July 13 2010: Entertainment Book
Filed under Money with 6 Comments
I’m a firm fan of the Entertainment Book. For Australians and New Zealanders who have never heard of it, it’s a voucher/coupon book that’s published at the end of each financial year, with discounts to thousands of restaurants and services in your local area. It is only sold through charities and community groups as a fundraising exercise – so while you save money by using vouchers, you’re also giving back to the community. This year, my contribution went to The Cancer Council.
The cost of the book is $65AUD. I can see people thinking – why spend money to save money? Because in the long run, you end up saving so much more. So far for the 2010/2011 financial year, I’ve already used:
- Lunar Drive In (movies) – saving $8AUD
- Krispy Kreme (coffee and doughnut) – saving $5.30AUD
- KFC (burger) – saving $4.95AUD
- Thai Garden (restaurant) – saving $14.09AUD
- KFC (wrap) – saving $5.45AUD
- Monk and Me (restaurant) – saving $24AUD
In just a matter of weeks, I’ve already nearly recouped the cost of purchasing the book – for the eleven months ahead, any savings I make from using these vouchers is money I would have spent back in my pocket. Also, it is important to note that all the above are things I would have paid full price for – so it’s not like I’m spending money I wouldn’t normally have spent.
The fantastic thing about the Entertainment Book of course, is that it encourages you to try new restaurants you might not normally go to. I dine out (relatively) frequently, and get into the habit of going to the same restaurant and having the same dish again and again. By having this voucher book though, I’m encouraged to try new restaurants in the book and expand my experience of culinary Melbourne. In the same way, having 1-for-1 vouchers for the aquarium, zoo, etc., means that Dylan and I will actually go to new places together and have a day out of our normal routine instead of just talking about it.
Essentially, I love the Entertainment Book. I love the savings, I love the new experiences and the new restaurants, and I love knowing that while I’m indulging my frugal side, I’m still giving back to the community in some small way.
July 8 2010: Work: Three Month Review
Filed under Uni/Work with 7 Comments
Following my annual review for one of my positions, yesterday I had my three month review for my second position. Again, I feel it important to let you all know that I’m awesome and invaluable. In any case, the main conclusion from the informal meeting is that they want to keep me on board and wanted to offer the flexibility to grow into other roles within the organisation, instead of taking on a primarily logistical events coordinator role. I’ll be playing a role in strategic planning, as well as taking a role in growing our online social media presence. Essentially, areas I’m interested in, and work I can enjoy.
Now, I was originally on a 12 month contract (to expire March next year), but they gave me the option of either going permanent now, or having my contract extended. I chose to have my contract extended until December next year. It’s perhaps against the advice of many career gurus: why be a contractor when you can have a permanent position and cement your role within the organisation? It’s because I know that come December next year, it’ll be time for me to move on to bigger and brighter things.
- I’ll have finished my Masters.
- I’ll have spent two and half years in one part-time role, and nearly two years in another.
- I’ll be at the stage where it’ll make more sense to take on one full-time role, rather than two part-time roles.
And to tell you the truth, I’m not the type of person who takes well to staying in one place for too long – I like variety, and though this is one of the largest disability service organisations in the state, there’s not much room for growth in the areas that I’m interested in. To avoid being pigeonholed in a dead-end job, I really need a larger, national or international organisation – they would be the only ones who have the scope to offer the type of long-term role I’m looking for.
So…yeah. I realise these work-related entries are probably boring everyone to bits, but that’s what my life mainly consists of at the moment. You’ll just have to deal with it.
July 4 2010: Food Safety Transgressions
Filed under Asian-ness with 3 Comments
I attended a food safety for supervisors course yesterday at the request of my organisation. As I regularly run events for them and supervise fellow staff in circulating with food platters, they thought it would be appropriate to pay for me to attend what could be categorised as a “professional development workshop”. It was about as basic and based on common sense as it could be – wash your hands before preparing food, clean regularly, don’t use the same chopping board for raw and cooked food etc.
The most amusing part of the day came right at the start when the facilitator ran through a few real life examples of food-related organisations who had been caught blatantly breaching basic food safety regulations:
- A bakery with a cockroach baked into a sandwich loaf
- A dead rat found in the storage area of a restaurant
- A restaurant keeping live crabs in the restroom
All the above transgressions occurred in Asian-run establishments. It makes sense – when you’re an immigrant running a restaurant in Australia, what do you know of food safety when you speak little English and when there would have been no such regulations your home country? To reduce the likelihood of such incidents occurring, it makes sense to me for local governments to provide training workshops on food safety conducted in languages other than English. At the very least, it would make sense for literature on the topic to be made available in multiple languages – that way, even if people don’t get the benefit of hands-on training, they still have access to the basic principles in a language they can understand fluently.