As of today, Australian time, Jones & Jones are one step closer to owning the property concern in Newtown. I managed to get the planets, bank, solicitors, and agents aligned and we exchanged the contracts. There's a five day cooling off period (requested by me) so we can bail if the premises collapse in a pool of rubble on Saturday. But I have been led to believe that it won't. So by next Monday, we should be well and truly locked in Eddie.
It's been raining just a tad recently, and my planned big training week has been scuttled by the forces of nature. It's just not as fun riding in the rain in Sydney as it is in Belgium. Too many cars. So I've been limited to about 60-70 km a day for the past few days, with no racing. The bee-sting swelling has disappeared though, and strangely I didn't have any side effects from the prednisone. It did work.
The CA Awards were a slightly more memorable occasion than last year, namely due to the fact that I stuck to beer and beer alone. I swear they watered it down though, because I'd normally expect to feel some light headedness after 11 glasses. Maybe I'm just used to the real Belgian stuff.
Steve and Simone's wedding went off on Saturday, and the heavens lifted especially for the occasion. Everything was in Steve's garden in West Pymble, and it was the most chaotic wedding ceremony I've ever seen. Things got signed so I'm sure it's legally binding. 100-odd people there, the bbq was good, and I found out from Dave that The Property is actually being sold by a friend of his! He said no-one turned up to the auction four weeks ago!! That's pretty funny. But both Dave and Steve have stayed there, and reckon that it's a goer.
Finally, I just finished reading The Corporation by Joel Bakan. It's an interesting read, examining big, publicly traded companies and their ethics. Basically, because a corporation is legally required to maximise profits for its shareholders, it is sometimes forced to act in an amoral and often illegal manner. Think clothing sweatshops, for example. But the costs of breaking the law are outweighed by the benefits in doing so, so it continues. From a normal human point of view, this is a bad thing, but the corporation is so dominant and powerful at the moment that we have little choice but to accept it, even if we did know what was going on all the time. The continuing deregulation and privatisation merely adds to a corporation's power, and that has as a consequence a more inhuman society and a more selfish population, which I reckon is a bad thing.
The book details many examples, and Bakan reiterates his point several times per chapter. It's a little belaboured, the back and forth switching between two sides of the argument is confusing at times, and the logical conclusions predicted are often unrealistic, but overall it's still a good read, informative, and not written by a radical. At the end, Bakan proposes a whole lotta solutions, with the main one being that governments have to reclaim their power to regulate corporations, because now with all the money being poured into government coffers by the corporations, democracy is thrown out the window. Donations to political parties at election time are a good example.
I am kind of glad that I work for a privately owned (and ethical) company.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Property tycoons
So Lucy and I are about to become property tycoons, after I made an offer on this place in Wilson St, Newtown. No, we won't get it that cheap, but I reckon it was a damn good price because it's in one of the desirable inner city spots in Sydney, and it's also quite a nice 2 bedroom unit. Speaking of desirable places, there's always this one. You probably have to be Sydneysider to get this - a tunnel subsided a few weeks ago and this flat was practically on top of it!
Back to the tycoons. The offer was accepted on Wednesday, so the next step is to exchange contracts and pay a deposit. I have left the matter in the hands of my solicitors, Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel. Sorry, I always think of the Marx Bros (and Dickens, for that matter) when legal stuff involving property is concerned.
Once the deposit is paid, there's a 42 day settlement period, then we've got to cough up the rest of the cash. No worries. There's a tenant in there at the moment too, and he can stay until one of us (likely me) moves in there later next year. Get someone else to buy your property for you, that's the ticket. Our country's negative gearing laws help in that regard.
So far, it's taken about 3 weeks from when I started physically looking for places, helped by Lucy's able assistance from afar and Domain.com.au. It's not as hard as I thought it would be, but I wish I'd listened to sagely advice and applied for the loan very early in the piece.
Raced at Sutho last Friday and managed to break even by winning the first prime. It's a matter of attacking just at the time when you think they are going to blow the whistle. Maybe I'm psychic. Actually, I'm probably not, because I chose the wrong side to sprint from in the finale - the surge came on the right and I was on the left. 8th. And a free PowerBar, so I finished ahead for the night.
Tuesday at Heffron was interesting, because we had the whole of the Korean track team there. They were better than expected, because Heffron is usually a specialist track. If you haven't raced there much, you'll often have trouble in a Tuesday night handicap. We ended up with a huge A grade bunch - maybe 25 to 30. I played it safe and sat on, although I did have the urge to do some work. Whenever I tried to move up, there was a Korean or three in the way. We averaged 43.5 and caught B and C on the last lap, so it was a bit chaotic...
On Wednesday I got stung by a bee while riding through the National Park. The bugger hit me in the forehead when I was doing about 60 km/h and by the time I'd stopped, it had well and truly stung me. I made it home OK, but during the afternoon, my face swelled up like a balloon (think Jon Vaughters in the Tour de France that year) and on Thursday morning I could barely open and close my eyes! I went to the doc, and he gave me some prednisone, which has reduced the swelling a bit. He warned me that if I was a professional cyclist, I'd have to declare it, but I'm not, and I can't see myself being tested in the next [arbitrary time period].
Tomorrow, there's the CA Awards, so I hope I'm unswollen by then. I won't be drinking much wine though. Then on Saturday there's Steve and Simone's wedding chez Lane Cove. Coolness! They have been some of the major forces at work in our garden recently, and it has been completely remodeled in the shape of a fish. And this week we found out that sculptor Mick Purdy won the People's Choice Award at Sculpture By The Sea. Good on him. I voted at least three times for him. Damn, I should have voted for Lucy too. Anyway, he did some nice work in our garden too!
Back to the tycoons. The offer was accepted on Wednesday, so the next step is to exchange contracts and pay a deposit. I have left the matter in the hands of my solicitors, Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel. Sorry, I always think of the Marx Bros (and Dickens, for that matter) when legal stuff involving property is concerned.
Once the deposit is paid, there's a 42 day settlement period, then we've got to cough up the rest of the cash. No worries. There's a tenant in there at the moment too, and he can stay until one of us (likely me) moves in there later next year. Get someone else to buy your property for you, that's the ticket. Our country's negative gearing laws help in that regard.
So far, it's taken about 3 weeks from when I started physically looking for places, helped by Lucy's able assistance from afar and Domain.com.au. It's not as hard as I thought it would be, but I wish I'd listened to sagely advice and applied for the loan very early in the piece.
Raced at Sutho last Friday and managed to break even by winning the first prime. It's a matter of attacking just at the time when you think they are going to blow the whistle. Maybe I'm psychic. Actually, I'm probably not, because I chose the wrong side to sprint from in the finale - the surge came on the right and I was on the left. 8th. And a free PowerBar, so I finished ahead for the night.
Tuesday at Heffron was interesting, because we had the whole of the Korean track team there. They were better than expected, because Heffron is usually a specialist track. If you haven't raced there much, you'll often have trouble in a Tuesday night handicap. We ended up with a huge A grade bunch - maybe 25 to 30. I played it safe and sat on, although I did have the urge to do some work. Whenever I tried to move up, there was a Korean or three in the way. We averaged 43.5 and caught B and C on the last lap, so it was a bit chaotic...
On Wednesday I got stung by a bee while riding through the National Park. The bugger hit me in the forehead when I was doing about 60 km/h and by the time I'd stopped, it had well and truly stung me. I made it home OK, but during the afternoon, my face swelled up like a balloon (think Jon Vaughters in the Tour de France that year) and on Thursday morning I could barely open and close my eyes! I went to the doc, and he gave me some prednisone, which has reduced the swelling a bit. He warned me that if I was a professional cyclist, I'd have to declare it, but I'm not, and I can't see myself being tested in the next [arbitrary time period].
Tomorrow, there's the CA Awards, so I hope I'm unswollen by then. I won't be drinking much wine though. Then on Saturday there's Steve and Simone's wedding chez Lane Cove. Coolness! They have been some of the major forces at work in our garden recently, and it has been completely remodeled in the shape of a fish. And this week we found out that sculptor Mick Purdy won the People's Choice Award at Sculpture By The Sea. Good on him. I voted at least three times for him. Damn, I should have voted for Lucy too. Anyway, he did some nice work in our garden too!
Friday, November 18, 2005
Multifarious bilge
As I wait for my speedy dialup connection to upload these pics from Londoninium, I will put finger to keyboard and write spew forth some bilge.
I'll start with London, seeing as that was a while ago already. It was another lightning early week trip to see Luce and the gang, meaning that I left on Monday afternoon at 3-ish, got the Eurostar to Waterloo, tube to Angel, walked to the pub where I met Luce, Pete, and Caz, with Mandy following suit at the Indian restaurant a while later. There were some drinks consumed but no olive pip throwing. Mandy was a bit knackered after starting rehearsals on a Mozart piece that was two hours and forty minutes long...and that was the shortened version! Too many notes.
Tuesday dawned cool and grey but Luce and I were somewhat more organised than last time (and she has a new bike) so we cycled along the Thames to the Tate Modern. Check it. Therein, we saw the new installation, which is a bloody great construction of plastic blocks blocks blocks taking up a fair chunk of the Tate's big hall, which is very big. Then we saw some more art (not bad at all) and had a coffee on the top floor.
Tuesday night was dinner at Cousin Polly's place, complete with baby Eva and cats. My memory for animal names is not so good, but it was a good dinner and great to finally catch up with Polly again after about seven years of living within about 3 hours of her. This is the first year I've managed to get enough time off during the season to go and visit though - one day is not sufficient.
That was a very potted summary of another fun time in London, but it'll have to do. Pics are here:
Setting out from Sabine Road
© Jeff Jones
A glorious day in London, complete with Millenium Bridge
© Jeff Jones
Lucy on her new steed that actually fits
© Jeff Jones
The large Tate Modern
© Jeff Jones
The installation of plastic boxes. Cool, innit?
© Jeff Jones
Chinatown in London is pretty small
© Jeff Jones
Bustling Chinatown
© Jeff Jones
Cousin Polly in Balham, Gateway to the South. Note pic of Battersea power station.
© Jeff Jones
Me and Cousin Polly
© Jeff Jones
Last Saturday I semi-cleaned up at Heffron, netting a massive payout of $65 for coming second. That's not bad for a club race - about the same as fourth in the Zwijnaarde kermis last year. The reason was that Il Presidente decided to run the race as a three grade handicap, and there were about 40 C graders, 20 B graders and just 6 A graders. It was 16 laps (for A) and we had to catch and then lap C grade. Tricky, but with Josh Marden, Spurge and I driving the groupette, we managed to get C grade the first time after less than four laps. A couple of laps later, the other three A graders had diminished off the back and I made the executive decision to continue with just Josh and Spurge.
It turned out OK as we caught B grade with four to go and C grade a lap later. There was some confusion for a lap or so as everyone was yelling 'hold your line', including a B grader who tried to pass me on the inside of the corner after the start/finish. There wasn't room, but I let him through and then attacked fairly hard. Josh and Spurge caught me with two to go and brought another five with them. Josh asked Spurge 'Is this it?' and Spurge replied in the affirmative, however Josh interpreted it to mean that this was the last lap, instead of 'yes, we have caught everyone'. So on the straight coming up to the bell lap, Josh wound it up and I was wondering what the hell he was doing as I was trying to close the 10m gap off the back. He crossed the line and then was downcast when they rang the bell.
I was a bit stuffed but I went again, fairly ineffectually, but it split the group up a bit more. Then the only remaining C grader countered and Spurge chased him down with me on his wheel. We caught him at 1 km to go and I went again, with Spurge easily taking my wheel. I was resigned to second place (didn't even try to sprint) but there is no shame in that. And we did split the money anyway.
Moving along...
The rest of Saturday and a bit of Sunday was spent going to Sculpture by the Sea at Tamarama/Bondi. It's a pretty fine exhibition and extremely popular. There were over 80 sculptures there, some of which were very big, including one by one of our garden landscapers Mick Purdy. It was four faces made out of sandstone and was easily one of the best there. I think he sold it for $27,000. Dad's going to enter in it next year, he reckons...
Monday was dinner at Cousin Sophie's place, complete with Husband Nik, Toddler Nina, Cousin Anty and Soph's three month-old pregnancy (yay). Again, it was most excellent to catch up with them all and we had some fine wine and even a roast dinner!
Although Nina is not even three, she remembers me making faces at here through the window at Wyong earlier this year, which shows she has a much better memory than moi. She is also on the way to becoming a very clean and tidy person, unlike the majority of the family. Anty is working for the public service in NSW regional water management (correct me if I'm wrong, Ant) as an interim occupation before going to study law at Oxford. He reckons he's going to float himself on the futures market to fund his degree, which we thought was a sound idea. You never know when you will need to have a stake in a high court judge.
On Tuesday, the weather was somewhat inclement: a massive southerly change brought in quite a bit of rain and I was the only one fool enough to turn up to Heffron. I knew there wouldn't be racing on, but I wanted to go there to reclaim my mobile phone, which I'd left there on Saturday. No dice. Got it back on Thursday. I did a few laps and didn't get blown off.
The weather was similar on Wednesday so I went through the Royal (via Artillery Hill for the first time in ages) and then did the Otford Wall. The latter is one seriously steep hill - it's nearly 2 km long - and I needed the 39x25 just to grind up it at 10 km/h in bits. Coming home was fun with that tailwind though.
Wednesday and Thursday evening consisted of pub meetings and one sausage sandwich for dinner (spread over two nights) along with much beer. Caught up with Josh (Saunders, not Marden) last night over a number of Hoegaardens and that was good. We discussed Fort Street's 20 year reunion (in 2008) and a 'where are they now', among other things. Where am I now? Am I the only one of our extremely successful year to end up as a journo? Maybe I'll find out in 2008.
I'll start with London, seeing as that was a while ago already. It was another lightning early week trip to see Luce and the gang, meaning that I left on Monday afternoon at 3-ish, got the Eurostar to Waterloo, tube to Angel, walked to the pub where I met Luce, Pete, and Caz, with Mandy following suit at the Indian restaurant a while later. There were some drinks consumed but no olive pip throwing. Mandy was a bit knackered after starting rehearsals on a Mozart piece that was two hours and forty minutes long...and that was the shortened version! Too many notes.
Tuesday dawned cool and grey but Luce and I were somewhat more organised than last time (and she has a new bike) so we cycled along the Thames to the Tate Modern. Check it. Therein, we saw the new installation, which is a bloody great construction of plastic blocks blocks blocks taking up a fair chunk of the Tate's big hall, which is very big. Then we saw some more art (not bad at all) and had a coffee on the top floor.
Tuesday night was dinner at Cousin Polly's place, complete with baby Eva and cats. My memory for animal names is not so good, but it was a good dinner and great to finally catch up with Polly again after about seven years of living within about 3 hours of her. This is the first year I've managed to get enough time off during the season to go and visit though - one day is not sufficient.
That was a very potted summary of another fun time in London, but it'll have to do. Pics are here:
Setting out from Sabine Road© Jeff Jones
A glorious day in London, complete with Millenium Bridge© Jeff Jones
Lucy on her new steed that actually fits© Jeff Jones
The large Tate Modern© Jeff Jones
The installation of plastic boxes. Cool, innit?© Jeff Jones
Chinatown in London is pretty small© Jeff Jones
Bustling Chinatown© Jeff Jones
Cousin Polly in Balham, Gateway to the South. Note pic of Battersea power station.© Jeff Jones
Me and Cousin Polly© Jeff Jones
The Oz report
Since last I updated, things have been busy, as usual. I'm on holidays for a couple more weeks (yay) and am making the best use of my time. House buying is coming along, but I need to get the cash together before making an offer on somewhere. The inner city/inner west is reasonably affordable with Lucy and I pooling our resources, so that will be good. By the end of next week, I hope things will be somewhat further advanced.Last Saturday I semi-cleaned up at Heffron, netting a massive payout of $65 for coming second. That's not bad for a club race - about the same as fourth in the Zwijnaarde kermis last year. The reason was that Il Presidente decided to run the race as a three grade handicap, and there were about 40 C graders, 20 B graders and just 6 A graders. It was 16 laps (for A) and we had to catch and then lap C grade. Tricky, but with Josh Marden, Spurge and I driving the groupette, we managed to get C grade the first time after less than four laps. A couple of laps later, the other three A graders had diminished off the back and I made the executive decision to continue with just Josh and Spurge.
It turned out OK as we caught B grade with four to go and C grade a lap later. There was some confusion for a lap or so as everyone was yelling 'hold your line', including a B grader who tried to pass me on the inside of the corner after the start/finish. There wasn't room, but I let him through and then attacked fairly hard. Josh and Spurge caught me with two to go and brought another five with them. Josh asked Spurge 'Is this it?' and Spurge replied in the affirmative, however Josh interpreted it to mean that this was the last lap, instead of 'yes, we have caught everyone'. So on the straight coming up to the bell lap, Josh wound it up and I was wondering what the hell he was doing as I was trying to close the 10m gap off the back. He crossed the line and then was downcast when they rang the bell.
I was a bit stuffed but I went again, fairly ineffectually, but it split the group up a bit more. Then the only remaining C grader countered and Spurge chased him down with me on his wheel. We caught him at 1 km to go and I went again, with Spurge easily taking my wheel. I was resigned to second place (didn't even try to sprint) but there is no shame in that. And we did split the money anyway.
Moving along...
The rest of Saturday and a bit of Sunday was spent going to Sculpture by the Sea at Tamarama/Bondi. It's a pretty fine exhibition and extremely popular. There were over 80 sculptures there, some of which were very big, including one by one of our garden landscapers Mick Purdy. It was four faces made out of sandstone and was easily one of the best there. I think he sold it for $27,000. Dad's going to enter in it next year, he reckons...
Monday was dinner at Cousin Sophie's place, complete with Husband Nik, Toddler Nina, Cousin Anty and Soph's three month-old pregnancy (yay). Again, it was most excellent to catch up with them all and we had some fine wine and even a roast dinner!
Although Nina is not even three, she remembers me making faces at here through the window at Wyong earlier this year, which shows she has a much better memory than moi. She is also on the way to becoming a very clean and tidy person, unlike the majority of the family. Anty is working for the public service in NSW regional water management (correct me if I'm wrong, Ant) as an interim occupation before going to study law at Oxford. He reckons he's going to float himself on the futures market to fund his degree, which we thought was a sound idea. You never know when you will need to have a stake in a high court judge.
On Tuesday, the weather was somewhat inclement: a massive southerly change brought in quite a bit of rain and I was the only one fool enough to turn up to Heffron. I knew there wouldn't be racing on, but I wanted to go there to reclaim my mobile phone, which I'd left there on Saturday. No dice. Got it back on Thursday. I did a few laps and didn't get blown off.
The weather was similar on Wednesday so I went through the Royal (via Artillery Hill for the first time in ages) and then did the Otford Wall. The latter is one seriously steep hill - it's nearly 2 km long - and I needed the 39x25 just to grind up it at 10 km/h in bits. Coming home was fun with that tailwind though.
Wednesday and Thursday evening consisted of pub meetings and one sausage sandwich for dinner (spread over two nights) along with much beer. Caught up with Josh (Saunders, not Marden) last night over a number of Hoegaardens and that was good. We discussed Fort Street's 20 year reunion (in 2008) and a 'where are they now', among other things. Where am I now? Am I the only one of our extremely successful year to end up as a journo? Maybe I'll find out in 2008.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
On holidays (nearly)
After two weeks of semi-intense work in the Surry Hills Office, I have earned myself a bit of time off. Three weeks, to be precise. That should be nice, as I have reached that "battery empty, need recharge" phase of the season. It won't be a relaxing period, as I have to sort out this house buying, but hey, it'll be something different!
Step 1) Get cash
Step 2) Acquire house
Easy!
I've been racing four (4) times at Heffron. Got 6th and 10th in the "Snowy Wilson", 6th A on the first Tuesday nighter, 5th on a crappy Saturday race, and dropped in the last Tuesday nighter after four (4) laps. I had bad legs for a week before that, so I wasn't really surprised. But I've replaced my flexy carbon seatpost with a more solid titanium one, and I already feel better. I'll start racing at Sutho next week.
Step 1) Get cash
Step 2) Acquire house
Easy!
I've been racing four (4) times at Heffron. Got 6th and 10th in the "Snowy Wilson", 6th A on the first Tuesday nighter, 5th on a crappy Saturday race, and dropped in the last Tuesday nighter after four (4) laps. I had bad legs for a week before that, so I wasn't really surprised. But I've replaced my flexy carbon seatpost with a more solid titanium one, and I already feel better. I'll start racing at Sutho next week.
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