What's on your mind?

[blaaacdoommmmfan]

On 9/17/2021 at 8:36 PM, BMB said:

There’s plenty on my mind at the moment, I thought I’d had an early mid-life crisis during my 30’s (piercings, tattoo, dreadlocks and a girlfriend ten years younger) but turns out I might be having one now!

I am reassessing my whole life at the moment, the work/life balance has tilted in the wrong direction. I’m unhappy at work and too fucked after work to make the most of what little time I have for myself.

I’m considering a total life change. Property wise, from a financial point of view, I cannot move any further up the property ladder where I am. I earn reasonable money but it doesn’t go far in my home town. 
 

I am seriously thinking of chucking it all in, cashing in on the equity in my property and moving somewhere cheaper and starting again.

im with you re work life balance. ive taken back weekend for no work.i prefer it. i was doing 6 days a week with Saturday being admin day. my life was too much work.work work work.  

On 9/20/2021 at 6:49 PM, BMB said:

I’ve got to sit down and “crunch the numbers” but there is a realistic chance that a move could leave me mortgage free and with a larger property. Not having the financial burden of monthly mortgage payments does open up more job possibilities that won’t be so demanding on my time and body.

My work situation is complicated at the moment and I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel where a sensible work/life balance will be restored. 

funny enough one of our contractors moved house bit more up north and hes well happy. it can work. he got much bigger property. think he transferred mortgage 

[AlSymerz]

They say if you have a job you enjoy you don't have to work for a living. I'm not entirely sure the smell of cowshit early in the morning is something I enjoy but it's definitely easier than many other jobs.

[MacabreEternal]

Got a day to myself today as the girlfriend is at some wedding fayre thing with her sister and mother.  Gardening got done last night before the rain came today so had a good hour this morning to myself watching the squirrels out the back eating tons of nuts and chasing each other everywhere.

Of over to Anglesey tomorrow (North Wales for the non-Brits) to see my folks and grandmother who are holidaying there.  Grandmother been in hospital a lot of late and had some real struggles but is on a remarkable road to recovery again.  Can't see her in nursing home without booking an appointment so beating the system tomorrow and gate-crashing their holiday.  Still need to do COVID test before I go obviously though but the girlfriend reported feeling under the weather this morning before she left so maybe a trip along the coast tomorrow on my own.

*rushes off to update Spotify playlists* 

[FatherAlabaster]

Car trouble this morning. I suppose it's a good day for it; it's not raining, I'm mostly done with the project I had going, and my son is in an after school program till 430. But, you know, still. Car trouble. Fuuuuck.

[MacabreEternal]

2 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Car trouble this morning. I suppose it's a good day for it; it's not raining, I'm mostly done with the project I had going, and my son is in an after school program till 430. But, you know, still. Car trouble. Fuuuuck.

Sucks man!  I remember my last car just needing money throwing at it every 6-9 months so got rid in the end.  Now I pay through the fucking nose for extended warranty and additional parts cover on a car I will never actually own.  Horses are the future.

[FatherAlabaster]

22 minutes ago, MacabreEternal said:

Sucks man!  I remember my last car just needing money throwing at it every 6-9 months so got rid in the end.  Now I pay through the fucking nose for extended warranty and additional parts cover on a car I will never actually own.  Horses are the future.

I tried to tell the mechanic to just give the car more hay and maybe an apple, but apparently it has "a huge hole in the coolant system" and one of the "battery cells" has "crapped out" and the "part" is on "national backorder". I've been checking its shoes regularly, rubbing it down, giving it little ear rubs... Apparently that means nothing in the face of a "logjam at the port causing parts shortages around the country". 

[MacabreEternal]

2 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I tried to tell the mechanic to just give the car more hay and maybe an apple, but apparently it has "a huge hole in the coolant system" and one of the "battery cells" has "crapped out" and the "part" is on "national backorder". I've been checking its shoes regularly, rubbing it down, giving it little ear rubs... Apparently that means nothing in the face of a "logjam at the port causing parts shortages around the country". 

Fucking Brexit mate!

[AlSymerz]

At least you've got Brexit to blame. Everyone here is still blaming covid for shortages on everything from car parts to common sense.

[True Belief]

1 hour ago, KillaKukumba said:

At least you've got Brexit to blame. Everyone here is still blaming covid for shortages on everything from car parts to common sense.

Shortages of basic freedom that's for sure. 

[AlSymerz]

Hasn't the word freedom been removed from Australian dictionaries now?

[True Belief]

Just now, KillaKukumba said:

Hasn't the word freedom been removed from Australian dictionaries now?

 Sadly, yes. Comrade Andrews removed that concept some time ago.

[AlSymerz]

I'm not sure Comrade really cuts it. Dickhead Dan seemed apt before covid when he was looking after regional areas by getting rid of thousands of jobs. Then DimSim Dan when it was revealed he'd been getting cosy in the sack with China for the Belts and Roads thing. Now days I think Dictator Dan fits better.

[Dead1]

 

42 minutes ago, True Belief said:

Shortages of basic freedom that's for sure. 

 

The only freedom Australians ever had was to consume.   You can't even put up a garden shed on a concrete slab here in Oz without getting government approval and paying a hefty little fee to do so.

[AlSymerz]

We also pay very well to live on the dirt we put the houses on. Our recent council rates bill came with a letter about how proud the council were to only be increasing rates by the 3/4 of the amount the state government was allowing them too. It's like private health companies who in one letter proudly tell you they won't increase by the 9% the government allows them, then in the next letter they announce rates will go up by just 7.5% because they care.

[True Belief]

Lol, we are truly blessed to be in this wonderful land down under. The 'Lucky Country' indeed.

[AlSymerz]

The Taxed Country

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

 Yeah car trouble always sucks. At least you're not stranded somewhere. That's weird, my kid's bus doesn't even get him home from his regular school day til 4:30.

 

 Down in the basement yesterday trying to unclog the 100+ year old waste line. Neither of my sinks will drain since the weekend. Only working drain in the house is the tub so at least we can bathe. I plunge the water down in the kitchen sink and it just backs up into the bathroom sink. So there's a clog farther down the line. Took it apart at the cleanout got the snake in there and it seems that pipe was corroded all the way through, must have been the sludge holding it together. It was spewing black mucky water in my buddy's face. This is why I'm not a plumber. They had wrapped newspaper around some of the pipes down there for insulation, we found some pages from 1932 which was pretty cool, like a little time capsule. So now today he's bringing some leftover PVC pipe and fittings he had at his house with him so we can rig something up to hopefully have working sinks/drains until my plumber can get here next week and run a whole new waste line.

Home renovation, one catastrophe to the next.

[FatherAlabaster]

9 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

 Yeah car trouble always sucks. At least you're not stranded somewhere. That's weird, my kid's bus doesn't even get him home from his regular school day til 4:30.

 

 Down in the basement yesterday trying to unclog the 100+ year old waste line. Neither of my sinks will drain since the weekend. Only working drain in the house is the tub so at least we can bathe. I plunge the water down in the kitchen sink and it just backs up into the bathroom sink. So there's a clog farther down the line. Took it apart at the cleanout got the snake in there and it seems that pipe was corroded all the way through, must have been the sludge holding it together. It was spewing black mucky water in my buddy's face. This is why I'm not a plumber. They had wrapped newspaper around some of the pipes down there for insulation, we found some pages from 1932 which was pretty cool, like a little time capsule. So now today he's bringing some leftover PVC pipe and fittings he had at his house with him so we can rig something up to hopefully have working sinks/drains until my plumber can get here next week and run a whole new waste line.

Home renovation, one catastrophe to the next.

I wish we qualified for a school bus, but the new apartment is in the wrong school district, so we have to drive him. His school day ends at 1:45. Between him and my wife's work I'm gonna be spending about 3 hours a day in the car until that stupid, tiny, backordered dealer-only part comes in. It could be a lot worse but it shoots a hole in my work schedule. At least we're not paying through the nose for a rental.

I did service plumbing for a little while and it wasn't fantastic. Definitely got muck in the face a few times. I remember a real salt-of-the-earth old chap telling me, "boy, if you're gonna be a plumber, you gotta be able to eat a sandwich in one hand and squeeze a turd in the other." 

Cool about those newspapers, it's always interesting to get a window back through something that was made at the time. I found some New York Times newspapers from the mid 1900s when I was tearing up some flooring during an apartment demo. The cover story was about angry white parents protesting integrated busing, an unexpectedly heavy addition to our work that day. 

[MacabreEternal]

19 hours ago, KillaKukumba said:

At least you've got Brexit to blame. Everyone here is still blaming covid for shortages on everything from car parts to common sense.

Oh we have blamed COVID and Brexit this past week for a "fuel crisis" which was basically brought on by a shortage of tanker drivers but exacerbated by greedy bastards panic buying fuel and leaving forecourts short on supply.  On the drive back from Wales last week one lane of a dual carriage way was clogged with people queuing for fuel at the services.

[AlSymerz]

Well I'm ordering a book from the UK this week, if it doesn't arrive promptly I need to know whether to blame covid or Brexit

 

[True Belief]

"Peril" by Bob Woodward & Robert Costa arrived. The book covers the transition from Trump to Biden, which being from Australia didn't really interest me that much. However, when I read that General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed he had called China's counterpart General Li Zuocheng (joint COS of the People's Liberation Army) and had promised he would give him a private 'heads-up' if Trump made did anything stupid as his time to move-on approached.... I knew I just had to have this book. Talk about by-passing the Chain of Command! Anyway, Bob Woodward is legendary so I'm looking forward to this.

[JonoBlade]

14 hours ago, MacabreEternal said:

Oh we have blamed COVID and Brexit this past week for a "fuel crisis" which was basically brought on by a shortage of tanker drivers but exacerbated by greedy bastards panic buying fuel and leaving forecourts short on supply.  On the drive back from Wales last week one lane of a dual carriage way was clogged with people queuing for fuel at the services.

I don't use the car very much at the moment since my daughter can now take a bus to school. But, I did have to drive cross country from Milton Keynes to Cambridge way yesterday and as luck would have it (at 8am) there was no queue and fuel at the local Texaco. 

Driving anywhere in the UK sucks though. The UK needs less cars. In a hurry. I didn't have a choice in this case, but they are supposedly bringing back an Oxford to Cambridge train line. 

The first lockdown was glorious.

[AlSymerz]

Everyday for me is like lock down when it comes to traffic. On the busiest of days I see maybe a twenty five cars between home and town, and I probably know half of them. There's a few more trucks on the road if they are logging up in the forests but that only happens for a few months a year. 

But shit gets real busy in town, traffic stretches for lengths of maybe 6 or 8 cars at some traffic lights. Bumper to bumper traffic streams of 3 and 4 cars at other intersections. There is even times where if you're far enough back in line you wont get around on one cycle of the lights! It's rough out there!!
 

[MacabreEternal]

Long weekend for me.  What am I doing?  Nothing.  Going to the vets later to get my cats nails trimmed because she will not let us do it at all, plus she needs bloods doing for her thyroid.  Wedding fayre on Sunday where I get to reverse the day job and be the customer bugging suppliers and haggling rates with them.  

Had a Chinese takeout last night that took two hours to arrive and it tasted like it had been cooked two hours ago as well.  I have some shredded beef left in a gap between two teeth at the back of my mouth like some nefarious reminder of the crime against cuisine that was committed last night.  Fell out with Dominoes recently over a late order that arrived in a sopping wet box and we had to get our money back.  Just going to have to get better at food shopping clearly.

[AlSymerz]

I'd suggest you practise cooking too, it's all good and well to buy the right stuff but you really need to know how it goes together. I've had a bad run cooking slices the last two weeks. They've tasted okay but not really turned out right. Yesterday's was such a screw up I had to spend three hours cleaning the oven today