Easy Soup for all seasons.

I consider soup as an emergency food especially those instant soup that you just need to add hot water and is ready to eat. I usually have a backup of this Continental Creamy Chiken Soup with Croutons, and the Japanese Hikari Miso with Wakami instant soup.

But there is one soup that reminds me of my childhood and that is the Pasta Soup or Noodle soup or Macaroni soup. It is not instant but i usually just chuck everything in the pot let it boil, adjust the taste, and it's ready.



Ingredients:

water
macaroni or any pasta
chicken cubes, or real chicken or both
grated carrots,
cabbage
salt
pepper
fish sauce
milk

Like what I said I just chuck everything inside the pot, adjust the taste and is good to eat after boiled. Adding the milk at the end is better though.

Why I don't get bored living alone.

I grew up with other kids around me, I have a group of friends in high school and in the neighborhood. I was always on the street with the other kids and just go home when I am hungry and or when my parents needed me in the house. Most of our parents know where to find us.

Things changed when I moved to Metro Manila to study in college. I became a shy, feeling to be a minority. I was heavily influenced by the television program that people in Manila are superior to people in the provinces. I became really really shy to the point that raising my hand on attendance roll call is a big deal to me having in my mind that all my classmates will look at me. I became a loner. 

I just became shy but I never lost interest in singing, dancing, etc., and I am always doing that whenever I am alone and when I think I don't disturb other people. 

Work in the Hospitality Industry in Australia.

Coming from Dubai, I came to Australia with Training and Research Visa or Subclass 402 Visa. Training Visa is workplace-based training, and base on my experience it is just like a normal job. How I Got the Training Visa. 

Working in the restaurant.

During my training Visa, I was working in a busy restaurant chain in the Sydney CBD. Normally we start our duty at 10am and we finished at 10pm. I was actually not expecting that we are gonna be working long hours because the Australian laws said the regular working hour is 38 hours a week (7.5 hours a day in 5 days) but we are obviously working almost double that. Those extra hours are not paid just like in Dubai.  

I have no problem with the long hours of work because I am used to it, I think it is the nature of being a cook. The good thing is we have two days off every week. In Australia, two days off a week is for all employees who are working full time, not just for office workers and high ranking staff which is the common practice in most countries in Asia and the middle east.

Workers in Australia.

Working in the Hospitality Industry in Australia is similar to working in the middle east hospitality industry, the majority of the staff are coming from different parts of the world. Chefs are usually skilled immigrants or on a skilled visa, food servers, kitchen hands (dishwasher) are usually those on working holiday visa, students visa, spouse, family member visa and there are some locals. There are many establishments or restaurants without any local workers, particularly in the busy city.

Skilled Visa worker- you can come here in one of the skilled visas if your occupation is in the "skilled occupation list". 

Working Holiday Visa- This is only for eligible nationality, these people usually come here to work base on the rules of working and holiday visa, there are some sort of farm works requirements.

Student Visa- People on a student visa are only allowed to work 40 hours a fortnight.

Locals - Locals are the Australian where they can work anywhere they are qualified. 

Spouse and dependent visas - they are usually the wife, husband, boyfriend, a girlfriend of the main visa holder. 

Transition to Work (Skilled) Visa

My Training Visa is valid only for 1 year during that time, and because I like the living situation in Australia I decided to search and collaborate with my fellow training visa holder on how we can stay longer in Australia. There are different options for each qualification. Each visa has its own detailed sets of requirements and if you don't fit any then you'll need to go home before the visa expires. There is a 457 visa, 189 Visa, and 190 Visa. Most of us are partially qualified for a different skilled visa because most of us had enough previous related work experiences. 

We already have the usual requirements like passport and work experience certificates, what we don't have is the English test (IELTS, Pte, etc.) and Australian Qualification /Australian Certificate.

Basic Requirements

I took the IELTS test and I scored 6, but because I want I little higher. I took PTE as well and I got score of 60 which is similar to IELTS equivalent to just "Competent in Australian immigration English standard.

Then I took the skills assessment at William Angliss where I got the Trade Recognition Australia's Commercial Cookery Certificate 3.

With the score that I got from IELTS combined with my other credential did not reach to qualify for the Australian Immigration Point System for Permanent Resident Visa 189,190 Visa and the only option I have left is the company or employer-sponsored visa which is the Subclass 457 Visa.

Job Searching

It was in the last quarter of the year when I completed the requirements. I started to send my job application resume to different companies here in Australia, I also did some walk-in in some of the hotels and restaurant. The result was good as the majority replies to my emails and got good results, the problem is many of the companies are not yet approved or not qualified to sponsor foreign workers. 

Popular jobseeker sites in Australia

seek.com.au

indeed.com.au

gumtree.com.au

There are also establishments that post their job vacancy in the wall of their restaurant or within their property.

A referral is also a good practice here, some company is giving reward to staff who can refer a friend to work.

I did some kitchen trials in different kitchens in Sydney. Most of the chefs, kitchen hand does kitchen trials when applying for the job. It is a three hour or less unpaid kitchen work.

Working Visa Approved.

I was hired and sponsored by a company from one of my online job application. I basically submitted my CV stating my qualification and very important I mentioned that I am needing sponsorship. They set me for an interview and then offered the job. They then referred me to a migration agency that processes my 457 visa application. I got my 457 Visa approved after a month from the day of my visa application.  I resign from my Training Visa Job and then moved to my new 457 Visa Job.

Real Australian Work Experience.

My working in the hospitality industry is good, I have a good life here. My workplace is considered to be regional as it is around 3 to 5 hours away from Sydney. Here people working in the hospitality industry are mostly local. Fastfood kitchen crews are young local students, the restaurant staff is both young and old. Here, there is the feeling of being in a real Australia. And we are actually working just the regular working hours in here, 7.5 hours a day in a week.

They have a beautiful environment, friendly people that are going to smile, greet, and maybe talk to you. I am loving it here but the same as everyone we sometimes want something more or something less.

My cost of coming to Australia.

Best Corned Beef Preparation, Making Less more.

Canned corned beef is one of the usual food I had when I was young living with my parents in the Philippines. We always eat it with rice. 

Corned beef is ready to eat straight from the tin can and be stuffing on a sandwich or simply eat it with rice. But for me, we usually re-cook it to enhance the flavor and be more satisfying to eat with rice.

Another reason why people recooking it is to expand the quantity, to make it more, to make it enough for a big family. Most people are cooking it in two ways, and this time I made it in three different variants. This is my best Corned beef preparation.

• Corned beef and potato.
• Corned beef and potato soup.
• Corned beef and potato fritter.

Ingredients:

Tin can corned beef

Diced Potato

Onion

Garlic

Oil

Water

Salt

Pepper.

I have seen other recipe that are really new to my sight and has never tasted just like this one from All Recipe website.  

How is your best Corned beef preparation?

Temporary Visa Holder Government Financial Support in Australia.

I initially thought that I am not going to be affected by the Australian CoVid 19 lockdown because I was chosen to stay and work while the other staff is gone stand down already. We don't have many guests as I was actually serving less than 10 rooms of room service breakfast during my last week of working. Restriction announcement has gone really strict day by day until they announced the lockdown and the travel ban. 

The travel ban made my hotel shut down and because of that I also need to be standing down.  My company is good as they are always sending as information to stay on the positivity, they even gave us some job opportunities in another company.

The majority of my colleague are Australians and Permanent residents who are the priority of the Government to have access to Government financial support. They actually have three options:

Jobseeker Payment. Is the government financial help (Centrelink) for people who are looking for work. As many people are losing their job, the jobseeker payment is their financial help option.

Jobkeeper Payment. This is government financial help to the employee through the employers. The government is encouraging the essential establishment to keep on going and keep the employees working, to help the economy going.

Superannuation. Superannuation is design to be a retirement plan but because of the pandemic, the government allows the worker to access it.

There are millions of temporary visa holders in Australia, they are international students, working holidaymakers, skilled workers, etc. I am also on a temporary visa, and the government of Australia allowed us to access our Superannuation in case we need it.

In the beginning, The Australian Government advises the Temporary Visa Holders to go home if they are are not capable of supporting themselves for the next six months. The government created a visa arrangement for temporary visa holders that are working in critical sectors like health care, agriculture, and other essentials. More info for temporary visa holders.

Each Australian state has its own way of helping and supporting the temporary visa holders.

Government, organizations, and families are doing their initiative to help people who are in need. Being a Filipino, the Philippine government through the Philippine embassy gave us one-time financial support amounting to around 200 US dollars to both qualified Overseas Filipino Workers. 

House rent is probably the biggest burden if you do not have income in Australia, the cheapest shared room in Sydney is A$125 a week. Food is affordable, I can comfortably survive with A$25 food allowance a week. 

Youtube Lockdown Series

Temporary Visa Holders Government Support in Australia is available also on the website of each countries embassy in Australia. here are some of them.

Philippine Embassy. 

Italy

Vietnam

Blogger Changes in 2020

Today I opened blogger.com to post a new blog and I was surprised to see some changes. It looks good but obviously, I needed to figure out how some of the things work.

This is how it looks upon logging in. This is the dashboard.

Clicking the "view your blog" will open your website or blog site.

The rest of the menus are the usual components of the website dashboard where you can create a new blog, see the comments, view statistics, etc.

Clicking the Posts will show your Posted Blogs Titles. 

Clicking the Posted Blog Title will bring you to the editing page of that particular blog. 

Clicking the "Eye" will preview your post blog. 

Clicking the "Three Dots" will give you the option to Discard, Apply Label, or Publish.

Macbook Pro Mid 2012 still good in 2020

It is really worth to invest in buying a computer if you do not have one yet. The computer will give you the opportunity to LEARN, Be CREATIVE, and possibly MAKE MONEY ON THE INTERNET.

I now have a Macbook Pro latest of 2019 model. I bought it simply because the Mac OS Catalina does not support the new Sidecar feature on Macbook Pro Mid 2012. Sidecar is MacOS Catalina built-in app that lets you use your iPad as a second monitor of your Mac computer.

I have my MacBook Pro Mid 2012 since 2014 and until now it is working very well and noticeably no big difference in speed compared to my MacPro Mid 2019. Oh, note that I change the HDD of my Macbook Pro Mid 2012 into SSD or Solid State Drive,  Yes I did change it by my self simply by following youtube video procedure.

Here are some of the videos that will prove that Macbook Pro Mid 2012 is still best to consider in 2020.