20

How time flies when you are having fun. It seems like centuries ago but only yesterday that the serpent set foot on this ancient land exactly twenty years ago after a long long unwilling absence

So what is there to show for 20 years of slinking about in Oz?

On the material front there is the Lair fully paid off 15 years after moving in. The Days of the Great Australian Dream are over for most of the younger folks of this land. Izzie was one of the lucky ones
Times have changed so much. From arriving as a penniless serpent in debt to the Dursleys to pay back the airfare over here to paying off all the bills and saving up a big fat deposit for a house in less than 3 years

In those days this was a land of milk and honey. Even a relatively unambitious creature with a job flipping burgers could afford to buy their very own little castle in a suburb not too far out of town.
There was such a glut of rental properties that real estate agents were offering several weeks rent free

Then came the goblins and the mining boom. It was from 2006 onwards that it got really crazy. Before that you could buy lots with your dollar but it was worse than worthless overseas. Now it can buy lots over there and is pretty much useless here
And to buy that burger flipper's house now required two middle class incomes.

There's been one Grand European Tour and lots of yoyo years and the last two have been nasties. The first trashed by a certain toad who tossed the Izzie on the scrap heap. Been stuck there for far longer than necessary. Only now finally getting around to picking up the pieces and creating an identity independent of a certain 17 years of house elf slavery. Slavery is not quite the right word except for the last four years there after the Goblin Invasion. That's when the place went from nice to neutral and then downright toxic

But one thing is certain. Life seems so pointless without a purpose. No job and no mortgage sounds like heaven but without either there's simply no reason to get up in the morning. It was not an issue during the months of April, July and two Novembers but for the rest of the time it was a very big deal indeed

The two new zombie jobs have made all the difference in the world. And soon they'll be there long enough to be added to any future resume

So 2014 will be devoted to adding other grand projects and purposes to replace what the old toad snatched and trashed

Then there's all the politics. This land has gotten so much meaner and nastier in the last 20 years. The rot seemed to start some time in 2001 but by the end of that year it had become irreversible

That's about the time that the crazy war cult started and now it has become almost a national religion

It's hard to know whether it is disturbing or reassuring to see that power exerts the pretty much the same influence on people where ever they are in the world

If the Izzie lives to celebrate the passing of the next 20 years there will have been some seriously big birthday parties. 200 years since the founding of Dursleyville, 400 years since the sinking of the Batavia (and before that the founding of the Dutch East India Company - the first ever floated on the stock exchange as we know it) and a whole bunch of others

Got no intention of waiting that long for the big parties so decided to start early this November

Still only just over one day ahead on the target Nanowrimo word count of 33,333 so the big catch ups on posts and comments in Dreamwidth and Livejournal land once again get put on the long finger

20

How time flies when you are having fun. It seems like centuries ago but only yesterday that the serpent set foot on this ancient land exactly twenty years ago after a long long unwilling absence

So what is there to show for 20 years of slinking about in Oz?

On the material front there is the Lair fully paid off 15 years after moving in. The Days of the Great Australian Dream are over for most of the younger folks of this land. Izzie was one of the lucky ones
Times have changed so much. From arriving as a penniless serpent in debt to the Dursleys to pay back the airfare over here to paying off all the bills and saving up a big fat deposit for a house in less than 3 years

In those days this was a land of milk and honey. Even a relatively unambitious creature with a job flipping burgers could afford to buy their very own little castle in a suburb not too far out of town.
There was such a glut of rental properties that real estate agents were offering several weeks rent free

Then came the goblins and the mining boom. It was from 2006 onwards that it got really crazy. Before that you could buy lots with your dollar but it was worse than worthless overseas. Now it can buy lots over there and is pretty much useless here
And to buy that burger flipper's house now required two middle class incomes.

There's been one Grand European Tour and lots of yoyo years and the last two have been nasties. The first trashed by a certain toad who tossed the Izzie on the scrap heap. Been stuck there for far longer than necessary. Only now finally getting around to picking up the pieces and creating an identity independent of a certain 17 years of house elf slavery. Slavery is not quite the right word except for the last four years there after the Goblin Invasion. That's when the place went from nice to neutral and then downright toxic

But one thing is certain. Life seems so pointless without a purpose. No job and no mortgage sounds like heaven but without either there's simply no reason to get up in the morning. It was not an issue during the months of April, July and two Novembers but for the rest of the time it was a very big deal indeed

The two new zombie jobs have made all the difference in the world. And soon they'll be there long enough to be added to any future resume

So 2014 will be devoted to adding other grand projects and purposes to replace what the old toad snatched and trashed

Then there's all the politics. This land has gotten so much meaner and nastier in the last 20 years. The rot seemed to start some time in 2001 but by the end of that year it had become irreversible

That's about the time that the crazy war cult started and now it has become almost a national religion

It's hard to know whether it is disturbing or reassuring to see that power exerts the pretty much the same influence on people where ever they are in the world

If the Izzie lives to celebrate the passing of the next 20 years there will have been some seriously big birthday parties. 200 years since the founding of Dursleyville, 400 years since the sinking of the Batavia (and before that the founding of the Dutch East India Company - the first ever floated on the stock exchange as we know it) and a whole bunch of others

Got no intention of waiting that long for the big parties so decided to start early this November

Still only just over one day ahead on the target Nanowrimo word count of 33,333 so the big catch ups on posts and comments in Dreamwidth and Livejournal land once again get put on the long finger