Moving soon…

Just a quick note that this content will soon be moving away from http://www.benturner.org (which is a domain I’m closing down) and will instead by available at turnerstyle.wordpress.com

I always thought I’d blog more, and in ways I do miss it, but I think a blog needs to have a focus rather than “just my life” – Facebook has pretty much taken that part away. My time with cancer was much bigger than social media could ever capture though, and so I will certainly be keeping this content available for years to come.

But no longer at the old address – update bookmarks to turnerstyle.wordpress.com !

In sickness and in health

It’s hard to believe we’ve been in Australia as long as we have, coming up to 3 years now. In many ways, it’s been head down and get on with things, but more and more it’s becoming head up and what are we actually doing exactly ?

One part of this has been focus on good health – both for us and any potential new additions to our lives down the line. We have gone pretty full-on with this, quitting all caffiene and alcohol for starters. But we’ve also picking up some dietary improvements, like no sugar, no dairy, and limited grains. It’s all 80/20 (we’re allowed a meal off now and then), but still quite a big change.

A month in, and mixed feelings. I certainly have fewer caffiene slumps, and missing out on Friday beers is both a social shame, but also a boon to keeping the weight loss going – I had my first glimpse of the 15 stone something range last week !

But also as part of this lifestyle / health overhaul, it was noted once again that a few of my blood levels are still quite low – possibly as they always have been, but the chemo of years back gave them another big knock – that being my white blood cell, iron and platlet counts. Having had this confirmed, my body then pulled off a big placebo trick, and I promptly fell sick with a cold – of which this is day three and I’m still struggling to recover.

I guess it took three days out of “daily life” for me to get to the point of actually writing a blog post again ! Might be the first one I’ve written in many years without a nice cup of tea at my side – of all the things, I think I miss Darjeeling tea the most (sorry beer). But much that is psychological, right now, as when I’m not sick I do feel energised enough during the day without tea or the occasional sugar hit. And my running has (had) been going pretty well; 2 x 8km and a ~12km weekend run each week. Think there will a tough run later this week as I get back into it – always hurts more after a small break.

So that’s me right now. Will be back in the UK over xmas, so look forward to seeing some friends and family then. And maybe that 80/20 rule might have to come closer to 50/50, at least for a few days.

A much needed break

Hi all,

Felt a mini-update in order, although truth be told almost everything that used to be  blogging fodder ends up on Facebook now – it’s pretty much what it was designed for !

That said, it did seem noteworthy that Mimi and I took our first “proper” holiday since our Honeymoon. Yes, I know we went back the UK, but those holidays were not very good holidays for “us” (e.g. spending time just the two of us). So we were pretty thrilled to get a voucher from a friend for a weekend in the hunter valley at a health retreat – Tai Chi, exercise, no alcohol / caffeine and lovely, healthy food. Not too many pictures from there, as moblle phones (our cameras !) are not permitted outside of villas. Having escape the bleeps and the poisons, we then went down to Sydney and had a quick “re-tox” session, having some great meals with friends and Mimi’s cousins out there. We also watched the entire Indiana Jones trilogy again during that time – random, but awesome.

Photos on my equally neglected smugmug site

28+ Children later

Ok, this is the “photo post” of our trip back to the UK (see prev. post) – you can also view the whole album online.

Our trip started at home, where we got to see our nephew Charley, and our nieces Liv and Izzy

   

Then time to catch up with our Reading friends, with little Belle and Finn

 

Next, to the North to visit James and Kit

 

A family gathering allowed us to finally meet our cousins’ babies, Jack, Gus and Zach. And non-baby Oscar, of course.

    

Then to London to meet Felix, Isobel, Christopher, Natasha, Orson, Sorrel and Alice

          

And another Reading catch up with Brummie-based James

A quick visit to Greece (for Mimi) let her see Thomas and Themis

 

And a picnic saw Sebastian, Gruff, Max and Cleo, along with a brunch with Maddie, Thomas and Caitlin. And there were also sightings of Ella, baby George and brand new baby Arabella at weddings, but for all these kids we didn’t manage to take any pictures somehow (D’oh).

All in all, 28 (or just over) kids in 28 days. It was… exhausting 🙂

Uk trip 2012

Composing this in the first, decent hour of spare time during our 2012 trip to the UK, it occurs to me we’ve been quite busy, and I feel quite tired !

Over 28 days we’ve met around 28 children, all of whom have made us laugh, cry, coo and ultimately tire us out. On top of that lots of “hello goodbye” moments with friends – I tried to narrow my focus a little this time to ensure I got a bit more time with people, but as always the time was too few, and sometimes much of the heartfelt chat comes in the “nice to see you” email afterwards ! The perils of trying to have adult conversations around 2 year old dictators 🙂

It may take a while to absorb the last 3 weeks, so expect another post with pictures (culled down to 322, so far – that’s down from 600+ though…) – I suspect those photos will mainly be of interest to those I’ve met, 90% of them being babies in cute / funny poses with adult friends and family thrown in too. I guess I’m in a few photos along with the Mrs too, so perhaps there is a limited interested to others, if only to see how my “full, yet trimmed” beard look turned out (thrilling).

One thing has become clear though – this is the “reboot” holiday. As I mentioning in my previous post, we are ready to “restart” Australia, give it another go. This time, with our own place, our own car and our own space. Looking forward to being able to attend more socials without dashing off for an early bus, inviting people over for dinner / movies and hopefully being able to get into new habits and patterns with a little mindfulness applied well.

4 more days to go, a few more dinners and vists and then we fly home, and for me, straight into work :O

Australia: rebooted

Next weekend will be hard and gruelling. And I’m really happy about it – because next weekend we move house! Finally or renovations are finalising, flooring is down and we are in a position to move into our new apartment.

We’ve also been battling some hectic work schedules these past few weeks; Mimi is running evening focus groups  and will be out of state next week, and I’ve been trying to finish off two side-projects for extra cash and to clear my plate for mid-June. By then we should be semi-nested and ready for our four week holiday back in the UK.

Another milestone is my three years clear mark on my cancer recovery. On July 1st I will be out of chemotherapy for there full years, and after last weeks scan, certified still clear of cancer. Statistically this is quite significant – most recurrences of my strain of cancer happen within that period. So I’ll be looking forward to raising a few glasses on this anniversary. Still have annual checkups ahead of me, for which I’m glad ! But I can certainly go forward with the next stage of our lives with greater confidence that this is behind me.

The last year and a bit have been mixed, and not all bad, but I know that a great weight is slowly being lifted now as we look forward to getting a lot more of our lives and independence back.

The world will begin in 2012

Today we start our fourth house sit during the last few months. Seeking a break from living with the in-laws, and the doldrums that our renovations were stuck in, we are staying up in the classy suburb of North Fitzroy and enjoying a day doing nothing – out of choice, for the wife, out of a lack of choice for me 😦 I’m hoping things pick up a bit more socially this year, but truth be told have made little effort so far.

Another joy of house sitting is looking after pets – we have a gorgeous kitty to look after again, who has once again reminded us today of her true animal nature by trying to bring us a (live) gift. Lots of water spray, a smacked bottom and a short spell shut in the living room have left her quite sulky – but suspect she’ll be back for some affection soon. We are being aloof; can’t see it lasting. God knows where the mouse got to – I’m kind of rooting for the cat to find it now. Yep, now I have a cat’s head on my wrist – suspect finishing this post is going to be tricky…

The renovation doldrums may end soon, as we have found a new builder to complete the work for us. We await a few quotes from his subcontractors this week, but suspect unless the cost is absurd we’ll go with him. He seems very professional, and responsive; both good signs, we believe ! More on that as it happens, but in short, suspect we’ll be throwing money in large sums here to get our lives back.

So that leaves March as a somewhat frugal time ! Trying to curtail extra spending – February was quite decadent with my birthday, our anniversary, valentines and booking flights to the UK in June. Also trying to focus solidly on weight loss – have managed three runs a week for the last fortnight, and hope to keep that up over the next few months. Looking forward in April then to some good shows as part of Melbourne Comedy Festival, and maybe another frugal month in May to spend our money in the UK in June – the Aussie dollar still seems crazy strong right now, and having suffered the bad part of that last year, it might be nice to have a turn with the good part of that this year.

 

Moving on and going nowhere

Last post had me polishing up my CV – this one has me saying goodbye ! I’ve spent the last five months working for Sensis, the place I originally met my wife, and ended up working on the same team I was at last time I was here. This initially gave me some great context to hit the ground running with, and I’m quite pleased to say I got a couple of awesome new systems in place during my time here. But equally, the work isn’t quite in fitting with my renewed drive to widen and improve my knowledge as a general technologist (or Polygot Programmer, as some are calling it). So when an opportunity to join another company doing smaller, more agile work in a different technical space outside of my comfort zone came up, I jumped at it.

Today was the official announcement; got a little bit of flak given the length of my role there which is fair enough. Mostly people are supportive though, although we had some other guys leave as I arrived, so I guess my departure will be bundled into that as part of a larger group leaving the workplace, so not ideal for morale. But it also means with only a week’s notice for my contract that I can leave by xmas, and have a bit of time off between roles to spend with the Wife and do a bit more on my side projects (Fantasy Grounds coding, and the freelance work for the start up). Speaking of which, the start up has been getting some more interest, so hopefully there will be a little more work on the side there, and maybe a chance to salary-sacrifice for  a little equity too. In either case, here is their brand new website !

So another hot xmas down under looms, and Mimi and I will be spending it with her family – although this is sort of a given as our flat, after 6+ months, has still not completed renovation. It started as a great deal – Mimi’s cousin working on it as he could for mate’s rates. But over recent months, we have struggled to get any regular contact with the cousin, and naturally mate’s rates have led to us getting mate’s time, or worse. Suspect he’s still of the mind he’s doing this as a favor for us, but the sheer constraints and stresses of being without a place of our own far outweigh any financial benefit. I’d happily offer him full-time rates if I could get full-time commitment back, but after the number of ignored phone calls and unmet half-promises in the past, I suspect that isn’t a realistic option. I really can’t see it being done before the end of January at the moment, especially as most tradespeople take this period as holiday. It’s really very frustrating, and suspect it’s gonna to either involve a big wait or a big cost as we get someone else in to finish the job – not sure we can afford either 😦

Life otherwise tries to plod on. I’ve got a couple of semi-regular groups I play games with. There are a few technical meetups were I meet similar crowds each time, and I dare say there are a couple of people I might count as good mates now out of this. Plus I’m still in touch with old friends from previous time here as well as meeting some of Mimi’s friends. So it’s an embryonic and growing social life ! I’ve also managed to get a bit better at regular runs – did an organised 10km run just over a week ago, despite not training for the 2-3 weeks before, and then got in two more 5-6km hill runs last week. Finally picked a fancy GPS tracker app too, which tells me my KM lap times and makes me feel quite slow. It’s incredibly motivating 🙂

One more week at work until unemployment and xmas. Not in my own home, but 2 out of 3 will have to do for now !

Long time coming

Yeah, it’s been a while. I still get one or two hits a day, even after 3 months of not posting ! Thanks whoever you both are – this ones for you 😉

So I’ve been dividing my time digitally at the moment. Firstly, we’ve got social networking over on Facebook, and now moving onto Google+. Jury still out a bit there, but Google+ feels like a great replacement for “big group e-mails not saying much” (like sharing a link with certain mates, or asking for help from a cross-section of unrelated mates) with it’s circles concept, where as Facebook is still, like the blog, pretty much a “Hey everyone ! This happened !” platform. Except Facebook has a few more hits than me.

Problem with that is I don’t get to do what I do best, ramble… So I’m sticking to blogging for a while yet !

I’ve also been running a few mini-blogs. One is for the computer game development I’m doing for Fantasy Grounds, where I am blogging all the new features I’m writing as I do them. This gives users a chance to comment, or even suggest other approaches before release. It also lets them know the project hasn’t stalled ! Probably won’t mean much to people, but you might like to check it out anyway – it’s got lots of pictures ! http://sw4fg2.tumblr.com/

Another mini-blog, which stalled and got resurrected today, was a gratitude blog. The theory is by being grateful every day for some little action, you condition your brain to realise your life is more awesome than you’d realised. So it’s free happyness ! Given all reality is simply your perception of it  anyway, it felt like a good lifehack to try out. However, I think it was sapping the creative part of me that wanted to blog, which meant it both missed the point of looking INSIDE myself for this little, maybe trivial, nugget of daily thanks, and stopped me writing a big rambly post letting people know what’s up! Anyhow, that’s still going in some form over here : http://mydailythanks.tumblr.com/

Work-wise, I’m doing a part-time contract still in the fantastic Ruby on Rails framework (it’s a techy thing). It’s been really good doing that as well as the Fantasy Grounds stuff (which is a language called Lua – it’s Portugese for Moon !) as I feel I’m giving myself a broader picture of software development, if not just a break from Java. Sometimes you can get lost in the forest as there are too many trees sort of thing. I’ve got three interviews this week for more permanent roles, some standard Java roles, a couple of startups bubbling along, and a contract more into the testing side of things. All of which are interesting. All with a benefit-vrs-cash payoff too !

And whilst it’s been a great few months of career building, my new home loan is active, my savings depleted from a heartbreaking exchange rate, and renovations are finally moving along. Pictures of rubble and missing walls to come soon – promise ! So at this stage, something that primes the salary pump would be welcome – can always better my career after hours if need be. Which kind of is my confessional to being a social hermit – working from home (the in-laws !) and not going out much makes Ben a scarily dull boy ! But it also has offered up a lot of spare hours to invest into me. I’ve probably squandered a fair few, but overall I hope it results in something good. A month in the UK was certainly a great tonic and timed well, and it was awesome to see as many people as I could. Lots of photos from my time there on http://benturner.smugmug.com/

Anyway, first of those interviews is on the phone in 10 mins, so a quick reread of my CV is in order. At least my mind is quieted, news shared, and blog updated. I can relax, for a while 🙂

Back to life, back to realty

What’s news ? My todo list hasn’t received this much attention in a long time – regrettably, as much of that attention is adding tasks as ticking them off. Perhaps if I’m going to spend so much time ticking off tasks, I could find a way to make that process awesome but then I’d have to get an iPad, and that’s only going to distract me more…

What are these Epic Tasks you ask ? First thing was kicking my visa application through – 200 pages of that. Secondly I finished off the “bedroom coding” projects I’ve been doing, the first of which (improvements to an existing bit of software) has been submitted for distribution tomorrow, and the main part (an extension to this software) that’s all, 100% mine from start to finish is just under going documentation tweaks, after which I’ll submit it too. Quite excited about having something I MADE available for others to buy, offer feedback on, and USE. Creativity rocks.

With that out the way, I’ve managed to sign up for a bit of freelance contracting in Ruby on Rails, a language and framework I’ve not done much with. Mind you, same could be said for the bedroom coding too (written in LUA with an XML based GUI framework). All of this should put be in a better place as a software developer, and give me a wider range of work I can take on in the future, which can only be a good thing. Plus I’m really enjoying it, which is a point that I feel is undervalued by many people. Anyhow, this contract should pay real money – not super dollars, but enough to keep the house loan. Speaking of which..

… I’ve applied for my first mortgage ! Scary stuff (how much in interest payments ?!) Actually with Australia’s super-financial boom, timing for buying houses are tough; prices are over-inflated (and bubble-bursting-like, in some people’s opinion) interest rates are up at 7%, and the Aussie dollar is so strong that the value of the UK pound has almost halved from 4-5 years ago compared to it. Seriously, after chasing savings interest rates of 4-6% on cash, and a few share investments paying a little more than that after the FTSE recovering, to have a great big 40% taken off the “value” of your savings is… hard to swallow. But swallow it I must – no point having savings sitting around (now earning bugger all percent) in the UK when I’ve got Australian interest rates to oh shit it’s happened I’m now talking and blogging about my mortgage. Welcome to your mid-thirties…

On a more practical level, my father-in-law and I have been heading into the flat a couple of days a week to let tradespeople in (we had big storms in Jan / Feb and some unresolved insurance claims which I’m picking up) and to do some home DIY (mid-thirties, remember). We had some fun wallpaper scraping the other week, and today I’ve been attacking walls with sugar soap to clean them down. Honest hard days (well, afternoons, to be honest) work.

It’s all going to be worth it in the long run – Camberwell, where our flat is, has great public transport links, nice cafes, and we’ll finally have a home that is ours ! Plenty more work to do first, not just on practical DIY issues, but on kitchen renovations, removing a wall, and changing the flooring. And that’s just to get started – after that, I’ve no doubt we shall be visiting a certain Scandwegian furniture emporium which is the destination for most newly-weds in their first home. Although I might get with beech effect, after selling of my birch effect Skolgriens, Billys, flangenhoplles, and Cdrackens back in London. Plus, we get a really nice view of the city from our living room 🙂

Finally Mimi and I did our run – I ran ahead of Mimi and friend after a few hundred meters, and really enjoyed doing an organised run again. Having done 6km training runs the week leading up, I was fairly confident about the 5.2KM track. But nonetheless I kept a good even pace, stopped once for the loo (the queues were too big before the start of the race…) and managed to get around in 31 mins. which met my 10KPH target pace spot on. Next stop has to be a 10KM run (my third 10KM ever !) I feel. Running 5KM plus seems to be the only thing that’s ever really got my weight heading towards < 17 stone, so hopefully I can dip under that later in the year. Plenty of good successes in recent times – just need to remember them and ignore and negativity with the endless todo list ahead (it’s the journey, not the destination, etc…) !

Looking forward to a month back in the UK late May / June too. Missing too many people to mention – Skype is good, but not great and the time difference sucks – so look forward to seeing many of you sometime real soon.