The Culling of Stuff

Because I won't pay thousands of dollars to move virtually worthless possessions, I'm doing a massive cull. I aim to leave here with my bed, bedside table, 4 picture boxes and 10 packing boxes, plus the kennel for Bess. Considering the fact that it took THREE trips in a truck to get all my stuff here that is a serious amount to get rid of. We will have a massive garage sale, we've sold some things on ebay, some will be given away and the rest chucked.

To give you an idea of the amount of stuff I'm talking about, here is the 'garage sale room'. There is a lot of furniture that will be sold (including what you can see in here under all the junk!), but this is pretty much all of the "stuff" that needs to find a new home:


And just a moment ago I finished cleaning out the pantry. There are three boxes of stuff that is out of date and either open and half used or unopened. It is all stuff I haven't touched in the almost two years we've been here. I've tried to find somewhere to send it, but really I can't give it away - most of it is years out of date. These aren't small boxes either...


I do feel bad about having all these things/food/junk/stuff/crap/bits and pieces. It is all unnecessary and surplus to what two people need to live very comfortably. I am very much looking forward to getting to Busselton and having very little and trying very, very hard to minimise the amount of things I collect.

The other exciting bit of news is that there is a new community garden in Busselton - this is so much better than trying to grow stuff ourselves. The garden is all organic and run workshops on worm farming, composting and other organic gardening things. Can't wait! I've decided that we should have a rule to only ride our bikes to the garden.

The other decision I've made is to buy an electric scooter to ride to school. I'm sure this will be totally doable, I just need to practice riding one to feel that I'll be okay, which I'm sure I will be. A new challenge to be embraced.

Is this enough positives yet?

New Job = New Start?

After all the stress of worrying that things wouldn't work out I've finally managed to get a job I want in a place we want to be that pays significantly better than my current wage. It is a good job. Really, it is the job for which I've put up with all the shit of this year because in many ways it has been the way my CV looks now that got me the interview in the first place. While this new school is slightly posher than my current one, and the hours I'm required there are slightly longer, I am getting paid more and we will be living very close to it and, most importantly, I'm just a teacher there - no extra responsibilities or demands - the demands of teaching are enough for me. The plan then, is to stay there for two or three years full-time, save every single penny I can and then do something else. I have to promise that to myself because while I have taken this job and am happy about it, it isn't really, honestly what I want to do. I still need to find that thing.

There was a show on SBS that I stumbled upon the other night. I think it was called 'Roadtrip' but that seems a bad name for it. Three early-mid 20s travelled around together in a green motorhome and conducted interviews with successful people about career and life balance, happiness, regrets, family and associated things. They are looking for help in deciding the direction of their lives - what do they believe is success? how much should they do what they want over what they should? should lifestyle determine work or work determine lifestyle? These are questions I'm grappling with and while it was interesting to watch, it was also slightly scary that I've been asking this questions now for over ten years, with no real answers. And this new change....I wonder if it will provide any help with these things?

One guy interviewed (I got momentarily excited because his name is Tim Winton, but turns out it isn't the Tim Winton I'd want to hear from!) had a very interesting phrase he used to describe the process or moment of changing life - 'reaching escape velocity'. I like this phrase - it embodies in it the kind of energy and faith needed to get away from the things society thinks we should do, like work full time to be able to afford to buy the stuff that keeps the economy going. He also made the comment that the context of a profession does all it can to keep you there and pull you back in if you do try to break away. This is exactly how it feels - no one around you believes there is any other way of living life besides working full time and working yourself to death to move up and be successful etc, etc. It is very difficult to believe anything different when no one else does and there is no one to talk this stuff through with who doesn't have an agenda.

But this is all for later. For now, the upshot is that I have a job that allows us to move more easily between here and there. Once there, I can continue to explore these things.