Here's to my Laptop

So I did what I said I would do when I get back from Mexico..... first of the bat is getting a new hard disk for my laptop. Indeed I ordered the hard disk virtually as soon as I arrived back, and the carrier pigeons brought me the hard disk last Friday. Then I needed a new Windows system since I lost my old Windows system on the crashed hard disk and the laptop didn't come with a Windows DVD. So $100 for a new hard disk turned into $300 after spending $200 on Windows 10 which these days comes on USB sticks that is bootable, meaning, one can insert the USB stick prior to switching on the laptop, and the system boots to the USB stick which then proceeds to install Windows onto my empty unformatted hard disk.

Of course it wasn't without its drama. After I picked up the hard disk from the carrier pigeons landing station aka Post Office, I went to get Windows from the only store that is open after 6pm only to find they no longer sell the "Home Edition" of Windows, only the more expensive "Professional Edition" which I don't need. To say I was pissed off was an understatement, especially with my Scorpio Mars being activated by the Sun. Oh yes my chart shows Mars in Scorpio which is why I am often impatient, easily frustrated, and easily annoyed at times, and why as I witch I often send hexes to people who annoys me!!!!! There were other shops that did sell the Home Edition on USB sticks but in this sleepy little city they were all closed after 6pm.

My Scorpio Mars.......

However the enforced delay was short lived. Early the next morning I ordered the Windows USB stick from one of the other shops with the "pickup from store" option, meaning, within a couple of hours of ordering if during opening hours, it be available to be picked up. This eliminate the issue of going all the way to the store only to find it is not available, out of stock, or some shit like that!!!

Well I put the order in online prior to the store opening, and virtually as soon as the store opened I gotten the email that my order was ready to be collected. So I spent the rest of the day installing Windows and getting my laptop set up again, having to start from scratch.

So now having to start from scratch in building up my cartoons collections and my other collections of graphics and other things. I've lost everything with the crashed hard disk, so having to start all over again.

Next is a new fridge...... though that is on hold temporarily. My spirit guides informs me that I must go back to the Yucatan so to visit the remaining Mayan sites that I didn't have time to visit this time, so to complete my energy works there. So my next trip will be back to Mexico, and am looking to go back there within the first few months of 2018 before the northern summer when it will be too hot.

Therefore need to book my air tickets as soon as possible. The earlier you book air tickets the cheaper they are. Thanks to Cancun being NOT Perth I actually came back with money left over and no maxed out credit cards. So am about 80% to 90% of funds required for the air tickets, so I should have the funds within the month.

Just WHEN I be able to book my air tickets hinges on when my wage rise will kick in. We voted through my union to accept the latest pay deal, so after it is ratified, we will receive the wage rise backdated to about June which will prove to be quite a tidy sum. I should be able to raise the funds for the air tickets within the month without the wage rise, but the wage rise if it comes through sooner than a month will allow me to book the air tickets sooner.

Next after the air tickets will be the lodgings, the hotel accommodation. As with the air tickets, the sooner one books hotel rooms the cheaper they are. Hotels in Mexico are relatively cheap compared to Perth, but then just about anything is relatively cheap compared to Perth. I probably won't stay as long this time, perhaps 11 days. So if I can book early enough I may be able to upgrade my hotel accommodation for still a reasonable price.

Once I get the air tickets and hotel bookings out the way, then I can get a fridge. Aside from the wage rise, I also get my yearly bonus in December. The yearly bonus should be enough to pay for a fridge. So if all goes to plan, I should have a fridge by Xmas.

The other issue is my lease expires in December. It's likely the landlord will offer to extend the lease, that should be a formality unless he wants to sell. I don't think he will want to sell given current conditions in Perth, but you never know. It's a buyers/renters market here, so should I have to find a new abode, I shouldn't have any trouble finding one. But I hope I won't need to find a new abode, I am very happy where I am now, and if the landlord offers me the extension I will immediately take it!!! But should I have to move, this will delay my fridge a little longer, cos I will have to raise the money for the bond and advance rent. Of course I SHOULD get my bond back from my current abode, I don't anticipate any problems there unlike the catastrophe of last year!!!!! But of course there is the normal delay period between vacating the property and getting my bond back, so will have to raise fund for bond for the new abode BEFORE this happens. As I say, I expect to have the offer to extend my lease, but you know being a Virgo I like to plan for all possible scenarios including the unlikely scenario of NOT having the lease extended for wanting to sell the apartment.

So my life is pretty well getting back to "normal"..... well at least relatively normal given that there is nothing much about my life that is really normal, it is very much a relative term..... so lets put it this way, things that are slightly more normal than it has been...... if that makes sense.......

Here's a couple of comics as I slowly but surely build up my collection.......

The trials and tribulations of a Virgo.......

Dealing with airlines....... there are some that I avoid and for good reasons !!!!

Meanwhile back in Perth........

Back To Reality

It's what we usually say at the end of vacation time and we're back into the mundane routines of work. Truth is the vacation time was also a reality. It's a different reality, nonetheless a reality, one which I prefer though the rigours of air travel and adapting to foreign countries with different ways of doing things does take a bit out of you.

So now back to the reality of work, paying bills, running errands, and dealing with other mundane tasks..... until my next trip, which will be back to the Yucatan. Oh yes I am going back there to visit the Mayan sites which I did not visit this time. There are a lot of sites on the Yucatan. At this stage the return trip is set for the first half of 2018. Thanks to Cancun being not Perth I do have ample funds remaining and no maxed out credit cards!! Of course now being back in expensive Perth, away from the paradise of Cancun where you can eat well for a week on just $20. Here in Perth you'd be lucky to eat for a DAY on $20!!! You don't realise how expensive Perth is until you go overseas.

I am back at work tomorrow, earning my keep towards my next trip. As promised to myself I ordered a new hard disk for my laptop almost as soon as I gotten back from the airport, covering for the catastrophic hard disk fail that happened during The Three Weeks last July. Now just have to wait for them carrier pigeons to deliver the hard disk to me.

Next however is the air tickets back to the Yucatan, that is because the earlier you book the air tickets the cheaper they are. They get more expensive the closer to the intended departure time. So booking them 4 to 6 months n advance is ideal. This time my base of operations will be Merida on the other side of the Yucatan. It's a 4-hour bus trip between Cancun on the eastern side and Merida on the western side. There are more Mayan sites closer to Merida, it will be those sites I be visiting this time. Thankfully it be less than a month before I have the funds for the air tickets. Technically I have the funds now but scattered over different accounts, but rather the deal with the expense of transferring funds to one account I just concentrate on beefing up one account, and bar any catastrophes, it should take me less than a month to do so.

When in the most isolated city on Earth, air tickets are the most expensive part of any overseas trips. The next most expensive are the lodgings, though cheaper than in Perth, indeed cheaper than anywhere in Australia. That is why people goes overseas, a vacation overseas is cheaper than a vacation in Australia once you get past the air tickets!!

Then I will get my fridge. I do have a wage rise coming up backdated to July, so be about four months worth of backpay once the deal is ratified by my union. The vote to whether to accept the latest deal was put to us, and I voted to accept it. Hopefully at least half of us voted with me to accept the deal, and if that indeed happened, the union will submit to ratify the deal, then we get our much deserved wage rise backdated four months. This should be enough to pay for my lodgings at Merida.

And each year we get a Xmas bonus payment on the first pay date in December. That will pay for my fridge. Then I can work on saving the rest of my funds for the return trip to the Yucatan tentatively set for sometimes in the first half of 2018 prior to the summer season over there when it will be too hot. It's hot all year round there being the tropics, but hotter during summer. It's more the humidity that gets us there. It actually doesn't get as hot as it does in Southern Australia such as Perth, or Melbourne, or Adelaide when it gets over 40 degrees, it is dry heat. On the Yucatan it gets no hotter than mid 30s but the humidity is much higher, so it makes it feel like 50 degrees!!! So if I can get there by March or April it will avoid the summer, otherwise it will be October or later.

Of course I am now back to working on clearing out my storage unit, legacy of my bower bird wife who loved to hoard things!!! Hopefully I should be able to clear out my storage unit by January next year, this will free up another several hundreds of $$'s per month to add to my trip, as well as other shit that needs to be attended to such as a much overdue service for my car.

The storage unit is the last vestige of my more expensive lifestyle with Sally which is being removed for a more frugal lifestyle allowing me to free up extra funds for my trips and other things. Moving out from a house into an apartment was the major step towards a more frugal lifestyle. Next were rearranging my internet accounts and changing telcos, where I now pay half of what I was paying before. And on my recent trip, my new telco did send me timely updates on any roaming charges that I had been accumulating. So my roaming bill should be much less than with Telstra where I had to pay over $1000 last year!!! This time with Optus, based on their far more regular updates, my roaming bill should be less than $200, that will come up next month. So the last of my more extravagant lifestyle is the storage unit, and that should be dealt with by January 2018.

Oh yes I will have to renew my passport before my next trip. My current passport expires April next year, and you normally can't travel on a passport with less than six months. Indeed my Cancun trip was the last trip I had been able to take on my current passport, my return to Perth took place just two days before the six months cut off time to my passport expiry. So any subsequent trip will have to be on a renewed passport!!

Once I get my laptop up and going again, I be back to adding my comics and other goodies to my blogs...... so just have to wait for those carrier pigeons to bring me my new hard disk.

Thankfully no more of the catastrophe that is football for the next six months or so..........

So on this note..... time to get ready for my week back at work..... until the next update.......