Blog Of Greg

Well, I haven’t written for a while, and the first post is about junk?

Seriously!

Is it a Robot that is rubbish, a robot that just didn’t work…

Or WHAT!

    …. Let’s scroll down and see ….

Meet “Riccy”, our gorgeous “Junk Robot”

What is a “Junk Robot”, well a robot made from junk of course! This lovely little robot that my son has build, was made from scrap parts that were pulled out of a…

Electricity costs and usage – Solar payback

Good morning readers, I wanted to post an extract of a newsletter by Alan Cuthbertson from www.diydoubleglaze.com.au. It is a short story about pay back costs for solar panels depending on your own power usage. Prior to the extract, I wanted to present a brief introduction to electricity usage, and what it really means when you see numbers and figures on your electricity bill. An introduction to…

A DODO in flight

Why would a modern telecommunications choose the name of an extinct bird – Because they are complete and utter imbeciles. This blog post is really just a great big whinge about a telecommunicaitons company that is quite hopeless. And while I often have a whinge, this is the biggest whinge that I have had by F   A   R. The crux of it… Don’t ever use DODO for your home phone/internet. Or ANYTHING…

Good morning readers. This will be a multi-part blog where I will look at housing affordability in Sydney. The idea is to raise: House prices Tax concessions (relating to housing) Low interest rates Loans and lending practices Mortgages As you might know, during the last six months we have been searching for a new home. If you follow my blog, you might have seen –…

A different blog for this evening. Taken from: https://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/ashtray-blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/saving-money.jpg I thought I would share our electricity usage with you. I am quite proud of our family. As a household of three we use about 18% of the electricity of an average three person household. Even more interesting is that we only use around 37% of the electricity of…

Risks on the water

Good afternoon readers, We decided to have a day out near the water this afternoon; it was very hot today. We decided on a quiet little area where the munchkin can play, and still be safe in the water. Taken and modified from: https://www.emaze.com/@ACWQFFLF/depuration-of-water, and…

Good morning readers, From: Here I haven’t written for quite a while, as we were selling our home and moving. Although there are a number of other articles in the back-burner, I haven’t had time to finish them. I have a bit of an unfortunate story to share in this post. I haven’t talked about it much with people, because I was hoping it would just “go away”; apparently it hasn’t L So the subject…

Dear readers, While I am not in the habit of forwarding other peoples posts, or letters, this email from the activist group “GetUp” highlights why Australian politics is so dirty. The Politicians highlighted within this article and video, are some of the many people within politics in Australia who make our society so undemocratic. They need to go, so that Australian politics can become…

What is a LIBERAL

Rather than a blog post, I have created this acronym for what might be a: LIBERAL L – Little I – Infants B – Bellowing E – Endlessly R – Rancid A – Arrogant L – Lies Is this the picture!   Bye for now Greg     Click to add Your thoughts?   #auspol, #ausvotes, #liberalaus, #auslabor, #PartyfiXing, #auspol2016, #turnbullmalcolm, #billshortenmp  

Political corruption in Australia

Good evening readers, I have written about political corruption in Australia before, this time I wanted to comment on an aspect of corruption in Australian politics that sadly seems to be becoming more common! Australia is in the grips of a two month electoral campaign, with elections being held on 2nd July 2016. The usual lies and deceit are continuously arising – it brings a sour taste to my…

A little while ago I wrote that we were planning to move: https://blogofgreg.wordpress.com/2016/05/07/were-moving/

Well, the time of sale is now right on our doorstep; we finally decided on an agent a bit over a week ago.

Today was the first day of the official advertising programme, and our house was listed on the web. Whoohoo!

We had a stylist assist us last Friday, designing our interior. As a result of that guidance, we worked feverishly over the weekend for a photo shoot on Monday.

Two days to empty the house (literally), and transform it into a comfortable and livable home. It was miraculous considering what the house looked like beforehand. Apparently we even surprised the agent, who didn’t think we could make it.

It has been a really crazy week – and it has really been a terrible drain on us, me in particular.I am also looking for other places to live at the same time as repairing this one, and getting it ready for sale.

A bit of history

My grandparents bought the home in 1954, and as my grandfather was a war serviceman (though he never left Australia – the war ended just before he was set to leave), he was entitled to a war service home as he served in the army in Australia.

It is a difficult time for my family, going through the sale process, as this has been my family’s home for three generations.

Our family was the first to ever live in this home; it was an area made available to the war service after the army moved out.

My grandparents (who bought the home) => My mother and uncle were raised in it => I (and my siblings) grew up in and around it => my family, and now my son have grown in it – my boy is still 4, but growing.

Two children, five grand children, one great grand child (and another four who visited from Melbourne)

The house has changed little over the years, it remains basically as it was then. A humble, but functional home.

I thought that I would post a few (and perhaps the last ever) pictures that were taken as part of the advertising plan by Bresic Whitney (bresicwhitney.com.au)

Sadly, in this day and age in Sydney, most old houses are knocked down, and replaced with newer, more modern homes. It is both good and bad. This house is still standing after 62 years. The foundations are still solid, and there has been little movement over the years.

Few new houses would last so long!

Unfortunately, with modern life, the old houses don’t suit the lifestyle of new families and they are knocked down for newer, better (in some ways) homes.

But that means that the history – the memories – are knocked down with them. In this case, a whole generation of memories are gone with the bulldozer.

Much of my life has been spent in and around this home – my families home – so it is very sad, and very difficult to move. Once we move, it will only be short time before the house demolished, and land is flattened for a new development, and a new family to create memories.

But…

On the positive, it will also be a new start for my family, in a new home that we choose, that will suit our purposes.

So in that regard, it is also like a renewal for my new family.

I feel a bit sad at the moment, knowing that I will be moving soon; knowing that I will be leaving behind a home (that will be smashed up) that I grew up in for 45 years.

bye for now,

Greg. PS: there will be more updates, as we will be having an article written about my family in the local newspaper next week. Stay tuned!

In case you are interested in how our home is described on the web, this is it!

—————————–

Our advertisement

  Highlights

With a 23m frontage & 657 sqm allotment, this cottage has development potential (subject to council approvals). In the meantime, it’s a ready rental prospect or neat home for a young family.

Easement free, big future possibilities

Potential duplex site (subject to council)

A corner block & highpoint of the area

District views & natural sunlight all round

Scope to capitalise on the views to city

Updated gas kitchen, tidy bath, garage

Near trains, express city bus, Macq Uni

Near top schools & 1 traffic light to city

Short stroll to Coxs/Blenheim Rd shops

First time property offered in over 60 years

Get to know North Ryde

Residents value this area for its family-friendly ambience and leafy environment. Yet it’s still within easy reach of the CBD, major shopping centres, and the M2. A true village feel. An array of quality public and private schools. Arguably the best-kept secret of the Ryde area.

Visit Australia – and the dying Great Barrier Reef

I wanted to post this to my blog to highlight the deception of our current Liberal Government. While some in the world would be aware of what our current Government is doing to our environment, it may not be widely known in the rest of the world. In Australia our environment is becoming so degraded, that significant tourist destinations are at great threat. Concerningly, our current Liberal…

We’re moving…

As you would know if you read this blog, I haven’t written anything much of late. While I have wanted to, there just hasn’t been any time. What is going on! we are moving! Having lived in and around this family home for most of my life, my family has decided to move on. It has been a difficult few years. We started down the renovation path several years ago. We approached builders and architects…

Private Health Insurace – a ministers response

Good evening all, I wanted to follow up from a previous post regarding private health insurance in Australia. taken from: http://www.anc.org.au/ Following that post, I wrote to my local Federal MP, The Honorable John Alexander MP, questioning the operation of Private Health Insurance, and clauses contained within, that exclude conditions or place restrictions on them. Just a couple of days ago, I…

Turnbull obsolete and backwards to 1945

A bizarre tax reform by our Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-30/turnbull-looks-to-correct-tax-failure/7284314 Having thought that we had got rid of our last dinosaur Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, our New’ish Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, now wants to turn back the clock to 1945? In a modern era, where economies have changed since World War II, our…

Our future – correlations with Hitler

Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future. [Adolf Hitler] How interesting that in this day and age, Hitler’s statements of the 1930s would seem to appear accurate of current times. What am I referring to? In recent years, the world has been in a constant battle with terrorist groups. These terrorist groups bomb towns and cities…

Private Health Insurance – a Government Funded Fraud

Good morning readers, The headline sounds a bit shocking doesn’t it… Read on and see why! A number of years ago, then Liberal Government, Led by PM John Howard, introduced policies that forced people to invest in private health insurance. Financial penalties were created for those who chose not to join, and levies were imposed on those who joined later than age 30. At the time, it seemed fairly…