What a ride the last month has been... I'm gonna try and keep these a little less verbose and instead be concise. It's a challenge for me, I fall back into it by default but things can be said in less words and taking up less of your beautiful attention. Wish me luck!
The main one... My Dad has just been out in Australia! For 3 whole weeks. He left on Tuesday. He came out with his best mate Shotty for the "Lions tour", plus the bonuses of seeing me in Syd/ADL and also Shotty has family living in Melbourne (where they went for the second test). We had such good adventures and quality time together, great chats and I found it so grounding and calming to have the energy of "two old farts sharing stories and being peaceful" - Shotty's words. We:
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Took a road trip up to regional NSW (Lightning Ridge) as soon as they got off the plane for the world's only black opal festival.
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Went to the Lions game and got absolutely pissed on with rain being in the front 20 rows not under the cover of the stadium roof... So memorable.
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Winery tours and pizza dinners at beautiful rural cafes in ADL.
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Dad got to catch up with Dee (his assistant from 30 years ago!) and her partner for the first time in multiple decades.
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We went to Scenic world in the Blue Mountains and rode the reticular railway, cable car and skycar and hiked out to the three sisters.
So beautiful. Lifelong memories set there. I feel completely different now. From the outside, and with hindsight as the only viewpoint, it's easy to see careers like my Dad's, Shotty's and Dee's as "successful" as if that was all there was to it. But obviously, when they were living them, there were numerous moments of failures, collapses, meltdowns and uncertainties. How could there not be? That's the human experience.
So having them share their stories with me has given me perspective. Over times the past few months I've felt like the world was going to swallow me up whole. It's felt like it's lasted forever and I have no idea of what to do. But ultimately, as I've entitled this post, all I can do is put one boot in front of the other. Figure out one problem, then figure out the next. Some updates:
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I'm still unemployed. Coming up on 3 months now.
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My Centrelink claim (hilariously) got rejected yesterday after over a month of follow-ups. That will need appealing, putting that on the to-do list for tomorrow... Though it's also great motivation to find myself something casual or freelance.
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My landlord and/or my real estate agent down here in ADL is/are blocking me from exploring sub-tenancy even though I had two viable candidates lined up. So that's fun.
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I'm down here at the moment, packing up my stuff, figuring out what I need and can get rid of and am slowly deciding what to do.
Sounds pessimistic I'm sure. But I'm honestly pretty grounded and settled right now! There is some good news, though:
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I've had some recruiters reach out to me both in Sydney and Adelaide who are helping me in the job search. Potential for some interviews next week, PM work, technical sales etc.
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I have some leads for casual work in both cities, too. Hospo, office temp work, labouring... And maybe even a few other things.
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I continue to persist with my personal projects, I'm still considering freelance web or app development. I'm really enjoying this still, I just need to take it commercial ASAP.
This site is my test case. I'm also putting together one for Kristy, and a online wedding video hub for Bron. I'm working on a few CLI tools and trying to figure out what of my many fun projects to dial into as the primary ones. Too many decisions, not enough time!