About meme it seems

One of my Reds set a challenge here and foolishly perhaps I fell for it. I don’t intend to finger anyone, but the invitation to give it a go is extended.

What was I doing ten years ago? …Scratching a living in the bohemian heart of Sydney while watching a marriage come to its logical end. Oddly enough I enjoyed the process, possibly by virtue of the setting and the general milieu. There were two reasonable streams of income:

#1 freelance writing, including summarizing new legislation from several State parliaments.

#2 by default the assistant manager of a café in coffee heaven. One fine Saturday morning, my first off for weeks, I received an urgent call to take over running the place. My good friend the owner had suffered a stroke. Sadly his son managed to burn the place down while I was having a much needed sleep.

2. Five things on today's To-Do List. One – Avoid getting dragged into another of my neighbour’s drama queen turns. Two - spend some time researching the latest project – a community legal service (early days yet, still gathering the basic needs evidence). Three – get the balance right on my Turkish coffee brew. I’d rather a good espresso, but thick Turkish isn’t a bad substitute. Four – do the daily online news rounds. That generally means finding different sources for stories that grab my interest. Five – stock up on my thrift shop books. Second hand is the only way I buy books, that way I can read greedily and find writers I’d never otherwise look twice at.

3. Things I'd do if I were a Billionaire. This one should probably be What do your friends say is your worst feature? – I am forever criticized for having no real passion for money, per se.

I guess the only thing I would seriously do if I were a billionaire is find someone to manage it while I got on with life. I’m not an enthusiastic consumer and I would prefer to see underlying cultures change, as opposed to pouring money at change. I guess I might write even more.

4. Three bad habits? A) I believe smoking is a bad habit, and when I stop enjoying it I will stop doing it. B) I get lost in ideas and thoughts, or totally focused on a task. C) As a result of the former I tend to get irritated by gratuitous noise – like conversation, TV – well let’s not get into lists.

5. Five places I have lived:
Sydney – well I was born there and really enjoyed my later return.

Tasmania Launceston & Stanley My ancestral and personal family home

Port Macquarie – Don’t ask me why, I really don’t like the place, but keep returning.

Miles (Queensland) Everyone should have an outback experience.

Chilliwack (Canada) The only place I’ve ever felt homesick for.

6. Five Jobs: Began in the Manchester, furnishing trade, it was a start and I was mainly cashier and bookkeeping (something that goes right against the grain.) Second was the motor trade. I was trying things, but was never really into cars. Theoretically I could strip and rebuild an engine, naming all the parts. (You can feel my thrill…)

The third effort was much more satisfactory; I landed in the timber (lumber) industry and eventually became some sort of threat to the large company employing me. Part of the problem was in seeing the tree and the wood as a continuum, but not recognising my view had nothing to do with just making money,

But it did lead me to number four – writing. I found the whole wood and forest thing so fascinating I began selling newspaper feature stories then drifted into journalism. So freelance writing featured ever since.

Now it is not something I’d do for a living, running a café/restaurant (what am I talking about?) Financially it is the hardest business I’ve come across, but the rest of it I always enjoy.

I’m supposed to pass this quest on, but I think it probably enough that I actually did it….