It's Tuesday night, 7:10pm and I am sitting at table 8 inside the Pho Linh Vietnamese Restaurant, slowly digesting another fabulous meal and pondering the aftermath displayed before me.
I’m in a reflective mood, a mixture of emotions really.
Money is still a concern, but not in the same way that it was a few weeks ago.
To explain, I had to spend a large chunk of my savings on getting my tax sorted. Because I have crypto I have to pay for a record of my transactions via Koinly Calculator. I intentionally stayed off of the exchanges to save money, but it appears that they have raised their prices and therefore I need to have a little rethink for next year.
The pricing is incorporated into the cost of doing my taxes so it’s not so bad. It’s just the initial financial slug that hurts.
A lot of bills also needed to be paid at the same time too, which never helps.
Now, I have received a large tax return which takes some of the pressure off, plus I have been working different jobs over the last few weeks which should make the next few pay days a healthy surprise.
I’m investing a lot more than I ever have and large transfers of money don’t scare me like they once did. I am still not flippant about the idea of losing it with the press of a button, but you get the picture.
There have been several attempts to write this post over the last few weeks, but I have found that every day presents different challenges and I am constantly learning new skills.
I am not employed by a single company, but several and they only offer work at a casual, random way. Shift lengths can be random, sometimes longer than advertised but mostly shorter. Sometines shifts can be cancelled or offered to someone else.
This means it’s difficult to predict my income, savings and so forth.
But I have various means of saving money for bills and so forth that really help.
Each of these jobs has taught me a new skill.
How to make sandwiches and wraps for shop displays.
Different types of wine and other drinks.
I can be awake for 33 hours, but I will slip into micro sleeps on the train home.
I make a great zombie apparently.
Setting up for events has taught me how to assemble panels, displays and such for events and how to pull them down again.
I have had to brush up my screwdriver skills. As a side note, my glasses deflected a stray screwdriver that slipped and could have blinded me permanently otherwise. I’m so lucky.
I have learned that I will continue to get hired if I am quick to offer a hand and try not to stand around doing nothing.
Volunteering always looks good to an employer.
Communication skills with people with strong foreign accents isn’t easy when you have a frequency deafness.
There are downsides and workplace politics too and learning not to trust anyone at all is a harsh truth.
But I also learned that people get jealous very quickly when all I have ever done is consistently show up and do as I’m told to the best of my ability.
Today a work centred shift-swap group on Whatsapp got shut down by the company management. It was great to see because certain staff members were hogging all of the shifts for themselves. I also found out that someone who was white-anting me lost his other full time job.
“Karma is a bitch” apparently.
Hopefully I can get more shifts as a result. We’ll see.
Recently I got accepted in the position of Event Staff at the Adelaide Oval. I have an induction on Thursday.
It should mean working throughout the Christmas holiday period during the quiet periods.
I have been working hospitality shifts, shifts on construction sites and various locations.
With every shift of every job I make sure I am learning something new.
I am also saving as much money as possible and investing what I can safely for the quiet period in January and February.
Right now I am preparing to go out and film some video for my new YouTube channel. 3Speak doesn’t seem to be working.
Anyway, that’s all from me today.
Thank you for reading.
Until next time, insist on being treated with dignity and respect.
Shaidon
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