Well the real estate agent has been notified and I’m moving house. Off to share a house which is something I haven’t done for over 5 years when I was studying in Melbourne. It’s going to be interesting but to over halve my rent and split my bills 3 ways the savings are going to be overwhelming worth it if I intend to leave for Europe in April next year.
This does mean I have been left trying to find a home for a unit full of furniture and the like. Most will be stored back home in the parents shed, which means boxing everything up to save it from possible water leaks and mice along with a rogue cow that may find its way in there. Some items like my old hand-me-down couch will being retired to the great couch god in the sky, while my table and chairs will be flogged off in the local rag for a fraction of what they cost me.
Compacting back down into one room when for the last 9 years I’ve been doing the exact opposite is going to be difficult but if it gets me to my goal its well worth it. In a way its forcing me to rid the excess baggage I’ve collected over time which is rather refreshing, a way to start anew so to speak, the beginning of a great adventure…
A long time coming but I have now moved from dreaming about heading over to the UK, to planning it all and working out what I’m going to need in terms of funds and supplies. That and I have until I’m 30 before the working visa no longer applies to me and I’m way closer to that than I would like to be 
. As for money well how long is a piece of string? do I travel about a bit first then go for work or should I just get straight into work? Then there is the job of obtaining the required gear to serve me well overseas such as backpack, footwear, security measures etc.
At this stage my main goal is money and lots of it. Having not really taken holidays at work for the last 2 years I have some reserve built up to take when I leave but plenty more is needed. The more I have to go with the more options that will give me. I’m looking at heading away around March but given that’s coming into the busy season may go a little earlier if funds can be saved in time. I should be able to put enough away by then… I hope.
With money being the order of the day I’ve started to evaluate my living costs and working out what I can do without. Right now the can do without list is rather short so that leaves me with two options. Find a replacement job that will fund it, or move into a share house or in with sister and her bf.
Finding another job isn’t likely in Ballarat and moving to melb to work for 6 months seems like a wasted idea. So that has left me looking for some weekend/weeknight work and with that horrible memories of my supermarket days come flooding back. I don’t mind that idea so much actually as I’m wasting my spare time at the moment. If I’m working its getting me towards my goal quicker anyway so that’s a good thing.
The idea of getting my RSA etc to work in either a bar or pokie venue is an option and also possibly come in useful should work in the UK turn out to be as difficult to find as I think (not that I want to do that kind of work) . There is also a possibility of moving in with sister and her bf as they just bought a house but talks of rent for that works out to just about as much as I pay now so see no point sharing when I can have my own space, perhaps more talking can resolve it.
I think I have finally grown enough to know its a good idea and what I want. Funny how just 3 years ago I would have only ever given the idea a faint glimpse and never thought I would have had the confidence to do it. Now in the last 6 months I’ve weighted up pros and cons, looked at costs of required items and haven’t once felt scared of the fact I’ll be alone in a completely different part of the world. Funny how time changes things…
So I’ve been getting into twitter lately and figured it would be a good addition to my blog considering I’m fairly slack at posting anything here of real importance (this will change I promise). After having a read about I got onto Twitter Tools and all was well with the world.
That was until I noticed the url’s it was outputting taking up all my precious twitter characters. Since twitter tools has the ability to use a URL shortening service and since I couldn’t find one with all my googling (sorry if one exists I was obviously looking with my eyes closed that day) I set about joining it with www.is.gd
After some trial and error, a bit of caffeine and some weird test twits all was working and I was mighty proud of myself.
So now I bring to you the people my little url shortening plugin for twitter tools. I know it works for me and well that’s all that matters so don’t blame me when your blog explodes or something else rather painful happens. Just extract the twittertools_isgd.php file and upload it into your wordpress plugins directory. Then activate the plugin from within wordpress and post a blog of how great you are and marvel at the shortness of your tweets.
You can download the file here.
Wanting to do something different for my mum on mother’s day, my sister, brother and I put in to get her a ticket to see Cirque Du Soleil. It was also a great opportunity for me to go, so last friday off we went to see the show.
Cirque Du Soleil
We got stuck in traffic and ended up finding something to eat at the Cirque Store. Now if they aren’t making a killing for their tickets the food costs sure help. I walked out with a hotdog, popcorn and a beer for $20, and tust me it wasn’t a $20 feed but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Camera’s were banned for obvious reasons but I did snap a couple more shots before the show started.
Cirque Du Soleil
Cirque Du Soleil
As for the show well, it was fantastic. The strength and skill they have is just amazing. From bouncing off trampolines and running up walls, outstanding acrobatics and some entertaining jump rope skills the 2 hour show was a blast. i can only recommend anybody that hasn’t seen it to get along and check it out as I believe it is finishing up shortly.
