Oh, and I'd just like to bring this to everyone's attention:
Import Document Fee 10%=4.80 48.00
That's $52.80 (including GST) for a document. A document. Someone has to look at a piece of paper and sign it, so I get to pay $52.80
That's more than half the cost of the Terminal fee. You know, the $88 I pay for the privilege of having my cargo turn up at their precious terminal. Which, of course, doesn't include the $49.50 I'm paying to have it taken off the plane, or the $27.50 for the Cargo Automation. I don't know what Cargo Automation is, but it sounds suspiciously like someone pressing a button and letting the machine do all the work.
Oh, how I miss the postal service.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Charges
Well, this is something I wasn't expecting:
ImportTerminal Fee 10%=8.00 80.00
CArrier Disbursement 10%=4.50 45.00
Import Document Fee 10%=4.80 48.00
Cargo Automation Fee 10%=2.50 25.00
Cartage 10%=7.80 78.00
Clearance 10%=12.00 120.00
Duty Exempt Rated 57.79
Import GST Exempt Rated 162.16
Customs Entry Charge Exempt Rated 55.20
CMR Fee 10%=1.50 15.00
That's not even counting the actual cost of getting the thing to Townsville - or GST.
You know, I buy weird and wacky things from overseas all the time and they just send it to me in the mail. Occasionally someone at customs slices it up and leaves me a note saying they were "just checking", but I don't suddenly have over $700 added to the price just because my thing turns up in the country. Why are people suddenly charging me Duty, GST and customs charges just because I want a box taken off a plane?
Where do they tell you this sort of thing will happen? How could I possibly have known about this back when I was thinking about ordering a bike from the US?
The price on the website is US$900. The custom paint job (yes, an unnecessary expense, but if I'm going to by a fancy-pants bike I may as well fork out for a red one) was less than US$200. I was quoted a price to have the thing shipped to Australia, which was fine. Factoring in the exchange rate, I thought I'd come in at under $2000AUD - which I could live with. Now, it's going to end up costing me over $2500 - probably even closer to $3000.
That's a lot of money to pay for a $899.00 bike. I don't know whether I would have gone ahead with it or not, had I known what the full price would be. Maybe. I'm just ticked off that I didn't know. I like making informed decisions, and I have no idea where I should have checked to get this information.
Caveat emptor indeed.
ImportTerminal Fee 10%=8.00 80.00
CArrier Disbursement 10%=4.50 45.00
Import Document Fee 10%=4.80 48.00
Cargo Automation Fee 10%=2.50 25.00
Cartage 10%=7.80 78.00
Clearance 10%=12.00 120.00
Duty Exempt Rated 57.79
Import GST Exempt Rated 162.16
Customs Entry Charge Exempt Rated 55.20
CMR Fee 10%=1.50 15.00
That's not even counting the actual cost of getting the thing to Townsville - or GST.
You know, I buy weird and wacky things from overseas all the time and they just send it to me in the mail. Occasionally someone at customs slices it up and leaves me a note saying they were "just checking", but I don't suddenly have over $700 added to the price just because my thing turns up in the country. Why are people suddenly charging me Duty, GST and customs charges just because I want a box taken off a plane?
Where do they tell you this sort of thing will happen? How could I possibly have known about this back when I was thinking about ordering a bike from the US?
The price on the website is US$900. The custom paint job (yes, an unnecessary expense, but if I'm going to by a fancy-pants bike I may as well fork out for a red one) was less than US$200. I was quoted a price to have the thing shipped to Australia, which was fine. Factoring in the exchange rate, I thought I'd come in at under $2000AUD - which I could live with. Now, it's going to end up costing me over $2500 - probably even closer to $3000.
That's a lot of money to pay for a $899.00 bike. I don't know whether I would have gone ahead with it or not, had I known what the full price would be. Maybe. I'm just ticked off that I didn't know. I like making informed decisions, and I have no idea where I should have checked to get this information.
Caveat emptor indeed.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Sunshine State
It is a perfectly glorious, sunny, pre-summer day in North Queensland today.
The sun is shining, but the clouds in the sky are softening it a bit. The poinciana trees are flowering, along with those trees with the yellow flowers - the ones planted on every second street in the "middle aged" suburbs, but for which I never did find out what the name is...
They are, of course, introduced species, but they've always been the heralds of summer and, with it, Christmas.
Welcome to the Southern Hemisphere, where "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" when the trees burst into a glorious array of colour.
Oh, and it's not just the trees, per se. We're edging close to the time of year when the lorikeets come to town to feast on the flowers, and everything sort of explodes with life. Screeching, squawking, getting-drunk-on-nectar-and-slamming into your windows life. The galahs are already back, and the cockatoos forgot to leave during winter, so we'll all be having a Psittaciformes-y old time before you know it.
It's hot, now, but not yet really-really-really hot. That usually kicks in the week before Christmas and gets worse throughout January.
Oh, but the fruit is starting to shift, and nectarines are turning up in the shops. Very soon we'll be seeing peaches, apricots and cherries at affordable prices. Of course, the true joy of a tropical summer comes from feasting on a handful of lychees on the back stairs or trying to eat a mango without wearing the juice.
It's a brilliant thing, a tropical summer. We're all sick of it by February, but in these early stages it's a source of strange magic.
Yessirree. It's a beautiful, warm, sunny Sunday, with lots of sunshine dappling through the trees. The trees I can see from the window. The window I can half see from where I'm sitting. At work.
There are some days when working on a Sunday sucks more than usual.
The sun is shining, but the clouds in the sky are softening it a bit. The poinciana trees are flowering, along with those trees with the yellow flowers - the ones planted on every second street in the "middle aged" suburbs, but for which I never did find out what the name is...
They are, of course, introduced species, but they've always been the heralds of summer and, with it, Christmas.
Welcome to the Southern Hemisphere, where "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" when the trees burst into a glorious array of colour.
Oh, and it's not just the trees, per se. We're edging close to the time of year when the lorikeets come to town to feast on the flowers, and everything sort of explodes with life. Screeching, squawking, getting-drunk-on-nectar-and-slamming into your windows life. The galahs are already back, and the cockatoos forgot to leave during winter, so we'll all be having a Psittaciformes-y old time before you know it.
It's hot, now, but not yet really-really-really hot. That usually kicks in the week before Christmas and gets worse throughout January.
Oh, but the fruit is starting to shift, and nectarines are turning up in the shops. Very soon we'll be seeing peaches, apricots and cherries at affordable prices. Of course, the true joy of a tropical summer comes from feasting on a handful of lychees on the back stairs or trying to eat a mango without wearing the juice.
It's a brilliant thing, a tropical summer. We're all sick of it by February, but in these early stages it's a source of strange magic.
Yessirree. It's a beautiful, warm, sunny Sunday, with lots of sunshine dappling through the trees. The trees I can see from the window. The window I can half see from where I'm sitting. At work.
There are some days when working on a Sunday sucks more than usual.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Change My Mind
Helen asked me to write a song.
Sadly, I couldn't think of a new one, but an old one decided it was time to flutter into my head, so I pinned that one down instead.
Some months ago a country-bluesy kind of tune crept into my brain. It seemed familiar, but I couldn't think of any lyrics that belong with it, so I was happy to just hum along until I remembered where it belonged.
Unfortunately, my brain has a tendency to play with patterns, so before I could remember what the real lyrics were I started to fill up the tune with words that "flowed".
Then one thing lead to another and "Change My Mind" was the result.
The sad thing is, I'm still pretty sure that tune belongs to another song, so I don't think I can use it - but now I really can't remember what that other song is, because I keep thinking of these lyrics instead.
Whatever.
Sadly, I couldn't think of a new one, but an old one decided it was time to flutter into my head, so I pinned that one down instead.
Some months ago a country-bluesy kind of tune crept into my brain. It seemed familiar, but I couldn't think of any lyrics that belong with it, so I was happy to just hum along until I remembered where it belonged.
Unfortunately, my brain has a tendency to play with patterns, so before I could remember what the real lyrics were I started to fill up the tune with words that "flowed".
Then one thing lead to another and "Change My Mind" was the result.
The sad thing is, I'm still pretty sure that tune belongs to another song, so I don't think I can use it - but now I really can't remember what that other song is, because I keep thinking of these lyrics instead.
Whatever.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
What I learnt today: Puggles
I love it when new words are incredibly fabulous:
"Puggle"
It's what you call a baby echidna. According to the Macquarie English Dictionary, the name actually came from a line of toys. People thought the little naked echidna babies looked like the toys, so they started calling them puggles, and the name just stuck. The dictionary implied this is a word applied to all monotreme pouchlings, so I guess a baby platypus is also a puggle.
They didn't include a date chart, so I have no idea when this all happened, but I think it's kind of cool that the "real world" is starting to be named after toys.
Plus, the word "puggle" is just brilliant. Plus, echidna puggles look fabulously funky:
You can kind of tell they aren't really meant to be out of the pouch, yet. I tell you what: zoo personnel have the best jobs. Well, next to being a librarian, that is.
I want to find a picture of a platypus puggle, now. Well, actually I just want to find an excuse to use the words "platypus puggles" in a sentence. I think I've managed that for today.
"Puggle"
It's what you call a baby echidna. According to the Macquarie English Dictionary, the name actually came from a line of toys. People thought the little naked echidna babies looked like the toys, so they started calling them puggles, and the name just stuck. The dictionary implied this is a word applied to all monotreme pouchlings, so I guess a baby platypus is also a puggle.
They didn't include a date chart, so I have no idea when this all happened, but I think it's kind of cool that the "real world" is starting to be named after toys.
Plus, the word "puggle" is just brilliant. Plus, echidna puggles look fabulously funky:
You can kind of tell they aren't really meant to be out of the pouch, yet. I tell you what: zoo personnel have the best jobs. Well, next to being a librarian, that is.
I want to find a picture of a platypus puggle, now. Well, actually I just want to find an excuse to use the words "platypus puggles" in a sentence. I think I've managed that for today.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Technology changes so fast...
The use of master tapes to operate computer databases was common practice in the middle of the 20th Century. However, by the end of the century magnetic tape had fallen out of favour with many database designers. Most began using the plant-based technology, chlorofilm, believing it was technologically superior. Indeed, chlorofilm could store larger amounts of information than magnetic tape, and the need for channels and playback speeds was eliminated, making the technology easier to use. It was also resistant to magnetic fields, meaning the information could not be damaged by proximity to speakers and telephones. Unfortunately, the chlorofilm based technology was highly biodegradable, and much of the information stored in that manner was lost within five years.
After losing several years worth of data as a result of chlorofilm based technology, companies like Microsoft and Neowolf turned to minerals to develop a more reliable method of storing information. Silicone was briefly considered, but rejected in favour of the more conductive copper. Ultrarefined Copper (URC) is currently the basis of all data storage in computers and servers in America, England, Australia and the Pacific nations. Much of Europe and Africa, however, has followed Germany’s lead with using aluminium based technology.
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