One of the things that I would like to take to Singapore is my laptop. Unfortunately it isn't working at the moment; it never came out of the reboot after the last Windows Vista automatic update.
At work, so as to be in business hours, I called the HP help number and got an Indian lady that asked if I could turn the computer off and restart it, to which I said that I didn't have it with me, but that it had died from a windows update and windows would not now start and if you went into BIOS before windows kicked in to try a restore it insisted on a disk check, which returned a dead disk message. No, she wanted me to have the laptop in front of me.
So yesterday I called from home and got an Indian man, hence my assumption that the HP helpdesk, like all others, is located in the sub-continent. I told him that windows had died during an automatic update, that windows would not start now, and that the BIOS checkdisk message was that the hard drive needed replacing. He asked me if I could turn the computer on, I said yes and did so. The he asked me to keep hitting F10 repeatedly as it started, I did so until the BIOS utility screen came up. Then he asked me to hit F9 and ENTER a couple of times, then go to the disk check utility; I did so. He then asked me to run the disk check utility, which I did. He then asked me what message it gave and I told him; "Replace Hard Disk".
Now I know that these people have come from hard backgrounds and now they have what they consider to be fantastic jobs that they do not want to jeopardise by freewheeling and so they will stick to their sheet of paper regardless. But don't you think that if I say that windows is dead and that the bios checkdisk utility says the hard drive needs replacing that this is because I have run the goddamned bios checkdisk utility and gotten the damned "replace hard disk" message?????
I grew up playing Star Trek on the mainframe at the uni where my dad was head of the school of mathematics. I remember when octal was used to program and people wished they could use base sixteen but no one could figure out how to make hexadecimal work for human reading. I programmed on cards. I had a home computer when they had less power than a wristwatch does now. I have been doing this for a long time, probably before Bangalore guy was born. I know what the damned BIOS checkdisk utility is!!! If I say that I have run it then I have run it.
I know I sound pissed off, but really afterwards I just laughed to my friend and commented how Bangalore guy had just wasted fifteen minutes of both of our lives simply because he was not empowered to listen. Or is it a cultural thing? My friend at EDS says that when he calls their help number and gets India he just hangs up and keeps trying until he get the Malaysian desk. Says that the Indians just read from a piece of paper but don't know squat about computers, whereas the Malaysians actually know what the words on the paper mean. I don't know, I don't like countries that are fundamentalist religious dictatorships.
Changing the subject for a while...
Tomorrow my fridge goes into the 'box'. That is going to impact on my routine a bit. Also the clothes washer and drier, so it will be laundromats for the next two weeks. Another minor point is that from tomorrow there will be no chairs in the house. Aggghhh, and what am I going to do about my computer? My laptop is dead and my desktop is about to go into hibernation. How will I live?
It's kind of strange, looking into this almost full container and seeing my whole life (well, almost all of my possessions) packed away for long-term storage. The feeling is kind of a two-edged sword; on one hand I keep thinking that I should be feeling some sort of concern or worry, that being the way I have been programmed by my upbringing, but on the other hand I almost feel a kind of release or freedom, a lightness of spirit. When I was nineteen I left Adelaide to live in another city (Melbourne, as it turned out) with nothing more than a shoulder bag. But I had nothing then, now I have not just a mass of physical possessions but an established career.
But in another way I have less than I did when I was nineteen. Then I was in love with my first girlfriend and still thought of our relationship as alive even though we had separated for a while. Shows you how naive kids can be, bitch actually spent that year going through a couple of other guys. She was ( - is? she still alive? - ) one of those women that cannot remain faithful to one man for longer than a year or so. Kind of the extreme version of the typical anglo bitch, most Australian women have a three year use-by date, American women have a four and a half year use-by date. I read some short bit in a womens magazine whilst waiting in a pizza shop (they only had womens magazines, why???) that with an average of 13.6 sexual partners Australian women came second after Turkish women. I think that my first girlfriend may have had some disproportional input into those statistics.
Yes, in a way I have less now than I did when I was nineteen. No relationship ties at all. No reason to stay anywhere that I don't want to stay. In hindsight of course (such a wonderful thing, hindsight, wish you could actually use it constructively somehow?) it would probably have been wiser for me to keep on going when I was nineteen. Or maybe even better, when I was in my early twenties and going back to school, I should have gotten proper accounting quals then and gotten a couple of years work experience then gone overseas never to return. Rather than having spent another ten year before getting qualified, then spending the last ten years building a career. Shows you what can happen when you grown up in a culture that doesn't offer you any encouragement to succeed, any reason to drive yourself. A culture that rewards people for being failures and punishes people for success.
I want to whinge about something else as well, but it is after ten and I am really tired, so I'm going to bed. That's an inflatable mattress, with my clothes in two suitcases. So you have to wait until another day.
Saturday, September 27
Friday, September 26
Dogsville
Okay, it's been a while. This I acknowledge.
Two things; one, I have been as sick as a dog and taken a couple of days off work to sleep and vomit, two I have been working as hard as a dog on the other days, both at work and at home.
I spent last weekend putting smaller boxes, books and things, into the container. Getting them all up on top of the furniture already in there. It doesn't look any different, and the boxes of books mostly came out of my garage where I don't see them, so I don't have a feeling of the house being any different. So, in a way, I kind of felt that not much had been achieved, but really I suppose that it had, since it was stuff that had to be done, and that's how long it took to do it, and it leaves just as much room for the remaining furniture as there was before. Which is good.
Still; I can't help but feel that a couple of professionals would have finished in a day or two. The problem is that they just pack everything, the last time I used professionals I got what I have now - the garage is still half full, but it is with boxes full of junk that should have gone to the dump last time. So this time I will have twice as much to take to the dump.
I am still not too healthy, damned Moon Lantern Festival!!!
Now lots of people are starting to tell me that they will be passing through Singapore whilst I am there. Of course some of them won't be leaving the airport. One guy is flying Adelaide to Singapore and then to Bali since you can't fly direct from Adelaide to Bali and via Singapore is either cheaper or less time that flying via Perth or Sydney. I know that the first time I flew to Singapore Paul webbed flights after I had already booked mine and found that the cheapest choice was Adelaide to Bangkok via Singapore! It would have been cheaper to book a flight that continued on, but get off at SG and not take the second half. How logical is that?
Today is Friday, but I am not working - long live 4-day weeks!!
Todays target is the three glass-topped tables and the sound system, also to see how far I can get into packing all of my loose paperwork in my office, if there is time left over then kitchen stuff. Also today will have to cover some shopping, washing, and maybe a run to the dump if I can manage that as well.
I serviced my car yesterday, so Mum won't have that to worry about. She asked about payments and stuff, I told her that all insurance and loan payments hit my credit card so she doesn't have to worry about anything except fuel. I will take the camper trailer down late next week, and the shipping container should also go down next week. I might have a trailer load of stuff to take down that doesn't fit into, or logically go into, the container; tools that they can use, maybe some other stuff. I think that I might be leaving the trailer itself with my ex, and maybe she might want some of the whitegoods.
Here's an interesting point; currently I am a tax resident of Australia, I will be able to not be a tax resident of Australia if I spend more than 183 days in Singapore, which is very likely to happen, the Australian financial year is 1st July to 30th June. The fiscal year in Singapore is 1st April to 31st March, it is probable that I would not be a 'tax resident' of Singapore for the 08/09 year. I could quite possibly not be a tax resident of anywhere for about five months.
This does not mean that I don't pay tax!
Far from it; by being a non-resident of Australia I actually am required to pay more tax for the money earned whilst in Australia. Currently, on the $60,000 or so that I would have earned in the four months that I have worked in Australia for this financial year, I would pay an effective tax rate of about 30% or so. This takes into account the tax-free zone, and the tax brackets ranging up to 45% plus 1.5% medicare plus 1% surcharge. But as a non-resident I would have to pay at the highest rate, i.e. 47.5%, on all of it, from the first single dollar. Which means that having already paid about $20,000 in tax to Australia, if I leave I will get 'fined' a further $10,000 or so.
Also, and this is really funny, I have to (in the eyes of the Australian government and public service bureaucracy) keep paying my medicare levy when I am not living in Australia, or else I will get punished by an increased medicare surcharge should I ever return. How much of an incentive is that to never come back?
I have calculated that my effective tax rate in Singapore, if I earn exactly the same as I have in Australia, is a fraction under 9%. Another way of looking at it is that Singapore has four times the population of South Australia, yes, SA is big, physically large, but SG is an entire country and so has responsibilities that SA does not have, and yet SG runs on only twice the tax revenue as SA!
And the trains run on time, which is a bit of a problem in Adelaide, and the busses connect, which they can never seem to get right in Adelaide, and the bus drivers are helpful and can tell you timetable and route information that is actually right, which Adelaide bus drivers can't seem to manage. And the streets are clean, Adelaide used to be okay in that regard but it has degraded a lot. And the streets are safe, with the increasing ethnic violence in Australia it is no longer safe to be out after dark.
I read a comment once by an American that said after living in Singapore he found visiting the US to be like going to a third world nation. Acknowledging that Australia is not as bad as the US, I do understand what he meant, the last couple of times on my return to Australia I had a similar sort of feeling. And yet most Australians maintain a tribal loyalty, blind to the easily solved problems that surround them, like Americans are so adamant that their country is the greatest place in the world. I have only know one person to move from Australia to the US on a long term basis, and he was actually Irish, yet I know a lot of both Americans that have moved permanently to Australia and Australians that have lived and worked in the US for an extended period but still choose to return to Australia to raise their children. In the same sort of way; all Australians know a lot of English people that have moved here, the country is full of them, but how many Australians emigrate to Britain? I have known so many accountants that have worked there, but none of them stay there. For me that has to be the final measure of things.
So how many Australians do I know that have emigrated to Singapore? None.
And how many Singaporeans do I know that have emigrated to Australia? A few.
I think the issue there is the different work ethics; Australia has a very laid back society and fifteen hour days are not in the picture, whereas Asians I know tell me that it is quite normal and expected in Asia. I will be able to comment on this in six months though, won't I?
Just as an aside; I also know quite a lot of Chinese Malaysians in Australia, most are on work visas, but all want to make the move permanently. Except that most have told me that they would prefer to live in Singapore if they could get it. But of course, Chinese leaving Malaysia have a completely different driver, don't they?
Two things; one, I have been as sick as a dog and taken a couple of days off work to sleep and vomit, two I have been working as hard as a dog on the other days, both at work and at home.
I spent last weekend putting smaller boxes, books and things, into the container. Getting them all up on top of the furniture already in there. It doesn't look any different, and the boxes of books mostly came out of my garage where I don't see them, so I don't have a feeling of the house being any different. So, in a way, I kind of felt that not much had been achieved, but really I suppose that it had, since it was stuff that had to be done, and that's how long it took to do it, and it leaves just as much room for the remaining furniture as there was before. Which is good.
Still; I can't help but feel that a couple of professionals would have finished in a day or two. The problem is that they just pack everything, the last time I used professionals I got what I have now - the garage is still half full, but it is with boxes full of junk that should have gone to the dump last time. So this time I will have twice as much to take to the dump.
I am still not too healthy, damned Moon Lantern Festival!!!
Now lots of people are starting to tell me that they will be passing through Singapore whilst I am there. Of course some of them won't be leaving the airport. One guy is flying Adelaide to Singapore and then to Bali since you can't fly direct from Adelaide to Bali and via Singapore is either cheaper or less time that flying via Perth or Sydney. I know that the first time I flew to Singapore Paul webbed flights after I had already booked mine and found that the cheapest choice was Adelaide to Bangkok via Singapore! It would have been cheaper to book a flight that continued on, but get off at SG and not take the second half. How logical is that?
Today is Friday, but I am not working - long live 4-day weeks!!
Todays target is the three glass-topped tables and the sound system, also to see how far I can get into packing all of my loose paperwork in my office, if there is time left over then kitchen stuff. Also today will have to cover some shopping, washing, and maybe a run to the dump if I can manage that as well.
I serviced my car yesterday, so Mum won't have that to worry about. She asked about payments and stuff, I told her that all insurance and loan payments hit my credit card so she doesn't have to worry about anything except fuel. I will take the camper trailer down late next week, and the shipping container should also go down next week. I might have a trailer load of stuff to take down that doesn't fit into, or logically go into, the container; tools that they can use, maybe some other stuff. I think that I might be leaving the trailer itself with my ex, and maybe she might want some of the whitegoods.
Here's an interesting point; currently I am a tax resident of Australia, I will be able to not be a tax resident of Australia if I spend more than 183 days in Singapore, which is very likely to happen, the Australian financial year is 1st July to 30th June. The fiscal year in Singapore is 1st April to 31st March, it is probable that I would not be a 'tax resident' of Singapore for the 08/09 year. I could quite possibly not be a tax resident of anywhere for about five months.
This does not mean that I don't pay tax!
Far from it; by being a non-resident of Australia I actually am required to pay more tax for the money earned whilst in Australia. Currently, on the $60,000 or so that I would have earned in the four months that I have worked in Australia for this financial year, I would pay an effective tax rate of about 30% or so. This takes into account the tax-free zone, and the tax brackets ranging up to 45% plus 1.5% medicare plus 1% surcharge. But as a non-resident I would have to pay at the highest rate, i.e. 47.5%, on all of it, from the first single dollar. Which means that having already paid about $20,000 in tax to Australia, if I leave I will get 'fined' a further $10,000 or so.
Also, and this is really funny, I have to (in the eyes of the Australian government and public service bureaucracy) keep paying my medicare levy when I am not living in Australia, or else I will get punished by an increased medicare surcharge should I ever return. How much of an incentive is that to never come back?
I have calculated that my effective tax rate in Singapore, if I earn exactly the same as I have in Australia, is a fraction under 9%. Another way of looking at it is that Singapore has four times the population of South Australia, yes, SA is big, physically large, but SG is an entire country and so has responsibilities that SA does not have, and yet SG runs on only twice the tax revenue as SA!
And the trains run on time, which is a bit of a problem in Adelaide, and the busses connect, which they can never seem to get right in Adelaide, and the bus drivers are helpful and can tell you timetable and route information that is actually right, which Adelaide bus drivers can't seem to manage. And the streets are clean, Adelaide used to be okay in that regard but it has degraded a lot. And the streets are safe, with the increasing ethnic violence in Australia it is no longer safe to be out after dark.
I read a comment once by an American that said after living in Singapore he found visiting the US to be like going to a third world nation. Acknowledging that Australia is not as bad as the US, I do understand what he meant, the last couple of times on my return to Australia I had a similar sort of feeling. And yet most Australians maintain a tribal loyalty, blind to the easily solved problems that surround them, like Americans are so adamant that their country is the greatest place in the world. I have only know one person to move from Australia to the US on a long term basis, and he was actually Irish, yet I know a lot of both Americans that have moved permanently to Australia and Australians that have lived and worked in the US for an extended period but still choose to return to Australia to raise their children. In the same sort of way; all Australians know a lot of English people that have moved here, the country is full of them, but how many Australians emigrate to Britain? I have known so many accountants that have worked there, but none of them stay there. For me that has to be the final measure of things.
So how many Australians do I know that have emigrated to Singapore? None.
And how many Singaporeans do I know that have emigrated to Australia? A few.
I think the issue there is the different work ethics; Australia has a very laid back society and fifteen hour days are not in the picture, whereas Asians I know tell me that it is quite normal and expected in Asia. I will be able to comment on this in six months though, won't I?
Just as an aside; I also know quite a lot of Chinese Malaysians in Australia, most are on work visas, but all want to make the move permanently. Except that most have told me that they would prefer to live in Singapore if they could get it. But of course, Chinese leaving Malaysia have a completely different driver, don't they?
Friday, September 19
Bookings
I phoned the SG High Commission and they said that with an Australian passport I can stay in SG for 90 days without a visa. So I have texted Cheng to say that I will take a flat for three months. (After all, it might not be this flat, it might be another one in the end.) And then following this I booked my ticket for the 10th of October, leaves here 1pm, gets there 6pm SG time. I did this using my new KrisFlyer account for the first time, and I had forgotten (and not recorded) my PIN. I also used my new VISA gold debit card for the first time (and it also asked for a password which I hadn't yet set) since this card is meant to give me complimentary travel insurance when I use it to purchase a ticket.
I actually got this gold card because the account doesn't get hit for foreign currency conversion. It also doesn't get hit for using ATMs from other banks, or foreign ATMs. Yes, it has higher fees, but they equal the cost of using other ATMs two or three times a week, which I do, and also they are waived if you have more than $5,000 of deposits made in the month, which I do, so long as I am working. Which I am not. (Ignoring for the moment the quick contract I am doing for a friend.)
But it means that I have firm dates now. Which will force me to keep to deadlines; I can't slack off on actually moving out of this house and closing all its accounts. But I will have four days gaps between being out of this house and being out of this city (and country), so I will have to stay in a hotel for a bit after all.
And that's about it for now.
I actually got this gold card because the account doesn't get hit for foreign currency conversion. It also doesn't get hit for using ATMs from other banks, or foreign ATMs. Yes, it has higher fees, but they equal the cost of using other ATMs two or three times a week, which I do, and also they are waived if you have more than $5,000 of deposits made in the month, which I do, so long as I am working. Which I am not. (Ignoring for the moment the quick contract I am doing for a friend.)
But it means that I have firm dates now. Which will force me to keep to deadlines; I can't slack off on actually moving out of this house and closing all its accounts. But I will have four days gaps between being out of this house and being out of this city (and country), so I will have to stay in a hotel for a bit after all.
And that's about it for now.
Thursday, September 18
I know, I know...
It is funny, since deciding that I wanted to try living in SG I have perused a lot of Singaporean blogs. I am kind of getting addicted to it. Might just be another of my many passing fads. Anyhow, it strikes me as odd that so many will not post for rather long periods, or that many posts are only very short.
Personally, I feel uncomfortable missing a day, missing more makes me fell positively guilty.
Miss a week and I am sure that I would stop blogging altogether.
Ah well.
I have been as sick as a dog. The cold I caught on Sunday has been horrific. I even stayed home yesterday. But there it is. And that is my excuse.
Cheng, my friend's girlfriend that has a sister in SG has been calling said sister, and for reasons that elude me her sister has been searching for an apartment for me to stay in whilst I visit SG next month. How sweet is that? She has never met me, does not know me, I have only met her sister twice, and yet she has gone to so much trouble on my behalf. And seems to have found something nice as well. Near Farrer Park MRT station.
I Google Mapped it, and then Google Earthed it and it seems reasonably central. I then Googled that actual condo address and got some photos of the building and it seemed quite interesting.
How cool is that?
The sister (whose name I will have to be told at some point) apparently said that one month was okay, but to let her know soon if I was going to want it for three months, because it might be unavailable if I don't book it out. Which then got me to Google about visas to Singapore. I will have to check this, but it seems that whilst there you can get your visa extended from one month to three. I know that Australians don't need a visa per se, but I think that the stamp in my passport is good for one month, so I am thinking of it in terms of being a tourist visa. I will have to phone the SG High Commission to check. Yes, being fellow Commonwealth nations we don't have embassies with each other, we have High Commissions. I suppose that a Low Commission might be like a consulate?
Hey, for why do I feel guilty? It's not as if anyone on earth has read my blog yet!
Personally, I feel uncomfortable missing a day, missing more makes me fell positively guilty.
Miss a week and I am sure that I would stop blogging altogether.
Ah well.
I have been as sick as a dog. The cold I caught on Sunday has been horrific. I even stayed home yesterday. But there it is. And that is my excuse.
Cheng, my friend's girlfriend that has a sister in SG has been calling said sister, and for reasons that elude me her sister has been searching for an apartment for me to stay in whilst I visit SG next month. How sweet is that? She has never met me, does not know me, I have only met her sister twice, and yet she has gone to so much trouble on my behalf. And seems to have found something nice as well. Near Farrer Park MRT station.
I Google Mapped it, and then Google Earthed it and it seems reasonably central. I then Googled that actual condo address and got some photos of the building and it seemed quite interesting.
How cool is that?
The sister (whose name I will have to be told at some point) apparently said that one month was okay, but to let her know soon if I was going to want it for three months, because it might be unavailable if I don't book it out. Which then got me to Google about visas to Singapore. I will have to check this, but it seems that whilst there you can get your visa extended from one month to three. I know that Australians don't need a visa per se, but I think that the stamp in my passport is good for one month, so I am thinking of it in terms of being a tourist visa. I will have to phone the SG High Commission to check. Yes, being fellow Commonwealth nations we don't have embassies with each other, we have High Commissions. I suppose that a Low Commission might be like a consulate?
Hey, for why do I feel guilty? It's not as if anyone on earth has read my blog yet!
Monday, September 15
Detour to Work
Monday.
At work again.
Okay, yesterday first. After a day of packing, well to be more accurate maybe half a day packing, Radar and I went downtown to Elder park, by the river, for the Moon Lantern festival with Paul and Cheng. The parade of children with lanterns was impressive, if only because it seemed to never end, so many kids! And the fireworks at the end were great!! It is so amazing what they can make them do now.
But most of the performances were boring, and the stupid woman that filled in time between presentations was appalling. At one point she started on about the Celts worshipping the Moon as representing the feminine principle, and that given the multicultural nature of the festival (multicultural??? it is meant to be all Asian!!) we should open our minds and consider the Moon as the Yin principle and the Sun as the Yang energy.
Japanese mythology says that the Sun has a Goddess, not a God, and most of what I have read on Eastern religion would indicate that they view the Sun as feminine and the Moon as masculine. But I don't mind her mangling Asian mythology since she can not be expected to have any understanding of it. But I do mind her mangling Celtic mythology since it is meant to be her own cultural heritage! And yet most Westerners think that the Moon is feminie and the Sun is masculine. This is not what the Celts thought, it is not what any European religion thought until the Greeks and Romans evolved in that fracture zone between true Aryanism and the helio-centric, masculine dominated hydrological societies of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Anyhow, a very cold night and I ended up getting chilled and now I have a bad cold.
Today I went back to work.
I am only doing this because Walter said he was in a bind.
I don't need the money, and logically I should be concentrating on my own issues right now.
But there it is, I am too accommodating, too helpful. I should learn to be more of a bastard.
So working with Business Objects Planning again. Trying to resolve some potentially unsolvable problems caused by what can only be described as very bad management. Bad management, in both the government and corporate sectors, is quite the norm in Australia in my experience. And ten years as a business analyst, working as a contractor to start and now as a consultant, has given me quite a lot of experience to base this observation upon.
As for my beautiful Russian girl; I sent her three dozen pink roses.
It cost over $300, I know that this is a total rip-off, but until she gives me some personal contact details I am forced to go through the agency, which adds a huge mark-up on anything that they process. We shall see if we move to direct communication soon. If not then I guess it's not going anywhere, is it?
And anyhow, what's $300? Less than half a days pay.
Still not sure about going to Ukraine again though. Far more focussed on Singapore. It will important to see if this holds, or if I get distracted from the more logical path.
At work again.
Okay, yesterday first. After a day of packing, well to be more accurate maybe half a day packing, Radar and I went downtown to Elder park, by the river, for the Moon Lantern festival with Paul and Cheng. The parade of children with lanterns was impressive, if only because it seemed to never end, so many kids! And the fireworks at the end were great!! It is so amazing what they can make them do now.
But most of the performances were boring, and the stupid woman that filled in time between presentations was appalling. At one point she started on about the Celts worshipping the Moon as representing the feminine principle, and that given the multicultural nature of the festival (multicultural??? it is meant to be all Asian!!) we should open our minds and consider the Moon as the Yin principle and the Sun as the Yang energy.
Japanese mythology says that the Sun has a Goddess, not a God, and most of what I have read on Eastern religion would indicate that they view the Sun as feminine and the Moon as masculine. But I don't mind her mangling Asian mythology since she can not be expected to have any understanding of it. But I do mind her mangling Celtic mythology since it is meant to be her own cultural heritage! And yet most Westerners think that the Moon is feminie and the Sun is masculine. This is not what the Celts thought, it is not what any European religion thought until the Greeks and Romans evolved in that fracture zone between true Aryanism and the helio-centric, masculine dominated hydrological societies of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Anyhow, a very cold night and I ended up getting chilled and now I have a bad cold.
Today I went back to work.
I am only doing this because Walter said he was in a bind.
I don't need the money, and logically I should be concentrating on my own issues right now.
But there it is, I am too accommodating, too helpful. I should learn to be more of a bastard.
So working with Business Objects Planning again. Trying to resolve some potentially unsolvable problems caused by what can only be described as very bad management. Bad management, in both the government and corporate sectors, is quite the norm in Australia in my experience. And ten years as a business analyst, working as a contractor to start and now as a consultant, has given me quite a lot of experience to base this observation upon.
As for my beautiful Russian girl; I sent her three dozen pink roses.
It cost over $300, I know that this is a total rip-off, but until she gives me some personal contact details I am forced to go through the agency, which adds a huge mark-up on anything that they process. We shall see if we move to direct communication soon. If not then I guess it's not going anywhere, is it?
And anyhow, what's $300? Less than half a days pay.
Still not sure about going to Ukraine again though. Far more focussed on Singapore. It will important to see if this holds, or if I get distracted from the more logical path.
Saturday, September 13
My First Saturday
Arrrgggghhhh!!!!
I don't know if it is Windows or my Z-board, but one of them is pissing me off!
This happens in Word a lot; I type too fast for Microsoft to keep up, Word keeps thinking that I have hit some special key combination and locks me into things. Thinking the 'research' key has been hit is the worst, and I can't just turn of Word and start again, no, it's a full reboot.
Now Firefox has just done it on me. It didn't require a full reboot, just a restart of the application, and I have just let it upgrade itself, so I am tempted to think it is the software, not my gaming keyboard.
Anyhow...
Yes, I skipped another day.
No, not another killer migraine, just actually working.
As in packing furniture into my shipping container. It is Saturday morning, Radar is asleep still (hey, it's only 8 am), but yesterday we got the lounge suite (except the two stand-alone recliners) and the entertainment system cupboard. In a way I feel almost half a day ahead of schedule.
Maggie was in and washed my dishes (amongst other things) and I will pack my plates etc today and from now on it is eating off plastic. Also today I empty my clothes cupboards and load them. Then there will only be the recliners, the gym set, my sister's huge corner unit that is in my shed, and this computer desk. Not too much to expect achievable for two days. And I think that it will all fit.
Some people expect problems with my ex being my cleaner, but we get along well and it works. It has some benefits, she knows me and how I like things.
A strange shock last night. No, I didn't close my Russian mail brides accounts - too busy. I got a letter (well, a translated email) from Ekaterina; long long blonde hair, pale blue eyes, incredibly beautiful, eighteen. It was a letter from her that went something like; I am back from my seaside vacation blah blah, do you want to repair? I think that it will take some time.
Now what is that meant to mean?
So I said something like: I don't quite understand what you have said, but it sounds like good-bye.
And then made the decision to close the accounts, but true to form didn't actually do anything.
Now she writes something like; I don't understand your reaction, I didn't write that I don't want to communicate with you! I really want to communicate with you. You are a nice man. And then a bit about the nice flowers that I have sent her.
Yes, nice flowers.
As I think I wrote earlier, I get about ten or so new letters a day, so lots of girls. And generally I replied to a few, but on a very small number of occasions I have actually initiated contact (egads!! that is so unlike me I know, I am so introverted, hence the weirdness of me blogging), but these couple of 'relationships' (for want of a better word) never fared well. So I generally only bothered replying, after all, I know that this girl is interested in me to some degree, isn't she? But with Ekaterina (or Katya as she has told me that I can call her) I wanted her, wanted her soooo much!!!!! But I knew that any simple letter that I sent her would probably get lost in the what-ever-it-is-that-letters-get-lost-in. So I started by sending her three dozen red roses :)
And she replied, a little slowly, her reply letters always take at least a week.
But I was so happy that I sent her another four dozen red roses!
Then I felt that maybe red was wearing thin, so I sent her three dozen pink roses.
So yes, lots of nice flowers.
Immediately after the first flowers, timed so that she gets flowers with a short note saying something like "I really like you and want to get to know you" and then the letter, was the longest letter that I have ever written a girl, trying to say absolutely everything about me and about what I want etc. And throughout this there have been another dozen letters.
It was my plan to visit her. Go to SG for a couple of weeks, lodge my visa application, then on to Ukraine (Kharkov), via Germany most likely since my experience with Turkish Airlines the last time I visited Ukraine (Odessa) was totally horrible (and given what I saw at Istanbul Airport I don't understand why any civilised nation would let planes fly from Turkey - there is no security worth the name). Spend two or three weeks with my Katya, then return for two or three weeks in SG again.
Yes, there were some backup plans in case it didn't work with her, other girls that I could see, other cities in Ukraine that I could go to. But Ekaterina was my focus.
But headgames are not something that I want in my life any more.
I think that I will give myself a couple of days to think about this, and to cool down, and then maybe I will explain to her that we can continue, but maybe my plans to visit Ukraine to see her have now been delayed and for business reasons I have to still visit Singapore.
My experience last time leads me to think that email relationships, i.e. trying to find a partner via the web, doesn't work very well. I think, given my experiences with email relationships and my experiences on my last trip to Ukraine, that it is better to go there and meet girls there. Use a website, yes, but go there, then search the site for girls in the city that you are in, then phone them via the site and ask to meet them.
Although last time this gave me Daria. And it was all on whilst I was there, she was going to marry me and we were going to have three children, but when I came back here and tried to continue the relationship (via private email, not via the site) it just cooled off very quickly. I think that young girls need you to be in their face to hold their attention.
And yes, now you are going to say that I should try marrying a girl with some more maturity. Perhaps even a 'woman' rather than a 'girl'. Logically you are right, but when eighteen year old girls are telling me that they were born to make happy then it does kind of grab my attention.
So where am I?
I don't know, I am too confused, and to be honest when a pretty young girl comes on to me then my brain does stop working. Logically I am being stupid and I have wasted two years of my life on this wild goose chase. Not that I had anything else to occupy either my time or my money during this couple of years, and I did enjoy my holiday to Odessa, it was so mind expanding to experience being in a country where hardly anyone speaks English.
But I cannot change the past. If I could then wouldn't the best action that I could have taken been to have left Australia in my early to mid thirties instead of now in my mid forties? But if I keep following that line of thought I inevitably end up at wishing that I had been still-born, or more usually that it had worked when I first did something that I seriously thought would kill me when I was eleven or twelve - after all, what were the next thirty years except pain and misery? You see what happens when you have a childhood without affection and loving support? When the only time your parents touch you is to beat the shit out of you, the only time they talk to you is to either tell you to do something or tell you that you are stupid for getting it wrong. My first 'driving' lesson? Being put on a tractor when I was ten and told to drive between the rows of hay so my father could fork it up onto the trailer, no instruction whatsoever, and me crying my eyes out because my expectation was that when I got this wrong I was going to get the shit beaten out of me again. It kind of make you grow up with deep-seated issues.
Actually, just to frighten you, I truly believe that both of my parents were better parents then their parents. Make you wonder about Australian society?
I spent a lot of time (and effort) building a good relationship with my mother when I was in my late twenties. I didn't speak to my father for twenty five years from when I was seventeen, and although over the last few years I have tried to build some sort of relationship with him there isn't really much there. Yes, there was a specific incident at seventeen that caused that rift, a specific incident involving my first girlfriend.
Which brings me where?
Nowhere, but Radar is up, so I am going to start emptying my drawers and then move them into the container, then this afternoon disassemble the gym set and pack it as well.
Actually there is something there. Maybe now you understand one small part of why I am doing this. You will be thinking that so many people just go work or live somewhere else, no big deal. But I always over think things, it's not enough for me to want to just try living somewhere, I have to build it all up into concepts that encompass entire societies.
I don't know if it is Windows or my Z-board, but one of them is pissing me off!
This happens in Word a lot; I type too fast for Microsoft to keep up, Word keeps thinking that I have hit some special key combination and locks me into things. Thinking the 'research' key has been hit is the worst, and I can't just turn of Word and start again, no, it's a full reboot.
Now Firefox has just done it on me. It didn't require a full reboot, just a restart of the application, and I have just let it upgrade itself, so I am tempted to think it is the software, not my gaming keyboard.
Anyhow...
Yes, I skipped another day.
No, not another killer migraine, just actually working.
As in packing furniture into my shipping container. It is Saturday morning, Radar is asleep still (hey, it's only 8 am), but yesterday we got the lounge suite (except the two stand-alone recliners) and the entertainment system cupboard. In a way I feel almost half a day ahead of schedule.
Maggie was in and washed my dishes (amongst other things) and I will pack my plates etc today and from now on it is eating off plastic. Also today I empty my clothes cupboards and load them. Then there will only be the recliners, the gym set, my sister's huge corner unit that is in my shed, and this computer desk. Not too much to expect achievable for two days. And I think that it will all fit.
Some people expect problems with my ex being my cleaner, but we get along well and it works. It has some benefits, she knows me and how I like things.
A strange shock last night. No, I didn't close my Russian mail brides accounts - too busy. I got a letter (well, a translated email) from Ekaterina; long long blonde hair, pale blue eyes, incredibly beautiful, eighteen. It was a letter from her that went something like; I am back from my seaside vacation blah blah, do you want to repair? I think that it will take some time.
Now what is that meant to mean?
So I said something like: I don't quite understand what you have said, but it sounds like good-bye.
And then made the decision to close the accounts, but true to form didn't actually do anything.
Now she writes something like; I don't understand your reaction, I didn't write that I don't want to communicate with you! I really want to communicate with you. You are a nice man. And then a bit about the nice flowers that I have sent her.
Yes, nice flowers.
As I think I wrote earlier, I get about ten or so new letters a day, so lots of girls. And generally I replied to a few, but on a very small number of occasions I have actually initiated contact (egads!! that is so unlike me I know, I am so introverted, hence the weirdness of me blogging), but these couple of 'relationships' (for want of a better word) never fared well. So I generally only bothered replying, after all, I know that this girl is interested in me to some degree, isn't she? But with Ekaterina (or Katya as she has told me that I can call her) I wanted her, wanted her soooo much!!!!! But I knew that any simple letter that I sent her would probably get lost in the what-ever-it-is-that-letters-get-lost-in. So I started by sending her three dozen red roses :)
And she replied, a little slowly, her reply letters always take at least a week.
But I was so happy that I sent her another four dozen red roses!
Then I felt that maybe red was wearing thin, so I sent her three dozen pink roses.
So yes, lots of nice flowers.
Immediately after the first flowers, timed so that she gets flowers with a short note saying something like "I really like you and want to get to know you" and then the letter, was the longest letter that I have ever written a girl, trying to say absolutely everything about me and about what I want etc. And throughout this there have been another dozen letters.
It was my plan to visit her. Go to SG for a couple of weeks, lodge my visa application, then on to Ukraine (Kharkov), via Germany most likely since my experience with Turkish Airlines the last time I visited Ukraine (Odessa) was totally horrible (and given what I saw at Istanbul Airport I don't understand why any civilised nation would let planes fly from Turkey - there is no security worth the name). Spend two or three weeks with my Katya, then return for two or three weeks in SG again.
Yes, there were some backup plans in case it didn't work with her, other girls that I could see, other cities in Ukraine that I could go to. But Ekaterina was my focus.
But headgames are not something that I want in my life any more.
I think that I will give myself a couple of days to think about this, and to cool down, and then maybe I will explain to her that we can continue, but maybe my plans to visit Ukraine to see her have now been delayed and for business reasons I have to still visit Singapore.
My experience last time leads me to think that email relationships, i.e. trying to find a partner via the web, doesn't work very well. I think, given my experiences with email relationships and my experiences on my last trip to Ukraine, that it is better to go there and meet girls there. Use a website, yes, but go there, then search the site for girls in the city that you are in, then phone them via the site and ask to meet them.
Although last time this gave me Daria. And it was all on whilst I was there, she was going to marry me and we were going to have three children, but when I came back here and tried to continue the relationship (via private email, not via the site) it just cooled off very quickly. I think that young girls need you to be in their face to hold their attention.
And yes, now you are going to say that I should try marrying a girl with some more maturity. Perhaps even a 'woman' rather than a 'girl'. Logically you are right, but when eighteen year old girls are telling me that they were born to make happy then it does kind of grab my attention.
So where am I?
I don't know, I am too confused, and to be honest when a pretty young girl comes on to me then my brain does stop working. Logically I am being stupid and I have wasted two years of my life on this wild goose chase. Not that I had anything else to occupy either my time or my money during this couple of years, and I did enjoy my holiday to Odessa, it was so mind expanding to experience being in a country where hardly anyone speaks English.
But I cannot change the past. If I could then wouldn't the best action that I could have taken been to have left Australia in my early to mid thirties instead of now in my mid forties? But if I keep following that line of thought I inevitably end up at wishing that I had been still-born, or more usually that it had worked when I first did something that I seriously thought would kill me when I was eleven or twelve - after all, what were the next thirty years except pain and misery? You see what happens when you have a childhood without affection and loving support? When the only time your parents touch you is to beat the shit out of you, the only time they talk to you is to either tell you to do something or tell you that you are stupid for getting it wrong. My first 'driving' lesson? Being put on a tractor when I was ten and told to drive between the rows of hay so my father could fork it up onto the trailer, no instruction whatsoever, and me crying my eyes out because my expectation was that when I got this wrong I was going to get the shit beaten out of me again. It kind of make you grow up with deep-seated issues.
Actually, just to frighten you, I truly believe that both of my parents were better parents then their parents. Make you wonder about Australian society?
I spent a lot of time (and effort) building a good relationship with my mother when I was in my late twenties. I didn't speak to my father for twenty five years from when I was seventeen, and although over the last few years I have tried to build some sort of relationship with him there isn't really much there. Yes, there was a specific incident at seventeen that caused that rift, a specific incident involving my first girlfriend.
Which brings me where?
Nowhere, but Radar is up, so I am going to start emptying my drawers and then move them into the container, then this afternoon disassemble the gym set and pack it as well.
Actually there is something there. Maybe now you understand one small part of why I am doing this. You will be thinking that so many people just go work or live somewhere else, no big deal. But I always over think things, it's not enough for me to want to just try living somewhere, I have to build it all up into concepts that encompass entire societies.
Thursday, September 11
Wednesday, bloody Wednesday
Yes, I skipped a day. I had a migraine last night, too much time in the city.
A busy day. Started with the court case, the property owner represented himself and the judge (a justice really, since the value of the case was over $100,000 it was heard in the Supreme Court) therefore had to spend most of his time guiding the defendant through what he had to do. Result; the judge very generously gave the defendant 35 days to meet the mortgage requirements.
The result from my perspective is that my six weeks notice will run its course, meaning I have to pay the rent until the 6th of October (my birthday, coincidentally). So I am a little less stressed for time. But to make up for that...
I had a call as I walked out of the court precinct, a previous client wanting to know if I am available for two or three weeks. So I said yes, with limitations. They have restructured the company, and need to rebuild their reporting capability to handle this. It sounds pretty easy, working with Business Objects Planning. The guy they have for that (who I trained) is on long planned holidays, long planned, so they knew he was unavailable and should have scheduled this work in advance.
More to help out an acquaintance than because I need the money I accepted.
The rates okay; I haven't broken the three digit barrier yet.
The three digit barrier is a big psychological divide between 'contracting' and 'consulting'; $100 or more per hour.
The four digit barrier is an even greater milepost; $1,000 dollars or more per day.
I'm not quite there yet, but I am bumping against the envelope.
Then a visit to the last place I contracted to return some books lent to me by someone there and to hand in my security card.
Then lunch with the delightful lady from Oracle. Naturally she was full of questions focussed on deals she is hunting and I had to step very carefully around confidentiality issues. She had done some analysis of past expenditure to forecast future project budgets for some large players, and she was surprisingly close with what I know of some of those plans. I was very impressed. We ate at Farina's, the vegetarian selection was perhaps a little on the short side, but they had a special on the nine inch pizzas and I chose the margherita which came with buffalo mozzarella.
Oh!! Buffalo cheese is so delicious!
Yes, it is cheese made from the milk from buffalos.
It is not like 'buffalo wings'.
Then off to my favourite comic shop to see if I had anything in.
Most of my orders there are manga, but I am getting back into American comics. Marvel mostly, some Dark Horse, I am not into DC.
By then I had a migraine coming on, so straight home and a quick something to eat to put food in my stomach before taking a few pills and then to try and sleep in a dark and quiet room.
So now I have today, tomorrow and the two days of the weekend to get as much hard and heavy furniture into the shipping container before I start working on Monday. I will then have the weekends to put light stuff in and then have the first week in October to finish things and be out.
I think it can be done, but it will be pushing me.
Today we have loaded the mattress, which is probably the hardest thing as it is a king-sized, very thick, latex thing with a folded silk layer on top. It is very heavy and very cumbersome.
But it is also in there now!
I am using tables either side to hold it up. Disassembled, so I am actually using the table tops.
The lounge suite is next. Two separate recliners, one recliner not separate (i.e. part of the connect-a-set), a chaise, a corner unit, a one seater and a two seater (these five units all click together), and a three-seater ottoman that I had made with the same fabric.
I will actually leave the two recliners for last, so we have comfortable seats.
But the rest of the lounge suite should be able to be in tomorrow.
Then there are the six bedroom cabinets that go with the bed. Dressing table with drawers and mirror, two tall boys, two bedside cabinets, and a lingerie cabinet. This whole set is in baltic pine, with blonde highlights selected to match the natural hair colour of a girl I was besotted with at the time and who broke off our relationship a month later. This is Saturdays job.
Last are the computer desk that I am sitting at right now, and the fridge, clothes washer, and dryer. And my gym set on the patio. This is Sundays job.
Then I should be left with an inflated mattress and two suitcases.
I do not think that this is unachievable.
Therefore I have a viable plan.
A busy day. Started with the court case, the property owner represented himself and the judge (a justice really, since the value of the case was over $100,000 it was heard in the Supreme Court) therefore had to spend most of his time guiding the defendant through what he had to do. Result; the judge very generously gave the defendant 35 days to meet the mortgage requirements.
The result from my perspective is that my six weeks notice will run its course, meaning I have to pay the rent until the 6th of October (my birthday, coincidentally). So I am a little less stressed for time. But to make up for that...
I had a call as I walked out of the court precinct, a previous client wanting to know if I am available for two or three weeks. So I said yes, with limitations. They have restructured the company, and need to rebuild their reporting capability to handle this. It sounds pretty easy, working with Business Objects Planning. The guy they have for that (who I trained) is on long planned holidays, long planned, so they knew he was unavailable and should have scheduled this work in advance.
More to help out an acquaintance than because I need the money I accepted.
The rates okay; I haven't broken the three digit barrier yet.
The three digit barrier is a big psychological divide between 'contracting' and 'consulting'; $100 or more per hour.
The four digit barrier is an even greater milepost; $1,000 dollars or more per day.
I'm not quite there yet, but I am bumping against the envelope.
Then a visit to the last place I contracted to return some books lent to me by someone there and to hand in my security card.
Then lunch with the delightful lady from Oracle. Naturally she was full of questions focussed on deals she is hunting and I had to step very carefully around confidentiality issues. She had done some analysis of past expenditure to forecast future project budgets for some large players, and she was surprisingly close with what I know of some of those plans. I was very impressed. We ate at Farina's, the vegetarian selection was perhaps a little on the short side, but they had a special on the nine inch pizzas and I chose the margherita which came with buffalo mozzarella.
Oh!! Buffalo cheese is so delicious!
Yes, it is cheese made from the milk from buffalos.
It is not like 'buffalo wings'.
Then off to my favourite comic shop to see if I had anything in.
Most of my orders there are manga, but I am getting back into American comics. Marvel mostly, some Dark Horse, I am not into DC.
By then I had a migraine coming on, so straight home and a quick something to eat to put food in my stomach before taking a few pills and then to try and sleep in a dark and quiet room.
So now I have today, tomorrow and the two days of the weekend to get as much hard and heavy furniture into the shipping container before I start working on Monday. I will then have the weekends to put light stuff in and then have the first week in October to finish things and be out.
I think it can be done, but it will be pushing me.
Today we have loaded the mattress, which is probably the hardest thing as it is a king-sized, very thick, latex thing with a folded silk layer on top. It is very heavy and very cumbersome.
But it is also in there now!
I am using tables either side to hold it up. Disassembled, so I am actually using the table tops.
The lounge suite is next. Two separate recliners, one recliner not separate (i.e. part of the connect-a-set), a chaise, a corner unit, a one seater and a two seater (these five units all click together), and a three-seater ottoman that I had made with the same fabric.
I will actually leave the two recliners for last, so we have comfortable seats.
But the rest of the lounge suite should be able to be in tomorrow.
Then there are the six bedroom cabinets that go with the bed. Dressing table with drawers and mirror, two tall boys, two bedside cabinets, and a lingerie cabinet. This whole set is in baltic pine, with blonde highlights selected to match the natural hair colour of a girl I was besotted with at the time and who broke off our relationship a month later. This is Saturdays job.
Last are the computer desk that I am sitting at right now, and the fridge, clothes washer, and dryer. And my gym set on the patio. This is Sundays job.
Then I should be left with an inflated mattress and two suitcases.
I do not think that this is unachievable.
Therefore I have a viable plan.
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