It's been a while, but I'm getting back into share trading. I don't know why I stopped. It just seemed to lose my interest.
Until last week, I only had two shares on the go. The complete dog stock of Telstra, which I don't have too many of (thankfully) & the ever faithful Coca-Cola Amatil which have doubled my money since their purchase in 2001.
I dabbled with various other companies early on, such as Harvey Norman, Colorado, Looksmart & Deepgreen Minerals, but I'm trying to be prudent whilst forking out larger amounts of funds into the market.
My newbies are Beach Petroleum & Virgin Blue. Neither has made a cent so far, but it's early days. I'm definitely not a daytrader, so I'm longer term unless they skyrocket.
I've only lost money on one stock, being my first ever trade in One-Tel which was wound up a few years ago. I'm well down on the Telstra shares, but they might become a nice tax offset some day!
My mission is to generate enough gains to cover the upcoming Sydney trip!
Further to yesterday's post by phone, I should say thank you for the top night on Saturday. The cast of near thousands consisted of; Kristy, Kristy's Mom, Karen, Chris, Michael, James, Sarah, Lauren & Little Willmott.
It wasn't an alcohol induced morning either, but all tucked up in bed by midnight.
I did entertain the thought about pulling out my phone & finding out if anyone else was awake, but in the end I'm glad I bailed.
Sometimes a casual night with friends is all you require, rather than getting messy & feeling very ordinary the next day!
From June 11 to 19, I shall be in Sydney holidaying it up.
Gee, days off from work in both May & June, I could get used to this!
It's a bit of a family holiday actually, after all the crazy shit that's occurred so far this year.
I'm setting myself up so I can blog while on the journey. I've got the ability to blog using my Palm & T610 mobile phone, but no way of editing anything if it all goes wrong. I suspect my level of spelling & grammar may come under question.... more so than normal.
I'm also going to try & find an FTP client for the palm so if I take any photos on my phone, I can upload them. I know FTP'ers exist, but the one I've tried doesn't want to log in. Any ideas on this one would be welcomed.
This will be my virgin aircraft flight & my virgin trip to Sydney. Yep, never been in a plane!! Ironically, we're flying Virgin Blue, so it all fits really nicely!
I have a few purchases to get out of the way before departure. A suitcase is first on the list. Also, I need some sort of backpack or bumbag to carry my camera & other gear in. Memory cards for my camera are already on order giving me masses of space for finger pressing snapshots. Although I'll be spending a heap on the cards, they'll also come in handy on my digital recorder later on. I've worked out that I'll have room for over 1000 hi-res digital photos on my 2.1MP Canon A20! It's an older camera but the quality is still exceptional.
From the Watermark to the Pier & Pines was the journey last night with a small posse of current & ex-employees of the Glenelg Golf Club. These little get-togethers are becoming more frequent & I like it!
On a darn miserable night of drizzle & cold air, a pub filled with warm smoke ain't a bad thing, except for my screaming lungs!
It was interesting to note a large group of guys sitting around all using sign language near the bar. I don't know about anyone else, but holding a conversation in a bar is near impossible unless it's closing time & the music's turned down. Even then your ears are normally ringing.
It dawned on us that out of everybody in the place, these folk were having the best time out of everyone!
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I'd normally be checking email, reading all the blogs on the roll & generally being unsociable. Instead, I'm sitting on the lounge room floor, in front of the heater watching Big Brother Up-late (& still being unsociable).
So far... it's pretty crap actually. If you haven't seen it, trust me, you're not missing much, however, I am missing sleep over this.
If they wanted to make this show gain some ratings, how about actually getting the housemates to do stuff!
Overall, at 1am, there is a serious lack of entertainment, hence the Palm blogging.
My other option is to switch to Rage on the ABC & watch the trippiest music videos until 6am. By the quality of videos over the last half hour, you could be in a fair bit of trouble if you were stoned at the same time!
Hmmm... there is that other option of going to bed, but sleep is soooo over-rated!
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The staff at the Tax Office aren't the smartest on this planet. I had a call from a lady yesterday saying that they can't reconcile the amounts we've paid for the hotel & we need to go back & explain it to them.
This woman also said that the problem stems from November 2003, which I think proves just how ahead of the game they are! I've just received the paperwork from them & they haven't checked out since June 2003, or seven months before I came in to play.
Less than five minutes with a highlighter & all the transactions which make up the discrepancy have been found & they all relate to the ATO not being able to use their forth-grade math skills.
I've also been informed if any of the discrepancies date back beyond any of the due dates, we will be charged interest on the amounts. I find it so satisfying to fund public service stupidity!
I have seen the other side of the Tax Office which allows me to understand the situation. A few years ago I had to collect a few documents from the ATO head office in Adelaide, but had to wait quite some time in the foyer. I expected to see plenty of four-eyed nerds with pocket protectors discussing the ramifications of Division 7A loan accounts on small business & chuckling as they did so.
However, the real truth is far worse. Not once did anyone walk past wearing any type of that would have facilitated a tie. I'm talking the other type of tie, mainly tie-die t-shirts, as well as mohawks, ripped jeans, hoop earrings & an endless list of highly tasteless attire. Put simply, there is no dress code at the Australian Tax Office!
Therefore, when you think you're speaking to someone versed in all that is the law of tax, you're actually conversing with someone who would much rather be surfing & probably only working to get money for their next purchase of meth-amphetamine!
My transportation system gets returned to it's rightful owner at about 3pm today. I've gone nearly three weeks without a car & although I've missed the whole freedom thing, I've managed to get around & I've actually enjoyed not being behind the wheel.
Maybe having the bingle has done something to me psychologically & now I can't drive!!
700 jobs doesn't sound all that many, when the population for a city is over the million mark. However, trying to find employment for the workers of Mitsubishi's Lonsdale engine plant when the operation closes in the next 18 months is going to be a darn hard task.
Thankfully, Adelaide has the GM Holden Operation which will be able to take a few of the skilled technician, but not 700 odd.
I can't image what's going to happen when Mitsubishi's other car building plant at Tonsley closes. Then we'll have over 3500 workers without a reason to be somewhere at 9am.
Then you have to think of the subsequent firms & operations around the state which supply Mitsubishi. I would think quite a few only exist due to the fact Mitsubishi is here. All of a sudden there a whole lot more people looking for work.
Australia just can't compete with foreign markets when it comes to labour costs. Our cars get exported worldwide, designed really well & built solid, but where it comes to making sales of vehicles, it's just not enough.
The simple fact is though, Adelaide doesn't have the ability to draw big business or to sustain it when it does actually arrive.
Then the South Australian Government does some really stupid stuff! In today's Advertiser, they've reported on the grant that doctors' receive to move out & practice in regional areas. A $30,000 incentive is great & very appealing to younger doctors, but when they receive it from the Government, they then get taxed on it & end up losing nearly half!
& they wonder why all the really good university graduates move to other states!?!
OK, so maybe you ain't a geek. You do, at least, show a bit of interest in the world around you. Either that, or you have enough of a sense of humor to pick some of the sillier answers on the test. Regardless, you're probably a pretty nifty, well-rounded person who gets along fine with people and can chat with just about anyone without fear of looking stupid or foolish or overly concerned with minutiae. God, I hate you.
I'm pretty sure this is the first & last time I'll ever have an association with Arnie! I'm a bit disappointed with the score though, I must remain proud of the remaining geekyness I have!
I don't know why, I just felt like doing a quiz dammit! Thanks to Sharn, where I found it, thanks to Kent where she found it, & thanks to whomever the hell started this thing in the first place!
Just when you think you have the whole spatial reality thing sussed, you get thrown for a wobbly!
When you walk through a door that says "exit", & you completely expect to see natural daylight on the other side, it's really disturbing to find yourself in aroom with four doors. Very "game show" in nature & even worse when you have no idea which door is going to lead to your original destination.
This is where I found myself the first time I took the stairs from the car park at work. Two doors in front of me, both leading to the outside world. Behind me, two doors!
One which I just walked through & another leading to another car park, but the doors are the wrong way around. The door on the left takes you to a car park on the right & vice versa. The staircases cross over one another & mess with the two halves of your brain at the same time. I'm normally pretty good at working out where I am in a building by following a bit of logic, but not this darn car park.
Every single time I've walked into this 4 door room, I'm screwed in finding which one I'm supposed to take!
In further to the last post, do you think that manufacturers realise that due to the quantum alone, someone is using their products for than just making whipped cream?!?
I don't know what the hell I was doing last night! It wasn't going to be anything like how it turned out.
One of the girls I worked with in recent times had been keen to catch up & after a few weeks of trying to arrange something, we finally managed to! Nothing romantic about the whole deal though, just good friends, since her bi-sexual tendencies are beoming more prevalent (she even gave her number to a chick behind the bar).
Anyway, sometimes you find things out about people you care about that freak you out a little. I'm not sure why it is, but I don't have an addictive membrane in my body. I think everyone has gone through a period of experimentation with substances of some kind. Aparently, alcoholism does go back in my family & my parents have always been against anything alcoholic with the thinking that maybe I might become
hooked. Sure, I enjoy an occasional beverage & I'm now able to enjoy a quality wine over a crap one, but I've never sat down at any point & thought to myself that I need alcohol. The same feeling applies to
cigarettes, where I've never found the 'kick' from a cancer stick that so many talk about. True, natural tobacco, when separated from all the additional chemicals has a great smell, but nothing that will ever get me hooked.
Basically, the issue I'm waltsing around is the other kinds of substances that people do, behind closed doors, in back alleys & on nightclub dancefloors. I've seen it all & hell, I've even tried a couple of them & after last night, I remember why that stuff is in the past & that it should have remained there. I went back & can't say I enjoyed it. To see others lose various motor skills is actually pretty scary, but there's nothing that anyone can say to alter clouded opinions.
Ended up out at the Barossa yesterday to pick up a catalogue.
I wouldn't travel for a couple of hours to pick up just any catalogue though. After numerous attempts to get my hands on one, I finally have the 2004 Fender Frontline, which is ridiculously hard to come by because of the company's 50th birthday this year.
On the way, Whispering Wall was on the agenda, which is basically your usual, run-of-the-mill dam wall, but with exceptional acoustic qualities. Apparently it occurred by accident, but now it's a tourist attraction.
They've built a little path to an area just below the top of the wall at each end. If you stand at one point while someone talks to you from the other end (140m away), they sound like the other person is a couple of feet in front of you, but they are only 'just' in sight!
Here's a few camera phone shots;
That last shot has me puzzled though. I haven't quite worked out why anyone would want to build their home at the base of a dam wall ;)
It's been 607 days, or should I say - six hundred and seven days - just for effect, since I had my last one!
No, you filthy people, not sex (that drought continues!), I mean time off work. Yes, at long bloody last, I officially have two days off work to make it a five day long weekend!
After the year that has been so far, I just need some time to vegetate. So, if I don't update as regularly, you can pretty much assume I'm hibernating.
I've taken my car in to be assessed by the insurers. Leaving plenty of time for things to go wrong, I turned up at the insurer about half an hour early, They had a quick look at the damage & then guided me to a chauffeured limousine to take me to work! I don't think I've ever been in a car as big or looked as much like a pretentious snob.
I then promptly left my keys in the back seat! There's two firsts in less than a week. My first car accident & the very first time I've misplaced my keys... ever!!
I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm losing it completely here. This time off better do me some good!
Update - The damage that you can see in the photo below equates to a healthy $3,000.
So, now we all know Boston Rob hedged his bets & won the million either way, but who is going to get the second chance at the booty.
I think I'm going to give a vote but I'm not sure who to go for!
Firstly, you have to get rid of the players who have won before, therefore Tina, Ethan, Jenna, Richard, Amber & Rob M (by default), are all out.
Second, the people that are bitter about the whole experience, being Lex, Jerri, Susan & Tom, all need to go home & lick their egos, oops, I meant wounds!
Thirdly, the other players who won cars; Shii Ann & Colby are excluded. It may not be $1m, but it's not a bad consolation prize!
Then we're left with six competitors who played the game to win, but never did. Out of Alicia, Rudy, Rupert, Jenna L, Cathy & Rob C, I think the most deserving has to be the one that truly played as hard as they could, in which case it comes down to only two contenders for my vote.
Rupert will most likely get the public vote for the million. He worked pretty hard & he definitely wanted the money, but his brute size & character took him most of the way but not to the end. Playing the game of Survivor twice back-to-back must have been bloody hard too.
Rob C was a dark horse in both games & nearly took it out first time around. He played everybody in the game for his own personal gain, but eventually his plethora of lies caught up to him. But overall he still "played the game" & everyone acknowledges that fact.
So, who's it going to be? I'm going to throw my vote to Rob C, whether I think he deserves the million or not. Out of the criteria to "Out Wit, Out Play, Out Last" he succeeded in two of them but not the last one. The other five were lucky to have succeeded in just one category. I don't think it'll matter though, so I'll congratulate Rupert while I'm here!
Okay, so here is the damage to my car. I drove it home & it ran like clockwork, but that's not to say there isn't damage to parts of the engine. The air-conditioner has been pushed back a couple of inches, but the rest is mainly panel damage. The driver's door makes a highly unpleasant noise when opened & the bonnet no longer latches down.
I dealt with the insurance company who was extremely helpful & I'm going to have the damage assessed on Wednesday. Since my little car dates back to 1997, I don't know how repairers obtain the replacement parts. If they don't consider it worth repairing & they write it off, I'll end up with a cheque for $11,400 which is the insured amount. Not bad considering the car was $18,500 to begin with! Dad's Holden Commodore was purchased for around $30k & is now valued at only $10k.
Looks like I'm going to find out how Adelaide's public transport system is working again!
I also need to thank my sister for coming to the rescue with Mother's Day! Losing your wheels takes away a massive amount of freedom.
There is a larger story to tell about the events of Friday night which included Police & an Ambulance, but I think I'll wait until everything is sorted with insurance companies etc. before I get into it!
I hereby declare the removal of May 7th, 2004 from all calenders on planet Earth.
Today quite simply sucked!
I had an apalling eleven hour day at work filled with dickheads & pricks. "Yes, it is end on month, I understand you require financial reports, however, I prepare them, & you standing in my office asking for them every twenty minutes is not going to assist me in preparing them, now please f@#k off & close the door you so readily forgot to knock on before starting this wasteful exchange!"
Then I promptly drove away from work & most likely wrote my car off in the process. Yep, my first ever bingle & I came off second best. It looks bad, everyone involved is okay & both cars are still driveable, but once I start playing around with insurance companies, the damage value will probably outweigh that of the automobile.
I shall be heading to bed soon, with the hope that the ceiling doesn't cave in before midnight!
May have to think about a name change to the sites name as I think may have found the "one".
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Okay adelaidian peoples! I need some help on this one.
My sister is currently investigating the purchase of a computer & since she doesn't have a huge amount of knowledge regarding such technical wizardry, I copped some of the load in looking around.
The obvious places around the city & suburbs would be A&R, Harvey Norman & IT Warehouse, but I would be interested to know of other experiences anyone has had.
My personal computer was from Gateway who are no longer with us & it's been rather reliable considering what I've put it through! Therefore Dell is another option & their prices & quality of components is very competitive.
I'm thinking you guys might be the one's to ask about this since hey you're reading this here blog on one!
Well, the worm remover is telling me my system is all clear, but the symptoms are telling me otherwise. It reboots on its own, restarts instead of shutting down & the performance is woeful.
I can even get streaming Big Brother footage to come through better than I can play a DVD! Considering that realmedia streaming is crap on a modem anyway, my system is thoroughly stuffed!
The hotel had Nick & Emily from My Restaurant Rules in yesterday afternoon. I walked into the foyer to find them standing at the front desk. Emily was looking straight at me as I came up the stairs & for a few seconds I was trying to place the face. When I eventually spotted the camera, everything fell into place. I don't know what they were doing there, but I'm not sure whether I could ever be involved in reality TV. Having a camera in my face for over three months would be pretty intimidating & who needs more than fifteen minutes of fame anyway?
Something was made clearly obvious on the weekend that I'm surprised I hadn't noticed before.
Working for two co-owned hotels for the last year or so, I've found the staff where I am now a whole lot more mentally stable. Whilst there is a bit of bitching that goes on between departments, everyone gets about their jobs & do what they can to make everyone else's life a bit easier.
When I walked in to my office on Saturday, it looked like I'd suffered a break in. The computer had been moved, papers from my desk had been thrown on the floor & a chair placed on them & printer toner smeared on the desk. Amongst the damage was a small note saying how someone had to borrow a printer during the prior evening. I'm not sure why this would require a demolition job to occur, but it apparently did!
I eventually found the culprit who thought they had done everything appropriately under the circumstances. What made it enlightening was the fact the employee responsible worked with me last year at the other hotel.
The difference between the two properties is a simple case of "respect". I can't explain why this is, but I know now the reason I don't miss the environment of the Pier.
I'm at the very start of month end, even thought it's the start of a new one! (ask any accountant & they'll sort you out if you don't understand!) This should mean, I'm sweating with urgency to get stuff done, but I'm a bit bored, hence the blog action.
My weekend was all over the place, especially Saturday. I woke at around 11:30am, dived straight into some blues on the Strat while I had the house to myself for an hour or so. Chatted to my sister, who is having up & down days after her engagement break-off for close to an hour. Drove into work to sort out a few "first day of the month" issues. Walked around the city & made a purchase or two from JB HiFi. Drove home, grabbed my digital recorder & various peripherals, drove to my sisters unit for some impromptu musical performance recording & dinner at a brand new restaurant around the corner. Home by 11pm & did a bit of mixing & mastering until around 1am.
I've worked out that a fair bit can be stuffed into thirteen hours!
On Sunday I checked out a unit that I'd looked at a couple of weeks earlier, only to find it was another one of the same group. Thankfully, I didn't buy the first one I inspected because it's neighbour was chock full of white ants! The seller will still make a killing from the sales, but whoever buys them will have a whole lot of work to do!
It's rather obvious the next Big Brother series is now under way due to the number of hits I'm getting for host, Gretel Killeen. Way back, when I posted about the first series, I spelt her name "Gretel Colleen", & obviously quite a few others have the same problem. I've had five people search for the wrong name so far today!
I am shocked by the fact that in mentioning reality TV show, "My Restaurant Rules" a week or so ago, I'm number three in Google rankings for "The Red Sea on Rundle". Am I the only one who has blogged about the series?? Apparently so!
Anyway, maybe if I mention the other restaurants, I'll end up getting even more hits! Here they are - "My Little Kitchen (MYLK)", "Room 19", "Seven Stones" & the first restaurant eliminated, "Cucina vera".
