The Monk and the Prostitute

A salacious headline right! I assure you my post today is hardly that tawdry, but the title does feature in the body of this blog so read on!

I had a bit of a revelation while I was in Melbourne, no no, not the old, "wow Melbourne is better than Sydney." Hardly a revelation, more a fact.

I was having a discussion over dinner with a dear old friend, who paradoxically is looking to move and find sanctuary from an oppressive, invasive government by moving to Singapore. He admitted as much, but his real purpose was to be closer to a place dear to his heart, and indeed mine, Thailand.

He like so many others fell in love with Phuket and the Thai people. He said that he relished their freedom. A comment he made about the people in India as well. I must admit I thought momentarily, 'they certainly are free in a way, very different than me'. They have an overarching freedom from the paradigm that I live in the world as I know it. Which brings me to a bit of a compare and contrast exercise.

As soon as I started revelling in the perceived freedom of those Thai people, bereft of road rules and the same odd societal pressures that I view as being part of a 'western system' (I realise that many people consider the same thing, but I am talking in terms of the only thing I know to be real, my own perception), but I quickly caught myself before I dived into a detached fantasy where the people in other cultures live a life so much richer than I. In fact I feel that they are no more free than we are, that is to say neither society, the one I know or they society that I associate with Thailand is more free than the other.

I feel that the Thai people have a certain freedom, that is very qualified. Their society is geared towards a lifestyle that is, from my own very small experience, limited and constrained by the fact that they are still developing and they have not quite worked out where they are. They are a deeply religious people, and yet they cater to the gluttonous, sinful , depraved, hedonistic western desires. Which is great for tourists but it creates a country that suffers a bizzare dissonance, a strange juxtaposition of the Buddhist Monk and the Prostitute.

I use these cliché examples to show the polar opposite spectrum that are on show in the Thai culture. Buddhism is pervasive in the Thai culture, much of population devotes a part of themselves to the philosophies of Siddhartha and the various schools of thought devoted to his teaching. (of the 65 million people 94% are Buddhist) And yet such a large part of the economic machine that drives Thailands development is the western element, catering to tourism. A successful business model it must be said. Often times people travel to the glorious South East Asian country to partake in the rather prolific sex trade, or the crazy parties like the Full Moon party on Koh Phangan.

What does all this have to do with my original contention that the Thai people are no more free than we are, despite some obvious differences in what is allowable in the streets of Phuket and Bangkok.

They are trapped in a world that is globalising rapidly, trying to buttress the need to have economic expansion in a capitalist world economy, with a religion that percieves that all things perish and grasping for things such as possessions is the great obstacle that an the individul must overcome to reach enlightenment, bliss and ultimately nirvana.

Now compare this with the society that I have grown up in. We have the opportunity to shape our lives, we chose our career path, we can choose our friends and our schools, we can choose our car. We have so much choice.... well now we need to qualify that a little don't we. To successfully achieve that which you choose, you need to have a healthy balance of choice and the right conditions... conditions that constrain your choice. Say you want to be a Racing car driver. Sure you can choose to be a racing driver but first a few things need to go the right way for this to happen.

1. You have to like motor sport, something in your life, probably early, needs picq your interest in fast cars.
2. You then have to make the conscious decision to start racing.
3. then have the funds to partake in racing s that you can adquetly skill yourself.
4. Have a genetic disposition to;
    a. work hard and hone your skills
    b. have the right physical attributes, (balance, reaction speed, endurance, phyique) to succeed.
5. Network, find the right people to advance your career.
6. Have the mental endurance to deal with competing.

Now all this make my initial comment, 'we can choose what we want' seem a little basic. But it is often what our society imparts on the individual.

Statements like "reach for the stars you can achieve anything", "put your mind to it and you will succeed" and "you can be whatever you want to be" are often used to motivate people. But as you can see above in my simplistic example of what kind of circumstances are required to actually achieve, that which you have chosen, is not simply a matter of...just choosing.

I don't think there is a free society. Choices are limited wherever you are, that is the price of living as a social unit. It has enabled our species to survive, grow and flourish. Some systems are different than others but all must constrain the desires of those within the system for the betterment of the unit. Not fun but I guess it is the price you pay to live in a society that isn't chaos.

The Phantom Part II

Love Never Dies.... on my Birthday

Nope not being corny just thought it seemed sweet and nice and all together out of character!

My dearest Milana surprised my on my birthday. The ruse was simple, have me believe that we will simply be going to Sherlock Holmes at the cinema.... when in fact I was being treated to a night on the town with dinner and a show.

Love Never Dies is essentially, The Phantom of the Opera Part 2, Andrew Lloyd Webber's desperate attempt to stay relevant. Well he does a good job. No its not The Phantom of the Opera, the hits aren't there, the storyline isn't as layered and coloured with different shades emotion. But it was spectacular.








Peoples opinion is a funny thing. If expectations are not meet then the dissonance caused can make people quite cruel. When it comes to the arts this is often extremely pronounced for people are incredibly emotional about these things when expectations have not been factored in. I entered the theatre, trying to negate my expectations (much easier to achieve when you don't know you are going :-)) and I really enjoyed it.


Our seats were terrific. We were so close and so off centre it almost felt we were watching from the backstage area. We were privy to emotions, movements and details that have often escaped notice on previous visits to the theatre.

It was a brilliant birthday, my first away from Melbourne and really very memorable.

Home Owners

So much 5! The calculator letting us know how much out 5%

I have done rather well in the last few months.

Since the 19th of October, I have manged to graduate, get a job, start a job and now buy a house.

Not bad really!

Our new place is a numerologists dream. 5/125 Euston Road, Alexandria 2015. Purchased on the 25th of February, for a 5% deposit amount of $15,550.... Lots of 5.

This would be our house, it would.

The home owning journey started last year when we altered our focus from renting to buying a property. A little frightening, but Milana had a damn good deposit to work with, so it wasn't long before we figured this might be the best option.

We have been close to purchasing other properties, but a whole set of circumstances did not allow it. Here are the properties that were almost our place of residence:




Woolly: 57/19 - 23 Forbes Street Woolloomooloo
Milana really got close to buying this... till we talked it out. In late Decemeber, Milana viewed the property, got a home loan approval, contracts viewed by a lawyer and made a bid within week. She was scheduled to come to Melbourne and she made her bid before she left. The vendor failed to take the offer, and when he finally came back with a decent offer... we had moved on. He really screwed the pooch on that one!

St. Peters: 49/159 Princes Highway, St Peters
This property was advertised as 'offers above $350' so it just fell within the range we had given ourselves. I did not like the place upon my first inspection. It smelt like rice and it was all over in my mind! Milana however, felt that the extra room was a worthwhile investment and much more important than my aversion to the rice smell. In all fairness the strata was the main concern of mine. But Milana plowed on ahead and had a conversation with the agent for the property and came upon a much greater problem than my concerns... A complete tosser.

The agent completely boxed her out after she pitched a lower price of $340k not as a bid but as valuation we had determined the place was worth and we wanted to know what he felt were the reasons why we should pay more. Well he lost his shit and told her look in Lekemba...I have no idea about Sydney suburbs so I assume it was not a pleasant comment.

Anyway we moved and now the place is valued at $369,500... it still hasn't sold and I hope it doesn't so that psycho agent doesn't get a commission.

Little Mac: 46/52 - 54 McEvoy Street, Waterloo

The height of sadness, the place we were so excited about. Offers above $335,000, lovely location... so we trundled into the apartment super excited, we find the agent. We start our questions... and he stops us. "The place is under offer at the moment." Bollocks!! we want it! But to no avail, the place is gone before we could even try.

Flood: 20/87-91 Flood Street, Leichhardt

We were so cautious with this property. Weighing in at 37 sqm we knew it was small. But the location was awesome. The balcony was lovely. We moved in (emotionally), we scouted the area and really liked everything. The property was a company title, something that we had to look into, and get our heads around how it worked compared to a strata property. We were willing to take the risks, but we still didn't care for the price, $340,000. Milana called the agent and he basically said straight up, we would take $305,000.

We were gobsmacked, we could not believe it. We started the process of getting a loan application submitted, we talked to a mortgage broker. Getting around the company title issue and the small size of the property (under 50sqm and we needed 20% deposit) was proving a little difficult, but before we could get our act together, it was gone.

Sold. That was it. We were shattered....then we moved on quickly.

Finally.

Little Alex: (<---you can click this) 5/125 Euston Rd Alexandria

Pretty

This place, it had to be going to auction. We honestly could not be bothered. The waiting was awful, the constant worry that someone would come in and spend too much money on it. It was unpleasant. But the price point offered to us by the agent kept us motivated. Low $300k's.

The place ticked all the boxes, 61 sqm, (bye bye deposit woes) close to the city, not to close though. Sydney Park so very close to us, was a bonus. But it looked nice and the space really seemed liveable.

As we continued going to other properties and checking places that were to expensive, we kept getting more and more excited about getting "Little Alex". There was an apartment literally the one next door (6/125 Euston) which was going on sale for $379,000, we called it Big Alex (clever, right) and to be honest I was keen on attacking the property, I could see the price.

The bed room!

Well we waited it out. Did the strata report, building report for Little Alex and made the decision to wait.
On auction day we did another sweep of the area, checked out Sydney Park, found a nearby pub and tried to sell the area to ourselves. We sorted our ceiling, showed up early, watched for other to register..... only one other couple... this is looking good.

Auction starts, the vendor bids $310k, we wait. Everyone told us not to be the first to bid. "Going once," says the auctioneer. "Going twice." Ok this is weird, the agent comes up and to us and asks if we want to bid something like $1000 instead of $5000. "Going three times." The other couple, I assume a gay couple cause they were giggling like school girls and reminded me a little of Mitchell and Cameron from Modern Family.

Milana to sign.

So Milana and I looked at one another, and just thought screw it. Card goes up and we bid $311,000. The agent tries some incredible jedi mind tricks. "Won't you make it $315,000, otherwise we will be here all day." So he goes through the process again, "going once, twice...sure you don't want to up your bid? (yes we would love to bid against ourselves) going three times..... we will check with the owner." A rather short/intensely long feeling wait and the agent comes again with the owner....boooooooom sold. We win the place is our. The people get out of the apartment......our apartment.

All we need to do is sign the contract.

Adam to sign

That's it.

Home owners.

Tethered to a mortgage, but one far better than we had budgeted for.

I think the best thing I heard from the agent was this.

Our balcony

"You should be really happy, I am not, but you should be," awesome!

Work Begins in Earnest

Real Work

So now I am a full fledged member of society. I have begun to earn a solid wage and I am now contributing to the economy in a more traditional capacity. I have neatly slotted into the whiring heaving machine that keeps people living, and things progressing in a general kind of way.

I have my desk and it is a nice desk, to enable me to plug into the internet machine and interact with whole host of clients and media outlets so that I can add value to someone else's strategy of making more money.

I am part of the system.

I want to reiterate I don't think bad of the system, nor do I think highly of the system. I think of the system is a necessity to be tolerated in order for one to be able to engage in the more enjoyable things in life.
There is no doubt in my mind that becoming a full time working time person...chap that I exist to earn a certain wage so that a company can earn a greater sum of money that they can roll that money into making greater profits. That seems like the reality. I hope it is a reality I can handle for awhile....because.......

Promo Stack

I have even maintained doing promo work.  Like on Australia day I worked for V ... not before stacking my bike on the ride to Olympic park.  A cop was pulling someone over for, funnily enough, driving in a bus only zone (I know all about THAT!) , as the offending driver pulled over he decided he needed to be in front of me so he drove past me pulled over and the police man followed close behind.  Now I freaked a little and tried to manoeuvre out of the way into a pole.  Down I went.  Splayed on the ground with incredulous onlookers staring at me not offering assistance, I was thankfully offered this observation by the rather sheepish looking officer.  "He really shouldn't have pulled in front of you".

Owwwwie

Yes thank you. My handle bars are bent and my means to get home is broken.  Thanks.

Battered and bruised I trooped on through the working week. 

Another fine? Why not!

Sydney has not been kind. I even got a parking fine because I was meant to park with the rear of the car to the curb... $88 later...... Sydney should resolve to be nicer to me.  I am just new here!

Ohhh and....

We are still house hunting... apartment hunting.  What a silly/expensive process. It feels like I work, go home look for apartments sleep and work.  Oh well it is all very exciting.

The Interim Week - Chores Spectactular!

So, before I get to lose my weekdays from now until the end of time in perpetuity... forever, I enjoyed a week off in which I could do chores and wear a Polar Bear head for Optus. You know the normal crap.

I went shopping for work clothes, I got the car fixed and got my suit dry cleaned, I really was living the dream!

Actually I might back track and explain the Optus Polar Bear thing. I wore a sports jacket and took photos (instant polaroid-esqe photos!) with randoms at the Moonlight Cinema in Centennial Park. My colleagues Bianca and Angus were stuck talking to people about amazing Optus deals while I just had to deal with having no peripheral vision and the over heating all while attempting to knee (..or not. I have not decided yet) children in the face or step on people's olive platters.

Oh... and I did a reconnaissance ride. From Carlingford to Cremorne where I would be starting work on Monday. Turns out it was quicker to ride than take public transport. Yay...but then I had to ride to Polar Bear (over the famous Sydney Harbour bridge...WOW!) duties and I got a bit lost.... kinda blew the ride out to 55 km.

My last chore before work was to look for an apartment, something that I was immensely excited about till we got to the first location, a property that we were so keen on...only to find that some other schlub had put an offer on already. I hate property. We saw another place....maybe the one we will get... not sure.....*sigh*.

I was a little disappointed with the properties but Milana and I had a nice walk around neighbouring Newtown. It was then time to take Milana to her job as an ATM....we have weird jobs.

I went to Bondi Junction to waste some time before my character work, getting lost looking for a car park I went through a no entry zone (only Taxi's and buses were allowed) having never driven through the area, I missed the sign as I was to busy trying to dodge people who were walking across the road (this was before the "no entry zone" don't be that person) and the taxi's who were crossing double white lines to get around those pedestrians......ANYWAY! A parked police officer took offence to my getting lost (and driving slowly) in the no entry zone. He didn't care that I was lost and had no idea...if only the film crew was there I would have gotten away with it, the police are nicer on TV.

The finale of the week in all fairness was pretty damn cute. We went and visited Mark and Amy in Penrith....well I say we visited Amy and Mark to be polite because the real star is the newest edition to the family, Miss Eloise Babian! What new baby isn't heaps of fun! Watching them gain control over basic motor functions and trying to determine whether they are eyeballing you or they concentrating on evacuating waste. Twas a lovely day with strong tea and good laughs, my thanks to the hosts and to the entrainment!

So that was the.....a rather boring/eventful (depending on if you got past the opening sentence or not) week sorry kids. I start work soon.....soooo hold tight as I walk through the door for day 1!

The Road Trip - Part 2

A much quicker, brisk and all around briefer blog about the end of our trip.

Suffice to say much of what was expressed in the previous post was much the same, except we left from a different location, and visited a different detour location and ended up at our planned destination. But the company was still fantastic, the music was ever present. The other cars got slower. The scenery was still fascinating...ish kept us entertained.

Our detour took us to a Buddhist temple just outside of Wollongong. A terrific place of worship for those who subscribe to the Middle way and the philosophies of Siddhartha or the Buddha.

While I am not a practising...anything I do love the tranquillity of a Buddhist temple and was extremely chuffed when we were able to squeeze this detour in. (Our previous engagement cancelled on account of being a cranky new born baby who does not like to receive visitors later in the day!) 

 We walked the gardens, took in some literature, even stopped and indulged in what most might call praying.... considering I was talking to myself I would think it doesn't qualify as prayer in the common sense. All in all a wonderfully relaxing way to make our way into the suburbs of Sydney and the job that lies before me that I think will be anything but tranquil.

 Again the pictures will convey more than I could hope with words. Hopefully I will have time to write some more about Buddhism in future posts but for now I will bid you farewell.

The Road Trip - Part 1

And so starts the journey into the system.








But before that all happens I must be off on a road trip to get me, my car, half of my worldly possesions (you know the important stuff clothes, PS3 etc.) and my fiance up to Sydney where my new vocation and my foray into living life like an adult must start.








We set off from Melbourne (Boronia to be precise in the dark south east below the ominous....well they are pretty average mountains) via the scenic route, or what we hope to be a more scenic route than the boring trip via the Hume highway. We take the National Highway, A1 for most of our journey to Sydney with a few little stops that we would like to make on the way.





As you can imagine not much can be elucidated in great detail when you are trying to describe sitting in a car for hours on end looking forward to other (infuriatingly slow) cars and obstacles and back to.....well pillows and the handle bars of my road bike...there was no rear view to speak of such was the mass amount of nonsense that crammed into the back of my Subaru Outback (which will be henceforth be known as Sansa).

But the joy of this trip was very much in the company that I kept (Milana) and the music that was a constant companion as well (we started off with the Doors, a sound I felt befitting a road trip).

I honestly enjoyed in the drive particularly with the notion that we the opportunity to take in some interesting sites which Milana had taken great pains to research for all of 15 minutes the night before.

Detour

Precisely what a Subaru Outback was built for

We reached our first proposed stop, a climb up a mountain to Genoa Peak. A 1.5 kilometre trek to the summit and a purported 2 hour return trip. We got to the start of the climb at about 16:30 (I don't much like 12 hour time) and tackled the climb led by my trusty Sherpa...Milana up the winding track. We made terrific time, the bush land all around was rustling in concert with the fierce wind that obviously became more and more prolific as we neared the summit of this monstrous 1610...feet climb (that's 490meters, most of which Sansa drove us up no doubt).

Pfft moderate fitness!!

The views overlooking Eastern Victoria were a sight to behold and rather than trying to get all Banjo Patterson and trying to explain the glory of the vision before us, I will let the magic of photography set the scene for you.

Look out number 1

Not long to the top now!

That's right 1607 feet climb - with NO tools!!! hahaha I should stop hyping it.

Look out 2

Our hastily snapped photos do well to convey the landscapes but not the fun of the ascent and decent. The little jokes, the stumbles and the realisation that we are the only people in this area made for an absolutely perfect detour on our trip up north.

Peek-a-boo!

How's the serenity

Airing out the stinking hiking feet.

As we returned to the car (immensly impressed that we bested the suggested return time for the climb by 45 minutes) we realised that we were fast running out of time to make it to Sydney on the day we set out. So after some quick hotel searching we decided to try our luck at finding a vacancy at Merimbula during the silly new years holiday period....it wasn't easy.

Stop Over

We finally found one place and some shrewd negotiating let us talk down the owner from the lofty $150 for the night to a more reasonable (though barely) $90, so that we might partake in the offerings of this lovely little town on the Sapphire Coast.


If nothing else the sunset behind the motels were enough to keep us satisfied.

We quickly left our.... moderately appointed lodgings for dinner where we found a tasty Italian restaurant and a rather terrific meal. A little bit light headed from the wine...light weights we are, we headed home to brave the rubbish bed and get a good night sleep for the conclusion of my migration north.

Yes people probably get murdered here regularly

Stay tuned for part 2.