Another week and only one person came through the house for a look, an investor, but as it turns out he did not proceed.

I got a “Rebus” book last week and so I have been getting back into the swing of reading a few chapters once I return from the morning shift, it’s good to settle back into this routine.

I have had a fairly lazy week and so yesterday I caught up with a friend to go for a walk in the Toohey Forest in the outskirts of Brisbane. We had every intention of walking for about 10 kms but due to my wonderful map reading skills we went around in circles and completed only 5 kms after nearly two hours of walking. I should have realised there was something wrong when we kept seeing the same people passing us, however we did come across a very rare sight indeed…….2 Koalas up in the branches. One of which was hanging on for dear life at the very end of a narrow looking limb, while the bigger one was sitting astride a comfortable Y branch. I took a photo but it was really too far away to capture the wee beast. I haven’t seen a Koala in the wild for years and it is hard to believe that it has become an endangered species which Australia does not seem to care about. Developers have recently cleared an area of bush land which has been home to Koalas as well as other umpteen different species.

Greed and stupidity are pushing the wildlife of the planet to the brink and no governments seem to be interested in stopping this advance of the machines. No matter how many campaigns and protests set up by the members of the community, it matters not a jot, because developers are in cahoots with government to demolish and scar and rip the landscape towards a concrete future, which in turn increases temperature and when the rains come the floods have more things to destroy because the once natural floodway has now a shiny new block of units.

This year around the world something has definitely changed. The severity of flooding, the huge fires that are on the increase and the war in Ukraine has also exacerbated climate change due to many countries having to resort to burning coal once more because they can no longer buy oil from Russia. The future for Europe and the UK is looking very bleak this year, the high temperatures they have endured this summer will become a distant memory when many will be unable to heat their homes in the depths of winter. It’s not only the cost that will be crippling to many but there will also be fuel shortages.

https://www.chinesefoodwiki.org/Malatang

Back in the 70’s we had power cuts mid winter because of the miners going on strike and I fear that many of my friends and family in the UK will have a similar experience this year too. The environmentalist have their hearts in the right place but the reality of the current situation is that we need to build more nuclear power stations to take up the base load power that coal and fossil fuels are currently being used for.

Australian governments are dead against using nuclear power stations to produce power because of the environmental issues but yet they are more than happy to spend billions of tax payers’ dollars on nuclear submarines which will be obsolete by the time America delivers them. This is all because of the gullibility of previous Tory governments sucking the balls of the American presidents. This big brother syndrome is going to be the death of Australia. The amount of money being spent on this useless investment should be used to deliver a better healthcare system, housing for the needy and developing the necessary infrastructure that the country desperately needs. The American war machine is affecting more and more people around the world.

Their Fear, Their Paranoia, Their Stupidity, Their Arrogance is the 21^st Century plague that we should all fear…………..

Had the second open house on Saturday and thankfully people actually turned up. There were three lots, one investor and two others wishing to live in it. It was such a relief to see that there was some interest in the house.

On Saturday night I couldn’t sleep because of the reality of the upcoming move hit me square in the face and it is a rather daunting task that lies ahead. The physical packing up of the house and then the transition stage of finding a new home will last a few months; this is scary and exciting at the same time. Of course the next stage can’t even begin until I have at least completed stage one. In the meantime I am gathering quotes for moving. I have a few options;

1—Buy a container and pack it myself and have it shipped to Rockhampton—Approx $6400

2—Moving company packs and delivers everything to Rockhampton and then unpacks – Approx $6600

3—Hire a container for one month and have it shipped to Rockhampton; I pack it – Approx $5000

I’m still going to look at hiring a truck and driving it myself, however I will still need to hire some muscle to load the truck at both ends. If the house I buy does not have a shed then a container would be a cheaper option and so I think I’ll buy one here and pack it and then get it transported.

On Sunday, had lunch with a few friends that I have not seen in months. Our lunch group would meet every two months or so but Covid put a stop to that. Great to catch up and have a natter and the Guinness Pie was pretty good too.

On another note, how about these Fuckin Americans that don’t give a Fuck about anybody else, only themselves. They don’t care about the consequences of their actions. I have friends in Taiwan that are shitting themselves as China encircles their homeland, meanwhile America just carries on pushing the world into another war. How many wars will America start this decade?

Pelosi stirred up the hornets nest and Taiwan was surrounded and now they have sent another delegation as a follow up, what a Fucked up country they are.

I just hope Karma lands with a serious thump and fucks them up, maybe the Four Men of the Apocalypse, including Frank, will drop by for a visit, here’s hoping!!!

Another week and no buyers for the house yet but I do believe that the price is way too high. Craig from the Real Estate sent me a message on Friday to say that we might have to change our selling strategy, this is office speak for reducing the price, which I agree needs to be done. The price tag of half a million dollars is a bit too much me thinks, I mean I wouldn’t buy it for that amount. I think a more realistic offer should be “Offers over $469,000” which I believe will get a few bites and is also enough for me to move onto my next destination.

The garden and retaining wall are still items that need to be fixed up and I started to replace the top plates of the wall today and I have come up with a solution for the collapsed piece of wall at the bottom of the garden which I will work on this week. I will have to go and pick up some long screws to stitch everything together. I do have a box of roofing screws but they are 175 mm long which is way too long.

Next month I plan to go to Sydney for a few days, I’ve been wanting to go there for some time now. I’ve booked the car in for a suspension check, I know the shockies haven’t been changed for a while and I feel at times there is a bit too much travel in the suspension. I’m sure they will find a few issues when they put it up on the ramp, but better to get it fixed before I head south. I’m thinking that maybe the anti roll bar bushes will need to be replaced as well.

The sky has been blue for most of the day and it is set to continue for the rest of the week, which is marvellous. I love it when it is like this and I’m hoping that the fair weather may help with the selling of the house. The solar panels are finally beginning to generate more power which makes for a zero bill; I’ll miss that when I move.

On an international front, I see America as usual does not give a Fuck about the rest of the world. Stupid Nancy went to Taiwan to stir up the hornets’ nest and as many commentators have pointed out she is doing this to help with the upcoming elections in America. They are such a bunch of selfish hypocritical bastards and I just wish that they would fuck right off! Let’s hope the Monkey Pox combined with Covid will remove a large part of the population, preferably the fuckers in government or Trump for that matter who has finally raised his ugly orange heed and is spewing forth the rants of a madman. Just when you think things can’t get any worse, he appears on the scene.

The house went on the market last Wednesday and the real estate said that there would be an open day on Saturday, yesterday, and to my disappointment no one turned up. Mind you to be perfectly honest I never really thought that anyone would turn up in such a short time frame.

So I moped around a wee bit yesterday but in reality it would have been a bit much to expect that the house would have sold in the first few days. There are other houses in the area that have been on the market for a while before they sold and I’m sure mine is no different, at least I’m not selling for financial reasons…. it’s only for a lifestyle change and if it takes a wee while longer then no big deal.

After a very big week of working around the house and garden, moving mulch, taking rubbish to the tip and nearly finishing all the painting I have been putting off for months……….the house has finally been released onto the market. The decision has been made to change location and have a new challenge.

I want to head north to Rockhampton, to the Tropics, where it will be a little bit quieter than here. As I have mentioned before I am a bit bored here and have not really settled back into the Ipswich lifestyle after being away for so many years. Maybe it’s the pandemic and everything else that is going on, maybe it’s another “midlife crisis” who really knows anyway?

So I have set the ball in motion and the rollercoaster ride has begun and there will be a few challenges over the coming months but there is light at the end of the tunnel, I just have to not lose the plot.

Click on the link above to have a wee look

Well the jobs continue, I re-painted the front of the house where I had done the test colour. I then painted the wall opposite the front door in Shale grey and it looks good. The garage door has been done in Woodland grey and against the Charcoal wall on the adjacent I think all in all it looks pretty good.

I also gave the rear of the house a lick of Shale Grey to freshen it up and one coat makes such a difference. I still need to do the trims here and there and also give the soffit a clean as it seems to be very black which could possibly be the dreaded mould that folk are going on about.

I actually made a list of things that I need to get done and I nearly filled one side of an A4 page. A lot of the jobs are small but fiddly; thankfully the only big job left to do is to get around 2 cube of mulch which I might get at the weekend when I’ll have more time and energy to spread it.

A few of the small jobs will be touching up the paint chips on architraves around doors and windows. There are a few near the doors which have no doubt happened when furniture was being moved around. All in all happy with the progress.

At work this week, Monday and Tuesday, my help on the bus has been replaced with this 64 year old Neanderthal who has been on the bus once before. The last time which would have been over a month ago was because her and the driver could not work the on board GPS and so “Grant” my help was asked to swap and guess what? The same thing has happened again. Not happy Jan! This old dear is just lazy and stupid, but sly at the same time. I think that she is a serial Brew employee that knows all the nooks and crannies to extort money from the government, however when it comes to other things like doing her job she is a lazy bitch. She lobbed up just as we have to depart the depot and claims she was told the wrong time, bullshit!

When we finally get on the move I have a rant because of the reason that she is here. How can you still not work a GPS, how come the driver can’t work a GPS? It should be a prerequisite for a driver at least. So needless to say conversation was limited. Mind you when we did communicate it was very difficult to find any common ground, as I say she is rather stupid and I fear illiterate after looking at the notes that were made in the Bus Diary. The level of amoeba comes to mind and I apologise in advance to all amoebas.

On the run, instead of getting up off her fat arse to help the kids get on and off the bus, she thought that all she had to do was to sit and stare out the window. I had to tell her umpteen times to get up and help the kids get on the bus and to check their seatbelts, this is her job after all…..I drive the bus and she looks after the cargo.

But in saying all this she is also rather smart I guess when it comes to getting through life without actually doing anything and at the same time conning the company to employ her. These people are survivalists and will do this any way they can with the least amount of effort. She explained to me in great detail how much her pension will be reduced by doing this part time job but at the same time she knew exactly when the rates would go up and down. If the Brew was a subject on Mastermind she would win hands down,

6 years ago I headed off on the trip of a lifetime, in which I flew Business Class to the UK to begin the adventure. I remember vividly the sense of relief and also excitement to know that I was leaving my life as I knew it behind me, all responsibilities on hold for a while. I was free to go where I wanted and when I wanted. It had taken 6 months of planning to get here and I can remember the Sunday afternoon where it all began. I was having lunch out on the deck and browsing on the laptop when I checked to see where I could go with my frequent flyer points, as it turned out I had enough to go to the UK on a one way ticket and so I bought that and the journey had begun. Unfortunately International travel is not so cheap these days.

I’ve been back in Australia two years now and I just haven’t found my stride yet and so it is time for a new plan, a more daring plan which I will keep the details under wraps for the moment. I need a change of scenery once more and I think I have worked out where and roughly when I will go, however I need to start to de-clutter and get the house into some sort of order for my departure.

I started with the garden; I got a cube of mulch and spread it onto the garden and at the same time tidied up areas that had been severely neglected. I finished the paving, moved the piles of gravel that have sat there for months. I have done more in the last two days than I have done in weeks and all because I have purpose once more to get things ship shape.

I cleared the remains of the tree that Catherine and Stuart helped me with, but there are a few bits that are going to have to stay as garden features because they are way too heavy to move.

I then got stuck into the big shed and pulled out all the timber and metal that I have collected over the years. I’m going to see if I can get a quid or two at the metal recyclers for some of the SHS that I have.

I’m back at work tomorrow after a two week break and it will be good to get back to get the cash but I must admit I’d rather stay home to keep the momentum flowing, but alas the bills are still coming in and I haven’t managed to win the lottery just yet. The latest expense was my 5 year driving licence which set me back $192; my licence I got in the UK in 1977 for £5 is still valid………Australia the lucky country.

At least I was able to renew it online without having to go into the Roads and traffic office which was some consolation I guess.

The weather has been dry for a week, no sign of rain here which has been great. With the dry weather and clear nights the temperatures have plummeted, there was frost this morning.

Well me and the Ford made it back to the Swich last night. When I slowed down for the lights before going onto the motorway I could hear this low rumble which was coming from the olde Ford, it sounded great. When I got back home I discovered that the exhaust had snapped off just after the first silencer, well it’s been on the for a very long time. And so this morning I got a new exhaust and it cost $425 which is around what I expected, however apart from that the Ford did a grand job……the only thing I’ll do next time will be to put some injector cleaner through next time as there were a few times when running on petrol she was only firing on 5 cylinders.

On another note I got my mini ear buds delivered from China after they refunded the money after I asked where they were. I’ll contact them and send them the funds, bad karma if I don’t.

My last day in the tropics was spent having a look at some caves and then a wander around the streets looking at houses. The sun was shining but the wind was a wee bit chilly. Heading back home early tomorrow.