Just three days to go til I go home.
It's been a busyish few weeks, and I've learned quite a lot:
1) I am really allergic to dogs, so won't be getting one (boo)
2) Stress is entirely of my own making. It really really isn't worth it. Chill... it'll be fine.
3) Stuff happens, things can be not-ideal, and it's ok.
It seems like 2 and 3 are easier to deal with when not at home. Different locations, different challenges every day somehow make them easier to deal with than the much smaller challenges of home life (out of milk, arrgh!).
I am, of course, very very happy to be heading home soon. It does make me wonder about my "travelling round the states in a van" idea though - but having a *mobile* home seems nicer than a suitcase and backpack.
I think the plan, now, is for me to get a minivan, tint the windows, rig up a bed and try it out. Hopefully in February or March.
My partner-in-gardening has had soil tests done and apparently the soil is excellent - nutrient rich, so that's good. It is still clay, heavy heavy clay, though.
When I get home, I'm going to...
1) Start some coriander (cilantro) growing as it's LOVELY in a salad
2) Put the winter ty/tires on the car (the damn word looks odd both ways now!)
3) Practise my bread baking. Apparently put *oil* down for the first kneading, and flour for the second. I now have a much better idea of what "knocking back" should look like thanks to the Great British Bake-off. Ah, television, how wonderful you are - in really small doses, and where there are no adverts. Thanks, BBC!
4) Sleep?
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Reading list
I have been devouring blogs and books about living in camper vans and travelling around the 'States lately.
Highly recommended:
Blue Highways: William Least Heat-Moon (currently reading)
Travels with Charley: John Steinbeck
http://www.tosimplify.net/
http://livinginmycar.com/ (her story has finished but it's fascinating nonetheless!)
I'm currently debating whether I should buy a Ford Ranger or other pickup - for hauling manure, soil, pallets, etc; a Dodge Caravan or other mini-van for doing the same, but with a trailer, with extra flexibility; or a full sized van of some kind that I can still do the hauling with, but convert to a simple camper as well.
A 2.3l Ranger has awesome fuel efficiency - at less than 9l/100km - while the Caravan is not so good at about 12, and most big vans seem to get (gulp) 18.
No rush (I've been telling myself that for 2 years!) - every month without saves on insurance, maintenance, and so on.
Anyway - back to the Blue Highways.
Highly recommended:
Blue Highways: William Least Heat-Moon (currently reading)
Travels with Charley: John Steinbeck
http://www.tosimplify.net/
http://livinginmycar.com/ (her story has finished but it's fascinating nonetheless!)
I'm currently debating whether I should buy a Ford Ranger or other pickup - for hauling manure, soil, pallets, etc; a Dodge Caravan or other mini-van for doing the same, but with a trailer, with extra flexibility; or a full sized van of some kind that I can still do the hauling with, but convert to a simple camper as well.
A 2.3l Ranger has awesome fuel efficiency - at less than 9l/100km - while the Caravan is not so good at about 12, and most big vans seem to get (gulp) 18.
No rush (I've been telling myself that for 2 years!) - every month without saves on insurance, maintenance, and so on.
Anyway - back to the Blue Highways.
Reasons to be a landlord?
Last week I went to view my house in the UK - that is currently let out.
To get done:
Central heating not as hot as it should be
Flow of water into toilet tank very very slow
Clear moss etc from roof, check gutters
Replace/repair fence between my house and neighbour
Replace kitchen skirting board under cupboards
Replace lino on kitchen (this had already been agreed)
Garage door "spool" counterweight has become unspun
Oven door glass not being held in the right place
Replace letterbox
Now, my lettings agent will deal with all this, though obviously it's worth me checking the prices of things.
If you are handy, and live near the house you are letting, then yes being a landlord is fine. I just want to say to anyone considering it - even though I live *thousands* of miles away and I do have a good agent (and am lucky with good tenants too, currently!), it is not entirely hands-off - unlike investing in, say, a FTSE 100 index tracker or S&P/TSX Composite tracker.
It's fine. I'm a landlord by accident rather than choice, and it has caused me to save harder than I might otherwise (in an attempt to minimise the interest paid to the nastiest of banks, Santander - upping their SVR by 0.5% for no good reason...).
Many people (who are not landlords) say to me: Yes but the value of property is unlikely to go to zero, I feel comfortable owning a thing such as a house, etc. And I understand that.
But the thing is, you could instead own part of something like Sainsbury's - where the share price is approximately the value of the business, so you are getting a whole load of real estate for "free"; or vice versa.
Chances of Sainsbury's going out of business? Far from impossible, but not hugely likely. Chance of all 102 companies in the FTSE 100 going bankrupt? Well...
Who knows.
Ah money. How much fun you are ;)
To get done:
Central heating not as hot as it should be
Flow of water into toilet tank very very slow
Clear moss etc from roof, check gutters
Replace/repair fence between my house and neighbour
Replace kitchen skirting board under cupboards
Replace lino on kitchen (this had already been agreed)
Garage door "spool" counterweight has become unspun
Oven door glass not being held in the right place
Replace letterbox
Now, my lettings agent will deal with all this, though obviously it's worth me checking the prices of things.
If you are handy, and live near the house you are letting, then yes being a landlord is fine. I just want to say to anyone considering it - even though I live *thousands* of miles away and I do have a good agent (and am lucky with good tenants too, currently!), it is not entirely hands-off - unlike investing in, say, a FTSE 100 index tracker or S&P/TSX Composite tracker.
It's fine. I'm a landlord by accident rather than choice, and it has caused me to save harder than I might otherwise (in an attempt to minimise the interest paid to the nastiest of banks, Santander - upping their SVR by 0.5% for no good reason...).
Many people (who are not landlords) say to me: Yes but the value of property is unlikely to go to zero, I feel comfortable owning a thing such as a house, etc. And I understand that.
But the thing is, you could instead own part of something like Sainsbury's - where the share price is approximately the value of the business, so you are getting a whole load of real estate for "free"; or vice versa.
Chances of Sainsbury's going out of business? Far from impossible, but not hugely likely. Chance of all 102 companies in the FTSE 100 going bankrupt? Well...
Who knows.
Ah money. How much fun you are ;)
Sunday, October 7, 2012
The Sights of Budapest
Ah what joy - a weekend off! Well, mostly.
I'm here in lovely Budapest. It's quite a contrast from Ottawa - a lot more dog poo on the streets, but so much more... "culture" I suppose you'd have to call it.
I loved this guy fighting Cerberus (I think) - one of two smaller statues at the base of the Szabadság Szobor or Statue of Liberty.
Budapest has trams (streetcars) - and they are usually fairly full, at least the ones I have seen. It's a bustling, vibrant city. I love it.
I also love the old cars - inbetween the Renaults, VWs and, surprisingly, Chevrolets, are Ladas and Trabants:
Awesome. If only I could take one home...
What else. Cool money (the Forint - about 350 to the GBP, 280 to the EUR, or 220 to the CAD. That's like buying everything in thirds of a penny, or half-cents.
Stuff's cheap here, too - a pint of beer is about $2. At home it's more like $8, if I remember correctly! Good thing I don't drink much!
There is the slight awkwardness of being a foreigner in a country that doesn't speak your language, though. Oddly enough, despite the fact I've travelled at least reasonably far and wide, it's only rarely I've been in countries where I don't know the language at all.
But thankfully, English is ubiquitous. It's amazing really. Does every hotel employee the world over have to have at least basic English?
It makes me want to really study a language. I think I'm not bad at them... and I guess with my upcoming spare time, I'll be able to. Now.. what to pick. French, that I already know some of (and would be useful at home... if I wanted a government job...)? Cantonese or Mandarin, or perhaps Japanese?
What about Hungarian? I really do rather like it here...
I'm here in lovely Budapest. It's quite a contrast from Ottawa - a lot more dog poo on the streets, but so much more... "culture" I suppose you'd have to call it.
Budapest has trams (streetcars) - and they are usually fairly full, at least the ones I have seen. It's a bustling, vibrant city. I love it.
I also love the old cars - inbetween the Renaults, VWs and, surprisingly, Chevrolets, are Ladas and Trabants:
What else. Cool money (the Forint - about 350 to the GBP, 280 to the EUR, or 220 to the CAD. That's like buying everything in thirds of a penny, or half-cents.
Stuff's cheap here, too - a pint of beer is about $2. At home it's more like $8, if I remember correctly! Good thing I don't drink much!
There is the slight awkwardness of being a foreigner in a country that doesn't speak your language, though. Oddly enough, despite the fact I've travelled at least reasonably far and wide, it's only rarely I've been in countries where I don't know the language at all.
But thankfully, English is ubiquitous. It's amazing really. Does every hotel employee the world over have to have at least basic English?
It makes me want to really study a language. I think I'm not bad at them... and I guess with my upcoming spare time, I'll be able to. Now.. what to pick. French, that I already know some of (and would be useful at home... if I wanted a government job...)? Cantonese or Mandarin, or perhaps Japanese?
What about Hungarian? I really do rather like it here...
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Kit
Wow, I'm bad at keeping this updated. Sorry.
I am currently in England on "one last" work trip. Hopefully. I'm down to the last 30k on my UK house's mortgage so I have been making seriously good progress over the last two years.
I realised last week that December 2013 will be the 10 year anniversary of the mortgage, which I moved from one house to another in 2007. I am hoping to be able to completely pay it off by that point, but it may be slightly too ambitions (especially when there are other things to invest in - see http://canadiancouchpotato.com/ for an excellent view on intelligent investing/saving - the issue is that repaying my mortgage may not be the most effective *growth* strategy, but it is almost certainly the most effective *cashflow increasing* one).
In theory I am "retiring" in February or March, in order to start (or resume) a CSA box scheme at http://www.maisontuckerhouse.ca/ with my buddy Lindsay from my time as a farm intern in 2010.
So that is incredibly exciting! Nothing has been signed yet, but the agreement is there in principle.
I may also be doing some soapstone carving workshops with my wife at various Ontario Provincial Parks next summer, so next year should be considerably more out-doorsy than this year has been (despite the new house with garden - well, to be fair, this year has been considerably more out-doorsy than last year, so it's all good).
Back to the present moment. Tomorrow I fly to Finland with approximately 80kg of checked baggage. Then on to Hungary. Laptops, printers, and the assorted cabling required to run registration at a couple of small conferences.
The disparity between my normal life (walk to the supermarket, bank, hardware store) and this (taxi to the airport, eating out much of the time) is crazy. I'm quite enjoying it in a funny way - it's nice being with people, where working from home is lonely. The good news is that, once I finally get home, I will only be working from home for 3-4 more months and then mostly free.
Free! At 32 (and a half)! Pretty good!
I think I would like to be in an office for roughly two days a week, with 10 or so people around to chat with, and work on my own the rest of the time - that would be the perfect balance.
Anyway, my current plan is to spend at least a couple of weeks on some kind of road trip in February or March. I am feeling so much more relaxed about things knowing I'm financially fairly sound it's untrue.
That, and I just bought the Fleetwood Mac album "Rumours" (I know - 35 years late!) and it is *excellent*. Good music... makes me happy.
Now, for a hot bath. Ahhhhh, bliss!
I am currently in England on "one last" work trip. Hopefully. I'm down to the last 30k on my UK house's mortgage so I have been making seriously good progress over the last two years.
I realised last week that December 2013 will be the 10 year anniversary of the mortgage, which I moved from one house to another in 2007. I am hoping to be able to completely pay it off by that point, but it may be slightly too ambitions (especially when there are other things to invest in - see http://canadiancouchpotato.com/ for an excellent view on intelligent investing/saving - the issue is that repaying my mortgage may not be the most effective *growth* strategy, but it is almost certainly the most effective *cashflow increasing* one).
In theory I am "retiring" in February or March, in order to start (or resume) a CSA box scheme at http://www.maisontuckerhouse.ca/ with my buddy Lindsay from my time as a farm intern in 2010.
So that is incredibly exciting! Nothing has been signed yet, but the agreement is there in principle.
I may also be doing some soapstone carving workshops with my wife at various Ontario Provincial Parks next summer, so next year should be considerably more out-doorsy than this year has been (despite the new house with garden - well, to be fair, this year has been considerably more out-doorsy than last year, so it's all good).
Back to the present moment. Tomorrow I fly to Finland with approximately 80kg of checked baggage. Then on to Hungary. Laptops, printers, and the assorted cabling required to run registration at a couple of small conferences.
The disparity between my normal life (walk to the supermarket, bank, hardware store) and this (taxi to the airport, eating out much of the time) is crazy. I'm quite enjoying it in a funny way - it's nice being with people, where working from home is lonely. The good news is that, once I finally get home, I will only be working from home for 3-4 more months and then mostly free.
Free! At 32 (and a half)! Pretty good!
I think I would like to be in an office for roughly two days a week, with 10 or so people around to chat with, and work on my own the rest of the time - that would be the perfect balance.
Anyway, my current plan is to spend at least a couple of weeks on some kind of road trip in February or March. I am feeling so much more relaxed about things knowing I'm financially fairly sound it's untrue.
That, and I just bought the Fleetwood Mac album "Rumours" (I know - 35 years late!) and it is *excellent*. Good music... makes me happy.
Now, for a hot bath. Ahhhhh, bliss!
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