I was almost at the gym this morning when I realised I didn’t have my running shoes with me! And, the new house is an additional few minutes further from the gym. Anyway, it is still only less than 10 minutes’ drive away and I needed the workout so I went home, picked up the shoes and returned to the gym. I decided to just do the run and not do any post-run stretches/push-ups so I went all out and did a decent 9.5km in the normal 45-minute session. I was still sweating by the time I finished my shower and pulled on my jeans. I was afraid the push of pace up to 14k/h towards the end of the run would do my knee in but I guess the procosamine (a glucosamine sulphate supplement I have been taking for the past few weeks) is really effective as I felt no strain whatsoever. Kiddo’s usual jibe at my age during breakfast was brushed away with the usual “but I am stronger and fitter than you”. I know we can’t beat age and in many ways, I can feel the effects of ageing but I am really thankful with this adherence to some form of regular exercise and supplements, which has by and large kept me going. The fitness level however, hasn’t helped in overcoming this sense of disorientation. Hopefully I will stop forgetting things. Kiddo and I were talking in the car on the way to her school and I told her about my forgotten shoes incident, maybe subconsciously to pacify her that we too, forget stuff. We joked about how we often forget to remember and only remembered we forgot after the incident. It happens more when we are disoriented, by new surroundings, and a sense of intrusion – yes, I am still affected by the email incident. Still disoriented.

Theresa knows I have been disturbed by the incident with the emails in the office. She knows how much work issues upset me, keep me worried and distracted. So for the past 3 days, every time she sends me an email (which is about half a dozen or so every other day) she asked how I was feeling. I guess after what – 14 years – of marriage, she has come to know me really well. God has truly blessed me with a wonderful partner in life.

Anyway, in replying to one of her emails today, I said in spite of everything, we really need to remain positive and happy. She said that is easier said than done (again being that very understanding wife). I gave her one of my philosophical throw-away lines – you can be happy even when life is hard. I have read many times, many accounts of people who are so positive they remain upbeat no matter what life throws at them. These heroes believe happiness is all in the mind. I have come to see what they have been saying. Yes, pretend to be happy and you may actually be! I think even CS Lewis may have said that.

John So, Lord Mayor of Melbourne, personifies that. He laughs at the end of every second sentence. He was a bit of a joke initially but by sheer positive attitude, he has, I think, won over the hearts of Melburnians. During the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, his name drew the loudest cheers and applause. There was a bit of irony and mockery in those receptions but by the time we got to the Closing Ceremony, the same cheers and applause have taken on more sincerity. Feedbacks on radio programs suggest Melburnians simply adore his can-do, let’s-have-a-ball attitude. He didn’t seem to mind people laughing at him and has turned that into people laughing with him.

I guess that is the lesson of the day – I will be happy, even if I’m not!

In mid-2004, when our plans to move to Oz were shaping up, I subscribed to a couple of online job portals. I was only vaguely hoping to land a job – it was more to get a feel for the job market. While they were by and large not very successful for me, it opened up a few avenues. It certainly allowed me to get acquainted with the mechanics of recruitment in Melbourne. The need to have a feel for the job market is less now but it is still a useful knowledge to have. I have therefore continued with the subscription and the portals continue to send me updates of positions which matched my selected profile. These updates are sent to my private email addresses and I can very safely say many employees do that – subscribe to these services and have responses sent to them at their private email addresses.

Recently, because of our house moving, I had my private emails forwarded to my office email address. With my ISP email, I simply added the account details to my Outlook. With my gmail account, I did both – added the account details on my Outlook AND altered the setting configuration on gmail so that all emails get forwarded to my office email. This was done about a month ago, soon after we signed the contract for the house.

I took last Friday off for the house moving. On Thursday night, I went to my Outlook account profiles and made it stop the downloads of my ISP and gmail accounts. I did this because I had seen the bosses’ wife go through a colleague’s emails before. This colleague is a litigation lawyer so he is out of the office a lot. Very often, the bosses’ wife would sit at his desk for a bit, and I often see her go through the emails. I didn’t want her to go through my private emails, so I stopped the downloads.

Of course, I had forgotten that the gmail setting needs to also be altered otherwise the forwarding process continues. Outlook on my office PC may have stopped pulling my emails from gmail but gmail continues to push them to my office PC.

Lo and behold on Monday morning I got a note from the Boss. He saw my online job portal subscriptions and scribbled a yellow stick-on note which said: Please disconnect from these subscriptions. Obviously someone trawled through my emails and disregarded the dozen or so jokes, articles and news services but zeroed in on these portal subscriptions.

Later that morning I went to see the Boss, told him these subscriptions were on my private emails and my private emails came to office only in the last 2-3 weeks due to my house purchase and move. He however, asked me to stop the subscriptions. He was the boss; I was “caught out” and was therefore nervous, so I said yes.

As I thought about it last night however, I thought I shouldn’t have said yes. I was wrong to have forwarded my private emails to office maybe, but what I did with my private emails was my private business, as long as I don’t bring them into office. Leaving aside the issue of whether he had the moral right to go through my emails, he certainly had no right to tell me to stop my subscription to these portals. In fact if I found out that my employees had these subscriptions, I would not be the least surprised, let alone bring the matter up with the employees. What is the difference for example between subscribing to these portals and buying the papers and scan through the Careers section? Can I not look? Can I not look at the Career ads in the papers while in office?

Returning now to the matter of bosses going through employees’ emails – I never had this experience, at least not to my knowledge. I certainly never saw my employees’ emails. He said it was to ensure no work matters are left unattended. But all of my clients knew I was away on Friday – I notified them. None of my clients even tried to contact me that day. When I had employees, it was a practice that they would inform their clients if they were away and if anything required attention, these clients were to contact a back-up person. This was the system and all of my clients would have contacted the Boss if anything required attention.

There is now a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m sure the Boss feels the same way. I haven’t done anything wrong but feel bad. I feel in fact, I have been wronged but the Boss was very negative yesterday. The relationship has never been an easy one and yesterday has made it worse. Why do I feel I am the guilty party here?

Conveyancing in Malaysia is a relatively sedate exercise. There’s no drama attached. Well, the lawyer always hopes there isn’t. Sometimes there is a little bit of angst here and there but by and large they are not the sort of matters justifying a stiff drink by noon. I think most conveyancing end with barely a whimper. The seller’s lawyer receives a cheque from the buyer or its bank and that was that. All other details like utilities bills and handling over of keys, etc – they are all relatively minor steps which parties eventually get around to. I think (I have not done a piece of conveyancing for quite a few years, even when I was in Malaysia.).

The bigger action is with the presentation of the title documents in the land office. The drama is there. It’s almost like an episode in Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The bloke at the counter of the land office is like Eddie McGuire (the host of the Aussie version). Minus the suave suit, striking face and smart rapid deliveries of course. In fact the person is usually a drab ugly person who draws his or her sole satisfaction in life from rejecting a presentation. Then all hell breaks loose in the lawyer’s office. Thankfully this is rare as like I said, the presentation of title documents is like the climax of old folks making love so the lawyer spares no effort to make sure it slides in without any hitch. (The title documents, you idiot). When it does, it’s like Eddie says “correct” and you win a million bucks.

Here in Victoria, the drama is with the Settlement. They do everything here in this event. It’s like the summit, the mother of all meetings. Representatives of all parties convene in a place somewhere in the city. Each party carries a truckload of documents. (In my case, our representative is carrying a truckload of cheques – our vendors’ conveyancers made us issue 9). Admittedly, this is probably only the 5th or 6th settlement I have done so I am still a bit raw and therefore, nervous. Especially also seeing that our move dates are at stake. Anyway, all parties with all relevant documents converge in a little room somewhere in the city, check everything off, then calls headquarters to hopefully say, “There has been NO problems”.

I hope sometime after 2pm today, I will get such a call, to tell me the settlement has gone through.

We are a little stressed now. Well at least I am. I have several matters at work I need to attend to, our purchase settlement in this Thursday and I have a few items to attend to on that front as well, and the moving details need to be re-confirmed again.

On top of that, the wife was doing a little gardening on Saturday and her middle finger pricked by a thorn from a rose bush. It swelled a little bit on Saturday night and yesterday we went to a doctor who told her not to worry, the thing would “exit on it own”. Sounds nonsensical of course, but hey, he’s the doctor! That of course did us no good – wasted an hour and $40, and for nothing! This morning the wound didn’t seem any worse, so maybe it’d come to nothing.

Also, this is kiddo’s second week of school holidays and we have done nothing for her. Yesterday we went for lunch with some church friends and that was good, and after that we took a walk together (all 3 of us) so that she’d be familiar with the route to the new house.

I guess the garage sale was a little exciting for her – she sold quite a few of her toys although I found the exercise tiring and not very efficient, it gave her something to do and look forward to. The money raised was all hers (a grand total of $63…!!) and she tithed on Sunday! We’re very proud of her on that matter.

Just to keep things in perspective – I just received an email from my brother asking if we were affected by the cyclone which hit northern Queensland earlier today. He just read a news item saying a cyclone hit Australia so he wondered if Melbourne was affected. Upheavals of weather, economy and diseases seem to prevail these days. Maybe something’s cooking. Maybe the world is changing in a way which would affect us all in a permanent way. Stressed with my current situation? Could be worse I guess…

“Zakaria Zarie Binti” was the caption under a photo of a Malaysian weightlifter in the papers this morning. Zarie must be upset. It is bad enough that the photo showed her sitting on the floor, with the bar and weights still in hand, having just failed in a lift. Even her name didn’t stand up correctly. These silly Aussies who are not only Down Under geographically but have this uncanny ability to also get Asian names down under. It wasn’t however, all bad news. Malaysia is sitting pretty after day one of the XVIII Commonwealth Games in Melbourne – one gold and one bronze, both from weightlifting.

Australia may be top of the table but the haul was expected to be bigger. Scotland “stole” 2 gold medals from them in the pool, Ian Thorpe’s replacement (Craig Stevens) torpedoed in a different way, and the world record holder South African relay team put them firmly in their place (second place). They all seem however, to be enjoying themselves, except poor Craig. He was the one who voluntarily gave up his place in Athens 2004 so that the otherwise disqualified Thorpie could swim. This time, Thorpie was sick but poor Craig couldn’t quite step into his (Thorpie’s) the very large shoes.

Kiddo enjoyed watching it all on tv last night, and was the last one to go to bed. It was alright with us, since it is school holidays time. She did however, leave the lounge lights on and I only switched it off at 5 this morning. 10 more days to go for these games…hopefully she wont insist on staying up every night and I wont be switching off the lounge lights every time she stays up and be the last one to go to bed.

It is now less than a week to settlement of the house we recently bought. We are cutting it very thin: the bank’s lawyers had only yesterday confirmed the documentation is now ready for signing. Theresa has to personally pick the documents up from the lawyer’s office in the city and hopefully we can work through them this weekend and return them by Monday. We had pushed the mortgage broker for up to a week before, but have been told the bank has been inundated with applications so they are a bit backed up. Didn’t someone say there is a housing slowdown in Melbourne?!! Maybe I won’t hit the panic button yet but it is definitely time to hit the “pray!” button…

Running parallel to the conveyancing aspects of the move is, of course, the logistics side of it. We have been collecting boxes, packing stuff we don’t need to immediately use, stopped buying stuff (including certain groceries!) and categorising our stuff into “throw”, “sell”, “box” and “don’t-know-what-to-do, leave-it-aside-for-now” categories. Throw is easy. Box is also easy. Sell…this is a different ball game…

Last Sunday morning I jumped out of bed and gave Darren a call. Darren James hosts a popular “Buy, Swap or Sell” radio talkback show on 3AW in Melbourne. I told his audience we had a few items to sell and voila – within less than 5 minutes, I had my first call! It took longer waiting to speak with Darren! Within a few hours, we had sold our lawn mower (which is about to blow a few parts) and we have received calls asking about our fridge and washing machine. This morning Theresa contacted Darren again, this time via email and asked him to help announce our garage sale. Yes, garage sale – after attending quite a few, we are holding one! It feels like we are selling heaps of the stuff we hauled all the way from Malaysia! Kiddo’s toys and books, some of my books, and some of Theresa’s and my clothes. True to form, my dearest wife as the world champion organiser (she’s a genius) has laid out all the items to be sold, labelled them, put them into neat piles (some of them in little boxes) and would no doubt run everything like clockwork come tomorrow morning…

We still have to worry about other stuff: changing over utilities accounts and ensuring they remain connected, making sure the cleaners and removalists show up on time and… I don’t know. It just feels like there are 2 million things left to do. Now, where is that “Pray!” button?