First thing this morning was to watch a catch up episode of last night's Masterchef.
Next some breakfast of leftovers. It is slightly overcast again this morning however may clear up later in the afternoon. Condensation has formed heavily on my windows and it seems to be darker later in the mornings. My allergy cough watery eyes and runny nose are still present in the mornings. I take an antihistamine and put my mask on as this seems to help. Even vacuuming my apartment daily is not helping the dust present.
After breakfast I update my advertisement on Gumtree seeking employment. It is now into my 9th week of unemployment.
Next onto baking my mixture of chocolate cake - my version of the 2 ingredient depression cake that I had prepared yesterday.
This is the result of the naked chocolate depression cake x 2 which still has to cool completely before I decide what type of topping I am going to spread over the top of the cakes. I decided to split the mixture into 2 and greased 2 pie tins ( which is all I have) and spooned the mixture into for baking. I hope they will pop out of the tins clean when completely cooled.
looking like a chocolate cake at least!
This is the completed chocolate " giant cup" cake turned out into a bowl which I topped with a vanilla yuzu and molasses cream cheese spread
This was the taste test chocolate cake which I had with some pouring cream. I have to admit it was pretty good considering it was made with crushed biscuit crumbs, cream, water and baking powder. It did taste, feel and look like a chocolate cake. It was crusty on the outside and still gooey in the middle as I stopped the baking process a little earlier to prevent the cake being too dry. It was actually quite rich so the cream was necessary. A recipe I will make again - definitely a YouTube video PASS!
Whilst I was baking this cake, there was a bang, I look out my window and there was a minor bingle involving 2 cars across the road. The tow trucks were quite quick to arrive at the accident scene this time and I did not see any police vehicles arrive. No-one was hurt and the cars were off the road quite quickly - they had to be it was the middle of a weekday.
I didn't go out again today eventhough I had planned to. Maybe tomorrow.
I've been job searching online all day today and applied for 2 more jobs. All my job searches are noted in my online calendar on my smartphone so I can present my job search plan to Centrelink if necessary since I have not been able to work out what, where and how to complete the Centrelink mutal obligations requirement due on 22nd May.
Dinner is :
Poisson en Papillote translation - fish (salmon) wrapped and baked in (parchment) paper
Tasted nicer then it looks - 2 pieces of fresh salmon wrapped in a layer of baking paper and foil with a bit of soya sauce, sesame oil, freshly ground pepper, shallots, corriander, cumin. I forgot the ginger lemon and garlic but never mind - still yummy.
I feel asleep again during Masterchef but not during Are You Paying Attention afterwards. I will just have to watch another catch up of tonight's episode of Masterchef again tomorrow.
Tuesday 19th May 2020
Being unemployed for so long is now really starting to get to me. For the past 8 weeks I have not seen or spoken to anyone physically except for the Centrelink staff way back on 24th March and on my essential grocery shopping trips. Nobody I know has even contacted me I had been messaging them near the beginning of the Corona virus pandemic to check they were OK. That's what happens to people who become unemployed you get forgotten about and isolated from the rest of society then cut off from rest of the world. Friends and family don't keep in touch with you anymore. Welfare becomes your only way of life and the longer you are unemployed the more difficult it becomes to escape the poverty cycle.
I know I am not the only one who has lost their job - a job I loved but it certainly feels that way. Living alone without family and friends for so long my job was virtually my only physical connection with society and the community.
The whole of this morning was used to apply for and diarise more jobs as well as follow up on the 3 volunteer jobs I applied for but still have not heard a response from. It can't be that difficult to even get a volunteer job.
Because I was feeling so down I decided to venture out again today ( with my trusty mask on again - I never leave my apartment without it!) as I had to get groceries, top up my Opal card and get some change to do my laundry which has piled up and that I have been trying to avoid doing.
First stop was Woolworths Metro to get change for the laundry as it only accepts $1 and $2 coins and recharge my Opal card with $20 ( the minimum recharge).
Next stop I grab a trolley and wipe it down with hand sanitizer before heading to Aldi with it to purchase as many items as I can there. There are still a few items unavailable and a few empty shelves and it's a Tuesday afternoon.
Back to Coles to purchase most of the remaining items on my shopping list however there were again some items still unavailable. I found 1 items that I was waiting for to return and that was toilet paper but not just any toliet paper - paper wrapped, single ply, single rolls of toilet paper which had no price tickets marked on the shelves! What is it with Coles and their missing price tickets for items on shelves?
Final stop is Fruitez for some hazelnuts ( I forgot to grab a bag of raw cashews from Coles) and a punnet of raspberries. I wanted strawberries or some other fruit as well but the punnets of good strawberries were sold out and only the last few reject punnets were left - there was no discount on them at the end of the day either.
Time to head home. I walked up to the train station and bus stop with all my full bags of groceries however it was a little easier this time as I had my wheelie bag. I am surprised it all fit into my wheelie bag and string bag as I had a lot of groceries.
On my way I looked to see if the homeless woman who I have a banana to previously was around. Yes she was, looking at the map on the Opal card ticketing machine. Even though it looked as if people had given her some dinner already - a box of KFC and some Chinese mini buns, I still approached her to ask if she would like a banana and a packet of biscuits. She declined this time but appreciated my offer explaining that another guy also offered her some KFC but she still had some so had to refuse it and said that she can't carry too much which is fair enough and thanked me. Although she didn't quite answer my question I also asked her of if there was anything else she needed. She even said to me if I knew any other homeless people ( which I don't) to give the food to them. Nice to know that people are looking out for this homeless woman who has made the benches doorways & parks on streets around Chatswood Concourse her home over the years.
Home by bus but the evening is not over. First wash my hands which is the first thing I always do whenever I venture out and return home then take the filter out of my mask and wash my face mask with disinfectant and hot water before hanging it out overnight to dry out thoroughly. This is my routine whenever I go out even just to do laundry or take my rubbish out to the dumpster area.
Next unpack all my groceries into the fridge (which is now chockablock full of stuff) and into the pantry.
Next it's time for the news and Masterchef followed by How To Stay Married which I don't usually watch.
After that it was time to lodge another complaint to Telstra as my last complaint has not been resolved and my phone bill that I just received is over $200 now!!!
Finally after watching a few YouTube videos I catch up on my blog before trying to fall asleep.
My plan for tomorrow is cooking , emptying the rubbish to the dumpster, laundry, reorganise the fridge and pantry ( as I just shoved my groceries into them when I arrived back from my shopping trip) and back to continue studying another online IT related course. I will try not to search for any jobs today to give myself a break, I think I have done more then enough to satisfy Centrelinks mutal obligation even though I don't know what I am suppose to do or what this is.
Oh and I forgot writing and posting my letter to the Dear Australia - I will explain this one after I have actually posted off my contribution ( letters are being accepted until 18th August 2020) - any opportunity to write something for the sake of history - Another one for a time capsule perhaps? Not all letters received will be selected for the Corona virus time capsule though.
Wednesday 20th May 2020
I woke up early this morning hence writing on my blog. Although it looks as if it will be a nice day I can see the trees swaying outside my window so it may be a little windy today. It wasn't cold last night ( indicated by the lack of condensation that forms on my window) and I actually slept quite well considering how I've been feeling ( my air mattress is still sagging where I sleep maybe it needs a little more air but at least my bum was not on the floor after the first night of sleeping on it). The traffic outside has been sounding gradually louder quite early in the mornings and late at night which is an indication that life is slowly getting back to normal but not my life - it is still at a stand still. Just a month or two ago there was barely the sounds of cars swishing past outside - it was an eerie sound indicative of the city in almost total lockdown.
Yesterday shopping centres were no longer like ghost towns ( there were still stores temporarily closed such as travel agents, hair and beauty salons, private health insurance and optometrists and even some empty stores such as a rather large clothing chain store that looks as if it has closed down permanently in Westfield). Although supermarkets were busy they were not as busy as I remembered them to be pre Corona virus ( it was a Tuesday afternoon though which is an odd day to shop and was in the past discount Tuesday especially for takeout pizzas - I don't suppose this tradition has continued throughout the Corona virus pandemic - I wouldn't know haven't purchased takeout for what seems forever! My now ex manager used to ask me when the Corona virus first appeared "Would you eat something someone else has prepared?" Probably not considering the current situation)
I didn't get very far today except take the rubbish out and reorganised the groceries from the day before in my fridge and pantry. Still did a daily vaccum but my clothes are still unwashed and I havent done any studying or written the Dear Australia letter.
Still unemployed after 9 weeks now - not a single response from a single employer either paid or unpaid. I was right when I wrote about being unemployed. Everyone has forgotten about me - I"ve been written off - nobody cares. The evidence is showing on my social media platforms .
No responses from my advertisement on Gumtree, no views on my YouTube channel and nothing on Facebook ( probably my fault as I am not posting anything on it as I have nothing interesting or positive to post ) but either is anyone else except mainly businesses trying to push their products .
I really wish I had a job but sometimes I think I am safer at home away from contact with the public reducing the chance of contracting the Corona virus.
I am getting concerned about not receiving messages from Centrelink in regards to my mutual obligations due on 22nd May. Still no response to my tax deduction request and mutual obligation inquiry. I don't want to be penalised for not meeting them. I even rang a random approved employment service provider on the jobactive list on the Centrelink website to enquire what mutual obligation requirements were and was advised that this had been deferred until 1st June and I did see a pop up message online at the top of an aporoved employment service provider when searching online. This was The Salvation Army Employment Plus I rang, after being on hold for about 15 minutes they could not assist me as I wasn't registered with them after doing a search of my CRN # but did say I do have to register with an employment service provider but needed to speak to Centrelink to do so.
I also spent time searching through my Centrelink account online for anything in regards to my mutual obligations - how to arrange, appointments even a job plan they kept talking about - nothing only a very old almost decade old job plan that has not been updated with an old employment service provider that I know no longer exists.
Other things I did today were forward my expression of interest of employment to Myer via my contact from the last AGM I attended in Sydney by email and forwarding a second complaint to Telstra regarding an overcharge on my 2nd phone bill received. After I lodged a second complaint to Telstra I finally received an $80 credit for my first complaint lodged on the previous overcharged phone bill. I have not closed my complaint online as requested and will not do so until I see my second bill adjusted accordingly as well.
Finally I paid some more bills and set aside money for my weekly rent due this week. I also plan in my diary what bills and when I need to pay them for the rest of May and June.
I watched Masterchef and fell asleep yet again! But I think I remember waking up to find out which 4 contestants were chosen for the immunity challenge tomorrow.
End of another day of unemployment.
Thursday 21st May 2020.
There are things I must do today and have to venture out eventhough I really don't want to. It's not a very nice day today - overcast.
I am awake at 4 am in the morning as I am finding it more and more difficult to sleep some nights due to the constant noise of the traffic from 3 am onwards swishing pass outside my window. It seems to be getting louder by the day. There seems to be more cars on the road due to public transport being avoided. I am up blogging using my own service provider rather then my apartment's Wi-Fi as it does not seem to work very well during certain times of the night/day.
The wifi is now back up and running after an hour or so. Damn the NBN network or is it just traffic overload from everyone working or studying or just browsing the internet from home?!
So I have managed to upload 2 more flashback videos of my one and only trip to Toronto, Niagara Falls, Ottawa and Montreal back in 2017. I thought I had lost most of the photos and videos I took on my new Sony smart phone I had purchased for that trip. I am happy that I found them and uploading as many of them as I can onto YouTube for safekeeping.
I have given up on finding out how when and what my mutual obligation requirements are - there are pop up messages outside of the Centrelink account within the Jobactive account ( I wonder if everyone else linked this account?) website advising that mutual obligations are now not required until 1st June. I am assuming this applies to me as well as it would not be popping up when I log into my Jobactive account which is internally linked to my Centrelink account under the my Mygov account I had initially set if it wasn't. My payments can't be cancelled as I have been genuinely looking for any type of paid or unpaid employment through any means I can think of not just via employment websites such as SEEK and diarising it all.
I am watching the news on Channel 10 and blogging at the moment. I had breakfast of nutella, banana, cream cheese and avacado on wholemeal bread. I've had my daily dose of watching YouTube already.
I am now baking a mini lamb roast flavoured with mint basil fried shallots salt and cumin. I forgot the pepper but will add that later. I also have my matcha hazelnut mini depression cake in the oven at the same time which I had prepared yesterday as it is a quick and easy cake to make - same crushed up plain digestive biscuits soaked in a mixture of hot water, vanilla paste, cream and baking powder just adding some nutella to sweeten it and matcha green tea powder. I don't usually eat nutella but now that I have it , I'll be eating it with everything - in moderation of course!
The match flavoured depression cake turned out perfectly and I am leaving it to cool completely before I decide how I am going to ice it. Chocolate ganache or custard buttercream or just nutella as suggested on the recipe? ( I don't think Nutella even existed during the depression!)
This the result of my depression cake decorated with a Nutella and cream topping with raspberry and mint leaves on Friday - Can't wait to eat it! Oops I have been calling this a depression cake also known as a wacky cake but it is actually called a 3 ingredient chocolate cake made up of crushed chocolate biscuits milk and baking powder only. A depression or wacky chocolate cake is mixed and baked in the same baking tray and contains a few more ingredients except with no eggs or milk
I ate half of the mini lamb shoulder I was roasting and it didn't even need pepper, it was just full of flavour eaten with cherry tomatoes spinach rocket avocado , wholemeal bread and some mango chutney. I think I have been craving a bit of roast lamb for a while - the previous lamb shank was ok but a lamb roast is even better. The left over piece I will keep for another day to eat with some left over roast vegetables. Nothing I cook or bake is wasted - I have always practised waste minimisation of food.
It is now raining quite heavily! But I need to venture out for some writing paper from Kmart and prepaid envelopes from Australia Post. So I force myself out of my apartment to the bus stop with my trusty mask on again which was washed in hot water and disinfectant and dried overnight and a replacement filter lining put in.
First stop Australia Post visit to buy some prepaid envelopes done - one is for the Dear Australia letter, one for my letter to Centrelink and the others spare. Next onto Kmart down the other end of Chatswood for some writing paper but I also purchased a small round flat plate for the mini depression cakes I made, turn out onto & ice as well as a plastic artist palette ( I hope so have a paint brush in my apartment as I don't remember if it is with my other baking equipment in storage or in my pantry) and 2 singlets ( one black one white) - time to use 2 old disgusting ones as rags and replace them with these new ones. Final stop Fruitez to purchase a Fuji ( persimmon). Back to the train and bus interchange towards home by bus.
Before I even go to sleep tonight I had to attend to several things.
Today I actually received a response from my contact at Myer who I briefly spoke to at the last Myer AGM in Sydney. She advised me that her HR department at Myer were still on stand down however would forward my resume to them when they have returned to work.
Finally received a response from one of the volunteering jobs I applied for after forwarding a second expression of interest. I have organised via email responses a 10 am Zoom interview for Monday at 10 am. I was not prepared for an interview tomorrow or Saturday as I am working on other things.
I guess things are slowly getting back to normal but I still need a job. Technically I still have until the 22nd June, which is getting close to the end of the 2019/2020 financial year of my long service leave to go (LSL) as long service leave is usually 3 months but I did not intend to go on forced long service leave due to the Corona virus pandemic - that's a story to tell future generations in itself - so where did you go for your LSL? Nowhere. There was nowhere that I could go, the country was in lockdown and self quarantine for most of the 3 months and even if I could go somewhere I couldn't due to a blocked right ear which caused bad vertigo and a bad ear infection that lasted 3 weeks due to an allergic reaction to the ear drops used!
On the bad news side, today I also received 2 unsuccessful emails for accounts positions I applied for on the SEEK website - I hate using Employment websites they seem to be very unsuccessful for me in finding any employment and a lot of their employment advertisements are actually not positions vacant but recruitment agencies trying to lure you to join their database of potential employees to boost their profile but not actually providing you with assistance in finding employment - they advertise positions that don't actually exist ( I've said this before years ago as a warning). I avoid employment agencies like the Corona virus and certain employers do as well when they post their job vacancies online.
Finally I am watching Masterchef and this time I didn't fall asleep because it was a rivetting episode of pimping up 2 minute noodles. I've done this challenge when I've needed a quick hot snack - Have you? Can't wait for Sunday's elimination episode!
Friday 22nd May 2020
This has been another long week of unemployment marking the end of my 9th week of unemployment.
I woke up this morning hoping to have a productive day as I had planned a full stay in day to complete things that I needed to do.
It is definitely a stay at home day today wet , cold and miserable outside. I'm scratching have a runny nose woke up again with watery eye and a very slight cough but mainly it's my nose running today. My body aches all over because my bed is still sagging and therefore very uncomfortable during the night. I think I tried to sleep on the edge of the bed last night.
So today's breakfast was the leftover roast lamb and a persimmon( fuji) salad which was just cut up persimmon, some chopped up coriander and a squeeze of lime juice with some chopped up celery. It was the first time I tried this combination and although it tastes ok , I would not be rushing back to make and eat it again - Just the $6 single persimmon on its own will do me next time!
I still have my depression cake from yesterday and so tempted to eat it but I have to make the topping for it first. Can't decide what to make - some type of what frosting will look nice on the hazelnut dark cake but chocolate ganache sounds better.??????? ( completed cake refer previous day's blog)
This morning I had intended to have a shower , wash the dishes and do my 2 piles of laundry early but it's after lunch now and I still haven't done it but I have sorted it at least. Maybe I should just do the whites now and the other pile of colours later????????
I finished my 5 page letter to Centrelink ready to post tomorrow at least in order to get some action and responses to my questions.
I am now trying to work on my Dear Australia letter - my hand writing spelling and grammar are so bad as I haven't written a physical letter for years possibly decades now! I've almost forgotten how to write in print or cursive. My spelling and grammar are also abominable no thanks to predictive text auto correct and spell check.
In between, I became a little distracted and watched my daily dose of YouTube ( not as keen on Tiktok anymore for some reason) and checked my emails whilst also baking a lasagne and watching the SBS Food Channel as well as some news on Channel 7 but not all of it - still too much Corona virus news especially about the very strained Australia China trade relationship all a result of a blame game which Australia has been accused by China of initiating and which has resulted in the rest of the world also joining in. I have always thought and still think that Australia has been very diplomatic about how they approached China in regards to investigating the truth about the origins of the Corona virus. All everyone wants to know is the truth behind the origins of the Corona virus. Australia is not blaming China and if China is telling the truth about the origins of the Corona virus then China has nothing to hide. The fact that the rest of the world is now wanting an independent investigation into how , when and where the Corona virus became a worldwide pandemic has nothing to do with Australia pressuring China for an investigation hence has nothing to do with trade relations. Australia didn't put pressure on , for example the US, to investigate China - the US independently made a decision and went on step further then Australia, to sue China for Trillions of $s for losses resulting from their economic downturn. At least we (Australia) are not suing China for it's economic downturn. In light of Australia being stuck between being an ally with the US and major trade partner with China making it "piggy in the middle" , "toad in a hole" or " sausage in a sandwich", Australia was and still is definitely being diplomatic.
Well I wasn't motivated enough to continue my online IT related course nor have I finished my Dear Australia letter even worse I didn't do my laundry today. It was just a lazy day today. It sounds like it is now nice and dry outside but dark. Apparently it is going to be cold and windy - no sign of that yet.
My lasgna I made today ( these leftovers which will last me for a few more meals and will taste better overnight) made with turkey mince instead of veal and pork or lamb mince and using my left over batch of frozen Italian tomato sauce from a previous meal and left over roast vegetables from my mini lamb roast previously.
Hopefully the weekend is going to be nice.
Another sign that things are going back to normal is the Hyde park Barracks is set to reopen again on 4th June. I am looking forward to visiting it again as I did not get a chance to before it closed soon after it reopened to the public after a major renovation. Other news which was interesting was someone was caught on cctv breaking into a museum ( it looked like the Australian museum that is closed for a few years for a major renovation) walking around & taking a hat before leaving - very strange if a true news story! Must have been someone extremely bored!
I tried to do a little more of the IT related course online and didn't get very far and watched Jamie Oliver on tv then fell asleep.
So slack - the things I did not complete today - Dear Australia letter, laundry, my online study...
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