www.smidsy.com.au

thats where the info is

I think I bailed at the right time

Change in median price (last 12 months):             plus 6%
Change in median price (last 3 months):              minus 6.8%

nothing comes to mind today, went to work, came home

lost old theme and header, but new version of wordpress is installed

well life is a path of contradictions I guess. 

when I made the last post I was feeling pretty calm about the world. today I’m not

the last 18 months have been characterised by a lot of waiting, mostly of my own causing, waiting to get my redundancy, and now waiting to leave work for bigger and better (maybe) things. I don’t know, maybe trying to do the right thing by everyone else doesn’t work, I might try and move the time frames forward by a few months and get the feeling Im moving forward happening again, it might be a good idea but still that will take me til october

in other news Im goin to melbourne next month to see the footy with the parents, will also be nice to get a couple of days away and catch up with old friends

well whats news in the last month

bought and sold a bike ($300 profit )
went on a long ride. pics here
told work I’m leaving around the end of the year
relaxed
and relaxed some more

other than that not much to report, not feeling angsty, just nicely calm, not chasing anything much too hard at the moment, I know what I want to be doing for the next 18 months or so.  I’m still trying to achive a couple of different goals but they should be achivable at the same time or even complementry.  its nice walking to and from work every day, it means when I get home I am nicely relaxed rather than still focused on work.

have decided to get some new wheels for the bike, I have started enjoying road ridng again but don’t want a 2nd bike to have to look after/move/pay rego etc and if the new wheels have disks fitted then its a 20 minute job to swap them over.

thats about all for now, i guess its not as much fun as when I’m ranty but its all good right now

I have somewhere new to live, will take some pics at some stage and post them up.  This is a good thing, hunting for rentals every weekend (and most mondays) sucked. I moved in on saturday after 3 weeks of sleeping on the loungeroom floor at josh and toby’s.  It is really nice to have a bedroom again, and the worlds least water efficient shower head (its the little things in life).  Although I have to admit it was fun staying with the boys I couldn’t stay there because they are moving house and that is a concept I am so far over its not funny.  The other good news is I now don’t have to drive during the week, once again I am walking distance to work and the complex has a gym which is even better and I will check that out tomorrow.

I went and reorganised the storage unit tonight, needed some bits and pieces and figured it was good to make stuff easy to find because how I did it the first time wasn’t very good, its much better now, all the boxes are labled on the sides as well as the top, and all the piles are easy to get to without moving too much crap. also recovered my ipod and some headphones for walking entertainment, moved the camping gear to the front etc and found my shaver charger stand. all in all was a productive night.

other than that there isn’t much else to report, I am now an uncle to a little girl (isobel) and will meet her either in august or september, got a ride planned in early august, have to figure out a bucks night, remember how to write a best man speech etc. but now at least I have time to start thinkin about that

its gone, and all my stuff fits in a 2×3x3 metre box, pics to come later

while packing boxes for the move I came across an old folder from back at college/uni, there is a better than even money chance I was a bit of a bastard

ipod shuffle - found

ipod 40gig old

sunglasses, favorite pair - found

hopefully these will appear at some stage

well in the last few weeks lots has happened.

in no real order we have had the sale of my house
(now need to find a rental)

a new job

a major spanner in the trip planning (time to adapt, aquire, overcome)

and of course christmas and new years. rode down to wodonga on friday with josh, was good, had a mix of gravel and tarmac and was a lot more interesting than the hume.  just for good measure it was about 3 hours in when the drought that has gripped australia for the last 7 years decided to end. the good news is most of my rain gear worked as advertised and that which didn’t work wasn’t unknown to me already.

took a quiet day yesterday down in wodonga rather than riding back here (we didnt get in til 930 on friday) and then pootled back today. I discovered that one of my pockets was watertight and my trusty ipod was thirsty and by holbrook it had sucked up a few ml of water and stopped working. this made the rest of the trip back a touch tiresome. but an hour or so in the glovebox above the engine and it was back to life, thanks apple.

the bike is sorted but the trip has issues. we need to either replan the route or just do an oz trip and divert the rest of the cash somewhere else, will figure it out in the new year.

and as far as the house goes, it took 2 weeks, got the price I wanted which is a good outcome and gets me out of this neighbourhood. have decided appartments are ok (if they are well soundproofed) or acreages but the burbs isn’t for me, was a quite profitable lesson to learn though and now have the flexibility to do what I want. it does mean I get to spend the next few weeks packing boxes etc which I just love to bits

one way or another I am going to work on thursday next week

the start?  it seems like as good a place as any. well I have been unemployed for 6 weeks now, still enjoying it but its because I have had things to do.  Done a lot of trip planning, bike sorting, a bit of travelling and some decision making.

the trip planning revolved around bike transport, flights, insurance, visas etc. its all sorted now and just needs to be done rather than figured out, its all good and means we add another destination to our list which is south korea.

the bike is getting pretty much finished too, the panniers have arrived, tank bag is on, comms sorted, tank guards etc. just needs a little bit of electrics added and a mount for the army box (unless I change my mind and do something else), also got sleep matts, camping stove, fuel bottles (petrol) and cooking set. not much else to get other than bike spares now and to pickup the shipping crates.  we have started the website but won’t paste the link until the design has been sorted and a bit more content added, the wonderful amy has agreed to do us a logo but it has to be done when she isn’t doing real work.

went to Jasmyns and Dans wedding just after I finished work and had a wonderful day,  was a great wedding and even had a carridge ride around sunny melbourne to fill in some time, it was a touch warm for suits but shit happens.  instead of coming home after that I went down to tassie for an early christmas and to catch up with everyone, was a whirlwind few days but had fun and good steak even if I had to take the bad karma so jules could have a steak too.  Im far enough in the red on that ledger that I dont think 1 more steak will push me over the edge.

Came back here and tried to figure out what to do next, had some interviews, discovered that most recruiters around here are a bit crap, and having the election called on the weekend before my end date at uni didn’t help either. but as I said above I haven’t been wasting my time, I hadn’t had a good holiday from work for a long time and this has been it. also given me a chance to make a few decisions and one of them is Im selling my house here, it goes on the market officially on wednesday but have spent a major part of the last couple of weeks getting it ready for open homes etc.  I like canberra, but it doesn’t really feel like home and its 1 less thing to worry about while I am away.  also gives me the freedom to come back and do something else, somewhere else if thats what takes my fancy (like learning to fly, australia is short of pilots it seems)

spent last friday in brisbane and had a fantastic time, well fantastic except for the hour and a half stuck on the broken down train. went up to see traci after she finished at spusc. was great to see her again and hope to do it again before I go away next year, annoyingly it was only for less than a day but glad I went, I recommend the holiday in for having great window sills to sit on but dicey decor

and that takes me to today, more cleaning, more mopping, and the house is ready for the photographer tomorrow, along with me helping the bobcat guy with some landscaping

I am now unemployed for the first time in 11 years.

it’s relaxing