I'm not the author Alan Glynn (click here for him) but fully recommend his novels Winterland & Darkfields

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Sponorship

Well, three months has passed since I started working and legally time is up with Ericsson so they’ve offered to sponsor for another three months. Which is great news but it does eat into our travelling time home, which is really what this whole trip is about. We’re aiming to be back home by the end of June ‘05 in plenty of time for John and Trish’s wedding.

We’ve two months left of the apartment lease and once that’s up we’re moving to the beach and forsaking the city for some suburban beach living, to County Bondi no doubt. It’ll be an extra commute but the city skyscrapers are getting a bit claustrophobic at this stage and we’ll probably never get the chance to live beside a beach again. Plus we’ve to savour the whole Oirishness of Bondi that everyone gives out about. I’m off to by my GAA shirt now.

Now that I’m sponsored I can apply for all sorts of allowances so it should make up for staying on a bit longer than planned. Tax (30% + 9% pension) and how you get away with paying as little as possible seems to be the biggest talking point amongst travellers here. Everyone has their own take on what can be done. Offshore companies are the latest one but no doubt the Irish Revenue Commission will find out about them at some date in the future and recoup the money with interest so I’m doing it by the book. Sal is going to continue her career in salad tossing and stay on at the cafĂ©. Her folks are here in two weeks, which is going to be great and my mum arrives a week later.