I was made redundant on Thursday. I have spent my teens and twenties striving and working hard. Life is not and never has been easy.

The funny thing is with all the “global” focus on race and money and climate and polictics, I have actually learnt more being a loser in the last two weeks than in the 29 years I have spent trying to beat the system and still failing!

We’ve all had bad news overload in the last three months but the sun still sets and rises.

I am going to smile, catch the bus today in my daggy jeans, pick up my one pair of contact lenses, get dinner ready for the other half and walk my dog.

To encourage happy thoughts, here’s a link to a page on some interesting TED talks - http://www.ted.com/index.php/themes/what_makes_us_happy.html

I have a compelling urge to break new gadgets in a vain attempt to see if I can figure out how they work — my hobby at the moment when I am not supposed to be either at work or pretending to be a housewife is getting used to broadcasting via the mobile however anything below 300 words is a short email for me so perhaps I am less gen Y than I think I am.

I now use sms, msn, facebook, have created another profile which is just work related for linkedin and am getting to grips with my new N95 which undoubtably means faffing about with twitter.

Tempted am I to try and explain it to my grandad who has always lived innovatively and whom I like to bounce ideas off of but he is probably already using it having just bought a “camera phone” ….those were his exact words to me the other week “I am just trying to work out how to use the camera on the phone darling and I can’t be bothered to read the 20 page manual so I thought I’d ask you” . He is 87….

Sunny outside despite the recession and impending gloom and doom

just watching the Olympic opening ceremony and I can’t work out in what order the country groups were marching out in, am guessing Chinese alphabet? Knackered. It’s almost 2am but I’m at that point now where I might as well stay up until the end, reckon the torch lighting will be awesome.

So I went to the aimia web 3.0 and mobile conference and I only cringed once I’m from east London so I’m a born cynic. But it was actually really insightful lol and I particularly enjoyed the no nonsense presentations of both Jennifer William (Principal, IdeaGarden) and Jennifer Wilson (Principal, Lean Forward).

What did I come away with? Well ok yes, the future is mobile -I love the idea of a virtual mobile network where you can scan objects with your mobile and perhaps see a message left for you, a piece of advertising or maybe some sort of digital graffiti. We’re already seeing Telstra kicking this off with their recent campaign using QR codes .

Also the fact that in the future it is predicted that the majority of mobile net users will be those from developing countries i.e consumers that may not have a P.C and who may never rely on a PC for the web. Interesting for me as I have family in said ‘developing’ countries and they never email me but always sms me, easier than travelling by bus to the nearest internet cafe.

This blog post by Tomi T Ahonen describes in detail the impact and the numbers (in the billions) everyone is talking about - When there is a mobile phone for half the planet: Understanding the biggest technology 

Now if I can only remember where I put the bloody thing…….

• Etsy :: Your place to buy and sell all things handmade
  Great site for vintage shopping

Is not just a good exercise mantra…..I did my ‘ideal’ budget for us for the next couple of years while we save towards a deposit for a house. The Grazia article by the blogger ugly debty was enlightening - she has spent 100k or so (on credit) on shopping for shoes and bags, that amount is also our goal in the next year or two.  It’s scary but it’s inspirational. At least she has taken the first step. In the long run, as a woman, it is empowering to take control of your own finances regardless of how much you earn.

In alot of ways I think we  have been indoctrined into the expectation of insta-everything from instant conversations to friends to money, sacrifice is a taboo subject in current times for any average twenty something. We haven’t had to work and live through World Wars, major recessions or crises (yet). The next bubble that bursts is going to be a bigger slap in the face for many of us that are used to buying what we want, when we want and not saving.

We are a generation that doesn’t promote saving the pennies. Drawing up and sticking to the ideal budget is a challenge for us but it’s only because we have become laissez-faire. It’s a good kick up the bum though as if we don’t do this now we will be stuffed once we have a mortgage and family as although we are both on decent wages we have zero money management skills!

Because I haven’t started the new gig it’s given me enough free time to sort out all of the usually boring financial tasks that I have been lazy with. This includes:

1. Super - I’m switching to MTAA as Colonial First State were charging me a ridiculous management fee however the paperwork is completely boring and there are about 50,000 forms to complete, why can’t this be an electronic process?

2. Managed Fund - Have decided to set up a managed fund that focuses on the resource sector - my super is already invested in a moderately diversified fund so investing in this growth sector will spread our savings across different categories, ideally I want to have a % in funds, a small % in shares , majority in cash. Again more form filling, the good part however is that I can set this up as a savings plan with monthly contributions rather than investing a whole lump sum.

3. Household budget - so I have looked at the telecomms spend and I’ve signed up for Skype and will try it out tonight calling my family in the UK, I usually call them once a week and I’ve ordered an additional calling card to handle the UK mobile calls I have to make too. I’m holding out on the iPhone for now

“Food, glorious food”

Next item on the list is food, we have in the past spent a ridiculous amount on food, not that we eat alot, we don’t even eat alot of  ’gourmet’ food. The high cost  boils down to the following factors (deep breath):

1. We don’t shop for the season — I have no idea what fruit and vegetables are in or out of season. It’s even more confusing for me as I’m British and I struggle to discern the actual seasons over here!

2. We shop for convenience — we buy everything at Coles or Woolies each week, even the greengrocers at the local Marrickville Metro is a little on the pricey side

3. We don’t stock up — there’s minimal frozen meat in our fridge and we spend most of our time chucking out food we haven’t used and it’s gone off or forgetting what we do have that we could use.

4. We eat out alot — no, we’re not at Tetsuyas every Friday but we do have big cafe breakfasts in Bondi and Newtown and the odd takeaway. This all adds up and I’m going to attempt to have nothing but coffee after our Sunday runs and just take a banana with me! Or cook up something lovely at home. 

 So in the last fortnight I’ve decided to cut down (and there have been a fair few quarrels along the way!) by attacking our huge food bill through:

1. Buying all basics at Aldi or Bi-Lo, i.e own brand low fat milk, crackers, loaves of bread (I plan on making my own soon though), brown sugar, free range eggs and flour. They are cheaper and they taste the same. I’ve managed to halve my milk bill this way as 2 litres of low fat milk at Aldi is $2.70 instead of the $4 for 1 litre of Pura for example.

2. Every fortnight buying veggies and fruit at Flemington market, on the first visit I have had to stop myself from buying every box! Again looking at basics, onions, potatoes, carrots etc and stuff that’s in season.

3. Aim to cook up meals that can last a few days i.e more soups, casseroles and bakes.

4. Reverse Cooking -  Instead of looking at recipes and deciding what I want to cook, I’m going to buy the veggies and see what’s in season and affordable and then find recipes.

5. Use up everything in the cupboard to reduce chucking stuff out

Reducing the food bill and doing more market shopping will also minimise the packaging we have to recycle and make us think about what we are buying rather than automatically throwing it in the trolley. The only thing my hubby won’t skimp on is 3 ply toilet tissue………

 

 

It’s terrible. In general handset trends don’t interest me having had my old handset for years on a prepaid contract. However in the same way that I fell in love with the iMac years ago, I now want that phone! Call me a sucker but I’m adamant about finding the best deal.

Now we’re apparently supposed to be budgeting at the moment so taking into account that the shadow of the ‘credit crunch’ is looming I decided to do abit of googling to see how I could cut costs not just on the mobile but the rest of our telecomms spend (excluding ADSL access for now).

Currently we’re shelling out $175 a month on the following (the total amount shocked me) :

The main points are

1. I have to call my mum on her UK mobile and the rest of my family on a UK landline each week 

2. My husband is on Vodafone corporate mobile plan via his brother

2. We need a phone line for ADSL. 

 If it wasn’t for the iPhone lust I found I could cut the total cost to $98 (saving myself $77 a month!)

So far the best iPhone deal I could find is with Optus for $79 a month and $0 upfront HOWEVER it means that I will have to watch not only the data downloads (I’d get 700 mb) but also the phone calls to other non-Optus mobiles . Hmmmm, that would take the total monthly cost to $128 (so $47 better off….)

If it’s possible to go with their Timeless plan I could pay $113 for unlimited mobile calls and 200mb data downloads but then that is really a palava as total cost would be $162 which is almost the same as I started with!

Perhaps I should hang on for a month or two to see what better deals with the iPhone come along as the launch deal might not be the best? sigh….

I know I’m working in the wrong industry but I cringe when I hear the terms web 1.0, web 2.0, web 3.0 — helllooooo, it’s not controlled (yet, is it?) by a monolithic corporation that has waves of product releases, why box it up, why treat it as if it is? Of course the web and the interaction between user and web has evolved but really do we have to start labelling it already? (Lord knows how I hate categories).

Anyway a particular interest for me is mobile marketing which probably harks back to my very first job working in a corporate mobile comms team ten years ago. I think there is a huge amount of potential here but it needs to be backed (at least in Australia) by a strong telecoms infrastructure and of course decent pricing models. Not much point in developing branded content for the iPhone if the target user will be smashed by extortionate data rates (unless the user you are targeting is a corporate one of course). 

To this end, I’m going to the AIMIA Web 3.0: mobile & the semantic web conference on the 30th to check out what the industry wags are predicting, it’s part of a 4 part series they are running which should be interesting.

So it’s been a fair while since the last post and I don’t even have time as an excuse as I’ve been at home since we got back 3 weeks ago. I’ve been on the job hunt and have landed a new gig (yaaay!). There really is only so much Oprah and hoovering that I can do without going insane however there have been some delights on day time TV.  In particular the Aerogarden, it’s an indoor garden that uses NASA technlogy so you can grow plants at any time of year. With a day time TV audience of X amount of students I can see this product being a hit. Finally you can grow your own…..

I thought I’d share my experiences a shortlist of funny moments from the whole job hunting process, I’d like to call this time of my life my ‘legally blonde’ phase:

1. Do not meet with potential employers while still employed, hit it off during the interview but then tell them you are not “looking to move” (ummmm, yes you are love)

2. Do not meet with an award winning employer when flu stricken and drugged up to the eyeballs with antibiotics and tell them that the reason you don’t update your blog regularly is because “life gets in the way” (what are you talking about, this should be ALL you live for lol)

3. Best quote so far from an interviewer while looking at the job description with me- “Well we can scratch out Tertiary Qualifications, we’re in advertising, we don’t need tertiary qualifications”

4. Best moment so far from an interview with 3 staff (2 guys and a girl) all under the age of 27, I ask what the plans with building the digital team, the most ’senior’ one looks at me and says “yeah we’re recruiting for a Head of Digital, our last one left a month ago”, the girl looks at him and says “ahh actually like 3 months ago”, he snaps back “yeah yeah she handed in her resignation three months ago but she like left properly one month ago”…..the stoned dude in the middle says nothing

5. Having two recruiters tell me that I’m not quite senior enough but then get offered 4 senior roles……

 

 

Granted, it is dangerous to be unemployed and technically on holiday back at home in London. However there is a certain kind of freedom that comes with it and a stolen appreciation of experiences here. After three and a bit years in Sydney, I had forgotten about the enfant terribles of the art scene until I found out that Tracey Emin had become a Royal Academian and had worked on one of the rooms for the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art.

Joy! I find myself lost in an overwhelming sea of paintings, photos, sculpture and architectural drawings. There is nothing I love more in the world than staring at a huge photo of a young lady with a designer bagful of sausages, Eve as an illustrated Barbie doll or a Zebra getting jiggy with a young lady (yes, you read that correctly and no it’s not a real life depiction…..as far as I know). 

Contemporary and new art is like the front line, an index finger to the greatest enemies of creativity, Tradition and History. Countless times I overheard the disgust and the guffaws of passers-by. Yes, art is objective and everyone is entitled to their own opinion but personally, I feel that art is expression regardless and not to be constrained (you know I hate those boxes). Don’t denounce it, discuss it.

The husband’s favourite……a giant sculpture of a baby’s head that was created in such a way as to look blurred from a distance.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/summerexhibition2007/