On my trip to Boston I had time to catch up with an old friend. She looked amazing. When she said she had worked her butt off over the last year, it was inadvertently a literal statement. Her butt was gone!! What was also so inspiring was that her health was the best it had been for a long time and her life outlook was top notch.

So with this inspiration and muse to hand I looked me up a personal trainer back in Sydney. Naturally I did it via the internet as thats what mr google is for! I had the assessment session all lined up before I even landed back in the country. While it was good to do the assessment 'twas not fun to get the results. When I wasn't looking I went up to 106 kg. Actually there was bait of good news here. The last weight check at the doctors was 108. So finished today my first session and feel so much better for it.

Well been in Boston for two weeks now, and will be here for another two. Should be home in Australia.

Right now which I was. Instead I am in some silly seaside restaurant that has the shitest service I have seen since being here!

Note don’t giro the red inn in province town. Unless you are a beautiful person,

A incredible little video into one of the less known stunning events on that terrible day.  Do watch it.

So, instead of getting all upset because I managed to find an incompetent lawyer I'm going to watch this instead.

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Wow, its been a very busy few weeks for Tonto and I.  We are all settled into Sydney and have now finished getting the place looking good.  All kitted out on a red and black theme which looks great.

Then just when its all done I got the bug to start looking for a place to own!  Was like i can't buy any more furniture or other stuff for the house, so I might as well but a new house.

Search for a new home as been a huge learning curve and very interesting.  Have spent alot of time learning the market, locations, pricing, mortgages and all that stuff.  Wow, its a big thing.  I've spent hours and hours researching this now.

The housing market in Sydney seems to still be in high gear.  There is talk that prices may stabalize this year, but I'm not sure if the people saying that are turning up to the open homes!

I thought the rental market was bad for many people turning up to viewings.  Well the buying market is just the same.  There is a huge market in the <500K space as if you are a first time buyer there is no stamp duty (which can be horrendous) and you also get a nice grant from the government.  It means that in this price range there are lots of people looking.  The agents even price into this zone.  There are many places listed as offers above 480K know that it will attract buyers in the sub 500K market and will then go for much higher than that.  

I've decided to go for an off the plan apartment.  It sort of just arrived on a phone call and went from there.  The building is at the link below.

http://www.brittanyapartments.com.au/apartments.html

Its been abit of roller coaster as I originally visited the agent with intention to view the finishes and number 34, then got some silly notion in my head and changed to another apartment.  Holding deposit down we started all the contract stuff, and was supposed to sign today, but after another look at the plans and current building structure I pulled back.  My luck held and the original apartment on the top floor (aka semi penthouse) was still available after some nail biting while they worked out if it was still available.  

It is, and I love this layout and location.  Even better its significantly cheaper than the other so the plus factors keep adding up.  Basically I swapped a two level and two car parts to a single level and turned the second car park into balcony space.  The internals are slightly smaller, but being a single level give a better layout that uses the space smarter.  There will also be huge amounts of light and windows with a very nice west facing sunset view. (with no one looking in)

The lift from the carparks is just outside the door and a single level layout is better for the days I can't walk to well.  After living in Japan for 5 years and the extreme heat you get there in summer having a north facing apartment isn't actually something I want.  In summer its just more heat you have to get rid of, and lets face it the climate in Sydney isn't that cold so winter heat isn't a big issue either.

Tonto has been to the site and given he pee and crap of approval so he is all on board with it as well.  Actually its a great location.  About a 10 min walk to the train station that will get me to the city in 35 mins, so commute wise its probably going to be just a little better than were i am.  That 10 min walk include a 5 min walk up the road to the back of the village shops.  It is close the rail tracks down to Cronulla beach, but its all electric and I've been at another place right next to the trains and they are whisper quiet.  My apartment isn't even next to them so its not an issue at all.  Given i lived close to an express way in Tokyo its seriously not an issue.

There are going to be some extra lawyer fee's as they redo the contract, but the bulk of the work is done, and i the overall scheme of things a few extra dollars upfront to get the right place is not an issue.  (and in the overall cost of the mortage, its peanuts).

So so so so happy that things are on track now.  my wonderful friend Jane worked through it all with me Sunday night when i was ready to walk away and between us we have gotten it all sorted.  (on the pic my apartment will be the one on the top floor where you can see the glass balcony).  I've seen the interior finishes of what this place will look like and I'm really happy.  

Hopefully contracts will be signed this week and we are done!  Move in will be later this year, but that works for me fine!

Wow, did we get lucky or what.  I left Japan late last year.  The events over the last week have been stunning.  I see pictures of Tokyo and can identify where i used to live.

My heart goes out to the people where were my hosts for 5 years.  I can't quite seperate myself from Japan just yet and the images are too much to deal with directly.

I can't quite put in in words, but Japan/Tokyo was my home for 5 years up until 5 months ago.  The balance of that is I still think of Japan as my old home and I'm just lost for words how to describe it all.  I get information from my friends and pictures and they are not pictures of a far of place, they are pictures of where I used to live.

My heart goes out to my old home.  I think of you constantly.  I've not quite changed from westerner in Japan to westerner in western country so I do feel.

Went down to Canberra to see an old and best friend.  Was a little interesting as it was my first big trip in the car and also taking Tonto along.  I'm going home for Christmas and the plan is to leave Tonto with my friend K in Canberra.  He has his own dog so we needed to do a little test run to see how they go on.

My big surprise was just how agressive Tonto can be.  We walked the dogs as an intro which was a good thing and when they got back it seemed okay, then Tonto was very definnative about his space and was quite vocal about it.  As he doesn't back at all with me it was a little education.  He is quite vocal when he wants to be!  It all worked out well and it was really older dog, younger dog working out who was boss.  Not entirely sure who is alpha dog as in the evening we went to an Ethopian restaurant which was AMAzING and lived up to the fantastic food I had there 4 years ago.  

Great weekend and can't wait to go back again, which will be um, when I drop Tonto off for Chrimbo, so if he and Charlie haven't worked out who is top dog, they can do it then.  And they will and end of the day there is nothing we humans can do about it so lets leave it to them.  

Finally got around to getting the BBQ!  Took some time as I only have a small space to put it into.  After some checking things out I went with the Billabong 2 Burner from BBQ's galore.  All worked out really easy.  Did I mention I love my new car as well!  Mazda 3 Hatch – PERFECT for carrying BBQ's.  

Put it all together Saturday night and then only wasn't hungry at all so didn't get to test drive it with the rib eye steak i got from the meat specialist over the rail tracks!  (Did i mention I love my new homes location!).

Not to worry as had friends coming for lamb and lunch!  John brought some prawns so the first thing that sizzled on my BBQ was prawns.  Its terribly cliche and I couldn't give a damn!  It was fittingly perfect.  And the prawns after a marinade of garlic and chilli were BBQ grill perfect! 

The lamb also worked well, took a little longer to cook than I expected but came out tender, juicy and ultra flavour!  Gave a spin to a new salad as well.  Mango, Feta and red onion with squeeze of lime on top.  So so simple, and very tasty.

A great way to spend an afternoon.  Tonto has decided that he also love BBQ and all the little bits people feed him cos its out doors.

It so hard to believe a month has gone by all ready. Tonto is home and all my stuff is arriving next week. I have even managed to get a quick trip home to New Zealand. Well to be accurate I’m on the plane to nz now.

Thought I would give the iPad a spin and see how well it went as a word processor. Not bad, but also not as easy as a keyboard. The main problem seems to be that on a regular keyboard I would rest my fingers on the keyboard in the rest position. On the iPad it is just way to sensitive to this and it’s a case of having to keep ones fingers above the keyboard at all times. After 20 odd years of touch typing this is no easy trick.

I suspect that the hunt and peck typers would actually find the easier. One of the big problems I have is I don’t actually know where the keys on the keyboard!!!

How can that be. Well when you touch type you don’t actually look at the keyboard. Your hand automatically find the guide keys (another thing missing from a virtual keyboard) and then you start typing. If you ask me where an actual key is I have to look. My hands and muscles know but i don’t consciously think I must now type the letter t, then h etc. The brain and fingers just know the combination that will result in the word think.

And the more I think about it the more I realise I don’t type in letters rather I type in words at a time. Some rare ones get mentally spelt out, and even then the fingers just follow the letters.

So far it okay, but I think if I wanted to type a whole lot of stuff I would use the blue tooth keyboard. Or since I don’t have that with me some mor practice.

Back to sydney things are all falling into place still. Finally got delivery of my outdoor furniture after about the third delivery attempt at 7 Pm. Still it was definitely worth the wait and I am very happy with it. Story here is that I wasn’t even thinking about outdoor stuff and popped into the big w store to pickup some cables for the tv and walked past the outdoor furniture display. They had a very simple and elegant table and bench set from Jamie Durie. That got me looking around and I just could not find anything that I like and the price was excellent.

Went to buy it but the local store only stocked the table and not the benches. Some research showed that the store in Norht Ryde did have the benches but not the table. Since I had the rental car Tonto and I went for a road trip (he loves road trips). The benches only just fitted into the car so I decided to order the table online and have it delivered, whoa me how stupid was that. Australia has then most crap delivery service.

Finally in the pouring rain the table arrived last night. But it’s been worth it. I sat on the bench of a similar model and it was wobbly. This set is solid! Now for the BBQ and we see all set for some outdoor eating. I wonder what Tonto would do with a whole steak?

Probably eat it and then tell me he has not been feed yet! Then when his tum kicks in sleep for three days.

Well almost at NZ so laters.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Brighton St,Botany,Australia

Picked up Tonto last friday from Quarantine and also moved  into our new home.  The world is all back in order!