23:41
Officially my last night in these four walls, under this big roof, on this big block of land.
I found this block almost 6 years ago not long after starting my first job in the commercial aluminium window industry after being a bit jealous of friends and relatives having new homes, new kitchens, new things..... I wanted something new too!
Back tracking a bit further still - I moved out of home straight to Melbourne after visiting the place for Australia Day long weekend in 2003 and thought "yeah i like the look and feel of this place".
I figured that to successfully move out of home I had to go far away so as to try and stomp out my own life without assistance of parents. Into Wollongong itself wasn't far enough and Sydney scared me at the time. So Oak Flats to Melbourne it was...
Lots of things have happened since then, I won't bore myself with typing out the details on my phone given how it's annoying that the blogger app doesn't scroll down the page every time a new line appears (grrr).....
So here's just a few things I'll mention from my almost 12.5 years down here before making a final trek north tomorrow night...
Things I will miss:
- 3AW breakfast (and other shows during the weekdays)
- Caroline Ferguson doing traffic reports on 3AW (the most comprehensive and entertaining way to get my traffic fix)
- daylight savings (where the last glimpses of sunlight die off close to 22:00 at the peak of summer)
- the view of the city from the West Gate Bridge and Bolte Bridge (day or night)
- comfortable v line intercity/regional trains (which I would miss right now even if I was staying in Ballan given the current debacle over wheel issues with the v'locity sets lol)
- my neighbours Sharon and gav
- Ballarat steakhouse
- occasional trips to watch footy at MCG
- friends I have made during my time here
- wood fire heating
- radio advertisements with Frank Walker from National Tiles (yes I do enjoy them lol)
- bluestone
Things I will not miss:
- Western and Metropolitan Ring Road (good fucking riddance)
- people mispronouncing Reservoir (it's pronounced "Reserv-waa" not "Rezza-vor")
- roadworks
- people who don't know how to drive in a single lane without weaving between both lanes where there are team tracks
- Collingwood football club
- ridiculously hot summer nights
- rubberneckers
- insecurities regarding delivery of my mail to the wrong address (yes that was my passport that you carded for pickup from the post office, which was delivered to the wrong street)
- being restricted to Telstra as the only reliable mobile phone provider in Ballan
- radio advertisements for medownick laser eye surgery (oh look your glasses were in the back of jane's car) and happy tint (using children in advertising irritates the crappers out of me)
- Hoddle St, Punt Rd during peak hours and footy season
- getting up at 04:00 for my 12 hour work days lol (a few years worth is enough I think lol)
- council rates and water bills
- bad tv reception
- having no garden waste bin
- having no hard rubbish collection service
Even though I whinged about the blogger app not scrolling down as an excuse not to crap on, it appears I have crapped on, and could potentially continue for much longer lol
It's been an amazing adventure but things change for more excitement and I'm heading forwards to find it
My foot in the door with Sydney trains is an awesome thing and it's a network I know well and will hopefully get me into a longer term career to pique my interest a lot more than most jobs that I've had down here...
Thanks to everyone who was a part of this chapter and wish me luck moving on to the next chapter
I am sexy, strong, resilient, caring, respectful, loving and wonderful
