A Day Trip and a Pilgrimage

My vacation is almost coming to an end..... as I ponder one of the great mysteries of the universe - Why does three weeks of vacation passes more quickly than the equivalent three weeks at work? I conclude, my work place is the site of a time vortex where time slows down to a crawl each time I am there...... hehe..... ;)

Anyway I have pretty well completed most of the difficult tasks involved with cleaning and getting this house in order for my possible moving out. My Danoz steam cleaner has been a real godsend, oh yes you can get good products from those TV info-mercials. Much of it is crap, such as all those fitness equipment, bit sus to me. But there are gems. If not for Sally's fixations of those info-mercials I would have never known about this steam cleaner. Each time I attended to Sally's care needs, more often than not she'd be watching those info-mercials, we have four TV channels devoted almost entirely to these!!! Can you imagine??? FOUR TV channels devoted almost entirely to what is essentially adverts!! Who'd watch them!!??? Well lots of people apparently, Sally being one of them. And at times Sally would say, uhhhh it would be nice to have this, or that..... but of course when 99% of my disposable income were being spent on bandages and other medical expenses, purchasing items off info-mercials were out of the question!!! But I do remember seeing the steam cleaner advertised, and I thought to myself, it be so nice to have one of those, it would make keeping house so much easier especially when much of my time was being spent attending to Sally!!! Well to cut a long story short, after Sally passed away and confronted with the task of getting this house back on order, well I did switch on the info-mercial and did finally purchase one such steam cleaner - and it has been my life saver, it does make cleaning this house much easier, it can be used to clean virtually anything. These days the only reason for watching the info-mercials is to watch the "psychic live" episodes, that is usually late at night, and they have all kinds of live psychic readings - tarots, astrology, past life readings, even tea leaves - you get all sorts of things on there, and well I just find it fascinating, my soul connections with all that is higher dimensional!!

Meanwhile back at the ranch.... or my house as the case may be.... I finished most of the difficult tasks. Finally finished all those venetian blinds. Although the steam cleaner made it easier, the time spent remained the same, being a fiddly and tedious job!!! Then the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, all so full of cockroach stains, but thanks to the steam cleaner, cleaning them was a breeze and they now looks like new cabinets!! All I have left really is the carpets, and that can be steam cleaned using one of the attachments that I gotten with my steam cleaner. And just other minor tasks that can be done over the next four weeks to the end of my lease.

The garden however, well the weather has been the main obstacle, but last Thursday was the first clear day in three weeks so I took advantage of that and did all of the front yard - mowing, edging, weeding, etc. So now just the back yard. It looks like a wet weekend, but expected to be clear the last three days before I go back to work on Thursday. That figures, the weather will clear up and warm up just as I am going back to work!!!!!

The trailer.... well finally got that fixed. When I called Tow-Safe to book the job, the guy warned that there be a $70 call out fee. Well I couldn't exactly take the trailer to the shop, the lights not working, and knowing my luck, I'd be pulled over by the cops and would end up costing me a lot more than the $70!!!! So I was quite willing to wear the $70 fee, especially since I budgeted about $300 in total for the repairs as I thought the whole electricals would need to be replaced!!! Well when the guy finally came out last Wednesday, he would not have been there more than ten minutes!!! It turned out to be a case of the contacts on the globes just needing a clean!!!! If I had known that I could have done the job myself!!! Indeed that is what the guy advised, to check and do the job myself!!!! Anyway the whole affair costed me just $60. The guy charged only $50 for the call out fee, and $10 labour for cleaning the contacts. So now I have a trailer that I can use..... and if I had known about the problem being just dirty contacts I could have fixed and used the trailer a long time ago!!!! Uh well as they say, one lives and learns!! $60 from a budgeted $300 is not bad going!! An extra $240 to go towards moving expenses.

The only major issue left is the shower screens and doors. The hospital had removed the screens and doors with my landlord's permission so that Sally could use the shower with her mobility aids. Tragically Sally never gotten to use the shower!! So now I am left with the task of having the screens put back together again as per lease agreement, and currently trying to arrange help for that.

Now with most tasks finished, it is now play time for the rest of my vacation - my back yard notwithstanding!!!! Yesterday, Friday, was also another clear day so I took the opportunity for a day trip to Wongan Hills!! There's a bit of a story behind this. Last year during one of Sally's stints in hospital, I took the opportunity to do something I haven't been able to do for a long time!! Go on a day trip somewhere!! So I picked Wongan Hills, and there is a reason why the town is called Wongan Hills. There is really a range of hills in among the wheat fields called Wongan Hills and it is set aside as a nature reserve, and as I discovered when I went there, some walk trails!!! The town is a little over 2 hours from Perth by car, so I had gone early in the morning, explored the place, there are a few places to see around there, the hilight being the Wongan Hills reserve. There are two walk trails, a short one and a long one. By the time I gotten there, I had time for only the short trail as I needed to be back in Perth in time to see Sally and bring her dinner - I was forever bringing Sally meals in hospital as the hospital catering service was full of dimwits, one of the fruits of the Liberal govt's privatisation policies!! Politicians being such dimwits, they pass a law that there has to be three tenders, and the govt dept is obligated to pick the cheapest of the three tenders. Politicians does not believe in the saying "one gets what one pays for". The cheapest always means the worst service, and so the unfortunate patients in the public hospitals in Western Australia must contend with sub-standard meal services. Meals are often cold when they finally get the meal, and they don't know what "gluten-free" means, so Sally was often served meals with gluten even though her form states "gluten-free" - hence I often was left with the task of bringing my home cooking to Sally during her hospital stays. So anyway, I only had time for the short walk at Wongan Hills so I could be back in time for Sally's dinner at the hospital. So I had been wanting to go on the longer walk since then, but had no chance to do so..... until now!!!!

So yesterday I drove back up to Wongan Hills specifically so to go on this longer walk, all 9kms of it. And I finally did it!!!! I walked all 9kms of this longer walk!! I took many pixs along the way, they are all on my Instagram account under @gariga888. Just visit the Instagram site and do a search for @gariga888 - there you will see my pixs. My profile is set to public so you don't have to have an account to see it. But the advantage is, when I take the pixs with my phone, it automatically uploads to my Instagram account - so cutting out the task of having to come home, upload pixs to my computer, and posting them on a website!! So just go to my Instagram profile for pixs of my Wongan Hills walk as well as various other pixs from my at times weird musings!! It is also linked to my Twitter account @gariga, so you can see my pixs from there as well. If you have a Twitter profile, just follow me @gariga and you will see my Instagram pixs from there. All simple and much easier to deal with. So anyway, was rather exhausted after my 9km bush walk which including going up and down all those hills!! I went to bed early last night and slept 6 hours straight without waking up!!!! Usually I sleep only 4 hours in total, usually waking up in the night once or twice in the process!! So moral of the story - if I want a decent night sleep, then go on 9kms bush walks!!! After my walk, I drove back into Wongan Hills for the best country lunch ever, the bakery there has the best snacks - I bought a toasted sandwich with chicken and mayo and cheese, and it's better than what I can make!!!! Utterly delicious!!! Pricey, a whole $5 for just one round, but delicious!!! I bring my own soda, my cans of Coke, I have a travel cooler that plugs into the car cig lighter, that keeps my drinks, etc, cool - it keeps things cooler with less ice than the traditional esky. So after my lunch I head back to the big smoke - Perth city and home.

My next day trip will be something of a pilgrimage - to Bruce Rock to see Mother's old farm house. There is a story behind that. Just before Mother was diagnosed with that terminal disease, she and Pasco drove up to Bruce Rock to try find her old house, and it turns out that it is still standing albeit now abandoned. It is one of those things that Mother must have known to do, it was just before her diagnosis, just before she got sick. A few months later, Sally and I were planning to drive up to Kalgoorlie to see her friend there, so I said we would stop off at Bruce Rock to see Mother's house. So before we went on the trip I had gotten directions from Mother. Now Mother is good at many things, but giving directions is not one of them. Let's put it this way, if you want to win a car rally event then DON'T bring Mother for a navigator!! She is no good at reading maps, and get's easily lost even just going around the corner!! - well maybe not quite that bad, but you get the idea.

So anyway, Mother told us that we go on the Merredin-Bruce Rock road, and along there is Belka Road, leading to the settlement of Belka, and along that road we would see Mother's old house. Indeed Mother said you should see TWO houses close to each other, I think one of them was for farm workers, the other being Mother's family home. So armed with this information, we headed towards Kalgoorlie, and when we gotten to Doodlakine which is before Merredin, we turned off to Bruce Rock, mainly cos there was a sign in Doodlakine pointing us to Bruce Rock. And well I wanted to see the town anyway, to see where Mother grew up. So we drove around Bruce Rock for a bit, that didn't take long since it is only a tiny little town, smaller than Augusta, indeed just a little hamlet. In comparison, Merredin is virtually a city, it is a large town, only Northam is larger. The towns in Western Australia are not large to begin with compared to the eastern states, but from our point of view, Merredin is a large town while Bruce Rock is tiny. We passed by the school thinking Mother would have went to that school - she'd often recall stories of her having to walk many miles in 110 degrees F heat to school each day from her farm, there were no school buses in those days and she didn't have a bicycle - she'd recall that story each time we dared to complain that we had to walk around the corner to my Primary school from our estate house while everyone else had bicycles!! - before my 10th birthday when I did finally get a bicycle for myself!!

So after a short time in Bruce Rock, telling Sally many a story, we drove up along the Bruce Rock/Merredin road, looking for this Belka Road. And it wasn't long until we came to such a road, so we naturally thought.... aha!!!!... that's the road!!! We drove along the road back and forth to the little settlement of Belka. Now if Merredin is a "city" compared to the tiny hamlet of Bruce Rock, well compared to Belka which barely qualifies as a "town" with only an abandoned rail station and a couple of other clearly abandoned buildings, Bruce Rock seems positively like a metropolis!!!! Now Mother assured us that there were only one instance of the two abandoned houses along the Belka Road, so all we had to do is drive along the road and if you see two such houses then that be Mother's family home. So in spite of driving up and down the road we could not find two such houses. However there in a wheat field we DID find the foundations of what used to be two houses, they were knocked down, and all that remains in the wheat field were the foundations. So Sally and I concluded that Mother's house was finally knocked down, and Mother was most fortunate to have seen it before it was knocked down.

We then headed back up the Bruce Rock/Merredin road into Merredin, then to Kalgoorlie. Of course Dad lived in Merredin but at the time I didn't know where. I had since gotten that information but that was after our Kalgoorlie trip. However after driving along the Bruce Rock/Merredin road for a bit, I was shocked to see ANOTHER "Belka Road" along the way!!!! I thought.... OMG!!!!!.... did we go up the wrong road!!!??? Mother did NOT say there were TWO Belka Roads!!! Like I say, she is no good at navigating!! I think she assumed we would just go along the road from Merredin and turn up Belka Road from there. I think Sally thought the same. But unfortunately it was getting late and we needed to be in Kalgoorlie by a certain time, so had no chance to drive up this other Belka Road. It turned out we drove up "Belka Road South", and the other road was "Belka Road East", and both met at Belka crossing over each other - basically what consist of this "town" of Belka - it is just where the two roads crosses over, with a rail station and a couple of other buildings!! We figured we should have gone up the East road, not the South.

Our mistake was confirmed when at the next family gathering, Mother did show us her pixs of the house that she took when she went there with Pasco, and the settings were very different. The two houses were among open woodlands, there were no wheat fields. So indeed we hadn't seen Mother's house afterall, and it seems likely the houses would still be there!!!! So Sally and I made a plan to go back to Bruce Rock.....

However of course life happens..... Mother got sick and she passed away, and Sally soon became too sick for day trips into the country, and as they say, the rest is history. Sally never lived to see Mother's house.

So since Sally's death, I had decided that I would go back to Bruce Rock to look for Mother's old house. And well with these last few days of vacation and the weather clearing up next week, I am hopeful to finally be able to make this trip - some 8 years later!!! Hopefully the houses will still be there, a lot can happen in 8 years, but my memory is photographic, I know exactly what the pixs Mother showed me looks like, so if the houses are still there I WILL FIND IT!!!! I just now know in hindsight to travel along the EAST road, not the South road. And according to my Google Earth software, there are some of areas of woodland along this East Road to Belka, so Mother's house will be located within one such area - if indeed it is still there!!!

This trip will take some planning. While Wongan Hills is only 2 hours away, Merredin/Bruce Rock are a full 4 hours drive. My plan is to go there and be back before dark. Now the days are getting longer, this can happen. My plan would be to leave about 5am which is still dark but the first rays of the sun are visible. This will necessitate getting everything ready the previous night, so all I need to do that morning is pick up the bag of whatever I would need which is not much, the travel cooler packed with my Cokes, then embark on this trip. It will start to get light just 30 minutes later, and should arrive at Bruce Rock by 9-10am. This will give me four hours, I will just buy my lunch there, and 2pm would be the latest that I head on back home in order to arrive home before dark - it gets dark about 6:30pm now.

Not only I will look for Mother's house, I will also look for Dad's house since I know have the address to it in Merredin. It will be interesting to see if it is still there or whether it has fallen victim to redevelopments. I guess I will soon find out. According to Google Maps "street view" it looks like the house is still there, but won't really know until I actually visit there. "Street View" on Google Maps is not always accurate, it sometimes shows the wrong house, such as the house next door or down the road!!

At this stage the day planned for this pilgrimage is next Tuesday. It is expected to rain all weekend, and in any case it is a holiday weekend for the Queen's Birthday. So want to avoid the holiday traffic and the coppers. You could go all year without seeing any coppers on the road, the only evidence of any law enforcement would be an occasional speed camera and even then they employ non-police contractors to set up and man the speed cameras!!! However come any holiday weekend there be coppers everywhere!!!! Coppers blitzing every highway and roads inbetween. You'd couldn't go out on a holiday weekend without seeing a copper. And I am a rather paranoid creature, I hate being followed by coppers. If I see a copper behind me, I'd either change lanes or go up the first side street that I come across. I was shocked one fateful day when I turned up a side street, the copper followed me into the street and he pulled me over!!!! It was just a random breath and license check, and on this occasion my shady past did not come to haunt me!!! Nevertheless I freak when I get pulled over by any copper!! So day trips on holiday weekends is NOT a good idea. Then the weather is expected to be clear for most of next week, and in any case the rains often doesn't reach the wheatbelt, which is what the farmers complains about!! - we might get a lot of rain in Perth, but more often than not, they don't reach any further than the hills, or Northam if you're lucky!! And going on Tuesday still gives me the whole day Wednesday recovery time before I go back to work on Thursday. So unless something else crops up, Tuesday is the planned day for this trip.

Another thing is, Merredin is an ET hotspot, many UFO reports seems to originate around this area. Of course I refer to my own experiences, when Sally and I were coming back from Kalgoorlie. On the highway between Merredin and Kellerberrin we were pulled over by a "cop" - I told this story many times before. The cop turned out to be an ET. Although the copper didn't know me from a bar of soap, he swore black and blue that he had seen me before, and he basically predicted that Sally and I would be at a particular church in Perth despite the fact we had never heard of this church nor had any intention whatsoever of visiting this church. After we drove away after the "copper" finished with us, Sally and I both concluded that this copper was not human. Sally thought he was an "angel" in disguise, that is due to Sally's religious beliefs. Me however concluded he was an ET. So while our conclusions differed according to our religious/spiritual beliefs, we were in agreement with at least the fact that this copper was not human!!!! And well, to cut a long story short, by extraordinary circumstances, Sally and I DID visit this church three months later for a concert - and the building which the church occupies is haunted. It is the old theatre in Beaufort Street, it had been used by various churches and denominations since then. It IS haunted, and I did see ETs in among the stage fixtures up in the ceiling above the concert stage!!! But this ET experience between Merredin and Kellerberrin happened during the time when I was investigating with a friend in Melbourne about the very strange Orange Light UFO that I saw back in 1980 - what had changed my life. This friend also had an Orange Light UFO experience, hers was in Melbourne in the Dandenongs. So we were both investigating this phenomenon when Sally and I had this experience!!! I later learned that Merredin is an ET/UFO hotspot!! It seems various people in the area has regularly experienced strange phenomena in the area. Me being a contactee, well anything can and probably will happen when I visit the area this Tuesday!!!!!

Lastly.... there is a reason why Bruce Rock is called Bruce Rock!! There is indeed some rock formations just out of town that is indeed called "Bruce Rock"!!! So the opportunity to engage in my geological pursuits, my fascination for rocks and geological formations. A visit to those rocks will be on my agenda for this visit to Bruce Rock.

In choosing this song for today, I think back to the influence of religion shaping our family circumstances. Religion can be our greatest friend - as long as our lives falls within the rules of the religion. But as we all know, "life happens" and it doesn't always fall within the rules of religion, and when that happens, as our family history proves, it can be our greatest enemy, destined to make life far more difficult than need be..... So just imagine there is no religion.... believe it or not such a day is coming... and we shall all know, there is no Heaven above, and no Hell below us, no place of eternal suffering..... the current sufferings on earth seems eternal, the Hell is indeed on this earth not below it..... anyway enjoy this song, and enjoy what life will be like in the future hopefully not too far away.......

My "vacation" continues.....

Sunday evening.... and we met at Pasco's place, Mother's old abode, for afternoon tea for both my birthday and for Pasco just returning from his 3-weeks trip to Thailand. I gotten another model building kit of a space craft for my birthday, this an interplanetary ship. I'm hoping to find a kit that looks just like my ship, you know, the ship of my star kins that I have seen on occasion, a few of my many UFO sightings..... but anyway, am pleased with this one nonetheless. A pix of the kit is on my Instagram account @Gariga888, indeed my daily musings are on my Twitter @Gariga which I often link to Instagram, I also talk about my walks, as well as the lunar phases, solar activity on the Sun and Astrology, as well as my more mundane and boring aspects of my day to day life.

It was just a small group of us at Pasco's, including his sister Teresa, and then Debra & Linda, and of course Justin and Mandy. We watching our local WAFL Grand Final with East Perth against West Perth, and West ended up winning the Premiership. I probably have better luck following the WAFL competition though my local team the Demons didn't do too well either..... Then snacks and the obligatory birthday cake, chocolate of course.... my 2nd birthday cake.

Then we went to see Justin and Mandy's new house, still in the process of being built but is almost finished, indeed they are in the "lockup" phases, that is, the house itself is basically finished and secured, but just now needing to do the interior, the flooring, carpets, etc. I knew they were building a house courtesy of help from Pasco and originally Mother, but this is the first time I actually saw it, and OMG very impressive and absolutely huge!!! About the same size as the bottom level of Pasco's house, but only a single storey nevertheless utterly huge!! It is indeed a luxury house with mod cons that I didn't even knew existed!! And it is so big that there is even a room for Mandy's Salon business, she works as a mobile Salon, visiting people to do their hair, but in this new house she will have a base of operations!! This house is a legacy of Justin's privileged situation compared to mine. Life did get better when Mother met Pasco and got married, but while I grew up in hell and poverty, Justin was born into this privileged life, he never had to experience the hell and poverty that I did. And the house does go to show that if you are born into basically a more privileged life then you are basically set for life. Pasco works as a house supervisor, and he is supervising the building of Justin's house, and of course working in the industry does have its perks - in the same way that the Kardinya house, that is Mother's old house, was able to be built for far cheaper back in the 1980's - and back then the house was the most modern with very modern mod-cons for the 1980's. When I moved into the Kardinya house from our old Wilson abode in the housing estate, it was like moving into Buckingham Palace!!! But in comparison to the Kardinya house, Justin's house seems more like the Gina Rhinehart's residence!! And in addition to the help courtesy of Pasco's housing company, Justin also had help from Pasco and Mother in securing the loan to pay for the house and land.

So while Justin and Mandy are being set up for life in the lap of luxury thanks to his privileged beginnings, Debra and Linda are also doing very well for themselves in the housing stakes. Today prior to visiting Justin's new house, Debra showed us the plans for their new abode in Yokine - not far from where I live. Their new house is not quite as luxurious as Justin's, nevertheless Debra and Linda are being set up for life thanks to the housing crisis. They both have jobs so can pool in resources for the housing loan, they bought a land in Yokine, it already has an old house on it, but had recently won council approval to knock down the house and build TWO homes on the land, both 3-bedroom abodes. They will live in one of them, the front one, and the other one they will rent out. And due to the housing crisis they can justifiably rent out the 2nd new house at the rear of their property for $600/wk!! That will pretty well pay for the loan repayments.

As for me..... well no such luck for me.... who it seems is about to evicted from my current rental, and destined to live a nomadic lifestyle in relatively "cheap" apartment units - "cheap" in this housing crisis meaning between $260/wk to $300/wk - just for one-bedroom apartments out in the boonies!!! My spirit name is "Wandering Wolf" so indeed I am destined to be a wanderer, never to have a home to call my own, but to be wandering from place to place, a nomad, indeed a vagabond, ever at the mercy of the whims of landlords and other beneficiaries. Indeed I am the black sheep of my earth family, I always have been, and I always will be - as far as Mother's side of the family anyway.

And speaking of preparing for the move out of this house, my plans for cleaning the house is pretty well on track. I have now done four windows of venetian blinds leaving just one window to do, that I will probably do tomorrow. Then to tackle the kitchen and bathroom cupboards. The kitchen cupboards are already empty, the contents now in a couple of boxes and will probably stay in them - not much point in putting them back in the cupboards if I am going to move out in as little as six weeks!!! So will tackle the cockroach stains in the cupboards, but with my steam cleaner it is expected to be much easier. After that the carpets, and that will pretty well take care of the bulk of the cleaning, leaving only a few smaller jobs and maintenance until the time comes for the eviction.

Thanks to this winter weather the garden and yard is more of a battle. With limited opportunities to mow the lawns due to the weather, the weeds are growing faster than I can keep up with. And since it has been raining every day for now over three weeks with no end in sight, I cannot apply weed killers to the pavement and path areas. The weed killer needs 24 hours without rain for it to be effective, and for over three weeks we have NOT had a 24-hour period without rain. The longest we went without rain would be half a day - eg a clear morning followed by rain in the afternoon, or clear night followed by rain the next morning!! This weather is utterly amazing if somewhat annoying!!! I don't ever remember it being this much rain for a very long time. Well I did complain through Winter that it never rains!!! I guess it's the case of be careful what you wish for!!!! I am almost expecting to see an old man building a large boat somewhere ready to take in the animals two by two!!!!!

This week is my last full week of vacation, so I will arrange to get the trailer fixed. I will need the trailer for moving my belongings when the time to move comes. The lights are not working. So will arrange for someone to come to the house to fix the trailer. The funds are in place, now just need someone to come and do the repairs. Then this will be a major step in being more prepared for moving out.

Anyway..... other things..... last Saturday morning was one such occasion when it didn't rain, indeed the Sun came out for more than a few minutes, so I took the opportunity to go for my walk. This time I went to Perry Lakes, and I discovered Bold Park across the way, so from Perry Lakes I walked on into Bold Park!!! And what a gem I discovered!!!! It has been said that Bold Park is bigger than the more famous King's Park, and indeed it is so. It is one of Perth's hidden jewels. Everyone knows about King's Park, but knowledge of Bold Park is less common!!! It is absolutely huge!!! And it is almost completely natural bush criss crossed with many many miles of walking tracks!! King's Park has a significant portion that is developed, with large area of man-made parklands, lawns, etc..... but Bold Park is almost completely undeveloped. Once I wandered into Bold Park it was as if I am out in the country among bushland!! It is also hilly, and I love my hills. There is indeed a lookout on one of the high hills but I haven't yet walked to the lookout. As well as being bigger than King's Park, the highest of the hills are higher than Mt Eliza upon which King's Park is situated. But the park is so large with so many walk trails that I could go there for the next ten walks and go somewhere different each time!!! And this is exactly what I am going to do..... the next several walks will be in Bold Park. It is also close to the ocean with only a highway separating the western edge of the park from the beach, so if I walked far enough into the park, I'd be able to at least look at the ocean. I had entered the park from the eastern side, and didn't yet walk to the other side. But yes it is indeed a jewel near the center of Perth. And as much of a secret jewel as it is, there were still more the enough other people who knows about this, with every car park on the outskirts of the park being almost full with cars, but such as the size of the park that during my walk through there I would not have met more than five other different walking groups - from singles to groups up to four people!!

As for my birthday, that was last Friday, and well it was just another day. Cleaned one more of the venetian blinds, went to the shops, to the mailbox to check my mail, and had a chocolate birthday cake delivered to me courtesy of Barbara who ordered it from Tasmania!! So this with today's cake makes it two yummy mud chocolate cakes!! Chocolate is indeed the way to my heart ;) But I am more than satisfied with my birthday haul - the model building kit of an interplanetary space craft and a total of $200 which will be very helpful in my preparation for the possible moving out of this house.

Last but not least, speaking of the possible move, my landlord did pay me a visit last Thursday. He didn't give much away in regards to my possible eviction, he just gave me the change of banking details in which the rent is to be paid into. It was previously paid into the owners' bank account, but since they passed away (hence the apparent plan to sell the house), the account was closed down, so now needs to be paid into the landlord's account, that just a matter of going onto my account website and changing the details for the automatic payment. Thankfully the landlord seems pleased with my cleaning efforts - I should bloody think so!!!!!! The last significant thing he said was..... my lease ends in November, and then he will "talk to me" about the lease when it ends...... hmmmmm not much of a shrink, so take that statement as you will..... but given that he has to by law give at least three weeks' notice, I may hopefully be able to stay here for at least that much longer...... it does seem that he won't just suddenly hand me the notice, he will "talk to me" beforehand - hopefully may mean I can get a few more weeks tenancy out of him giving me that vital extra time before I have to move out!! But as Virgo as I am, I am nevertheless preparing for this impending move, even if by some slim chance the move may not happen just yet.

Now currently watching the Grand Prix and it looks like Vettel will win yet again, he is an absolute legend..... I wonder if he listened to Suzi Quatro back in his childhood.... LOL.... down the Devil's Gate drive!!!! haha!!!.....

Week 1 of vacation

Now tonight - Wednesday evening - begins the first day of Succot which commemorates the Jews' trek through the wilderness. Those of us old enough to remember RE classes at school, here as I grab my walking stick LOL, we remember how they would always read the story of the Jews' trek through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Well Jews lives through this story each year through their holidays, from Passover through to Succot, each holiday commemorating an aspect of their epic journey through the wilderness after their escape from Egypt. As part of Succot the Jews build temporary wooden structures known as Sukkahs, to remind them that they were wanderers who dwelt in temporary abodes in the wilderness. Here as I ponder my impending eviction from this house, I have always been a wanderer, a nomad, from apartment to apartment, about to embark on this lifestyle once again........

So much has happened this first week of vacation. Every day it has rained. In fact it has rained every day this September, close to the wettest September on record. I think we will end up with more rain in September than the whole of Winter!! Here I was complaining we never get any rain!!!! Now we getting too much rain!! LOL!!!! The universe has a sense of humor!! LOL!!

Anyway last Thursday the Valuer did pay me a visit, a little earlier than expected but didn't mind that at all, I wanted this out the way so have the rest of the day to myself pondering on the implications of having to move out. So he came, measured the various parts of the property with his tape measure, and taking a wee bit more pixs with his digital than I wanted. I didn't know he'd be taking pixs, many of the pixs were inside the house with my belongings in view, etc. Uh well, such is life, as long as he wasn't working for the FBI or the MIB team investigating my connections with ETs and UFOs!!! LOL!!

Since then I had up to now no more words nor dealings with the landlord nor any other agent, so I went to work on my plans, to spend a couple of hours each day cleaning the house and yard, beginning with the most intense jobs first - cleaning the oven which hasn't been cleaned in over a year. I bought two cans of oven cleaner for this task which did the hard work for me, all I needed to do was to wait a few minutes then simply wipe out the oven, and it is now like a new oven.

Saturday was Yom Kippur, and then Sunday I begin the next task - all those venetian blinds, a total pain in the arse to clean, having to deal with each slat at a time. However this is where my steam cleaner comes in handy. I first run the steamer over the slats which takes the hard work out of removing two years of dust and crap, then I just wipe it with a damp cloth, and about two hours later for each window, it is like a new set of venetian blinds. The steamer doesn't actually save time, it takes just a long to clean them, but it does save the elbow grease, so I don't end up with a sore back!! Anyway the three bedroom windows, the dinning room window and living room window has the venetian blinds. So starting with the dinning room window I do one each day, though the living room window I do over two days as that is a large area, more than twice the size as any of the other windows.

So Sunday morning I finished up the dinning room window within a couple of hours early in the morning, and it turned out to be a sunny morning after the past two days of storms, high winds and heavy rains. So I drove the short distance to Lake Monger and I walked around the lake, a distance of 3.9 kms according to my phone app which tracks my progress using the GPS. Would have done my Mother proud LOL, before she got sick Mother would go for walks every day. Anyway the sunshine didn't last. Soon after I gotten back home around lunchtime the rains returned!! This seems so hard to believe after the near driest Winter, it now rains every day, I am beginning to wonder if it will ever stop raining!!

Monday the weather was relatively clear again, so I took the opportunity to do some much needed yard work, mowing the large expanse of the back yard, mostly of weeds! LOL! The back yard is so large that I usually mow the lawn half at a time, but this time I did the whole yard, followed by a bit of weeding and sweeping the path..... all before the rains returned!!!! That was my work for the day, a little over two hours that day.

Tuesday I did one half of the living room venetian blind, and today Wednesday the other half. Then I went to the shops for a spot of grocery shopping. I also searched online for someone to fix my trailer, the lights and electricals are not working. I think I found someone who will fix the trailer, I understand they come out on site either at home or work to fix the trailer. So will wait until after my birthday this Friday to arrange for trailer repairs, cos I think I may possibly have visitors on that day. I will need the trailer to move my many belongings, moving house will very much be DYI.

Now I have three more windows to do, the three bedroom windows done over three days, but each is smaller than the dinning room or the half living room window, so it shouldn't take me long to clean each one. Next after that will be the kitchen and bathroom cupboards, getting rid of all those cockroach stains but again with the steam cleaner it should be a breeze. Meanwhile I am waiting for the next clear day, or at least a clear morning, so to tackle the front yard, fortunately about half the size of the back yard, and easier to maintain. The lawn just needs cutting again.

Tomorrow - Thursday - is the first day of Succot, and according to the forecast on my weather app on my phone, it should be "mostly cloudy" with just a chance of rain up to 9am, then "mostly clear" for the rest of the day. So just maybe I will be able to go for another walk, I hadn't been on any more walks since Monday due to the weather.

Then Friday is the day this planet completes its 50th circuit around the Sun since the start of my current incarnation - the start of my life on this planet! I had never celebrated my birthday since Mother's death, and also that I was busy dealing with Sally's health issues, too busy being home nurse to Sally. My birthday just reminds me that Mother is no longer here, and it is rather depressing the thought of turning 50. So I am gonna treat it as just another day, either cleaning one of the bedrooms venetians, or mowing the front lawn depending on the weather.

Now to keep things in perspective in regards to birthdays. One's "age" is simply a numerical value being the number of trips one's home  planet has made around its parent star since one's birth. Here on Earth, it is the number of trips the Earth has made around the Sun. Obvious this numerical value will be different for each planet, since the period of time taken for each trip around the star will be different for each planet. So with me being 50 Earth years, here below are the planets of this Solar System and my "age" if I was born on any of these planets.....

Mercury - 208 - sheeze I feel like that some days!!!!
Venus - 80 - where's my walking stick!!!!?

Mars - 26 - I wish!!!!! *sigh*
Jupiter - 4.2 - Just in kindergarten!!!
Saturn - 1.7 (20 mths) - Still in my diapers!!
Uranus - 0.6 (7 mths) - Just crawling
Neptune - 0.3 (3 mths) - Still breast feeding - yummy!! hehe!!
Pluto - 0.2 (2 mths) - Just laying in the cot being a pain!!

So Mars will be my planet of choice since I would be a very young age of 26 years if I was born on Mars. But no I will not be applying to join the Mars One mission!! Oh yes some private enterprise is planning to send humans to Mars in ten years from now with the goal of colonising the planet, their progress being followed on TV in the form of a TV reality show. The catch is, it will be a one way trip, there is no return trip back to Earth!! Now I might be crazy but I am not THAT crazy. But apparently there has been over 200 000 applications for this mission, that means, 200 000 people wanting to make this one way trip to Mars never to return to Earth for the rest of their lives!! Its not that the trip isn't well thought out. The plan is to first use robots to set up the living quarters, each of the initial four people will each have a pod about half the size of my current house, still relatively roomy, and each interconnected by passageways. Then every two years or so, four more people will join them, thus making a sprawling little Martian equivalence of a village. Of course they would have to grow their own food, etc, and you couldn't just go outside for a walk - well you could but would need a space suit which everyone will have. But... nah.... as much as I would enjoy paying Mars a visit and perhaps staying there for a while, I would prefer the option of going back to Earth!!! Anyway you can read all about it here..... http://www.mars-one.com/en/

Speaking of space travel there is the possibility of ET contacts. Many astronauts have had UFO sightings and other contacts with ETs, they're just not allowed to talk about them! Well being a Contactee myself I do know they exist...... and so I finish with this video by Karen Carpenter.....

Soon the holidays but no holiday for me

Just another day before I go on leave this Thursday just in time for Yom Kippur on Saturday then Succot from next Thursday on the Full Moon. In years gone by before Sally got sick we would go on vacation each year for the eight days of Succot, to spend the time away from home as the holiday commemorate the Jews' trek through the wilderness when they were away from their homes and living in temporary accommodations - the English name for the holiday is "Festival of Booths", and the Jews celebrate it by building wooden booths and spending time in there, having meals and even sleeping in them if the weather permits. Anyway, Succot in 2009 was our last ever vacation, it was when we went to Exmouth and went whale watching - one of my favorite past times. Whales and dolphins are my star kins from Sirius and the Pleiades, and I feel a connection with them. Exmouth also has the tallest communication towers in the southern hemisphere, what I call the UFO towers, I won't go into why.... but anyway Exmouth was it turned out our last ever vacation with Sally..... in 2010 we didn't go anywhere mainly cos Mother was so close to death and we didn't expect her to make it to Xmas. Of course she did make it to Xmas only to pass away the following January. Then 2011 Sally's health took that nasty turn, and so no more vacation during 2011 and 2012 for obvious reasons. And this year the focus will be on moving house..... I need to save my pennies for that possible end so no vacations this year, not that I'd wanna go on my own anyway, though I may consider it, I seem destined to be on my own for a while yet...... that is another story altogether.

So anyway, the Valuer pays me a visit this Thursday, the first day of my holidays, but he is coming early in the morning and expected to spend less than 30 minutes, leaving the rest of the day to me. I plan to finally take back the equipment to the hospital - the shower chair, the commode, and the walker frame. The hospital has been wanting them back for a while, but the opening hours of the equipment section coincides with my work hours, so had no opportunity to take them back. So this Thursday will be it, and it will get them out of the house so to better prepare for the move. The only other item will then be the recliner chair but it is too big to fit into the car, so the hospital will have to arrange to send a truck to come pick it up, and since I will be on leave for three weeks, that should not be a problem. Being close to 1.5 metres wide it is a huge chair that takes up a lot of space in the living room, so to have that gotten rid of will be most helpful in getting myself organised for the move. So that will be the focus for this Thursday will be to get the hospital equipment returned, and I am sure they will be most happy to have them back after all this time!!!!

Then for the rest of the holidays, my goal is to get the trailer repaired and the shower screen put back together again. On most of the remaining days I will spend the first couple of hours on a yard or house duty, to get this place cleaned up and in order a little bit at a time to avoid any last minute rush. Us Virgos like to be well prepared for any possible eventualities! ;) My goal is by the end of the holidays the house and garden will be ready for that final inspection. Since I am back at work on 3 October, this still potentially leaves it another month before I will have to move out, and more than likely will not have received any official notice as the landlord legally needs only to give a 3-weeks notice. My Virgo tendencies however ensures I will be far more prepared so not quite so stressed. By then all I would need to do is get a loan to cover the bond and advance rent payment, rent some storage space, and find an apartment. The latter will be the most difficult and stressful in the midst of this housing crisis.

It happens that I already begun on my tasks. Last Sunday I spent much of the day on the first of the chores. I steam mopped the bathroom floor, cleaned the windows in the living room and kitchen/dinning, and gave the oven its first clean in two years!! I went through two cans of oven cleaner in the process, but due to my Virgo tendency for perfection the oven is almost like new again. It will need another clean just before I move out but it won't nearly be such hard work!! In regards to cleaning the windows I discovered that the sliding windows can be removed, indeed very easily removed!! That is a scary thought!! If I can easily remove them, then so can any teen no-hoper intent on breaking into the house!! Of course it is those flimsy aluminium windows that is very common. Fortunately we have the security grilles in front of those windows, which was why I needed to remove them in the first place. But nearly all of the apartments I looked at so far has no security grilles. I will have to deal with that problem when the time comes. Anyway suffice to say for now, the living room and kitchen/dinning windows are now like new. I also swept the back porch and pavement areas. So made a pretty good start to my preparations.

Other news..... I am finally over my cold/flu *touch wood* but will keep up with my diet of a serve of garlic potatoes each day, which in time will be replaced on occasions by garlic bread, or whatever else has garlic in it. I do not want to go through this ever again!!!! I get too depressed and suicidal when sick!!

And last Saturday I went for my walk, this time down at Serpentine Dam, my first trip there in several years. Now that I visited all of the major dams in the hills, I am not sure where my next walk will be. I will decide closer to the weekend. It will depend on the weather, with storms expected later this week.

Now for a random song..... another of my favorite from the 1970s..... before there was such a nasty critter as political correctness.... hehe... haha..... enjoy!!!!!

Shana Tova

Today 5 Sept was Rosh HaShanah the Jewish New Year, and we traditionally greet each other "Shana Tova" which means wishes for a "good year", this as distinct from a "happy year". To wish one a "good year" is wishing one to fulfil one's purpose in the universe even if the journey is not always paved in happiness. Nevertheless one must realise that there is order and chaos in the universe and our purpose are not always fulfilled. Whatever remains unfulfilled within a current lifetime will be revisited in a future lifetime. My journey into the unknown continues.......

I have been off work today for Rosh HaShanah. I am back at work tomorrow, but I will be off work again for about three weeks from 12 September, taking in the rest of the Jewish holidays - either my ancestry through Mother, or my incarnations - I am tending towards the latter, incarnated from a past life as a Jew.

Things it seems are moving quickly with my apparent impending move from this house. I will indeed be receiving a visit from a Valuer next week, 12 September to be exact, which happens to be the first day of my leave. Thankfully he is coming early in the morning and expected to be here for less than 30 minutes, so it leaves me the rest of the day to ponder on the implications of this.

I have spent about 11 years in this same locality living in three different houses, the 1st for only 6 months, the one across the road for 7 years, then the house next door - my current house - for nearly 3 years. All this is on a hill and at the top of the hill is a park, and prior to Mother's death I'd go to this park where I communicate telepathically with my ET star kins, usually in the ship above but occasionally they'd land - usually tall slender blue beings, the Pleiadeans. I do see them and I am not on any drugs!! LOL!! However since Mother's death I hadn't been to this park, mostly due to Sally's health afflictions and me being virtually a full time carer nurse, no energy remaining for any other pursuits. It makes me wonder if there was a purpose in this. Not all things happens for a purpose, there is order and chaos in the universe, and sometimes things happens just as manifestation of this chaos. Sally's afflictions being I believe a case in point. Sally had often talk about purposes in her life, albeit from a Christian viewpoint, but it was how she understood it. Very obviously her purposes were not fulfilled. This having been said, there has been some order in the midst of chaos. Sally's hospital admissions and discharges from Charlie Gardiners has always been within a day of either a New Moon or Full Moon peak, and her death occurred within hours of the Full Moon peak. Meanwhile during my absence from the park, the park had been somewhat redeveloped with a playground now built at the spot where I used to meet my star kins!! It seems the Rockingham area is my most likely destination for my next abode, so likely I be close to the beach, the perfect spot for ET meetings. Of course I learned a long time ago not to presume on my future, there is likely to be more twists and turns in the next two months, and I may probably end up in the most unlikely of spots!!

Now two things of next priority that must happen to get myself ready for the move - having the shower put back together, and getting the trailer fixed.

The shower.... just before Sally's death we had gotten permission from the landlord to dismantle the shower screens and doors so that Sally could use it with her mobility aids. Then the hospital tradies came and dismantled the shower screen and installed the curtain rod. Tragically Sally never gotten to use the shower, and now it is left for me to have the shower put back together again. I have to source a tradie to do the job without being ripped off, but I do have help, Sylvia who does have contacts.

The trailer.... I have a 4x6 trailer with the metre high steel walls all around, perfect for moving my furniture when the time comes to move out. But just one niggly problem.... the electrics are out of action, none of the lights works. This was to be attended to a couple of years ago, but Sally's sickness gotten in the way, so like everything else in my life, this was put on hold. The quoted repair bill at the time was $250 which included the trailer being picked up on a truck. But with inflation I imagine by now it be closer to $300 but still much cheaper than hiring a removalist company. My goal is to get these two things attended to during my holidays. Then I be more or less set to move out......

The Federal Elections this weekend..... and we face the terrifying prospect of a devout Roman Catholic leading this country, it will be worse than having George Bush as President. When religion gets in the way catastrophe always follows, Hitler is proof of that, he belonged to the same religion as our likely next Prime Minister. We brace for what may lie ahead. I already done my bit to try make sure this doesn't happen. We used the postal vote option for the past few years due to Sally's health issue. This time I went for the postal vote option as usual, this time citing "religious" reasons though in reality it has nothing to do with "religion" but my Jewish incarnation - not wishing to vote on the Sabbath. It is said that "religious" people are afraid of going to hell, but "spiritual" people have already been to hell. I am of the latter, the 8 years of hell being the Colin years, the hell years of 1994/5, and the years since Mother's death being cases in point. There is no hell except on earth. I am definitely not religious but I do like to follow some Jewish traditions.

Alas I hit a snag..... i forgotten that I need a bloody witness for the ballot paper signature for the postal vote. Previously Sally and I simply witnessed each other. But that option is no longer available. Now WHY one needs a witness to a signature is utterly beyond me. But as I always said, the law exists for one of three reasons - for the benefit of the govt, banks, or big business - and often more than one of these. And postal votes are a pain in the arse for politicians when they want to know as soon as possible whether they won their seats, since the postal votes often arrives into the following week. So they want to make that option as inconvenient as possible to weed out all those but ones who really needs that option. I chose the other option, early voting. So after work last Wednesday I fronted up at our early voting center, and it was a breeze, I didn't even have to give a reason for the early voting, they just handed me the ballot papers after giving my name, and I did my bit as seemingly futile it is destined to be.

One advantage of early voting is you're not bugged by party volunteers handing out how-to-vote cards. I don't follow them anyway, I have my own rules when it comes to voting. The Senate vote is easy enough, I vote the Greens. I have no time for the major parties, all they care about is money. The Greens have better priorities, there are more important things in life than money and budget surpluses. For the Rep vote I follow these simple rules, the top vote goes to the Greens, followed by non-Christian minor parties and independents in order from "left" viewpoints to "right", then the two major parties, Labor before Liberals, then the Christian parties last. This is a secular democracy not a theocracy. With Abbot seemingly destined to win, a Greens balance of power may be the only thing preventing Australia from becoming a virtual theocracy!!

Now if Alice Cooper was to run in the election..... imagine having him as Prime Minister..... wow!!!!!

Round 23 - This is the end.......

As goes the legendary Jim Morrison song.... this is the end!!!!!! And I am kinda glad it is all over for this has been a dismal year that is best forgotten..... Port Adelaide and Essendon letting me down on this occasion... grrrrrrrrr..... and the Maggies being abducted by aliens.... not good.... so not good!!!!! The bright spot is another thrashing of the Weavils!!!! hehehe!!!!! So as those Weavils are destined to be watching the Finals from the sidelines, just perhaps reality will finally set in.... perhaps karma biting in the arse.... it is what happens when you try to rely on the misfortune of another to make it into the Finals!!!! At least the Maggies earned their way into the Finals the proper way.... alien abductions notwithstanding!!!! haha!!!!

So I finished in 7th spot, a full two points behind 6th, and a massive six points behind the leader.

So my mantra for the Finals series..... GO MAGGIES!!!!!!!!!

The Big Move Coming

Being so utterly depressed with this very stubborn cold/flu with reports from those of similar afflictions having to deal with the cough for a whole month, I swore I would commit suicide if I had to contend with this nasty cough for a month!!!! But as often happens in desperate situations, bright ideas pops up out of the blue, and in this instance, garlic!! So I had baked myself some garlic potatoes, one of Mothers specialty, and been having it with at least one meal. And *touch wood* there has been noticeable improvements in my symptoms. The cough is less frequent, and it was to the point where I was able to go for my walk yesterday, this time at Wungong Dam in Bedfordale.

Anyway the big news of the week is what I feared is about to come to pass. I may have mentioned before that the owner of this house has recently passed away, so as usually is the case, such as with Sally's father, the house is sold and the proceeds are divided up among the siblings. In Sally's instance this is why we have a near-new car and a new fridge and large flat screen TV!! Now in this instance, this house seems destined to be sold and the proceeds divided up among the two siblings - my landlord and his brother!!

Last Friday evening the landlord's brother paid me a visit and informed me that a Valuer is about to come to this his, and the the Valuer would shortly contact me to arranged a mutually convenient time for him to come and inspect the house. Now this can mean only one thing..... that indeed I will have to be moving out at the end of the lease as the house is to be sold.

The lease ends on 5 November so I still have a couple of months yet, but being a Virgo I like to be prepared. Us Virgos does not like surprises, we like to be in control of our destiny, or at least as in control as humanely possible.

First thing was to see just how bad is this housing crisis that we are forever hearing about in the media, with unfortunate souls even with reasonable jobs having to live in tents or in cars cos there is nowhere for them to live, and as per the tendencies of the media, families with children are often highlighted in such reports - whole families being forced to live out the back of their car cos their previous landlord wanted to sell their previous rental property - exactly the situation I am in!!!! Only that I am not married with children so my plight will never make it to the 6:00pm News nor the 6:30pm Current Affairs program!!!

So I googled for a Realty and went on one site for a list of rentals in Perth starting from the cheapest rate upwards. Well there are plenty of accommodation around, that is the first thing. The first few pages of the cheapest were for shared accommodation, rooms for rent, etc. Being single does have it's high points, one that I can be more flexible in my accommodation needs. Obviously such an option would not work for a family with kids hence their homelessness, but it could conceivably work for me. And the weekly rates starts from $50/wk. However I am a fiercely independent soul, I prefer my own space and privacy, and that being more than just a single room where I would have to share laundry, cooking, fridge space, bathrooms, etc. Now if it means the difference between a roof over my head and living on the streets, I would take shared accommodation, but it is definitely not my ideal choice!!

So I scrolled on until I reached the more independent style of living - flats and apartments where I can more be the master of my own destiny. Rents for such places started from $260/week and that is for one-bedroom flats with shared laundry facility on the outskirts of the metropolitan area!!! That was the first clue that we are indeed in a housing crisis!!! My current rent for this mid-size 3-bedroom 1950s style bungalow on a 1/4 acre block of land about 5 miles from the city center is $300/week which is below market rates. Most here are paying upwards from $450/week for the same age and style house and even more for new units and villas that are popping up in the place of these older houses in my area!!! The only reason why I am getting off cheaply is I am renting privately rather than through an agency. Sally and I have been most fortunate in recent years, we had been getting off cheap in the housing stakes in spite of the housing crisis!! However with Sally gone (as well as Mother) the feeling is my luck is about to evaporate!!

Back in the days of my more nomadic lifestyle living in flats and apartments, some INNER CITY flats such as in North Perth or South Perth were going for as cheap as $60/week!! That was only 15 years ago so you can see how badly the housing crisis have affected rentals!!!! My last apartment before going to America was a 2nd level apartment in South Perth with two bedrooms, own laundry facility, and security grills on windows and doors on walkway and balcony, and river views!!!!... and my rent was only $115/week!! However when I stopped my current search after reaching the pages for $300/week rentals, we were still looking at flats and apartments on the outskirts of the metro area (ie 15 to 20 miles from city center) though slightly better ones, such as, own laundry and two bedrooms rather than one!!!

So I guess it is a comfort to know that I can still find a place at a comparable rate to what I am already paying, however, it seems I will have to give up my ideal of inner city living and settle for living out on the boon docks!! LOL! So to confront an evil that I despise!!! - the commute to work!!! I despise commuting which is one reason why I try to live as close to the city as I can, I work in West Perth and it currently takes me less than 15 mins to drive to and from work outside of peak. I leave for work after 6:30am and stopping off at the newsagent to get the newspaper, I arrive at work by 6:50am. Of course there is hardly any traffic at that time of day. However with most of the apartments being in the Rockingham/Safety Bay area, it seems I will have to get use to the idea of the long commute - I would probably have to leave at 6am in order to arrive at work by 7am that is assuming there is no traffic. These days the Freeway goes past this area, and my workplace in West Perth is just off the end of the West Perth off-ramp, so it will be a straightforward commute, just an excruciatingly long commute even if there are no traffic - and that is the great unknown!! There is no traffic on Wanneroo Rd at 6:30am which is why I leave for work at that time, but it remains to be seen if the same is true for the Kwinana Freeway!!

Not to mention of course the higher petrol bill!!! Petrol being so expensive, it is going to cost me a fortune!!! Of course there is public transport. These days the train line goes through Rockingham, indeed to as far as Mandurah. However I did my sums, and as expensive as petrol is, it is still cheaper than taking public transport!! The only instance where public transport becomes cost effective is if one has to pay for parking. However in spite of its inner city location, parking is free at my workplace, indeed I can park virtually right outside my office! No competition!! The private car wins over the public transport anyday!!

Then there are other considerations. I would prefer own laundry facility to communal, not only because of my fierce independence and utter disdain for having to share and compromise with other people, but my past experiences with apartment living is that there are never enough washing machines in communal laundries!! In one apartment block of 16 units there was only ONE little machine!!! And it was forever being used by someone else when I go down there to check on it, so was forced to resort to hand washing in my kitchen sink!!!! So own laundry facility is a preference even if it means slightly higher rents, it is still comparable to what I am paying now.

Furthermore - security measures. In a city whose crime rate is higher than that of New York City, home security is an absolute necessity!!! It is not a luxury!! My current house has security grilles on windows and a security door on all three of our entry points! This has saved us on at least one occasion from a break and enter - the prowler who at first knocked on our door at 11pm then went around to the back to try get in!! I opened the front door but NOT the security door. Many a home invasion victim was because the knock on the door was answered and the intruder forced his way in, or in some cases he doesn't bother with knocking, he just kicks the door in. However such victims were always without the security door (or was foolish enough to also unlock the security door!!!). Not me!! The security door remained most firmly locked!!! However most landlords seems to think we still live in the 1950s when we could get away with leaving doors and windows open at night!!! Many of the cheaper flats and apartments had no security grilles whatsoever, though some had at least a security door. That would be an absolute minimum requirement for me, a security door!! Granted many of the flats were on upper levels where one could get away without security grilles on windows - except on walkways and balconies! You'd be surprised how many breakins there are through upper level balconies, but it is usually where the occupant were blissfully unaware of the risks of leaving upper balcony doors open!! But even on ground floor units I could live without grilles on windows but it depends on the type of windows. Those modern but flimsy aluminium window frames where even I can break into, well a security grill is absolutely necessary there. Ironically the older style wooden windows with the latches are actually more secure being more difficult to break into. My current house has the aluminium windows in spite of it being a 1950s house, but there are security grilles on all of the windows.

So anyway it looks like I will be able to find a place for comparable rents even if it means living out in the boonies. Indeed flats and apartments do have their high points. Less housekeeping, less cleaning, etc. And most importantly, no gardens!!!!` I do not share my Mother's love for gardening. Many a fight with Mother in my childhood has been over the issue of helping in the garden!! I didn't mind mowing lawns, but I despised weeding and raking up leaves!!! Edging I also despised, having to use an axe cos we didn't have a motor edge cutter - we had a motor lawn mower but not an edger. Of course these days I have my trusty whipper snipper that makes edging relatively a breeze!! The only reason for doing the gardening here was to conform to lease requirements. Its the reason in the first place I went into apartment living, Sally was the only reason for us being in a house. Apartment living and Sally just didn't get on with each other, she utterly despised it!!! It was only a few months into our first apartment that made Sally insist that we moved into a bigger place, at first a villa complex but even that didn't satisfy Sally, she wanted nothing less than a house on a 1/4 acre block, and you know women always gets their way eventually!!! Hence where I am now!!!! It was Mother's love of gardening that may have cost her life. There is a theory that her neurological disease that killed her was caused by certain pesticides commonly used in the garden, such as those snail killer pellets. Mother was forever placing those little blue pellets all around the garden, I remember them well, I used to play with them!! OMG!!! Little did we know that years later it would claim mother's life, if this particular theory is correct!! This brings me to another incidence - we would drive to Northam to see Nanna and Pop, and this was during the hell years of Colin. Nanna and Pop had an almond tree out the back, and Colin being Colin he went to nibble on a few of the almonds, not realising the tree had been sprayed with pesticide. A few minutes later Colin found himself violently wrenching and vomiting his guts out! A pity it didn't knock him off!! Yeah I know that was nasty of me..... but being used as a punching bag for 8 years does that to a soul !!

Anyway.... at least my gardening years will be behind me as I embark on my nomadic lifestyle mark II !!!! But this brings me to another dilemma!! The many possessions that Sally and I managed to accumulate, and in spite of my efforts, I still have loads of Sally's items, as well as other things such as our trailer. Accommodation at these apartment units allows for only one car space and is usually not big enough to accommodate also a trailer. Furthermore, the various furniture, cupboards, etc, most of them legacy of Sally's crafting hobbies, will not fit into a smaller apartment unit. Hence my 2nd form of investigation - self storage rentals!! Prices seems to vary and seems incredibly hard to get hold of on websites, but it seems that the amount of storage space I would need would cost me between $200-$300 per month. It has to be large enough to accommodate my trailer plus at least a few of the furniture items. There are a lot of sizes and options available out there, more than what was available when I last made use of self storage rentals - my trip to America when I given up lease on my apartment so to save money!!! In those days I didn't have much possessions so needed only a little storage unit. How things had changed with Sally!!!! I am now needing space at least the size of a small garage!!! But I can be very creative in my storage of items, so could probably get away with a slightly smaller space, but it must at least be large enough for my trailer!! Plus it be more secure. Even if there were room enough for my trailer in an apartment complex, I don't like the idea of leaving it in such a public space where it could get nicked!!! It is a good 4x6 trailer with metre-high steel lattice walls all around making it a breeze to transport furniture therein, it will be a god-send for my moving of my many items of my furniture without having to resort to a Removalist company!!!! That is one way to save $$$$$'s But being a good trailer makes it more likely for it to be nicked, so unless by some stroke of luck I can get a place with a secure garage (there has been one or two places at $300/week with secure garages big enough for both my car and a trailer), it will have to be self storage rental - nearly all of them do have security with gates locked after dark, all night lighting, etc.

The most difficult bit is to secure a rental BEFORE having to move out, and trying to keep double-rental payments to a minimum. I will probably have to go deeper into debt to raise money for the security bond which is standard 4 weeks worth of rent, but I already have a good credit rating with the current company that I am repaying my loan - legacy of Sally's medical expenses. I had always made my payments on time, and the company had already offered to extend my loan if I wanted to. So I do have that option up my sleeve. It just mean going deeper into debt and meeting higher repayments - on top of higher petrol bills and other expenses. A lower standard of living it seems is in my destiny!! Nevertheless being single does have its high points. The situation would have been infinitely worse if Sally was still around, with her specific medical needs and her distaste for apartment living!!! It seems terrible to say this, but Sally being no longer around does make this current situation far easier to deal with. Nevertheless, it still won't be easy. Gone are the days where I could look up an apartment in the paper and expect to get it. Back in my nomadic days I had ALWAYS gotten the apartment I applied for. That was because there were more apartments than potential tenants!! But thanks to the housing crisis, the opposite is true. There are more potential tenants than apartments!! So there will now always be competition, and potential tenants often offer to pay higher rents than advertised - something I can't really afford to do!!! So it seems likely I will be homeless BEFORE I can find an apartment, and in this instance I would consider shared accommodation but I suspect the situation is the same there - several applicants for each spot!!!! Uh well..... there is always Pasco's house - Mothers old house - my room is still there albeit being currently used as a storage room!!!! Things always turn full circle..... moving away from one's parents only to be running back to them!!!!!!!!

Of course all this worry and advanced planning could be all for nothing...... but that is the way us Virgos are.... Virgos are worry warts!!!!.... My landlord hasn't given me any official notice yet, and I think for fixed term leases they are required to give only a three weeks notice, so I wouldn't get it until into October - over a month away!!!! But on the other hand, he could also say..... "Well I am wanting to sell this house, so you will need to move out, but I will give you a bit of time, a few weeks, to get yourself together and find another place......."

Ohhhhhhh it would be nice if he did say that........

Now a vid with a housing theme..... let's go with one of Mother's favorite.....