respect, responsibility, property, tenants and landlords

For better or worse, people define themselves by what they have and what they do.

People have nice cars, or a motorbike, around which everything else revolves.

Some people are mothers and that’s how they identify themselves. Look at Facebook. There are so many women who are no longer themselves. Their profile picture is either their child, or them and their child. I find this intriguing, but I digress.

A lot of people live, breath and eat with the sole purpose of buying a house, then once they have it, they live, breath and eat with the sole purpose or paying the house off. I think this is a bit of an empty life, but “to each his own”, as some old person once said.

an open apology to the world

I've said some very bad things, and had terrible thoughts about quite a few people lately. Feelings of anger and panic can make you say bad stuff. I need to confess, as the world hasn't let me down and as the dust settles, I'm actually in a much better position financially, in my career and our new house is nicer than our old one.

In what felt like the worst week of my life, the employer that made me redundant became the worst organisation in existence. Similarly, the landlord and real estate agent who served our "notice to vacate" in that same week were the worst people in the world!

Many strange and coincidental things have happened lately that have made me look over my shoulder more than a few times.

The strange theme continues regarding where we will live and where I have started in my new job. The house we have leased is less than a block away in the same street we've been in (and loving) for over three years.

My new job is with someone I have known for over ten years who has been my mortgage broker for the past five years. I actually went to meet with him when I was made redundant so that he could help me restructure my finances and not starve. In the first five minutes he offered me a job and temporary accommodation. Now I'm helping him restructure his company!

Thanks to everyone who has commiserated, wished us well and offered assistance. The world is not as bad as I thought, and I am now looking forward to 2012.

cliche time

I hate cliches like, "everything will work out for the best" and "it will all come out in the wash", but things seem to have worked out for the best. Only a week ago I was staring down the barrel of unemployment with an eviction notice (notice to vacate) on the fridge with a baby due only a few weeks away. Now I'm working, we just got a new place in the same street as our current place, and the baby is hanging in there.

(many) soy drinkers are people too

I met a mate at a very popular Melbourne restaurant over a year ago and made the mistake of ordering a soy flat white. This wasn't long after I gave up drinking, so I had only ever ordered wine and food at this place. The waiter who I had chatted with many times before, laid his hand reassuringly on my shoulder, put on his most insincere fake apologetic facial expression and said, "sorry sweetheart, we don't do soy". I'm not being paranoid. I really deserved it as I should have known better.