Chopin and Long Service Leave

I’ve been to my first classical concert last night! It was pretty exciting. – sitting in the Government House ballroom, together with about 100 others, watching / listening Piers Lane playing Chopin. I’ve never been to a classical concert, so I didn’t know what to expect. But it was really good and not boring at all I actually recognised one of the pieces – the famous Funeral March.
Friends from uni actually asked us to come along to this concert, as friends of them again recommended this “Government House Foundation Concert”.
After the concert we all had dinner together and I got to know ‘initiators’ – a German couple from Dresden. It was really fascinating to listen to their story; and I just loved to hear their accents – it reminded me of home.
They flew from Dresden to West Germany just before the wall was built. They never felt home there so he applied for a job in Perth and got it. So they travelled with their little daughter on a ship to Perth, it took them 24 days!!! And since then they’ve been travelling around the whole world by making use of ‘Long Service Leave’. I just love this concept!!! But the conditions were much better at that time. For every 7 years he worked for his company he was granted 1 year of fully paid (!!!) Long Service Leave.
Another employee entitlement that I really like is ‘Leave Without Pay’ – if 30 days annual leave are not enough just add some more days without getting paid, provided your boss is happy with that.