What's Your Hobby?

What's your hobby or hobbies? Some of us have a couple and some of us have loads lol. I like doing lots of different things, I guess it depends on my mood, the weather, the time of day etc. One hobby I found myself interested in a couple of years ago was metal detecting. Not because I was looking to strike it rich, but because I love history and I loved the thought of finding something really old. 

When I first bought my detector back in 2012 (I think) I practiced using it on a local beach. I found AA batteries, soft drink cans, ring pull from cans, bits of foil from food wrappers etc lol My wife on the other hand had a go and found 55 cents lol Due to things going on and life in general, my detector got put into the cupboard - where it still is.

About a month ago as we drove by the beach that we tested the detector on, I commented to my wife that I would like to give it another shot. Then about a week after that, we met up with a friend who mentioned that one of their family members had just bought a detector. So that got me thinking more about it. The problem is finding the time! Plus finding the right location. There's also the issue that since I haven't used it for so long, I've forgotten how it works lol It really isn't as simple as 'waving it all about'. 

I've started checking out the old forums that I used to hangout in, and I've been reading all the 'newbie' info to try and refresh my memory. I haven't actually taken the detector out of the cupboard yet, as I have to re-read the manual regarding the settings for depth, pitch, sensitivity etc etc - See I told you it wasn't as simple as waving it all around lol

I also found some great websites that I hadn't discovered before! One of them allows you to choose a location in the present, then overlay a historical map! It's amazing just from a historical perspective to see what used to be in an area and how much the landscape has changed. At the moment I'm completely hooked on reading all these old maps and I haven't left the house!!! LOL!

Here's an example of this mapping site, it shows where a helipad used to be in 1943:-

Current location image

When you start to overlay the images

The image has been completely overlayed so you're now viewing the 1943 map

I have been looking at areas all over our state, just to see what used to be in certain locations back in history. I love it! :D

Okay, well I'm off! I'll let you get back to your hobbies :)   

Old Person Magnet

Well the funniest thing happened to me this morning lol My wife has always said that 'I'm an old person magnet' :) We have gone out places in the past - it doesn't matter where, it could be out to lunch, grocery shopping or just crossing the road at the lights and an old person will just randomly start talking to me lol

Anyway I had to drop my truck off to be serviced this morning, and while I was there I noticed that they had stickers on the counter. So I asked where they had them made as the quality was quite good. The lady at the garage gave me the details of the sticker business.

So back tracking lol A woman phoned me a little while ago and she owns a promotions company, she asked if I would be interested in having stickers made? I said that I was, but to leave it with me and I would get back to her - As when I spoke to her I just didn't have the time to organise for my logo to be resized.  

Back to this morning! lol The details that the lady at the garage gave me were the details of the woman who had called me. The woman at the garage said that they had been buying their stickers from that company for years.

So just as I'm about to leave, an older couple were standing behind me and as I turned around the wife said 'Do you own XXXXXX shop?' I replied that I did. Well! She started gushing that she had recently purchased a pair of shoes from my store and loved them! She told me she was a dancer and had been for over 20 years and everyone wanted to know where she got her shoes as they were just so unique lol

She told me that she was retired and now as a hobby to keep herself busy, she started a gig guide for all things related to the theme of my store! For those of you who don't know, I don't publish anything on my blog about my store as I don't want customers doing a search and ending up here, instead of my business social media pages - hence the XXXXXX.

I told her that I was getting more of those particular shoes in, as some new designs had been released - she so was so excited! She asked for my email address so she could send me her details and asked if I would let her know when they came into stock. She also told me that she had over 2000 local members in her gig guide who were dancers and that she would promote my store online and at her dance events!

Whoa! What a morning! Here I thought I was simply just going to drop my truck off for a service. I ended up with a sticker which was great, because I could now see the quality of the work and I also met some people randomly at the counter of a garage who had social interests that ran parallel to my store! Being an 'old person magnet' isn't so bad! LOL!

Downsizing Versus Up Sizing

No one likes wasting money do they? Or maybe they do... I guess it depends on the person. Personally I don't like wasting money, in saying that - I'm not tight, I just don't see the point in spending money on some items that others would consider 'must haves'. 

I read a lot of blogs and most of them are U.K, Ireland, USA based - I read very few Australian blogs. I don't know if it's because they write about things that I'm already aware of, or if I prefer the international blogs because they write about issues that I'm not aware of and I actually learn something :)

One trend that I have noticed in reading non-Australian blogs is the number of people who are either downsizing, in the process of downsizing or trying to figure out how to do this. The main reason for this is for economical purposes.

One blog that I frequently read belongs to woman who has a well paying professional position. A number of years ago after changes were made to her husbands employment situation, she decided that they needed to scale back on their spending. This wasn't only because of what happened with her husband, but the cost of living was also increasing and taking it's toll.

To cut a long story short, this woman reviewed every cent they spent and where they could improve. She cut back on many 'must haves', like a coffee on the way to work (she now takes her own from home), a trashy magazine here and there (reads all the goss online), beauty treatments (she does her own hair and nails), etc. Keep in mind this is just a very short list of changes she made. The money they saved was out of this world!

Given that she lives in the UK - she was paying a lot to keep her house warm, a house that was now over sized as her children had moved out. So her and her husband decided to downsize. Funnily enough the downsizing was going to cost a bit and the bank wouldn't loan them the money, so they worked hard to pay a chunk off the house they were living in which they were now struggling to keep.

They did eventually get to a point where the bank would assist with re-financing and they moved to a smaller home. Even after the move she continues to budget the way they did prior to moving.

I've done a few Google searches on downsizing in Australia and the results are all related to retirees. This didn't surprise me one bit. Australian residential blocks of land have gotten sooo much smaller, yet the houses are so much bigger than they used to be! It's a trend in Australia to squash as many homes into a new estate area as possible. Some estates are so jam packed, that if you want to clean your gutters you have to position your ladder on your neighbours property! That's how close the houses are.

So why do we in Australia seem to be up sizing (house size, not land size) while people in countries overseas are downsizing? My answer:- I have no idea. One guess is because houses in these estates are fairly inexpensive, so people buy them up and because people keep buying them, the developers keep building them. Don't quote me, it's just my guess.

 

Do I have a problem with these estates? Yes I do. Why do I? I'll tell you why. I live in one of these estates. This will sound ridiculous, but when you first inspect one of these properties you really don't notice just how crammed in they are, because everything's open plan - so you literally walk in one room and it just flows into another giving the illusion of space. They have huge windows which allows copious amounts of natural light in (which in itself isn't a bad thing) that also adds to the illusion, then you have the 'already built and ready to go' outdoor entertaining area which usually includes a pool. Yeah I know I'm making it sound like hell aren't I? lol

The thing is that you fall straight into the trap of "Oh a double garage! Four bedrooms! Oh two entertaining areas! A walk-in pantry! Oh 2/3 bathrooms plus en-suite! Oh look how much light comes in (because of the open plan design), Ohh a pool!" etc etc. It's the extras that prevent you seeing that just 2 feet from the pool edge is the neighbours fence line. Given that you're all so squashed in, you can't flush the toilet without the neighbour knowing you've just been to the loo. You can also hear phone conversations as well as just regular conversations - these conversations are not taking place outside, they're inside the neighbours house. 

Then there's the open plan design issue - I admit they look great, but they're not practical. You cannot close part of the house off when you want to heat or cool. In an older style house you can close a couple of doors and you're done. In these newer homes, when you want to cool or heat - you're paying either your gas or electricity company to heat or cool the whole house, even though you're only in one section. What a massive waste of money! 

I would love to compare a 12 month heating/cooling bill between a newer open plan home versus an older style home. Every time I turn the air con or heater on I see $50 notes floating around in the open plan areas that I don't want heated or cooled. Anytime I hear of a friend who is looking at moving, the first thing I tell them is to stay away from open plan housing, and I tell them why..... Usually everything I tell them is stuff that they hadn't even thought about. I guess you live and learn. I wish I knew someone who knew what I do now, and could have given me some advice before we bought the style of house we did.  

Too Much Garden! Too Little Computer Action!

Alrighty! So in my last post I wrote about hacking away in the garden! I do have a tendency to get a little over enthusiastic about things and tend to go at a bull at a gate - which actually means I slam into a brick wall lol.

I had one of these brick wall days just last week :) We organised for a green waste council collection and I was going to chop a whole lot of stuff out of the garden. I went to the hardware and bought a new chainsaw to get through the lower thicker bits that the long chopper thingie can't get through and I was ready for action!!!

The end result? Well the chainsaw is still in it's box lol We filled our regular green waste bin and piled a bunch of green waste on the kerb for collection and it doesn't look like I've made a dint! I honestly thought that we would get much more in the bin and on the kerb..... My estimates were waaaaay off! lol So I will hack away some more for our next green waste bin collection. I would take a photo of my handy work..... But honestly, it really doesn't look any different from the photo in the previous post lol

In between hacking the garden away my laptop decided it wanted to play silly buggers. I can't blame it - as it's getting on a bit in terms of age and use and I've kind of been waiting for this day to come. Anyway, before my Aunt passed away she told me she wanted me to have her laptop. I told her I didn't need another computer, but she insisted that I take it. I hadn't switched her computer on before, as her belongings are still packed away. So I went and dug out her computer with the intention of just transferring all my stuff over to hers. Now my Aunt only used her first computer when she retired and didn't have a lot of experience. Yeah....... It took me about two days to clear all the 'junk' downloads off the system lol Even after I did that I realised that her laptop was about the same age as mine but it was actually slower than my clapped out machine.

So after some internet shopping and comparing prices - off to the shops I went. I bought a new laptop. Yeah that sounds like fun! I guess it is if you're starting from scratch lol But I have been transferring programs, photos and files for days now and the fun-ness has worn off lol

Anyway, I'm off! I have more stuff to move from one computer to another! Catch you next time!

Post Christmas

Happy New Year Everyone! I'd love to say this is my first post for the year, however it isn't lol. I actually started writing this post a couple of days ago and just didn't get around to finishing it. So here is the last post of 2014!

If you're reading this, you survived Christmas! Congratulations! lol Some of us probably ate and drank too much. I know I ate way too much lol So now what? NYE is just around the corner - I'm not making any resolutions.... I always break them or get bored with them. I do have plans - they're not resolutions as I have had certain plans for a while, I just need to keep aiming for them.

One plan which does need a GREAT deal of attention is sorting the yard out, both front and back. We have a very small backyard with a pool and the previous owners for some reason (duh!) planted a whole lot of trees, bushes and shrubs around the pool and yard that are not pool friendly. The pool is constantly full of leaves and sticks which makes maintaining it sooooo time consuming and time is something I am rather short on these days! Aren't we all! 

When we first moved into this house, I said to my wife that all of the current plants would have to come out for a couple of reasons:- 1) They were overgrown and out of control. 2) None are pool friendly. 3) They would need to be constantly cut back and there is limited space for ladders etc, and finally. 4) They just look bloody horrible!!!! There's no theme, they'd just whacked any old thing thoughtlessly in the ground in the hope that it would grow and GROW they did..... Out of control!  

So what am I going to do about it? Enter this whopper of a cutter that I received for Christmas! As the ground isn't level and the plants are growing behind a small retaining wall, I had no plans of using a ladder to cut back the tall and out of control plants (jungle), so this will do the job nicely in cutting them down to a manageable height. It is going to be a big job and it is going to take awhile, especially since it has gotten so out of control as I haven't had time since I bought the store.

As you can see, there isn't much space between the retaining wall and the pool fence, if I fell off the ladder (Which I am very good at lol) I'd probably impale myself on the pool fence.

I can't wait to see the end result. I have already planned to plant red and green clumping bamboo in the place of the horrid jungle that is currently in place. The bamboo will give us privacy from the neighbours directly at the rear of our property and we wont have leaves and sticks constantly in the pool. It's a shame the bamboo isn't sound-proof as that neighbour in particular drives us crazy with her constant yelling!