Back from a walk down to Boat harbor, this time I remembered to turn on the GPS.  13kms!
 

Wow that’s like walking from Papa Aroha to Coromandel.  Granted no hills, but was on Sand

Just been reading an article that say people who are grateful have a good and positive outlook on live. So here is my short list of things I am grateful for.

First and foremost I am alive and have all the cancer beat.
I live in one of the most stunning cities I have ever been to.
My friends are some of the best you could ever wish for.
I have two little dogs that think that besides a full food bowl I am awesome.
My health is in top notch and i’m actively working on making it better.
In a few weeks my new home will be ready and I will actually own a house.
My family are all well and I will see most of them in a few weeks.

And the list could go on.

Happy thanksgiving all of you and much love!

David

I'm beginning to suspect the real estate agent is using a slightly different calendar.  In mine the date of Christmas is a fixed point in the year.  

I keep hearing another 4 weeks of construction, and then we have 3 weeks for settlement. Thats 7 weeks in my reckoning and last time i checked Christmas is 6 weeks away, there about.  

There are so many days now when I just stop and think how lucky I am. I live in an amazing country that is now my home. I have a job that sometimes frustrated me, but is fun most of the time as I work some great people.

Then there are just days when I hear a great piece of music and reflect that for all I have been through life is just awesome

Bring on tommorow I ready for it and can’t wait to see where it will take me!

On my trip to Boston I had time to catch up with an old friend. She looked amazing. When she said she had worked her butt off over the last year, it was inadvertently a literal statement. Her butt was gone!! What was also so inspiring was that her health was the best it had been for a long time and her life outlook was top notch.

So with this inspiration and muse to hand I looked me up a personal trainer back in Sydney. Naturally I did it via the internet as thats what mr google is for! I had the assessment session all lined up before I even landed back in the country. While it was good to do the assessment 'twas not fun to get the results. When I wasn't looking I went up to 106 kg. Actually there was bait of good news here. The last weight check at the doctors was 108. So finished today my first session and feel so much better for it.

Well been in Boston for two weeks now, and will be here for another two. Should be home in Australia.

Right now which I was. Instead I am in some silly seaside restaurant that has the shitest service I have seen since being here!

Note don’t giro the red inn in province town. Unless you are a beautiful person,

So, instead of getting all upset because I managed to find an incompetent lawyer I'm going to watch this instead.

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Wow, its been a very busy few weeks for Tonto and I.  We are all settled into Sydney and have now finished getting the place looking good.  All kitted out on a red and black theme which looks great.

Then just when its all done I got the bug to start looking for a place to own!  Was like i can't buy any more furniture or other stuff for the house, so I might as well but a new house.

Search for a new home as been a huge learning curve and very interesting.  Have spent alot of time learning the market, locations, pricing, mortgages and all that stuff.  Wow, its a big thing.  I've spent hours and hours researching this now.

The housing market in Sydney seems to still be in high gear.  There is talk that prices may stabalize this year, but I'm not sure if the people saying that are turning up to the open homes!

I thought the rental market was bad for many people turning up to viewings.  Well the buying market is just the same.  There is a huge market in the <500K space as if you are a first time buyer there is no stamp duty (which can be horrendous) and you also get a nice grant from the government.  It means that in this price range there are lots of people looking.  The agents even price into this zone.  There are many places listed as offers above 480K know that it will attract buyers in the sub 500K market and will then go for much higher than that.  

I've decided to go for an off the plan apartment.  It sort of just arrived on a phone call and went from there.  The building is at the link below.

http://www.brittanyapartments.com.au/apartments.html

Its been abit of roller coaster as I originally visited the agent with intention to view the finishes and number 34, then got some silly notion in my head and changed to another apartment.  Holding deposit down we started all the contract stuff, and was supposed to sign today, but after another look at the plans and current building structure I pulled back.  My luck held and the original apartment on the top floor (aka semi penthouse) was still available after some nail biting while they worked out if it was still available.  

It is, and I love this layout and location.  Even better its significantly cheaper than the other so the plus factors keep adding up.  Basically I swapped a two level and two car parts to a single level and turned the second car park into balcony space.  The internals are slightly smaller, but being a single level give a better layout that uses the space smarter.  There will also be huge amounts of light and windows with a very nice west facing sunset view. (with no one looking in)

The lift from the carparks is just outside the door and a single level layout is better for the days I can't walk to well.  After living in Japan for 5 years and the extreme heat you get there in summer having a north facing apartment isn't actually something I want.  In summer its just more heat you have to get rid of, and lets face it the climate in Sydney isn't that cold so winter heat isn't a big issue either.

Tonto has been to the site and given he pee and crap of approval so he is all on board with it as well.  Actually its a great location.  About a 10 min walk to the train station that will get me to the city in 35 mins, so commute wise its probably going to be just a little better than were i am.  That 10 min walk include a 5 min walk up the road to the back of the village shops.  It is close the rail tracks down to Cronulla beach, but its all electric and I've been at another place right next to the trains and they are whisper quiet.  My apartment isn't even next to them so its not an issue at all.  Given i lived close to an express way in Tokyo its seriously not an issue.

There are going to be some extra lawyer fee's as they redo the contract, but the bulk of the work is done, and i the overall scheme of things a few extra dollars upfront to get the right place is not an issue.  (and in the overall cost of the mortage, its peanuts).

So so so so happy that things are on track now.  my wonderful friend Jane worked through it all with me Sunday night when i was ready to walk away and between us we have gotten it all sorted.  (on the pic my apartment will be the one on the top floor where you can see the glass balcony).  I've seen the interior finishes of what this place will look like and I'm really happy.  

Hopefully contracts will be signed this week and we are done!  Move in will be later this year, but that works for me fine!

Wow, did we get lucky or what.  I left Japan late last year.  The events over the last week have been stunning.  I see pictures of Tokyo and can identify where i used to live.

My heart goes out to the people where were my hosts for 5 years.  I can't quite seperate myself from Japan just yet and the images are too much to deal with directly.

I can't quite put in in words, but Japan/Tokyo was my home for 5 years up until 5 months ago.  The balance of that is I still think of Japan as my old home and I'm just lost for words how to describe it all.  I get information from my friends and pictures and they are not pictures of a far of place, they are pictures of where I used to live.

My heart goes out to my old home.  I think of you constantly.  I've not quite changed from westerner in Japan to westerner in western country so I do feel.