I am

I am blogging for no reason other than that I am alive, and blogging.
Rounding up reading things, facebooks, emails, chatting online with friends in Singapore, checking other blogs, so I felt that I should write something.

What to write though?

Hmm,

I left Santos and am back at Transport. That is good, not just 'cos I am being paid a bit more than half as much again, as the people have more character and I enjoy being there. Also it is on Leigh Street and has lots of good restaurants. "Lots" and "good" in the context of being Adelaide of course.

I am having the new contract pay into my HSBC account, and when it has something decent in it I will transfer my automatic deductions to it. It has a VISA card as well. Also applied for a VISA card from WestPac; it has an interest free period on the balance that I transfer from the NAB card and it has a loyalty/reward programme with SingAir. I wanted the Citi one, but they no longer have a relationship with SingAir here, they are with Qantas, and how useless is that? Hello, I am in Adelaide and Qantas don't fly internationally out of here, they only fly via other cities, so add on connection and at least half a day, plus at least a few hundred bucks expense, to your trip. So that is all good, moving at last. 'Cos the NAB were so useless when I was overseas.

I have enrolled in a masters, in accounting. Studying part time to start with, but I would love to work only three days a week and study full time. So I will have a certificate and a diploma and a degree in accounting. How overkill, but unfortunately the way that I have to go to do the things that I want to do.

I was not paying my rent since the manager was not fixing my fridge. This was my third month of not paying my rent, and finally someone called me to ask about that. I said "fix my fridge". It seems that it is finally being fixed, but I am holding back rent until it is done and I have seen it with my own eyes. Lesson learned; don't move in or pay anything until the bastards have got everything perfect, 'cos once you move in they will have no incentive to fix anything. Human nature sucks.

I was online chatting with my friend Javier in Singers last night saying that I have lots of Japanese music (J-pop rules!) but nothing Chinese and she sent me lots of links to clips on you tube. I spent hours watching S.H.E. and Sammi Cheung. Yeah, a few others, but that's where my attention got hooked, so lots of watching Landry shake her butt, and she tried to get me to watch a few that I said were like Chinese Barry Manilow :D So is cool, I got exposed to a new cultural experience, and I like that.

People keep asking me if I am going back to Singapore. Most seem to accept that it is inevitable. I find the psychology of that interesting; they are sad, but impotent, observers in the demise of their own culture and economy, their very social fabric is rending, but what can they do? I say maybe, maybe somewhere else; I can't be sure of how long it will take before I am ready to make the move again, but next time I will have to be independent of the local economy and the market vagaries. And I say that I would love to live in Hong Kong for three months and see what it is like, and maybe Taiwan, and definitely after I finish the degree I would love to get one of those teaching English jobs in Japan for a year and soak up that culture. I don't know which way it will go, I just think that in two or three years I will be at another cross-road making another decision. And right here, right now, I cannot give a firm commitment on what I will want in the future.

And here is the funny thing; I am happy with that, I am comfortable with that.
Like I am comfortable with consulting and working by contract and not having a fixed, guaranteed job.

I have been asked a few times recently what do I do. In circumstances that make answering with "I'm an accountant" seems meaningless, and "business consultant" or whatever seemed not to work either. For example, moving away from the few instances of people asking, the bank asked for my card application, and then asked for my position. Well, my 'position' is director of my own company, but then what follows from that doesn't work well with any of their drop-down lists. My company is just me, but I work in corporations and organisations that usually have a few thousand employees. But how do I describe my crust earning endeavours these days? Used to be easy, now it makes me pause and think; how best to describe it to this person, 'cos different people need different explanations.

So, all in all, I am generally feeling better about things than the last few months, the economy of little ol' Adelaide hasn't quite picked up yet, but it's getting there. And I am comfortable.