June, 2009

The fact that you can’t plan around the Australian visa application process was driven home again last week after a couple of emails.

In May, the expected turnaround time for state sponsorship was 8-10 weeks, and the consequent visa was expected to take 4 weeks. This was much reduced from before due to a tightening up over which skills were acceptable. Bloody brilliant, less waiting. Hurrah.

Since May the turnaround time for state sponsorship has risen to 16 weeks (so, I am STILL 10 weeks from having my application processed, strewth), it’s hard to handle all this waiting around. You could say I was a little pissed off. I’m trying to juggle a house sale and contracts for work around a date that is totally out of my control.

The other potential knock-back is that the Queensland have tightened up on the rules around the funds required. They are no longer taking into account anything other than cash assets. The equity in our house, cars and shares is no longer an acceptable source of funds. For a family of four, you are expected to have around $70,000(AUD) in cash, in the bank. How many people have £40,000 sitting aroung doing nothing? This is going to seriously affect quite a lot of people attempting to get to Australia.

The good news is that both of these still leave me in the running, so it isn’t the end of the story. And, it gives me an additional 6 weeks to lose weight before the medical.Share

I started trying to run again in September last year, it was absolutely insane. I was very overweight at the time. Well, not overweight, not even obese, but obese category 2! I really needed to do something, and in a fit of madness chose running.

“Running” was a very loose description of what I was doing. I started by doing a walk/run program. Walking for a couple of minutes and plodding along for a minute. Surprisingly, it was fucking hard work. After doing this for 20 minutes I would be leaning against a lamp post desperately trying to suck in a lungful of air. If my ticker was ready to give up the ghost, that would have been it. I found the program on Runner World – it seemed so easy. It wasn’t. Perhaps, they should have an even easier page titled “Going for Goals for Lard Arses” for people that are at least 5 stones overweight.

After about 6 weeks I was on Week 4 of the program and still every run was a form of medieval torture. At this point a colleague from work decided to join me. He’s considerably younger, and I was very worried that I would be lumbering on behind. In fact, we were well matched, and he’s been a great running buddy.

We completed the program by the beginning of December. Every run was still extremely difficult, and for the next couple of months the improvements were more in how I felt at the end of the run, and not at all in speed or distance. The harsh weather stopped play for a while. Stupid, stupid decision. We should have run in the snow and broken a leg, because of course it became an ongoing excuse not to run. For weeks. (Well, months).

April saw us starting again, knocked back, and pissed off that the hard work had been eroded. Within a few weeks we were back “on form”. Plodding away at the same old pace. The really odd thing is, we seemed stuck in a rut. It was easier and easier to run the distance, but our pace was stuck. I mean, 13 minutes per mile isn’t anything to crow about – it’s a slow jog.

Around the end of April we switched tack – no more increasing the distance and seeing the same old pace mile after dead mile. Now it was short runs, 2 miles. And, the first mile as quick as we could manage. Soon, this was showing benefit.

On Tuesday we did a two mile run in 20 minutes – hey, some people call that “running”, not “jogging”! Result.

Today, we ran a new route, not sure of the distance, and chose to run at talking pace. A new idea for us, running no faster than a pace at which you can carry on a conversation. Previously, if we’d tried that it would have degraded into a walk. I am stunned. Not only did we manage it, but we did it at a pace of 10:40 per mile.

Today saw us agreeing to do a half marathon in October. Bring it on…Share

I have started a new blog. This is very exciting for me, and is somewhere that I intend to write about things that interest me. I am aiming to post at least one item per week, but hopefully more than one.

Why blog at all? My old blog ran out of steam. So, I could have let it die. It probably would have been a fitting end – all it seems to be these days is a sort of forum for people discussing issues with the brand of central heating I have (which I daren’t mention here, in case it becomes a surrogate!).

Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr all overlap greatly with the world of blogs – and for the sort of thing I used to post have replaced it – hence my old blog sliding into total abandonment. But, these places are all places for a quick recommendation, comment, or status update – not for long term mini stories. I had a few of those in my blog, but had stopped doing them.

Should it be a blog with a theme? It appears, if I want large readerships or advertising revenue I should have a theme. I should pick something that interests me and write exclusively about that. OK, I have a job already! I’ll write about what interests me, regardless of topic, and sod the audience… This is for me, in 10 years time, so I can wonder what I found interesting when I was young (hah!). If anyone else likes what I write, fine. Forget the advertising.

So? What is likely to end up here?

• I love my Apple Macbook Pro, so you are likely to find software reviews, or stuff I like about Macs (or iPhones, even).
• Grumpy old man syndrome (well, I have both hairy ears and a hairy nose, and not much hair where I want it, so I think I qualify). So, general moaning about the crap country we are in will likely make an entrance.
• Fitness (I dream). I am one of those people that claims that my weight goes up on it’s own, so dieting and fitness are an irregular topic of my life, trying to remove the blubber on irregular cycle to stop myself being moaned at, to avoid buying yet more clothes, to avoid breaking the office chair, etc..
• Programming. This may get mentioned (although, my work is usually fairly confidential, so I will always think twice).
• Working as a contractor. This is a big part of my life, and I would love to yap about some aspects of it, but the client confidentiality issues may actually stop me from saying anything (sad, but true).
• Future tech. I am fascinated with the way technology is going, and concepts such as the Singularity may get mentioned (at the risk of drawing ridicule and scoffing at the mad old geezer).
• Photography. I love taking pictures, especially of my family. I also like nice cameras, and my skills probably don’t deserve them – if you hang around here you will see the occasional photos or mention of photo kit.
• Finally (at least until it dies a death, due to things not going my way), I am apt to wax on aimlessly (and most likely boring you all to death) about my progress in emigrating to Australia.Share