Last week was just one of those weeks , so instead of whining about how bad the week was or this week might be. Lets remember last week ended on a massive high with the second most popular theme on twitter world wide being JuJu .( as reported by our local media )Yes JUJU Our fearless possibly brainless youth league leader , and his hilarious childish statements rocked the social networking world .If you haven’t seen what some of the world posted then do yourself a favour and get onto twitter and have a good chuckle . It’ll help to start the week on a high , so if we get it going right hope fully this week’s going to be a good week .
By now you should be able to clearly differentiate between the guys doing movember and those who just forgot to shave that day. To my fellow dirty Sanchez’s of the world keep the mo’s going and as the looks you get, get worse just smile and remember you’re doing something for a good cause !
So thinking about ridiculous statements and good times my mind has drifted to fine print.
Yes you might think that to be a big stretch but , a mates story came to mind .
While living in London the following happened to a Him and it served as a wakeup call to a lot of us .
He was one of the multitude of Ausies who go across to the Uk to do their “2 years “. To my older readers not their 2 years military service but 2 years of partying it up and having fun in jolly old.
Now said mate who had been in country maybe 3 Months , struggling as you do to find work when you first get over .Was having the time of his life partying it up , He’d even undergone an epic road trip across Europe. Once back from his travels he started getting supply work , now if you know anything about the education system in the Uk you’ll know that supply teachers are the back bone of their system as most of the full time teachers seem to always have sick days or leave . Being a good supply teacher you can make real money without the worry of contracts and giving you the room to travel when you want to .
Now said mates life was starting to look rosy . Till one night his passport was stolen , out of his room in the hostel ( theft in hostels is sometimes rife ,but that will be a topic for another day ). That began the beginning of the end of the dream .
Now replacing passports is relatively easy these days, but replacing visa and especially work permits now that’s a whole different ball game. Did you know that even though you might have a photo copy of your visa/work permits , The country that issued it often doesn’t keep a record of the visa that they issued . and worst of all they often can’t be replaced ! You have to reapply for them . Now as said friend used the collateral that was needed to procured said work permit , to fund the epic road trip and his air tickets to the Uk . He didn’t have enough funds to either stay in county and not work or reapply for a new work permit .
So the end of a dream . He had to return home a broken sad bunny .
My mind also goes to the wonder of modern travel that of very low cost airlines and travel agencies , lucky for many South Africans we haven’t been burnt by many air lines or travel agencies going under whilst we are traveling , but in Europe it’s happened rather more regularly than you’d expect . leaving people stranded in the middle of nowhere with no protection. Leaving you to buy another ticket home , often which costs more than your whole trip .
So getting to my point when we travel we sign so many forms each with their own fine print from your visas ,tickets , hotel rooms and travel insurance .When last did you read said fine print? Especially those dreaded customs forms ,!
”those bloody agents” are always out there to spoil your travels , so remember read everything and make sure you understand what you read
Peace out people and have a great week
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