Y es, I’m still here.
Somehow the fact that I can now say “I’m very busy” in three languages doesn’t make the fact any easier to deal with! And I clearly haven’t got the hang of regular blogging yet, but I will get better at it, honest…
Too much has happened in the past three weeks to give the full story, so I’ll stick to the time-honoured “dot point” method:
- Mum’s house has sold! I went into the auction 11 days ago expecting there to be no bidders, so was surprised when I discovered that two people had registered on the day. One of them started bidding, and they got to within a few thousand of what I really wanted quite quickly. The beauty of the auction process is that there is no cooling off period, so I agreed to sell and the contracts were signed. It’s gone to a lovely young family, and it has to be completely empty by Sunday week. Gulp.
- Chinese lessons: Mandarin, at least in its spoken form, is relatively simple and easy to learn. But of course it requires hours of practice to commit stuff to memory, and that’s been the hardest thing to find time for. James recommends doing something every day, even if just for five minutes, and I’m trying to stick to that. Four lessons down with two more to go…
- The office move will be happening next week. It’s all going rather smoothly overall. While I’ve not done much direct work on it, I’ve had to fill the gaps caused by Gabriele being out of the office so much as she sets the new place up.
- My house move: I’ve put about half my stuff into storage, and the rest is packed up ready to go. This has been far less stressful than I expected, fortunately.
- Running has resumed again, getting my body back into a routine of exercise and running nearly every day. I feel sooo fat and unfit after several months of doing bugger all. Three weeks to go of “pre-season” before I start proper training for the Six Foot Track Marathon in March next year.
This weekend promises more work: another early morning run south to the storage place tomorrow, then up to Gosford to prepare for a garage sale on Sunday. Furniture, books, games, nick-nacks… everything must go! If you want a bed, computer desk, lounge and dining suite, sofas, filing cabinets, games, books, fishing rods, barbeque, etc then come along. Whatever doesn’t get sold will have to be moved, so prices will be REALLY cheap!
And there are now only 14 days to go until I head to China 😀
