mja blog

Author: Melissa

  • Liberty week four

    My last day of paid employment was Friday 14 January, filling in on the front desk. I’m now in the fourth week of my new life as a student / semi-retiree. During this time I’ve:

    • twice carried out volunteer duties as company secretary
    • worked out my study plan for 2022 and enrolled in my first two subjects
    • started the unit in Business and Corporate Law – we are presently covering the history and nature of law, interesting!
    • traded in my 2018 Mazda 3 for a 2021 Mazda CX 30 – my first auto and a hybrid. Took a little while to get used to the change but I’m loving the new car now.
    • got rid of a lot of old stuff we no longer wanted to keep when H. and I did a massive declutter and clean-up.. only my office left to do
    • had an Eggs Benedict breakfast at the local Coffee Club with H. and friends
    • had my first iron infusion to treat iron deficient anaemia, starting to kick in I think
    • bought myself a Brother Laser printer from Officeworks. It was cheap and is so handy to have for my studies and co-sec work.
    • had my first try of the whipper snipper in our yard and had great fun with it, ended up going back and doing more of the yard!
    • joined the local library and been listening to a few Jack Reacher tales on audiobook
    • persuaded Jo to join her local library

    Uni results from 2021 also came in, I got a couple of High Distinctions and a Distinction for the most recent subject. I completed three subjects, and gained credit for eight. I have seven units in my study plan for 2022, which leaves a final six units in 2023. I think a nice holiday sometime in 2023 will be called for.

    Photo by Grant Ritchie on Unsplash

  • Car shopping

    It’s happening a lot quicker than I thought it would, but it looks like I’ll be the new owner of a Mazda CX-30 Hybrid SUV by the end of the month, having scored a pleasingly good trade-in deal for my 2018 Mazda 3. We both thought I’d be waiting months for a new car.

    I had been considering a Toyota hybrid vehicle. I like Toyota’s hybrid petrol / electric system, the car runs on battery and petrol. The battery charges while you drive and the petrol engine kicks in only when you need it, it’s a smart system and very low on fuel. But after test driving the Toyota Yaris Cross yesterday, the road experience (for me) compared poorly to Mazda. I realised I wasn’t ready to sacrifice driving pleasure and comfort for my ideals.

    Hubby got me onto Mazda years ago and I’ve had many years of great driving out of my Mazda 3 vehicles. I started looking at Mazda’s electric / hybrid MX-30 last year and yesterday discovered they had extended hybrid tech to Mazda 3 and CX-30. Unfortunately Mazda’s hybrid offering is quite different to Toyota’s. Battery power is generated from deceleration / braking energy and is used only to run auxiliary systems such as the air conditioner. So it is possibly contributing to greater fuel economy, although the savings seem quite marginal. However it was pointed out that I expect to do far less driving for the foreseeable future, and will be spending far less on fuel anyway. It made a good argument, and after test driving a new CX-30 I had pretty much abandoned the thought of a Toyota.

    The CX-30 is a small SUV, a slightly different shape to my Mazda 3 hatch, a bit shorter and taller with more cabin space. It will fit Jo’s wheelchair with no trouble, and is only 3cm higher off the ground – it shouldn’t be a problem for Jo to climb in and out of. It is a beautiful car to drive, so it’s my hope that Mazda improves its hybrid offerings over the next couple of years, in time for my next trade. I opted for the Sonic Silver colour, with tinted windows, bonnet / head lamp protectors, and car mats were thrown in with a cash discount. Nice salesman Jay at Ipswich Mazda.

    https://www.carexpert.com.au/mazda/cx-30/2022-g20e-evolve-m-hyb-vision-fwd-056bb574

  • Personal finance trackers

    Since recently leaving a position where I was managing the company finances I’ve started paying more attention to my own personal finances and the need to track and reduce my spending. Jo is ahead of me in this and I’ve borrowed a couple of books from her on the subject.

    I’ve also started exploring personal finance apps, I was looking for something similar to Xero, the accounting platform I am familiar with. I was surprised to discover so many attractive looking apps available. The common features are ability to link to bank accounts (or manually import transactions), categorise transactions, and produce personal budgets. Many are free and have extra features / capacity available on paid plans. I’m currently trialling Pocketsmith on a free plan.

    Photo by micheile dot com on Unsplash

  • Final Cut / Matrix Resurrection / Shanghai

    Time off between Christmas and New Year has been relaxing and we’ve caught up on a couple of movies on both small and big screen.

    Matrix Resurrection was released cinematically on Boxing Day. It follows on from the original story 60 years on, with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss reprising their roles as Neo and Trinity, still relatively young due to having been ‘resurrected’ and reinserted into the Matrix by new architect program the Analyst. Much has changed in both worlds but the skies are still scorched and the struggle remains between human and machine. As a follow on this movie could hardly be as groundbreaking as the original movie, but there were some enjoyable developments and thought provoking commentary on our modern interaction with technology and social media.

    Final Cut is a movie with Robyn Williams set in a time not too far in the future where the technology exists for a chip to record every moment of a person’s life once inserted into their body. This is for the sole purpose of creating a post-death memorial tribute of that person’s life for their grieving family. The effect of the chip makes a normal authentic life impossible and there is a resistance movement who protest at every memorial. Robyn Williams plays the part of a ‘cutter’ Alan, who has the job of sifting through the lifetime of footage to create a suitable tribute, editing out the unpalatable parts and adhering to a ‘cutter’s code’. One of the primary tenets of the code is that a cutter does not have a chip themself (since they are privy to personal footage of others). Things get interesting when Alan finds out that unbeknownst to him his parents had a chip inserted when he was a child.

    Shanghai is a movie set in WW2 China, just before Japan and America enter the conflict. John Cusack plays a spy who is trying to solve the murder of a friend, seemingly around wartime machinations which play into Japanese ambitions to annex strategic posts in China.

  • New Year, New Chapter

    Fourteen years with the same company is a long time. I made the firm decision to leave after my boss of nearly 18 months gave her notice in the middle of last year. The seventh leader to leave in as many years. One of my colleagues commented that she didn’t have the energy for another leader (and subsequently resigned as well), and I felt a little the same.

    Sometimes I saw myself continuing in the role until I reached retirement age. On the other hand I knew there were other things I wanted to do. So I gave notice and seven months later I have finally left my position to become a full-time student.

    My career plans are a little vague but my immediate goal is to finish the Bachelor of Business degree I started last year. All going well it will take two more years to complete my studies. I have to admit I am a little nervous about being out of the workforce that long at my age.

    It’s a new chapter, we will see how the story develops. For now I am enjoying the break until study term resumes at the end of the month.

  • Results BEA111

    UPDATE: Second assignment results are in – 88%. Busy studying now for the final exam, on Saturday 5 June. It is an online, open book exam, and I’ll have 8 hours to complete it. It will probably be a lot harder than it sounds.

    Geez I don’t envy the markers, what a tedious job it must be, grading assignments! Results have come back for my first assignment 96% (originally 93% but adjusted for a mistake by the marker). Looking at the feedback, I’m kind of amazed I did that well! Anyway, I’m happy.

    Next assignment is due next week. I have started, but I am falling behind again in the lectures (blame it on my newest addiction to TV detective show Bosch). Thankfully it is another long weekend coming up, I intend to get stuck into finishing the assignment and then some serious catch-up. No more TV till I’ve finished!

    PS – Average mark for the class of over 300 students was 74%. One tenth of the students did not submit an assignment.