Tag Archives: technology

Recalibrated

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This blog post has been unfolding in my mind over the past few days as the next phase of our lives – retirement – is on the horizon but looming ever closer.

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We have been ’empty-nesters’, with no children at home for over 12 years.  This coincided with our move from Brisbane to our current home on a semi-rural block of 1.5 acres.  There has been no shortage of things to do as we have developed the garden as well as undertaken several renovations to the house.  There are other projects which we are looking forward to working on once we have more time but most of the major work has been done.  Additionally, we have gradually sorted, culled, decluttered and generally streamlined a lot of stuff so the day-to-day cleaning and maintenance is becoming simpler and easier.

To add to the busyness we have both continued to work full-time, however, this will change when we retire in the middle of next year.

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I am regularly quizzed by well-meaning people as to what I am going to when I retire and my somewhat truthful but flippant answer is ‘travel’.  Of course, travel will be only a small part of what we do.  I think my comment to GMan a few weeks ago really summed it up when I said that I was looking forward to having 7 days to do what I currently try to fit into 2 days of the weekend.

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A few things recently have led me to rethink how I manage my working hours which I am fortunate enough to have very flexible arrangements.  However, this has led to me not working in the most efficient manner at times.  Even though I will still be working full-time I have decided to structure my office and working from home times so that I will only work 4 days each week with Mondays off each week apart from once a month when I will swap it for a Tuesday so that I can continue my involvement in a community project.  Thursdays will a full day of working from home and I will be in the office on the other 3 days.  There is still a degree of flexibility if I need to swap my days around for a particular reason.

I believe that having a 3 day weekend most weeks will allow me to do things I want to do at home without feeling quite so rushed and be be organised for the remainder of the week.  I am thinking particularly of cooking and meal preparation and gardening.

With only 10 months (but who’s counting) until I retire I also need to consider how I will manage the workload whilst handing over the role to my replacement in the first half of next year.

There are certainly different seasons of our lives and what was necessary when I had young children is not relevant in my current situation.  We are all at different stages of our lives and sometimes the biggest hurdle is actually identifying what is best for you and your family now.  It will not be the same as mine but by finding what works for you will help to promote a sense of calm, peace and gratitude while minimising angst and stress.

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It is admirable to strive for goals and targets but do not wish your life away.  Be grateful for what you have today because this stage of your life will not last forever.

 

 

A Smart Purchase

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I do not often write about my shopping but I feel that the iron I bought about a month ago is worthy of a blog post.  We are all familiar with the concept of ‘smart phones’ and some of their capabilities – turning airconditioning on and off, scanning the contents of a refrigerator to create a shopping, scanning tourist information when travelling and so on.  Of, course all of this is dependent on the other appliances/sites being embedded with the relevant technology.  However, all of that pales into insignificance beside my ‘intelligent’ iron.

Ironing not something that most people get excited about and many do not iron at all but that is simply not in my DNA.  I iron and I want a good iron that functions well and produces the result I want with minimum effort.  My previous iron was not performing so it was time to look for a replacement.  As always, I head to the electrical store and scan the rows of similar looking irons which range in price from $19 ever-upwards to about $160. Then there are all sorts of space-age looking steam stations which run into hundreds of dollars.

This Philips iron does not look extraordinary but the feature which sold it to me is the fact that it does not have a heat setting.  It senses the fabric and heats accordingly.  I hesitated because it sounded too good to be true and we all know where that usually ends up but I decided to bite the bullet and try it.  $149 later and I was the owner of a brand-new, intelligent iron.

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I delayed writing any sort of review until I had given it a reasonable test.  Thanks to the type of clothes we wear (mostly cotton and linen) as well as the sewing I do, my iron is used almost every day.  I have been using it for a month and am delighted to report that despite my reservations it really does work on all types of fabric.  This is what the soleplate looks like after a month of use – absolutely pristine.  The results are also excellent.

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Just in case I have convinced you and you are about to rush out and buy one, this is the packaging.

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Camera, Internet and Rain

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I am sure you are scratching your head at the title of this post so I will explain what these three things have in common.  There has been precious little of any of them and all are impacting on my ability to post.

The camera is currently being repaired and will be ready next week, I hope.  It had been playing up for a while with the automatic flash getting stuck intermittently.  This was becoming more of a problem so I decided to take it to be repaired because I want it in good working order when we head off overseas in November.  So, I will use existing photos for any blog posts at the moment.

Our internet access (not NBN) is average at best but lately it has been virtually non-existent for hours at a time which culminated in minimal, very slow access for the past couple of days.  It seems to be better at the moment so I am grabbing the opportunity to post.  At least I haven’t had to resort to carrier pigeon!  It is not as though we live in the outback – we are barely 80km (50 miles) from the CBD of the third-largest city in Australia!

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Speaking of things being non-existent – that is the state of our rainfall here at the moment, too.  We live in what is generally regarded as a high rainfall area with reliable rainfall throughout the year, however, thanks to climate change it is becoming much less reliable.  The type of vegetation which grows in area is dependent on regular rainfall so everything is a bit stressed.  I have not planted too much in the vegetable gardens except beans which I am hand-watering.  I am also watering the blueberry bushes as they are loaded with fruit at the moment and I want to make sure that I don’t lose that precious fruit.  The kale just keeps on growing regardless of heat, cold, water or not.  It is very resilient.  I know that it will rain again but in the meantime the lack of rain is impacting on my enthusiasm for the garden.  We depend entirely on tank water but we are in a better position than most as there are only 2 of us, we are generally fairly frugal with our water usage as we know what it is like to have very little and we have twice as much storage as most people in the district.

Thank goodness for a hose!

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Technology Marches On

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I planned to write this post several days ago but life managed to get in the way.

Anyway, here I am back again.

We are usually fairly prompt in organising our tax details to send to our tax agent but this year was a different story.  We headed overseas in the middle of July and did not return until the end of August.  There were plenty of other things that seemed to demand our attention so the tax was put aside.  Last weekend we finally collected up everything we needed to send.  There were several digital files which we saved and attached to the email.

However, a couple of things almost defeated us.  There was an email which we needed and we could not figure out a way to save an email as a file so decided to print it and then scan it and save the scan.  Sounds easy?  I thought so but that did not turn out to be the case.

We have recently upgraded our desktop computer and have a Microsoft tablet/laptop.  Both of these are running on Windows 10 and we discovered (after much trial and error) that our printer is not compatible with Windows 10.  Aargh!!

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The printer sits on top of the desk and is very rarely used.  We could have waited until the next day and printed the email at work but decided to resort to another rather circuitous route.  GMan retrieved our old laptop from the cupboard where it had been gathering dust and connected the printer to it.  Thankfully, that laptop was still running Windows 7.  So, we printed the email, scanned and saved it on the old laptop, copied it to a USB drive and thus transferred it to a folder on the desktop computer and we were back on track.  It was a somewhat convoluted process but worked adequately for our needs.

At some stage we need to decide what to do about getting a new printer/scanner.  It is something we want to have but are not desperate to have it immediately when we know that we have a workaround solution.

If anyone knows of a way to save an email as a file (preferably a pdf) I would love to know about it.

 

Mastering Technology

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Or as it is otherwise known – reading the instructions.

I bought a digital SLR camera before we travelled overseas last year.  I have downloaded the instruction manual which is about 350 pages, however, I have barely read it and have just used the camera on the automatic settings.

InstructionsLast night I decided that I really should figure out how to use the self-timer on the camera.  I read the instructions several times, set up the camera on the tripod and hey, presto!  I managed to take a reasonable photograph of my self wearing my new skirt.

The thing that I find most difficult about instructions of any kind is trying to assimilate information that I am not necessarily about to use.  Just reading something about a particular process or technique and trying to store it for future refence tends to be fairly useless in my experience.

Having used the self-timer function several times in my quest to get a reasonable photograph, I am fairly confident that I will be able to recall this process when I next want to use it.

Feels Like Friday

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I have not posted anything for the past couple of days as I have been totally committed to work.  We have had colleagues from interstate working with us for a few days and I had to give it my undivided attention so as to maximise the results from being able to work face-to-face.  Despite all of the advances in technology which allow us to connect via, phone, email and videoconferencing, there is nothing quite like being able to sit down and look at the same work together.

Everyone has headed back to their respective locations and I am now home with the prospect of 5 days at home stretching out in front of me.  It really does feel like Friday!  I will be doing some work from home tomorrow but other than that my time is my own.  As an added bonus we have a long weekend due to the Australia Day holiday on Monday.

I hope to make some progress on a number of projects around the house and garden and I am sure I will have lots to show you.

We have the prospect of slightly cooler weather for the next few days and possibly some heavy rain.  I think the first thing I will do is make sure all of the washing is up to date while the weather is still fine.

TowelsIt is lovely to have time to look forward to spending as I choose rather than having a diary crammed full of appointments.RelaxingDo you plan every moment or do you go with the flow, so to speak?