17 posts tagged “life”
The mob I wrote about yesterday sent me their contract today. The quoted dollar amount includes superannuation, which strips away just over $5k/annum, making the disposable income after tax untenable. I rang them, stated a case and was promised an answer later today. In the meantime, I had a call from another lead on the Sunshine Coast, answering an application I'd made yesterday. The man wants someone to fill a role which I'm well and truly suited for. In fact, it would most likely be a better job, per se, than the one I thought I already had. I've lived and worked on the Sunshine Coast and it's pure heaven. The business environment is lively and energetic as well. Albeit, that was some 16 years ago.
Thing is, such a move would mean the wife would be living here, in Brisbane, while I live & work on the coast. During the week anyway. Effectively, her DSP would increase markedly because we'd be 'separated' in terms of the current welfare regime. Naturally, I'd be paying rent and food while away, which would practically zero out the increased pension benefit based on the salary I'm assuming is on offer. Perhaps I'm wrong. I hope so. I'll find out more detail on Thursday.
A half hour ago I had a call from the first employer, the one I wrote about yesterday, to say that they're agreeable to the base PLUS super, which gives me the disposable income after tax I need to make all the sums work. Not luxuriously mind you, but minimally. The mortgage gets paid, which is the prime concern. Now here's the quandary, and we're not taking megabucks here either. Do I opt for a position on the Sunshine Coast, providing it pays a minimum $5k more than the one in Brisbane, or settle for the one in Brisbane, which is still less than what I was being paid in my last role. There's fuel involved, rent, food, all of which would easily decimate any benefit from an increased Disability Support Pension because we're 'separated'. Yes, I know there will be those who'll say we're ripping off the system, but I'd refute that. I'd be working to support two people, living away from home and hearth to do so and at the end of the day, certainly not profiting to any degree.
I'll know more on Thursday evening. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode from Casa Confusion.
Well, I have a job. It's not the job I wanted, and it pays less than I wanted, but at least the house will be safe. For a while. The budgeting will have to be tightly handled as I'll be getting paid monthly, which frankly I find obscene & obsolete in the current age.
I'm seriously shattered, especially given that I still have three irons in the fire which look like taking time to come off. If they come off. Any of the three would be great roles and easily what I'm after. Each would pay slightly more as well, which is always good. Thing is, how long does one hang out on the off-chance that best wishes and desires will actually come to fruition? Bird-in-the-hand stuff, I guess.
I'm seriously tired of this constant battle. I feel the weight tremendously. I hope this position actually becomes something that I fear it's not right now. No challenge, but at least it's an income.
How do you feel about your birthday? Do you look forward to it and remind all your friends, or do you dread it and try to keep it a secret?
I hate it! A birthday isn't a celebration of having survived another 12 months. It's a warning that your time is running out. Birthdays are your body's odometer ticking over. Your life's time clock counting down to zero and there's no penalty time once the final whistle blows, baby.
When I turned 40, I became so depressed. Forty! Twice Twenty and one quarter of the fun. I turned fifty last year and no more depression. In fact, I've come to terms with age. It's inevitable, so I figured I'd accept it, along with the fact that I can't bend to pick up the bathmat without feeling that twinge in the left knee. When I take a piss, and think it's all finished, shake & all......there's still that last sneaky dribble AFTER the tackle is reeled in again. That's age, apparently. My doctor said so. If you eat too late at night & go to bed on a full stomach, then wake up three hours later drowning in your own gastric juices which are making a break for freedom.......that's age. Even sex is an effort, and performance is something I really have to work at, where once it just seemed so matter-of-fact. Hey, twice a month ain't so bad. Kinda makes you look forward to the occasions when they happen.
No, you can take birthdays and shove 'em up yer clacker. I have more than enough reminders of encroaching old age on a daily basis without having to commemorate another one on the anniversary of my entry into this terminal game.
List five reasons (at least) why you are awesome.
Submitted by goobers18.
I iron my own clothes;
I clean the toilet bowl and always put the seat back down;
I'm not afraid to kill and remove cockroaches;
I'm a great fuck (so I'm told and she ought to know);
I love animals of all kinds;
I grow and flower a mean orchid;
I'm a provider, breadwinner, money-maker and proud of it
That'll do for now. There's clearly heaps more that I ought to be renown for, but being your average modest Aussie, I'd rather leave those elements for others to detail.
Show us a childhood hero.
Subitted by Eric's Page.
I didn't have any.....apart from my Dad that is, so here's an adulthood hero.
I'm not feeling all that well right now......mentally that is. Physically, I'm two parts cut. I attended a family funeral today. The husband of my mother's cousin. Sounds rather distant, but we all grew up together, my cousins and our family. Christmas drinks for the grown-ups were always a big to-do and Mum was always on the phone to Norma. I remember George as he'll always be to me. A gentle man and a gentleman. A man who loved his family first, last and always. A man of little vice and few words, but when he spoke it was always with forethought and meaning.
Being an atheist, I shudder at attending Christian services, but George must have thought ahead because it was a very succinct and brief service, for a catholic funeral. No eulogy because he didn't believe in anyone saying good things about him in death that they hadn't the thought to say to his face in life. We were in & out within 30 minutes, which was just as well. My own mother felt the occasion just as hard as the family did, having lost my Dad in 2005. "Too close to home" were her words, and I dare say she wonders when her turn is coming.
As am I right now. Yes, sure I have a few years yet, with any luck but something the priest said this arvo sat with me. Live each day as if it were your last and love those you hold dearest as if they'll not be there tomorrow. Live in the moment. Good words for a sky-pilot. Good words to live by, I'd reckon.
What are some things that are worth (and not worth) spending money on?
Submitted by pinejar.
Always worth a few bucks, especially if you're making your own as I do.
and the complete waste of time, effort and money award goes to.......
Yesterday I had to make one of the worst decisions a responsible pet owner ever has to do. I had to euthanise a two week old cockatiel chick which was slowly starving to death. As often happens in a clutch where one egg hatches a few days before the others, we had a bigger chick competing with two which hatched a few days after it. One died pretty quickly, but the other fought on. It wasn't until I took the nest box down and examined the remaining new chick closely that I realised it had been stepped on by an adult bird, effectively breaking it's legs. The break had healed quickly as happens with young birds, but not having good legs to stand on, it couldn't properly compete with the older chick for food.
I thought perhaps we might save it by hand-rearing, but a close examination yesterday revealed that it wasn't even interested in the hand-rearing food and both legs were badly distorted, incapable of supporting weight. I had to do the right thing, but how to do it? I wandered the backyard with the chick in hand trying to screw up the courage to do something with this warm little body. As I walked past a fence-post, I quickly lashed out, dashing it's tiny head against the post, and it was over. It's bugged me ever since. Oh, it was quick, I have no doubts about that. I immediately buried the poor little bugger where a couple of our other pets are buried, and said sorry. It was the right thing to do. I keep telling myself that, but wouldn't it have been more natural to let it starve? Natural maybe, but I'd hate to starve to death.
I still feel like shit today. I'm not made for killing, even in kindness.
What's the best thing you ever bought off of Ebay or Craigslist?
I haven't found the 'best thing' on eBay yet. Who the hell is Craig and what's his list have to do with the price of bread?
Running three months late, the space shuttle Atlantis, carrying seven astronauts and a $367 million set of solar panels, roared to life and raced into orbit today, hot on the trail of the international space station.
Yes indeed and surprise, surprise. The shuttle Atlantis left the ground today for a planned eleven day stay in space, most of it docked to the International Space Station where another power generation truss will be installed later in the week. From tonight's news reports, you'd never have known. Seven human beings riding what has to be the most lethal of machines into the most hostile of environments where a single poor decision means death, and yet, we here on the ground, scurrying around with our small concerns and insular lives know nothing of the event, and could probably care less.
At ground level, we have far more pressing concerns, such as the G8 farce, rain and flooding in New South Wales, politics, genocide in Africa, wars in Asia minor and the Middle East, etcetera, yadda, yadda. Oh, yes.....let's not forget the distress of Paris Hilton. The fact that humanity still undertakes manned spaced flights, that the International Space Station continues to grow in size and capability, feeding our collective knowledge of the planet we live on and the way we're trashing it seems not to rate a mention any longer.
We, the human species Homo sapiens sapiens, have become a very self-centred and insular species. We've lost the focus we had a mere forty years ago. We'd much rater concentrate on our own small concerns, or worse, those of some self-possessed, flat-chested, painted blonde bimbo who broke the law of the land, then weeps over the miniscule price levied in retribution.
I find myself asking more and more these days. What's more important? Celebrity hysteria or scientific endeavour? Who's the more foolish? Military pawns pushed around the global chess board in constant efforts to destroy other military pawns, or those who volunteer to work in space for the betterment of the species?
We've lost all track of what's important. I wonder if we ever really
knew.
