Sooo.... I bought a(nother) house. The other half of my existing house, to be specific. This is an unexpected turn of events, and I think it will take a while to sink in. Last time I did this, it was heavy with gravitas. I was just coming the realisation that my marriage was dissolving before my eyes, but I nonetheless make a $440k commitment ( Read more... )

I have a great deal in my life to be grateful for. But today, it's the fact that I just got an automatic $3500 raise just for showing up for a year. We had to *fight* for those in government. There are some nice things about being in Australia :)

I am taking great pleasure in things like cancelling my utilities. Every act is a tangible step toward simplification. It's not forever, but feels good for now ( Read more... )

Rather than properly adjusting to my home time zone, my schedule seems to be getting worse. I gave in and went to bed at 8pm yesterday, which means that I was awake at 4 something today. I lay in bed for a while, but I'm not good at being still once I'm awake, so around 445 I simply got up and went downstairs ( Read more... )

It's a new financial year, so it's performance review season here at work. Like the end-of-calendar reviews I do annually in my 'real' life, I look forward to the enforced reflection that this involves. I'm often surprised by the results. Writing up my self-evaluation reveals that I've worked like a dog for the past six months. I've written ( Read more... )

I was cooking a big skillet full of red and yellow peppers this afternoon, and I suddenly got excited about autumn. Autumn is my favourite season; I love the colours, the foods, the crispness in the air, the sense of winding down but still having the sun on your shoulders.

Currently in the crockpot is chicken piperade, and a new vegetarian ( Read more... )

I went up into the attic to put some boxes away today, and was extremely disappointed. In my imagination, it expands and can contain universes (or at least rooms). When I'm actually up there, I have to admit that at best I could create an office area the size of the bathroom. Albeit an office with lots of storage. So is it worth it? Should I ( Read more... )

I'm continuing to be barraged with the practical implications of not going overseas this year. One of them is the recognition that there's *lot* of house-related stuff that I've let slide that I will have to quit ignoring and deal with. Like doing the finishing work on the patch on the bathroom floor that Jez kindly came around and did most of the ( Read more... )

( financial goals )

In plowing through the backlog of mail, etc on my desk the other day, I looked at the new valuation of my house for tax purposes, as of September 2009. It's dropped by $20K since 2007. Glad I'm not needing to sell it at the moment! The upshot of that is that my rates will presumably go down.