Monday, June 30, 2003

MrT 6/30/2003 10:02:00 am [+] : Feedback!

Nice photo of Joe, pity Dad looks like a homeless person.

MrT 6/29/2003 04:20:00 am [+] : Feedback!

Friends and Family Bush
Congratulations to Lucy on finishing her exams!

I have thought about your family tree idea in the past, and there is some sites that sort of do what you are suggesting e.g. ancestry.com. However, I think there will always be the problem of reaching grandmothers and great grandmothers and then not being able to carry on, unless you look in specialist resources.

So I thought instead of a family tree, you have more of a bush. The idea being that it grows sideways instead of upwards, you could also add friends, work colleagues and other people that you have met in your life. For example, I could put in a work colleague, they would add their details and then perhaps put in their family, a member of their family might put in their dentist. The dentist might put in his daughter. His daughter might put in her best friend, who's mum might live next door to you!

I think that would be kind of interesting and help build networking links that you could actually use. i.e. My teachers brother is a plumber or my best friend's uncle is a doctor etc.

British Jo
Joseph is now in proud posession of both his birth certificate(Australian) and his passport(British). Just got to get the visa updated now and then we're sorted. Hurrah!

Get Rich Slowly
Ok, after much fun-poking at my constant get-rich schemes, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to get rich is slowly by saving. I have calculated that every dollar I save this year will be worth $10 at my retirement if invested properly. I only wished I'd started sooner. Lucy, did you know that every pound you save now will be worth fifty pounds when you retire?

MrT 6/27/2003 09:10:00 am [+] : Feedback!

World Record
I am in danger of breaking the world record for the the highest number of times that the same book has been re-read. I'm reading Round the World in Eighty Days again! It made me think of a good joke, what do you get if you cross Monty Python with a box of chocolates......

Michael Praline

I made that one up.

We've just finished watching the Footy Show which is probably the best thing on TV at the moment. Vic came into town this evening and we bought a couple of reading books and a book on baby development games. It details all of the things we should have been doing with Joseph to improve his development. OOOps.

We're just waiting for Joseph to get his passport and visa application and then we can get on and book the tickets for our visit home. He took ages to fill out his form, and so in the end I went ahead and did it for him!

MrT 6/26/2003 01:45:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

Swing Lo and HarryMania
Just finished watching the Rugby, Australia vs England at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne. England sweep to a fine victory with three magnificent tries, including a storming run from Lucy's penpal Ben Cohen. It's amazing quite how much England have achieved when you think they have been unbeaten for 12 games and beaten the top two Southern hemisphere teams in their own backyards.

And they beat Australia by running with the ball and scoring tries. If Joseph was in any doubt as to where his allegiance lay, then I hope the game tonight has made his mind up - he seemed to gurgle approvingly when we scored, although that might have been more to do with my reaction rather than the action on the television.

Victoria sped into town this morning eager to get her hands on Harry Potter and the chamber of neverending riches or whatever the latest one is called. My money is on that she will finish it before the weekend is over.

MrT 6/21/2003 01:24:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

Tidy Up
We're trying to let the house we're in and so Vic had to do a whirlwind tidy up yesterday. I think it's the tidiest it's been since we moved in. It's funny how that happens. I remember moving out of Beckside and having a tidy round and then wishing that we had done the same months earlier.

I suppose you don't realize just how much stuff you accumulate - at one time it all fitted into two suitcases.

Personally, I blame Joseph.

MrT 6/18/2003 12:49:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

Room with a view
We've put the deposit on our new apartment - so it's all done now and there's no going back. We decided to go for the one in Walsh bay on the pier and we're really looking forward to living there - although we do have the drama of moving first.

Joseph has been a bit grumbly over the last few days, we think he is having another growth spurt - but he's still pretty much sleeping all through the night - so we can't complain too much.



MrT 6/17/2003 12:42:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

Just a quick one today. Went to Trevor's 40th yesterday and had one too many beers and so Vic was looking have two babies today. I think we've settled on our next place, but we're just waiting for the Agent to get back to us to see of the owner will accept our offer.

It was good to talk to the "lads" in Barcelona - sounds like they are having a ribald time.

Hope the "girls" had a good time at the Racetrack - I should have let you all know about my foolproof racing strategy!

MrT 6/15/2003 01:44:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

Jo Millionnaire
I think I have decided that it might be too late to make my million, but there is still chance for Joseph. I have been looking at Mutual managed funds, and there are quite a few in Australia based on property rather than the share market. The idea being that property is a pretty safe bet. You put your monthly contribution in ( say $100) and it goes into the fund to pay for new apartments, business premises etc, and you get a share of profits.

All done by the big banks and finance houses and the average return over the last five years has been over 10% ( up to 25% some years).

So, if I wanted to make Joseph a millionaire by the time he retires at 55 and I assume an annual return of 10%. Then starting from zero, I would only have to put aside 35 pounds a month for the next 55 years!


MrT 6/09/2003 01:35:00 pm [+] : Feedback!

test

MrT 6/08/2003 01:30:00 am [+] : Feedback!

Happy Birthday dear Queenie
Well we have a long weekend here this weekend, courtesy of the Queen's Birthday. It reminded us that this last time last year, we must have been at home, because I remember watching all of the birthday celebrations on the tele.

We're going to have a look at a few apartments today up at Walsh Bay to get the ball rolling and then I think it will be a relaxing weekend. The weather is really sunny now and so we might even take Joseph for his first trip to Bondi!

MrT 6/07/2003 12:54:00 am [+] : Feedback!

How to make a million in three years
Ok, have been doing some research regarding the last post and the answer it seems is to save up $50,000 then employ the "pullback strategy" on the US stock market. Following our success with Celebdaq I've been reading up on real stocks and shares. Technical analysis is the study of stocks based purely on their price alone. i.e. it takes no consideration of the actual value of the stock, the service or products the company sells, market events. All that is considered is the statistical nature of the stock price itself and indicators that predict whether that price will increase or fall.

There are many pure technical strategies that can be used to determine when to buy stock and when to sell stock. There is a site called http://www.wealth-lab.com where you can backtest these strategies on historical market data thereby proving your strategy before you put it into practise with the knowledge that the strategy is sound.

Well, I have been having a play and the pullback strategy is based on the idea that an upwardly trending stock often has pullback days, where the stock holders take profits before continuing to increase in value. The strategy simply instructs us to buy a share if the price pullbacks to 94% of it's previous days close and then sell the day after you bought it no matter what the price is.

The simulator lets us take our theoretical 50,000 and place 20% of our available capital on buying each share that matches this condition. If we had started three years ago and followed this strategy religiously on a random selection of 100 NASDAQ shares, then even though the overall market had gone down, we would have made how much.

Answer: 14.9 millon dollars!

Try it for yourself.

MrT 6/01/2003 10:28:00 am [+] : Feedback!

The perfect job
I have decided that the requirements for the perfect job are as follows:

1. Location independance.
The perfect job would not tie you down to a single place, it could be performed from anywhere at any time. It would not require you to call into an office and it would not require you to spend hours on the road. You could spend different times in different countries, or you could live the rest of your life in a log cabin in the mountains - it would make absolutely no difference to your performance.

2. Earnings
The perfect job would pay sufficiently well for you to live comfortably, it would also have the opportuntity for you to become very wealthy based on a combination of luck, skill and expertise.

3. Time
The perfect job would take no longer than 4-6 hours per day to manage and would allow breaks of up to three days per week with no significant effect on earnings.

4. Recognition
Is not important. There is no requirement for an award or certificate, employee of the week or general recognition on the street. Provided all of the above three requirements are met in full of course.

Any ideas?

MrT 6/01/2003 06:14:00 am [+] : Feedback!

OZ Icons Part 5: Cafe Culture
I don't know if Cafe Culture is a feature of Australa generally, but it certainly is in Sydney. Food is relatively cheap and so it doesn't seem to be unusual for Sydneysiders to eat our for Breakfast, lunch and dinner. As you can imagine, this suits Vic and me just fine, what with our phobia for doing the dishes.

We're spoilt for choice as well around here in Paddington. The reward for climbing up to the top of hill, is the "Dish ran away with the Spoon". They serve up all manner of delights, including whole rottiserie roasted organic chickens, an array of fragrant rice and salads, suberb creamy latte's, wonderful chocolate brownies and big hearty beef and chicken burgers.

Now Joseph is a little older, he doesn't mind being in his pushchair, being pushed up the hill and parked outside whilst Mum and Dad sit next to him and tuck into the goodies. In fact, the noise of the traffic seems to send him to sleep. Perfect!

Next door, is Chriso's the pizza place. You can sit outside here too, although over the last few days, he has needed to put his outside heaters on. Not only does Christo serve wonderful gourmet pizza's with toppings such as Teryaki chiken or Lamb and garlic sauce, but they are also licensed so we can have a sly low-alcohol beer too.

The Royal is still out of bounds, but over the road is "Eat Thai". Joseph had his first outing here last Wednesday and we sat outside in the Autumn evening eating a Penang curry. These are tasty rich but light curry dishes made from Coconut Milk, chillies, lime and fish sauce. Sounds a bit strange but they taste great, especially with fish or prawns.

Across the way is Gusto's which is a delicatessant with some outside tables where you can get a coffee and a flapjack. They also sell nice meats and cheeses, quiches, pasta, cold pizza slices etc.

Next door is the Tapenade, which as well as selling the usual Tapas, sell sort of stews in clays pots. For brekkie, you can't beat "Slice" which serves up big portions of bacon, eggs, tomatoes and "snags" on Turkish bread. Turkish bread!

Well that's it for the local vicinity - I haven't even started on Oxford Street yet.

I wonder if this obsession with food, is anything to do with my current diet.

MrT 6/01/2003 06:05:00 am [+] : Feedback!