Nightmare on Mortgage street

When you say to people that you are buying a new house everyone is very happy for you and none the wiser about what is really involved.

Perhaps you have never bought a property before but I tell you now, it's a rollercoaster of a process and that's after you've signed the contract and you know it's yours!

With our current purchase we decided to keep our existing loan (called a substitution) and just let the bank extend it to buy the new place. Sounds simple? Ha, you would know it but for some reason noone seems to know how this process works least of all the lawyers working for the bank nor my broker who set this all up!!!

We got to 4pm on the day before settlement was due to occur only to find out that the bank couldn't access the money available in the existing loan. This meant of course that we had to somehow get this money to them. With the threat of a delayed settlement on the cards many frantic phone calls were made trying to sort out this mess.

The end of it involves myself hand delivering a cheque from the bank to the banks lawyers! What a crock. Luck I had taken the week off else it would have been a difficult situation.

The thing that really gets to me about this whole process is that for a settlement that was longer than usual it took to one day before settlement to discover this problem and only by accident. None of the parties that supposedly should have done this before told me that I would have to participate in the settlement. I cannot believe that they didn't know about this.

Lesson to be learned in the future, don't trust the people who's job it is to know these things. Pretend they are all idiots and double check everything. They are all making money out of this transaction they should be on the ball yet they are not.

I feel like a project manager, manging my own property settlement, perhaps theres an industry in that?

An Experiment

I plan to attempt a new project. I want to write a book. I will keep you posted. Just an experiment to see if I can.,

Crime and Punishment

Yes you guess it, I'm reading the revered Crime and Punishment (next up is War and Peace). You may of course ask why on earth I would want to read such heavy books. Trust me I have been wondering that myself but I guess it goes like this:

I have always wondered if ordinary people would given the right stimulus be able to comprehend things such as these books. Alternatively are they only for the intellectual elite amongst us? Certainly I don't consider myself one of those but I am curios to know if I can understand what it is about these books that makes them among the greatest books ever written (so I am led to believe).

So therefore when I recently spotted these two books at a bookstore I thought to myself, why not? I mean surely there is something in there for everyone? So that is my experiment. I am going to read these two giants and see if I can understand what it is that makes them giants.

Of course all of this could just be proof of what a geek I have become. For some reason I now seek out challenges such as these. I mean I have the most eclectic taste in movies (just ask my wife) and music that anyone would wonder what I am trying to prove? To be honest? I don't know. Perhaps I am just trying to prove that I am smart and thus worthy of feeling good about myself.

I'll let you be the judge.

Bought at Auction

Wow, I have justed been through my first auction. What a process it was. Nerve wracking to boot. But in the end we won the property we were after for quite a bit less than reserve which is good news.

It's funny how we managed to build up a perception of something with limited knowledge about it. The auction process was nothing like I had imagined. Well ok it was something like it but the auctioneer was much more jovial that I had imagined and yet at the same time there were far fewer people bidding that I had expected. The room was packed with over 40 people but there was no way of knowing which of the 5 properties the people were interested in.

As it turned out very few of the people present actually bidded on properties and for ours only one other person and he wasn't prepared to go as high as we were.

Woo such a load of to have this all over and done.

Intimidating

Today I was called something I never thought I would and it made me think. We always worry at least to some extent what people think of us. We can't help it. You can't live in a society and not wonder what people think of you because we spend so much time thinking things of other people. Usually with little fact in the mix too.

So today when I was called intimidating I was quite bemused. I had never seen myself that way and certainly hadn't thought that my geekdom would be to blame. Yet somehow it made sense to some extent.

Of course normally these things don't get found out because people are too polite to say anything to your face. I might never have found out that that's what these people think of me.

Does it really make a difference though? I don't know. I don't like the tag but what am I going to do? Pretend to be dumb so people aren't intimidated? I don't think so. I'm proud of who I am and I don't think modifying my behavior to suit a handful of people is the solution. I don't really know how I can avoid being intimidating if this is the effect I have on people. How else does one behave when the reason they feel this way is because you know too much yet at the same time you are trying to teach them things and help them get a leg up?

You tell me because I don't know.

New Lens Today

Yep, photography wannabe. Thats me. But today I received my 50mm lens which I have wanted for ages. Now that I have a bub I have a willing subject to photograph and I want to be able to capture him in all his modes.

Thus I now have this simple light cheap and fast lens to do that with. With an F stop of 1.8 it is very fast and I should be able to take non-flash shots in many more situations. Cant wait to get it home and have a play!

Where are all my friends?

Where have all the good friends gone?

I think that sounds like a song to me. I've been playing around with all these social networking sites of late but all they seem to show me is that I don't have any friends. Or at least not the kind that use such services.

Somehow I can only come away from all this with the feeling that I have no friends? Is this how our children will measure their self esteem by how many friends they have on facebook?

His first holiday

Well little Nick has had his first holiday away from home. We spent a couple of nights up in the Blue Mountains and he slept overnight in his porta-cot. New experience for us parents having him in the same room. Bubs are noisy sleepers!
Here we have him in his backpack about to go down the Furber steps in Katoomba. Shortly after this shot he fell fast asleep and missed most of the descent!
It was a fun day for all though mums legs are much sorer afterwoods! Here he is a little over 5 months old now and going great on solids. Perhaps next year up the mountains he might be walking some of the way!!

Book of Faces

I have recently been introduced to FaceBook and I'm hooked. Thing is, I don't have any friends...or at least (said a better way) I don't seem to have many friends on facebook. But I guess that's 'cos it's not really that big here in Australia yet. Getting there I guess.

Neat idea of how every relationship you have (eg you say you know person a) requires verification from that person. So you don't get random people trying to attach to your profile!

I like it.

So ok, everyone reading this, sign up...and be my friend! Then I can look popular, something I've always wanted to do!

Check out my profile:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=601346387

Why wouldnt you have one?

I mean honestly? Why would anyone not want to have one of these to enjoy? I've no idea what kind of parent I am going to make, how can anyone? But I do know that right now, when he's just shy of 4 months old, he brings so much joy to our little family.

Yes he can be a lot of work but you do that willingly. Because he's part of you. Because he gives you a reason to exist. Something to justify all the other crap that you go through. He's your chance to engender all those ideals that you've spent the last decade creating. He's so many things it's hard to get across just what it is that make him so special.

Then again, this is not something I could imagine or theorize about before the event. All those couples out there making the choice not to have kids are working on minimal information. But then noone is ever going to suggest you have kids just to try it out. You can't hand them back if you find that it's not your cup of tea.

Kids, I think are something you just have to take on faith.

Faith, remember is something you do when there is insufficient evidence to make an educated descision. I think that's what kids are about, you decide that you want them without any evidence either for or against. You won't really know if it's the right thing until you are there, you just have a feeling that it will be right.

And that's all you have to go on.

For me, it was enough. I love my son and I'm so glad he's here to enrich my world.

Where to now?

We have decided that we are soon to outgrow our little unit that we've called home for the past 3 years. But the problem is of course, where to now? We've been looking around and for Sydney, its a bleak outlook. Either move far away out west, away from family and work else buy something that is not fit for habitation.

Surely there must be a way somewhere inbetween? I'm hoping so. We all need somewhere to live but you would hope there are more options than that for someone with modest means.

We are meeting with the mortgage broker tonight to see what they can do for us. Here's hoping its something!

Stepping Down

I have just spent the last month being the boss here at work. I quite enjoyed the responsibility and the sense of achievement on getting things done. Now that by boss is back from leave I have to step down and play the role of techie again.

Now I feel like I have nothing to do. There wasn't even a formal handover, update or anything of the like. He's just in command now, no questions asked. I have no authority over anything as of this morning.

It's a bit disappointing. I felt like I was doing a good job but I don't feel like I will be thanked for it or shown any recognition.

Are these the signs that tell me its time to move on? Am I taken for granted here? Who knows. I'm too comfortable. I know that much. Living close to work makes it too easy. Makes me complacent. Yet who wouldn't want the cushy life at work? As long a they look after me why would anyone want anymore?

I don't know. Do you?

My family

This is the reason for getting a new camera! What a difference it makes. We've just recently decided that the quality of the pictures coming out of our video camera just don't cut the mustard. Thus we've gotten ourselves a nice new digital SLR and look at the results!

I think capturing the rapid changes in my little son was a very good reason for our purchase. Its something you really wouldn't want to miss. The quality is such a step up from the video camera that the effect is amazing.

I'm looking forward to taking thousands of my sons development. I might not have another son so I better catching it now.

Skulker

I'm always the sort of person that is into things years after they are cool hip trendy or just plain in. Take Skulker for instance, I heard them around 2003 when they were at the height of their popularity. I subsequently when out and bought their latest CD, then their first CD. I really love their music and wanted to know what was happening with them.

Of course since I got into it all so late by the time I was interested it was all over. Skulker is now history. Gone and forgotten. Their website no longer exists and noone has heard from them since 2004. It saddens me to think that music that certainly spoke to me so well and presumably many others dies so silently as it has.

But then stardom is fleeting and perhaps after 10 years at it the girls just wern't into it anymore. Who knows? I certainly don't. Never saw them live, never bought any of their singles. Just plain got into it all too late to be useful.

At least I still have their music to remind me of what it must have been like. Thank you Skulker for at least rocking for a while and managing to plonk down a couple of solid albums.

Worse than a Pet, More than a Toy

Sometimes its hard to come to grips with how to deal with a new little addition to the household. I'm talking about a newborn baby. I've now had one as part of my home for a couple of weeks now and I'm still getting used to how I should think about this newcomer.

Ok, when you have a pet , say a cat, in your house, you know certain things about this pet. You know when they are hungry and thus you feed them or shoo them away if you fed them 5 minutes ago. When they are not hungry, they are generally taking care of themselves. They don't need to wear nappies which need changing but on the other hand they cannot communicate any more than a baby can. All you get are general emotional states like hungry, sleepy, or content.

Alternatively, if you have a toy, you play with it, you touch it, perhaps dress it up and you enjoy how it looks. You don't have any obligations beyond that, it is there purely for your pleasure.

So, from these two opposites, you have a newborn baby. Something that can only give you a vague idea about how it's feeling, sleepy hungry or just generally upset. On the odd occasion you might get content.

Yet this little person also requires continuing maintenance. Nappies need changing, stomachs need filling with warm milk and yes, on the odd occasion he needs entertaining.

All of these things take some adjustment. Learning to deal with a baby who cannot communicate what is wrong is hard. Learning to deal with someone elses waste is well, icky. Learning to love this little thing, is easy, yet learning all these things at once can be hard.

So far, I'm loving it. Yet being the male I get the easy job. The hard part is dealing with all of these issues when you've had little sleep, its 3am and the baby is crying for reasons you cannot fathom. That's where I take my hat off to my wife who despite not having foresight about all this is dealing with all of it as best she can. All I can do is support her any way I can.

To all those contemplating parenthood I say this, know as best you can how you deal with the unknown under adverse circumstances. Then you will know how you will deal with parenthood.

Either way, its all worth it.

What a big world

From Nicholas

Its such a big world that this little bundle of ours has entered. Everything must seem strange to him. I can fully understand him loosing it every now and then. We just need to be ready to comfort him when it call gets a bit much.

So far we are doing ok at that. Sometimes he sleeps for hours without a peep, other times he's not a happy camper even after a nice big feed. He's still learning and so are we.

And I'll try and keep you all posted on our progress. Heading into our second night at home with the little man and we're optimistic!

Don't forget the photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/rruckley/Nicholas

Its a Boy!

From Nicholas

Yes its a boy and these are the proud parents. Nicholas was born 7:46pm on the 24th of January, 2007 weighing 3.76 kg or 8lbs 4 ounces to those who need it.

Both mum and bub are doing well and we are all very pleased with our new little addition.

Look forward to seeing you all and posting some more pics when I get a chance.

39 weeks and counting...

Yep it could be any day, parenthood. I don't know quiet what we are in for but it's going to be soon...

Fingers crossed.

Almost there

Yes, we are now officially only three weeks away from parenthood. Of course nothing ever comes on time, especially not babies but we can still hope.

So far we believe we are as ready as we can be. Everything is in place and all the books are read. Now it just comes down to waiting. And more waiting until we know something is happening.

We have our names picked out and we even have the bags packed for hospital. Now we just waiting for anything that will let us know things are getting close.

Hope you are all keeping some appendages crossed for us.

Woo ADSL2

I've joined the ranks of Uber geeks today as my ADSL2+ finally started working.
Shame on optus for only allowing their ServiceNET to work with IE. I couldn't agree to the terms and conditions via firefox under linux I had to get the lappy out to agree.

But once I did that it works. My modem now says I'm connected at 11Mbs!!!

Woo to fast Internet.

Thats all, just a quick gloat!