while to test whether the problem was fixed. At the beginning, the Subaru still made the sound that was not so positive for our repair result. Then it came and go and after about 20 minutes of driving, it was completely gone! The car sound became very soft and smooth and we could hardly hear anything from the engine. Jo reckoned it also drove better than before. So we did fix it! It was great to have our old Subaru back to life again. =D

After the great achievement from the weekend, I was back to my unpleasant time of sorting out the visa issue. My passport and documents which were sent back to me since last Tuesday still haven't shown up. I had an appointment with immigration office in Brisbane on Monday afternoon and still had no document to bring along except a half-filled application (I have to leave my passport detail blank), a letter from uni that stating my expected graduation date, a notice from the bank about a fund transfer from my scholarship sponsor and a certified copy of a letter from the sponsor saying that I am obligned to return home to work. I was not so enthusiastic to go as I was so sure that they would probably tell me to come back again when I have all the document ready including a passport. But then an amazing thing happened. The lady who serviced me just looked at my very limited documents, told me to pay for the application fee (which I did it reluctantly since she did not tell me if I would get the visa in time to use it to apply for New Zealand tourist visa), did a few minutes of typing and told me that she would grant me a visa today. I was absolutely in shock. I didn't even have my passport detail although I know it could be in their computer system but I never expect her to help me find it. Well, she did and gave me everything I needed within just 15 minutes. That was the best thing that happened to me in about 2 months. (well, excluding my parents' visit in Australia). It is amazing how different people who are in the same job can be. I hope there are more efficient and reasonable people like this lady working for the immigration offices in every country. I couldn't stop thanking her but she just said she had everything she needed and that's just the way things worked. Sometimes life can be extremely and unbelievably easy. Well, that definitely made my week.

Then when I came home and found an empty letter box, my heart sank again. I didn't want to keep being paranoid and worried so I called the post office service to try my luck if they know whereabout my letter would be. And finally, the girl gave me the good news that the notice to collect my letter should be delivered today and all I have to do was wait till 5 pm and check the mail again. And when I did, it was there! The yellow paper slip that I have been waiting for and also the letter from the educational office in Canberra. So I could just resent all these things again after I get the tourist visa lable in my passport. What a great day! Now I can say goodbye to all the heavy feeling and worries and just patiently wait for the processing of New Zealand visa and hopefully everything will be ok.

So that's my long story of emotional adventure. Although I am pretty sure I have learned a lot of things by the end of this, I still prefer not to have too many of these lessons. It is quite stressful and that is the last thing I need now. Hope all will go well for everyone out there. And thank you for all those who patiently put up with my rants and emotional instability. I truely appreciate it. I'm fine now and will try to be stronger. =D