CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
2nd-year electrical apprentice Alexei James (18) has today reached a crossroads in life.
With a couple thousands bucks saved up, and the repayments on his second hand holden ute under control, the young fella is now at the point where he must decide whether he wants to experience independence, or if he wants his workmates and fellow motorists to know his arguably self-given nickname.
Since beginning work in the construction industry two years ago, Alexei – or ‘Weapon’ as he is apparently known to ‘the boys’ – has been careful not to wake up his mum during his early starts.
The dirt and clay he brings back into the house after a day on the tools has caused him to rethink his living arrangements, with both he and his mother agreeing that he should try living in a sharehouse with some of his old high school mates.
The idea of living hard with his mates, drinking long necks of beer by night and sweating it out over hard yakka and migoreng noodles by day, is the dream for young blokes earning the same kind of coin as Alexei.
All he needs is to rustle up a few mates on similar coin, and find a rental property with decent street parking and a few pubs within walking distance.
While mum says the door is always open to move back home if he falls on hard times, it’s definitely worth having a crack leaving the nest. He’s already got the coin to cover a bond.
However, he also needs to spend to $1000 on personalised licence plates for his work ute.
“It’s a tough one” he says.
“Like I wanna move out bad, but I can’t do both. The plates cost a fair bit too”
“$450 up front fee, 100 bucks a year, and to save money it’s worth registering it for a couple years”
“But yeah the plate I wanted is taken by someone else, I found him on Facebook and he said he’d let me buy it off him for $500 – my brother reckons I’m being stitched up but he’s sent me a photo of the car and everything”
When asked if he thinks it’s a good idea to blow his rental bond on a personalised plate that exists only for the sole purpose of helping the government identify his vehicle when he gets clocked 30kms over the limit on the bypass speedo, Alexei appears confused.
“Bro do you know how rare this plate is?”
“W, 3, 4, P, zero, N”
“I need it”
