I started doing my tax return today. I don’t have all my group certificates though. Why are people so slack? It’s the 4th for god sake! Give me my group certificate! One of the agencies I worked with emailed my GC out this week. Why can’t they all do that? It’s the 21st century, get with it people.
I’m especially excited about tax this year because I got my HECS statement (I don’t think it’s called HECS any more but I’m old skool). For years and years and year, I’ve had this massive HECS debt that never got any smaller. I’d pay and pay but it made NO different. This year I got my statement and I owe like $1600. I thought that was an error cos it’s been over $10,000 for years. Anyway that means I’ve totally overpaid my HECS and will get the $$$ back. Plus I can now NOT pay it and that’s like getting a 5% pay rise (more or less). Yah!
On the topic of HECS, I had an argument with someone recently cos they said you have to be earning HEAPS to even start paying your debt back. Um, the starting salary is around $45,000. Why would you bother going to uni if you were going to earn less than that? I mean you get $20 an hour in a call centre which equivalent to a full time salary of $40,000. That means you are acquiring a massive HECS debt to earn less than $5,000 extra. That’s just basic bad return on investment sense! Btw my sister told me later he’s studying philosophy… no wonder. Seriously who’d pay all that money to study something you can get on a fortune cookie!
Anyway, what am I going to spend my tax dollars on? Ha! I’ve got to have a heap saved before I move to Japan so that covers that. The other day I realised something – I’m going to be so much better off when I live in Japan. This has been my life for the last year – save to go to Japan, go, come home, start saving again. If I’m living there, I can take the whole “saving to go to Japan” chunk out of my budget!
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I’ve been thinking about my blog lately. I started my first blog of sorts about 10 years ago! That’s before there even were blogs as such. I was totally anon and wrote anything I liked without fear anyone would read it. Hell, most people I know back then didn’t even have home PCs.
When I started my diet blog, again it was pretty much anon. Then I started to meet people from online and that was great, having this whole wad of real life support. Lately though I’ve really been pulling my punches about what I write. A lot of my friends and family still don’t know about this blog (and it’d be kinda weird to tell them now).
I no longer feel comfortable pouring my heart out. I think too much about who will be reading. Lately things have happened in my life that I want to write about but I’ve held back. Not just because I worry about who’s reading but because I’ve started to wonder if that is a good thing to do.
When things happen that strike you in the heart, can you really express them in a blog post? Or in a few sentences in your facebook status? What a weird way we communicate these days. When I read other people’s posts about tragedies in their lives, I never know how to respond. I’m not comfortable with that and what do you say? There are no words that can make things better, especially from an unknown stranger over the internet. Yet I feel like I should say SOMETHING.
So I’ve started keeping things to myself because I don’t want to trivialise them by turning them into just another blog post someone skims over in their reader and because I don’t want uncomfortable words of support.
Maybe, one day, we can sit down over a coffee or a beer and I can tell you what’s really going on in my life and you can tell me about yours. Face to face, you say more with a nod or a smile than a million words typed into a keyboard can express. In the meantime I’ll keep updating about my weight and my whiny rants.
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On a perkier note, I’ve started a new blog! It’s at a site called Lang-8. If you are studying another language, you write in that language and native speakers correct you. It’s very useful and I’m enjoying reading the English entries too.
iDiet 
Yay for the HECS debt being wiped out! And for more Japan saving!
Thanks for writing this post. This post articulates why I’ve given up on blogging for the moment (possibly for good). There’s been heaps going on for me lately but sharing it on ‘net just seems like the last thing I want to do. I’m becoming painfully mindful of what I do share now; it seems weird to broadcast certain bits of information, especially as Facebook status updates. And it’s even weirder to get support messages online, especially from people I don’t really know. A few years ago it wouldn’t have fazed me. But in light of recent events, I’m becoming a lot more cautious about what I do say.
Hon, over a drink any day! Hopefully catch you again in the flesh soon enough. I still like reading/writing but totally get what you’re saying. I don’t share so much either anymore.
You’re right – the blog is not the place for everything.
WOOHOOO Congrats on your HECS debt. You must be so excited about your big move.
I so know what you mean about self-editing online. Catching up for a drink sounds like a great idea.
TB and I are in Melbourne next week for most of the week (Tues evening to Monday morning). He’s exhibiting his furniture at a furniture fair at Jeff’s shed from Thurs to Sun.
Maybe we could catch up at some stage.
Totally get you on this Kathryn. There’s been heaps going on for me too, but sharing it online doesn’t hold a lot of appeal anymore. I’d rather share over a beer too 😀