The Agrinautica

   In last year's year-in-review post, I talked about how the year had been epic, but ended with a fizzle, unemployed after they abruptly demobilized all of us on the varroa-eradication efforts, and with no prospects on the horizon, and with possibly another year until Cristina's visa to come here would be granted we were nearing despair. Indeed, midnight NYE found me standing alone on a dock in Geelong. I was cautiously optimistic though: "There are no particular jobs or projects on the horizon, but assuming this upcoming year will be like last it seems plausible that great things will come along. In the immediate term I'm just going to try to get any decently paying job (maybe the local icecream factory)."

   And indeed, the story of what was to follow is told perhaps most eloquently from the perspective of my bank account balance minus credit card debt:



   There's a free-fall until I did indeed pick up that job at the icecream factory, but it didn't pay enough that I wasn't still trending deeper into debt every week. Then, relatively out-of-nowhere the job as the editor of Australia's beekeeping magazine suddenly fell on my lap. They only pay for 10 hours a week but that was enough that I think my finances were trending slowly positive again. I put in more like 20 hours a week for the magazine but that's okay because I found I really enjoyed the work and found it very fulfilling.
   About the factory in general, I didn't really mind it too much, it was very stress-free. I actually really liked the evening or night shift because I felt like I got a whole bonus day to do my other work during the day -- working a job during normal hours and trying to do a second job in the evening (that requires thinking) I find more difficult these days (than when I was young and for example in university pretty much did all my paper writing in the evening). The weirdest thing I found in the factory was people with no ambition. In beekeeping, where I've worked most of my life now, every worker aspires to have their own beehives and grow it into their own business -- and before that I had worked in law a bit and I don't need to tell you about ambition there. People who voluntarily worked a low paying job they complained about regularly and didn't appear to have any intention to change their situation boggled my mind. Some of them even complained specifically that during night shift they just spent their daytime hours bored waiting to go to work. Really bizarre for me to meet people living literally meaningless lives, but I digress. (and not to offend anyone working there that may read this, there were some lovely people there who absolutely do have hopes and aspirations). Also like 99% of the line workers smoked, which I thought was a weird (self selecting?) thing considering these days only apparently 10.6% of Australians smoke (2022 stats).

   Anyway, and then another dream job did suddenly materialize, as a Varroa Development [Extension] Officer. Actually funny story, I saw the posting, applied, next I heard was the email saying they apologize but I have not been selected for an interview. Normally that would be the end of that, but on this particular occasion I just had to send them an email saying, in essence (but much more diplomaticaly) "excuse me, what?"
   I then got a phone call and it transpired that I learned my phone number had been wrong on my CV. Probably because I had made that CV when I first got to Australia and hadn't at that time known my phone number well. How many missed opportunities have there been because of that wrong number??
   They had already completed their interviews for the position... but hastily made arrangements to interview me remotely and offered me one of the two positions as Senior Varroa Development Officer! I was able to remain the magazine editor, but quickly gave my two weeks notice to the icecream factory, and henceforth financially was well on the road to recovery!

Cristina, Visas
   And meanwhile there was good news very early in the year, with Cristina's visa being granted January 17th. I remember I was sitting on the couch under the heater drinking my morning coffee when my phone made an email notification noise. For the previous two years I've been jumping every time I get an email notification hoping it was notification of her visa approval, and though I was despairing by this point, I still immediately grabbed my phone. It was from our visa agent/lawyer! Good, but still I'd become deeply accustomed to bad news. Anxiously clicked on it and scanned the several paragraphs of text, and fortunately they had put in bold the words that appeared in the second paragraph "visa is approved." With trembling fingers I texted Cristina to ask her if she was free for a call.
   It would be another 7 months until she finally arrived, on August 28th. Probably for the best because winter is cold dark and depressing here. We got married in the Redwoods on November 25th, and are now anxiously awaiting arrival of the official marriage certificate needed as proof, so we can file for her continuation visa before this one runs out on January 17th of this year. It's a bit stressful because the department confirmed they had received the filing from the officiant on Dec 10th, and the processing time is supposed to be 28 days, but that would put it at January 7, just ten days before her current visa ends, but with the holidays falling in the middle of this period it might take much longer. I had called someone at the department and he had initially said "oh don't worry it should be sorted by February" and when I mentioned I really needed it by January 17th he just switched gears to saying "oh don't worry it should be sorted by then." Sooo long story short I'm going to be very stressed until we get that back, the new (type 820) visa filed, and official notification that we are on the bridging visa for that. (and once that visa is finally approved then we still need to file for one more visa, the 801, it's endless I swear).



   This year I didn't actually get out of the country, but that's not for lack of opportunities, there were several projects in south-east Africa (Mozambique, Zambia, Madagascar), which I'd have loved to go to but couldn't spare the time off yet at that time from my new extensionist job I had just begun. I hope the organization (which isn't one I've worked for before) will keep me in mind for 2025 projects. And not traveling this year will be very handy because I should apply for Australian citizenship and, while I haven't even gotten so far as to looking into it closely, I am informed one needs to have been in Australia for the previous 12 months. Since most years I like to travel, I better take advantage of this opportunity before I travel again.
   So the travel indicated on the above map is to Tasmania and Perth to attend beekeeping conferences for my editor job, and I've had the opportunity to travel around the state a fair bit with my state government job.

   Parents arrived Nov 13th and departed Dec 9th after nearly a month here. That was lovely. Usually we go on some big trip somewhere with them, but other than dragging them along to some of the places I had to go for work it was enough entertainment putting on the wedding (which was only a small thing, but still involved a surprising amount of running around).


The Year Ahead
   As mentioned, in the immediate future we've got a stressful quick turnaround time for the next visa. Then, we're looking to move into the nearby city of Geelong -- currently we live about 50 minutes out of town and it will be a lot easier for Cristina to get a job and do things without living like a hermit in the forest like I've been happy to do these last nine years.
   We're also applying for a US tourist visa for Cristina. The hope is that will be granted and this upcoming winter (April?) we can travel to California so she can meet more of my relatives and see my homeland, and then she can continue on from there to visit Venezuela, which is a much much closer trip than how she got here (Venezuela to Istanbul to Singapore to here, three days of travel!), and reverso back to here (depending on the conditions they put on her Australian bridging visa we might ALSO need to file yet another visa filing to allow her to leave and re-enter the country).
   And then in September the world beekeeping conference is in Denmark and I really want to go. Maybe just for a week, which surprised my boss when I asked her for that time off (already) but I hope to also, if I can swing it between that and visiting California, also do a project in Africa again! One can't have everything, but all the options are looking good anyway.
   And then this current full time job with the government ends in December 2025. Already vaguely pondering what I'll do after that.. (and aiming to fill the coffers with savings against another period between dream jobs!)

   But yeah, so, right now I have two jobs I find very fulfilling. I can work from home for both. I get to have lunch every day with my beautiful wife. Compared to dragging oneself out the door every day to a job one might barely tolerate I can't believe how lucky I am fervently pray life will ever after be as good as it is now.