Author Archives: Damien

I don’t know how people can hold garage sales for the fun of it. And now I can understand the forlorn hope written on the faces of storekeepers who stand in their doorway, anxiously scanning the street for their next customer. 

I had hopes that nearly everything in Mum’s house would sell at the garage sale, albeit at generally very low prices. It was not about the money; it was about finding new homes for all the furniture I (nor my family or friends) have need of. Sadly it was not to be, even after I resorted early to the liberal use of “free!” pricetags. While the nice pieces went early, people’s opinion of the rest was summed up by a husband who said to his wife “why do you want that? It’s only gonna sit there and look crap.” Harsh, but in fair some cases.

The sheer size of what was left over put me into a very deep funk on Sunday, so much so that I was seriously considering delaying my departure for China. However some hard thought led to a sensible solution, aided on Tuesday by serendipitous events that saw another half a dozen items taken away. Saturday is the final cleanup day, with Sunday being the “walk-through” with the new owners to give them the tip about household quirks such as the well-hidden light switches in the basement. Then only the memories will be left…

It’ll be hard work, but I know it’s doable. And my mind is much clearer because the office move went very smoothly – I’m now working in beachside Cronulla! In a newly-refurbished office in a great location just a few steps from the Mall and the beach (and Northies). I’m looking forward to a totally different lifestyle next year 🙂

I’m also looking forward to getting my life back, having the time to enjoy relaxation and friends. And time to remember.

Woo hoo!

I’m typing this with James’ eeePC, which is on loan from him for my trip to China.

He’s very kindly lent it to me to allow me to blog my trip and photos, and it’s clearly a much more reliable and sturdy device than my windows-based work laptop!

More posts to come – China is less than two weeks ago!

It’s been another night successfully avoiding Chinese study. I don’t know why, as I really want to learn, but I just wasn’t in the mood this evening.

At least I spent the night productively. I finally got around to blogging again and resumed my love/hate relationship with Facebook, I researched second-hand furniture prices on Trading Post and eBay in preparation for the garage sale, I chose a new super fund, I signed up for regular donations to Medecins San Frontieres, I read the fine print of my travel insurance and I updated my “where to find the money if I die” list. Note to all: I’m certainly not intending to cark it anytime soon!

But as Mum’s estate is far from finalised, things could get very messy for my executor if they don’t know where to look for stuff. And it’s amazing what you can learn in the process. For example, under my travel insurance policy if I were to go while travelling on a plane/train/bus/ferry/taxi then the payout is a whopping $250,000. It’s quite annoying to know that I could be worth a lot more dead than alive… best not to think about it, eh?

Yes, I’m still here.

Somehow the fact that I can now say “I’m very busy” in three languages doesn’t make the fact any easier to deal with! And I clearly haven’t got the hang of regular blogging yet, but I will get better at it, honest…

Too much has happened in the past three weeks to give the full story, so I’ll stick to the time-honoured “dot point” method: 

• Mum’s house has sold! I went into the auction 11 days ago expecting there to be no bidders, so was surprised when I discovered that two people had registered on the day. One of them started bidding, and they got to within a few thousand of what I really wanted quite quickly. The beauty of the auction process is that there is no cooling off period, so I agreed to sell and the contracts were signed. It’s gone to a lovely young family, and it has to be completely empty by Sunday week. Gulp.
• Chinese lessons: Mandarin, at least in its spoken form, is relatively simple and easy to learn. But of course it requires hours of practice to commit stuff to memory, and that’s been the hardest thing to find time for. James recommends doing something every day, even if just for five minutes, and I’m trying to stick to that. Four lessons down with two more to go…
• The office move will be happening next week. It’s all going rather smoothly overall. While I’ve not done much direct work on it, I’ve had to fill the gaps caused by Gabriele being out of the office so much as she sets the new place up. 
• My house move: I’ve put about half my stuff into storage, and the rest is packed up ready to go. This has been far less stressful than I expected, fortunately.
• Running has resumed again, getting my body back into a routine of exercise and running nearly every day. I feel sooo fat and unfit after several months of doing bugger all. Three weeks to go of “pre-season” before I start proper training for the Six Foot Track Marathon in March next year.

This weekend promises more work: another early morning run south to the storage place tomorrow, then up to Gosford to prepare for a garage sale on Sunday. Furniture, books, games, nick-nacks… everything must go! If you want a bed, computer desk, lounge and dining suite, sofas, filing cabinets, games, books, fishing rods, barbeque, etc then come along. Whatever doesn’t get sold will have to be moved, so prices will be REALLY cheap!

And there are now only 14 days to go until I head to China 😀