Roller Coaster Day

First thing this morning I noticed a job posting through an agency that I thought suited me.  I rang them, and they almost immediately asked if I could come in for a chat.

Then within half an hour, a package arrived.  It was my new suit, which had just arrived from Hong Kong.


With a waistcoat and all.  Suit therapy is very helpful, in the short term at least.

I felt much better with a job interview set up and wearing a new bulletproof suit for the first time.

Then, just before heading out, I got some bad news that brought me right down.  I was on the phone with Canada, and my father told me they are planning to sell the Collaroy Castle.  That knocked everything else out of my head.  I wasn't able to articulate an answer to anything he asked after that.

It makes sense.  It's owned by two men aged 67 and 72, neither of whom live on the same continent as the house.  I am the only one of my cousins who lives anywhere nearby, and holding on to it benefits me far more than anyone else.  I suppose there is the option of buying everyone else out, but that would mean going into a huge pile of debt bigger than I am likely to be able to get out of.

I've been in Australia for six years and the house probably won't go for a couple of years.  It means a lot of other things besides losing a beachside pad.  In a manner of speaking, I will be homeless.  My car is registered there.  I am on the electoral roll there.  That is where I officially live and it is where I first lived when moving to Australia.  I've bounced around plenty of places in Canberra and one place in inner Sydney in my first year, but the Collaroy Castle was always an anchor.  Most people my age have a place like that, and in a couple of years I won't.  After being in the family for nearly a century, the property will be a place where someone else lives.  No more anchor for Luckycanuck.  I have no family in Australia.  I've adjusted to that and I'm fine.  This house is the closest thing I have to family and it's going away.

I also wonder if my parents will come by Australia now that there isn't a place to stay.  It had been proposed that if I settled down with a family they might come out to live once in a while so they could help me out like they helped my sister.  I guess that is off (perhaps on account of my telling them a family is hard for me to imagine.)  Is this a way of encouraging me to buy a property of my own as they have frequently encouraged me?  (Almost certainly not.)  Where will I stay when I go to Sydney.  Will this prompt me to leave Australia now that there isn't somewhere I can always go?  Will I move back to Sydney to get more Collaroy time in while I can?

And as evidence that I'm probably the son of an aspie spectrum type, dad hit me with this news just after I told him I was going to see a psychologist for depression.

So I had my stunned and vacant expression on my face as I left the office to go to my interview.  Luckily, it went well.  I feel like I hit it for six.  They are going to pass on my CV to the Food and Grocery Council, and they have plenty of contract work that would suit me.  It buoyed me up after the Collaroy Castle shock.

I haven't been to Sydney for a while and I was planning on going this weekend but the week has taken its toll.  Once rugby was cancelled I felt that the trip was becoming less necessary (despite my desire to spend time in Collaroy) especially when I have to head right back into another full on sitting week.  I've had a tough time making decisions and deciding to take a trip was always going to be tough.  I can plan further ahead to next weekend now and be calm.

I did meet Helga's new guy and drove Roxy to a Harry Potter party to spare her from having to take public transport while dressed as the Golden Snitch.