I got home yesterday from Armidale and it was a good run home. I stopped at Stanthorpe for lunch and was surprised at the difference in temperature there compared to Armidale. It felt almost tropical and I was thinking that this is not a good sign for when I get home. I finally had to use the air con on the last leg of the journey.

All went well and I got home around 5pm and I was hanging out for a coffee which went down a treat. It’s good to get back in your own bed and I was in bed before 9pm.

This morning I got up around 6:30am and had a lazy breakfast before getting ready to go for an interview for a job in Ipswich for a parts interpreter at a trailer company and I think it went well, well I thought it went well until I saw the job readvertised. I got interviewed by an English lassie and we got on really well and I thought I had a shoe in, but I will have to wait and see. Never count your chickens!!

Came down to Armidale yesterday to see Catherine and Stuart for a few days. It’s mid winter but it’s not too cold, although when the wind blew it cuts in a bit.

I popped out for a walk after lunch and went into the art gallery which I haven’t been to fir years. I did help with an exhibition here over thirty years ago mind you and I got my picture in the paper.

The retaining wall and the painting are moving along quite nicely although being at the top of the gable is a bit hairy.

I’ve slept like a log every night this week, my body has been absolutely worked out everyday. Climbing up to the top of the trestles many times over the day certainly makes for a good workout.

I’ve also tackled the garden. There is a very large plant that’s been in the front garden and it has slowly advanced over the years but I decided to give it a bit of a trim and open up the front of the house a bit more, mainly because of the amount of moisture that seems to be present and I think this has been contributing to the greening of the front of the house.

Hopefully I’ll move onto the front of the house by Tuesday and get the trestles set up. I think the front should be a lot easier to do because it’s a bit lower.

The trestles wobble quite a bit when you’re at the top and it’s a bit disconcerting to say the least. I’ve started the second coat on the eastern wall but I haven’t got to the gable yet simply because it’s just out of reach and using the ladder is just way too scary.

Yesterday I cleaned the front of the house which was quite the task fighting the plants and the uneven ground while I hanging from the step ladder holding the pressure washer, but I got it done and had a free shower to boot.

Today Doug and Rodney came to begin work on the retaining wall, finally it’s getting done, I’ve put it off for way too long. They also brought with them a six metre aluminum trestle which will allow me to reach the gable without killing myself, well hopefully!

Today the new post holes were drilled out and the posts have been made ready for the concrete which should come on Friday and then it will cure over the weekend and they’ll come back next week to finish it all off.

On another note, this one not so good. Two days ago I went to see the skin doctor and he took a bit of my ear away to have it tested and unfortunately I got a call today from him to tell me that the biopsy has come back positive and I’m going to have it cut out, I just hope I don’t end up like Van Gogh, I mean what will my specs sit on? I’m definitely not looking forward to that procedure 😔

It’s time to paint the house, on the outside. I bought the trestles last year but due to the rain and the local flooding I lost complete interest in the whole thing. So after nearly nine months of being in the shed I dragged them out and set them up. I can’t believe just how heavy they are and it took a big breakfast to enable the old body to move them and set them up.

After doing so I decided that I would do all the cutting in first and tomorrow I’ll get the roller out and try to do the first coat on the eastern side of the house.

Earlier in the week I cut down the Frangipani trees in preparation for the fixing of the retaining wall, it was a bit of a workout and I ended up hitting an old war wound in the process. A few years ago I cracked the cartilage or bruised my ribs and I’ve aggravated it a couple of times and I did this the other day which put me out of commission for about three days and so I was quite pleased to have managed to manhandle them into position. Mind you I forgot just how scary it can be when you first climb up onto the 250 mm wide plank whilst being two metres above the ground.

Next door’s dogs are driving me crazy and I wish they would just drop dead or drop into a sink hole , however today I happened to notice that they pulled a package out of the mail box and proceeded to rip it apart, it was an item of clothing, it looked like a shirt and I can’t wait to see what happens when the owners return………….

I’m also going to have to get them to do something about the dogs, especially the wee one that is just a fuckin’ nuisance and is the instigator of all the chaos. It barks at anything and antagonises the old dog and I’m just hoping that after today that it might just get its P45………….

I went up to Rockhampton on Saturday to catch up with James and Jess, they live just outside Rockhampton in Gracemere on two acres.

It took around nine hours to get there. I stopped at Gin Gin for a bite to eat and a well deserved coffee, driving for four and a half hours without a stop was a good effort.

In Rockhampton I wanted to familiarise myself with the suburbs once more as there are many properties for sale but it seems that they all use the same beautifying filter on their pictures to make a shit house look good. It’s almost false advertising if you ask me. Most of the places I looked at were not suitable.

The Range is still the area that I feel the most comfortable in, however as usual it’s the most expensive. If I can’t find an older property there then I might look in Gracemere, even although it’s around 15 mins outside Rockhampton. But I’d prefer to be closer to the town centre.

It wasn’t all work, we also had many drinks. Gin, and for the first time Jack Daniels although it was mixed with lemonade, sugar and a slice of orange. Oh and there was also the obligatory whisky tasting.

It was an enjoyable few days and it’s always good catching up with James, we’ve known each other for around 20 years or so from our terrible days working in the Austar help desk.

Got back last night around 6pm after picking up a pizza. I drove straight home and only stopped for fuel. The car ran well, no problems thankfully but if I do anymore road trips I think I’ll replace the front suspension before I travel.

One thing I did notice however was this; I got the distinct feeling of “Deliverance”, if you know the movie you might understand where I’m going. I stopped at Gin Gin for lunch on the way up and the two waitresses had the same high forehead with similar tats. On the way back I stopped at Childers and had to take a double take at the lassie in the petrol station because she looked just like the ones I’d seen a few days earlier, no banjos but it’s not a place I would like to break down anytime soon.

Had a lazy day today, picked up my push bike as it was in for repair…the rear axle snapped and so it meant a new wheel and gear wheel, it looks very good and I’ll have to go out for a ride this weekend.

In my old age I find my memory is not as it used to be, but this date is significant because it’s the day I arrived in Australia. I’ve been here for 35 years and at times I wish I had not spent so much time here.

Don’t get me wrong, coming here was a good idea at the time and as the years went on I made some mistakes and wrong turns along the way but I’ve managed to buy a house and lived a relatively stress free existence with moments of madness.

Mum passed away in 2004 and I went into hibernation for a while, but I did manage to change career shortly after returning to Australia so I’m thinking me Ma helped me to find a new path.

I moved house too, in fact the house sold on the day of Mum’s funeral and 6 months later I bought a new place which unfortunately got flooded in 2011 which really made an impact on my life and mental health.

The flooding was so bad that people lost their lives and hundreds of houses were affected. Some houses were lost completely and many people lost everything because they had no insurance or they had trouble getting paid.

12 years later the court case against the dam operators has finally concluded and not everyone has received compensation, in fact a few have only been given a couple of thousand dollars because after a survey it was suggested that their house would have flooded anyway even if the dam was not at fault. I however should receive a small amount but not enough to cover me for the stress, hardship and the ongoing legacy of the flood. Insurance premiums are high and the house prices have fallen but I will try to sell it again next year.

Since 2012 I have wandered in and out of the country, I guess I was looking for something. In 2013 I went to China for the first time and I was captivated. I love Thailand and have been there many times but for some reason China got under my skin and through a few serindipidous meetings I ended up going there in 2016 for four years, however it was with a heavy heart that I returned to Australia in 2020 due to Covid. Three years of hiatus, three years of life wasted because I never wanted to return in the first place.

I’ve kept in touch with most of the close friends I made while living there and I really hope to return in the future although I think it will be early 2024 at the earliest before I return, mainly due to visa access. I need to go back to the UK so that I can once more apply for a two year business visa, Australia can only offer me one year and anyway I would rather travel using my British passport.

My passports run out in three years from now, so I’m thinking I’ll get a new British passport before I apply for the Chinese visa. All going well I’ll head home in January via a few other destinations and if I am successful in getting a visa I’ll come back to Australia and rent the house once more.

Between now and then I’ll do the jobs that need to be done at home and that incudes the retaining wall that’s looking a bit sad and this is by far the most costly repair.

So the next six months will no doubt fly by, however next weekend I’m going to head to Rockhampton for a few days before I begin all the jobs that I need to do and I’m looking forward to that and when I get back I’ll start with painting the house.

A cold start to the day, winter has been promising good things so far…. cold mornings, blue skies, the sun shines and there’s not a cloud in the Sky, I like winter.

After breakfast I went for a walk, I haven’t done this much lately but I’m trying to make the effort so that I can strengthen my ankle in preparation for my next adventure which I think will now be the end of the year all going well.

I went passed Cameron Park, which has an exercise park and so I did pull ups, push ups, and a few weights and seemed to be in competition with a guy 20 years my junior, however when he decided to hang upside down I thought “you win”

Mind you his pull ups were being done the easy way so inside I knew I’d won 😀

It was still cool in the shade and with the slight breeze I was thinking that I should have worn a thicker jacket, however as soon as I was back in the sun and the wind stopped it was great.

Sitting out on the deck at this time of the year is magic. The deck faces north so I can sit with my back to the sun partly in the shade and I can read my book until the Magpies and Butcher birds begin to harass me for food. The Magpies have a real attitude, they look like a couple of thugs getting ready to kick your head in.

Sundays are quiet in the hood and most folk observe this, apart from the guy across the road two doors down who feels it’s OK to get on his very noisy ride on mower to remove the top 2 mm to keep the lawn under control…. He’s a dickhead….we can only hope he falls off and he runs over himself……. Soon!!!

The weekend seems to go too fast and I’m back to my routine tomorrow and so that’s it for another week, I look forward to the day that every day is a Sunday.

I did have a play with an AI image generator and the wee picture on this post was made this way.

My life is quiet at the moment and I’m struggling with that I guess because I’d rather have a project to work on and so I’m trying hard to enjoy this time. A few weeks ago I got my Yamaha amp and 5 disc CD player fixed and it’s been great to go through my vast collection of CD’s.

I can of course play the media on my phone, however there is quite a bit of music on CD that I don’t have on the phone and the quality of the CD is so much better because the bit rate of some of the mp3’s are relatively low. The Yamaha system sounds pretty darn good especially when the speakers are sat on the concrete floor.

I was playing Roxy Music, Supertramp, ABC, Bowie and Dire Straits while I was in the garden and then I decided just to lie down and immerse myself in the sounds and vibes blasting from the Yamaha and as I lay on the day bed feeling the waves wash over me my guilt also disappeared and I began to enjoy the moment.

I’m thinking that I need to be doing more, but listening to music and giving 100% attention to it is really great and I’d forgotten just how much I enjoy this. Listening to music has been a big part of to life since I was a kid. I have many strong memories of my first listen to an album.

On a Saturday morning I would get the bus to the west end of Paisley near the museum where I’d visit the independent Listen Record Store and pick up something new and I’ve still got all my records that I bought 40 years ago.

I remember the time I bought Meddle by Pink Floyd and when I got it home side two would not play properly because it kept skipping, upon inspection it seemed to have something stuck to the surface. I took it back to the shop and the guy took one look at it and said”I think it’s strawberry jam” He gave me a new copy and I went home to conclude the experience.

Music is a big part of my life and it will often transport me to another time and place and mostly I’m transported to home to a time before I arrived in Australia which the older I get become more powerful.

I’m thinking I might have to dig out the turntable and play a few records and reminisce to the sounds of old.