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The Swan Valley is a beautiful area by the Swan River, with many wineries and other attractions, including the Chocolate Factory. Many of the guys headed into Northbridge in the evening, but in my case common sense was applied, and I headed home on the train. An excellent day out - of course the weather was Perth-perfect!! Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.    
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I made my way to the freeway around mid-morning but was told by an elderly lady that I missed the peleton. "There were hundred of them earlier," were her words as she sat next to me on the bridge, watching the cyclists below. It is quite a sight to see the freeway, which is usually filled with traffic at that time of the day, filled instead with three lanes of cyclists peacefully enjoying the unaccustomed freedom. Perth has many kilometres of well marked cycle tracks throughout all areas of the city and suburbs, and many people cycle to work, for fitness, or simply for pleasure. Many businesses also provides bike lockers and shower facilities for their employees and encourage cycling to work. Bikewest has been promoting cycling to work through it's "cycle instead" campaign and once a year organises The Bike To Work Breakfast, a gigantic free breakfast in the center of the city for anyone who arrives on a pushbike that morning. 0 comments
Turning the beach area into a sculpture park brings visitors from near and far, and last year over 100,000 people visited the show. I like the unexpected aspect of this event. A very unusual mix of people sun bathing or swimming in the ocean, young children ignoring the 'no touching' signs to play with this somehow odd looking playground equipment invading their beach and passers-by, fully dressed but often bare-foot, taking pictures and commenting on the thoughts of the artist. What a cool thing to do to - take your shoes off to go to a museum. Cottesloe Beach is a beautiful place and many people turned up for the event or to enjoy the warm evening sun. Afterwards, like many others, we ate fish and chips, sat on the grass terrace, sipped a glass of wine, and watched the sun slowly sink into the Indian Ocean in a spectacular display of orange and pinks.      
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But plans have had to change, as I have a very early start tomorrow. My friend Simon, a freelance journalist in the UK, wrote a short article on me which made it into my old local paper in Darlington, The Northern Echo. Since then my phone hasn't stopped ringing. I have been interviewed by The Independent, and The Sun, and have been told that articles have also appeared in The Telegraph and The Daily Mail. Back here in Australia, Who? magazine rang for an interview, and I got a message from Channel 7 TV asking me to call them. The result of that call is that I am on breakfast show "Sunrise" tomorrow morning with Mel and Kochie, at around 8am. Because of the time difference between Sydney and Perth that means I have to be at the studio at around 5.30am!! I'm not usually at my best in the mornings, and a night of Irish beer really would not help me at all, so I've gone for the sensible option, and am staying in tonight! Very exciting, I thought there would be some media interest in what I was doing, but I didn't expect this much interest this soon. Channel 7 - "Sunrise" - 8am ish - Tuesday 18th March 3 comments
I have been on Aussie breakfast TV with Mel and Kochie, a slightly nervous start, and from then have done a live video link-up with UK breakfast TV, and more radio interviews than I can count, both Australian and Uk based. My home phone has not stopped ringing, my mobile has more messages on it than I can count, and everytime I try to listen to them, I miss a couple of other calls. So apologies to anyone who has tried to get through, keep trying, and I will get back to everyone as soon as I can. I have just been contacted by ABC network in America, they have 10 million viewers!!! And they maybe want to do an interview tomorrow. Wow!! What a ride, this is so unexpected! I could spend some time adding links here to articles, but the phone is ringing again. Just google ALife4Sale, or Ian Usher, and I'm sure you will find something. I am absolutely astounded by the attention this is getting, and if you have sent messages via the contacts page, I apologies to you too for any lack of response, but thank you all for your comments, suggestions and words of support and encouragement. Amazing!! 2 comments
I am not entirely sure that my project is very similar to John Freyer's. I bought his book "All My Life For Sale" while doing some initial hunting around before launching into this. He sold items individually, on eBay, down to the smallest things he had, such as a pair of socks, sold for a final price of $2.62. What I really liked about his sale was that he went and visited much of his stuff with it's new owners. It was his comment about this particular pair of socks that really started me thinking about the things we own and the memories that are attached to them... "I sold somebody else's used socks. There were a few moments during this project that I stopped to think about what it was that I was doing. The day Jason bought my used socks was one such moment. They were just socks, right? i didn't want to give them to him. i didn't want to surrender the memory of where they came from. The simple thought of where they came from occured to me each and every time I put them on. I haven't talked to Anna and Derrick in a year or two now, and over the last year I haven't thought of them as much." This struck such a chord with me. How letting go of a pair of socks can mean that the trigger that makes you think of that time, or those people is gone. This can be a negative, as with John and his socks, or a positive, if you want to leave something painful behind. I love John's book, but I think we are doing very different things for very different reasons. I refer to his project in the FAQ page, under the topic "Has this been done before?" 3 comments
Well, things have been a bit crazy over the last couple of days, to say the least. I am absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of interest this has caused. I never imagined any of this, even in my wildest dreams. I thought I might be lucky to get a few lines in the local rag where I used to live in England, a few paragraphs in the paper here, and if things went very well, an interview on the local radio station. I had planned to spend some time trying to get the word out on the internet, perhaps with a FaceBook page and a MySpace page, and a few emails being forwarded by friends, but I have not had time for any of this. I would like to say thank you to everyone who has sent me messages, either via the contact page, or on the guestbook. There are so many, and I would love to respond to them all, and feel bad that I can't, so for now the best I can offer is a BIG BIG thank you to you all here. Thank you. I also apologise to anyone that has had problems with the website. I know there have been a few issues for Firefox users, and I believe the site was down for a while today due to a big traffic surge. Please be patient, I am just a one-man-band, with one very capable web designer, but between us we can only do so much. Thank you for your understanding and patience. These last two days have been a whirlwind of interviews, TV crews, phone calls and missed messages. But I am thoroughly enjoying it, although am very tired now. I have been running mainly on coffee, adrenalin and nervous energy. Time to turn the phone off and get an early night. I am ready to drop. Here are a couple of pics that I took with my phone, hence the poor quality, that captured my attention out of all the amazing stuff that has happened recently. This first one was on a visit to Channel 7 to do a TV interview, it was so quiet and peaceful by the gates, where the kangaroos lay in the shade - how Australian!! The second one was from about an hour ago, when a Japanese TV crew filmed an interview with a TV documentary maker, who was filming them!! In my front room!! Camera shoot out!!  
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It has been such a mad whirl, and I still don't quite know what to make of it all. I am enjoying it as it happens, but at times it all seems a bit surreal. I have thought a couple of times, this must be a dream, then think, no, it's really happening! Later this afternoon my friend Chris rang. I met him while working in the SuperPit gold mine in Kalgoorlie, and I found out that he was with another of the old bunch, who it turns out only lives five minutes down the road. I jumped on the bike and sped off there with a six pack of beer in the backpack. When I got there two more of the old Kalgoorlie crew were there. It was so good to see them, and we laughed and drank beer, and sat outside until the sun set. It was nice just to do something normal with a group of friends, after the crazy week I have had. When the time came to leave, we went outside, and one of the guys asked, "Where did you park the bike?" It was gone!! Bloody hell, I thought, not again, as I have had the same thing happen once before in the UK. I was slightly suspicious, and hopefully said, "Come on Craig, where have you put it?" but he was very convincing that he had not moved it. He tried ringing the police, and as he did so, I thought, well, there's tonight's subject for the blog! After a couple of minutes, the guys relented, and showed me where they had hidden it, round the corner. Haha, very funny. Good to see you all again guys! I am looking forward to a relaxed weekend, and you can be sure that if I go anywhere on the bike I will be locking it up this time!! 0 comments
The whole main street through the centre of Freo is closed to traffic, and there are about five or six stage areas where buskers and street entertainers perform in front of huge crowds. There were some amazing and amusing acts, my favourite being the last act we saw down by the harbour, which was a married couple that did some incredible acrobatic balancing feats. They also did some excellent juggling with clubs, and their obvious enjoyment in performing together was quite infectious. In the afternoon we went upstairs in The Sail and Anchor pub, and watched a couple of acts from the balcony, which had the double advantages of a great view, and beer on tap too. For me one of the most amazing things of the day occured while watching one of the acts. I was tapped politely on the shoulder, and asked, "Excuse me, are you the guy selling his life on eBay?" "I am," I replied, quite taken aback. "Can I get a photograph with you?" His friends took pictures of us with arms round each others shoulders, and we shook hands. I was too surprised to think of getting my own camera out, and getting a photo taken, but in hindsight wish I had. If that was you and you happen to read this I would love to get a copy of it - would be good if you could contact me through the contact page please. After a fish and chips dinner in Freo I called in to see Marty and Baxter, and I believe they will both be available in the Friends section of the Bulletin Board. Ask them anything you like. A quick note regarding Baxter, as I have had a few questions about him - he makes an appearance in one of the videos in the Video page. Alot of people have assumed that he is my dog, and have also assumed that I may be including him as part of the package. Neither of these is the case - Baxter belongs to Marty, and I imagine I will remain friends with them both for years to come... well, in Baxter's case, as least as long as he can keep plodding on - he's pretty old now.      
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Wow, what a busy ten days it's been, but thankfully Easter has given me a bit of a break. I've tried to kick back a bit and relax and just enjoy a normal weekend out and about with friends. So while I have time I thought I would take the opportunity to answer some points raised, either in the GuestBook, on the Bulletin Board, or via email. But first I have to say thanks again to all who have responded to this, whether positive or otherwise - it has been amazing and fascinating to see the reactions of people to this. So here are a few things, in no particular order:- Website modifications:- There is only myself, with pretty limited web design skills, and my friend Melanie, with unlimited web skills, but very limited time, working on this. We are aware that there have been issues with the site, particularly for Firefox users, and the issues we know of have now been resolved. I believe the main one was the "Inside Pictures" section did not work - this now does! Please do continue to let us know if there are any other issues, and we will sort them as soon as we can (or as soon as Mel can!) We had to change alot of the website from it's original design, as it was just too big, and my hosting company told me that I used up my monthly bandwith allowance within two days. They have been very good, and with a placement of their banner on the home page, the whole issue has been taken care of. If you are looking for web hosting, I recomend you consider them, they are reasonably priced and have an excellent support system. I have decided to try out some Google advertising on the site. I originally did not intend to do so, but with the amount of media attention this has raised, I have missed alot of time at work! Jenny has been very good about this, but I still have food to buy and a mortgage to pay, so I hope this might help to cover expenses. GuestBook and Bulletin Board:- I reckon about 80% of the comments on the "Guestbook" are positive and 20% negative. Thanks to all for your comments. I have been questioned about why I have not responded in the guestbook to anything, and my response is: How often does a hotel owner or restaurant manager write in his own guestbook? The guestbook is exactly that, I do not intend to reply to anything in there, nor will I edit or change anything, unless it contains unsuitable language, or is unnecessarily abusive towards somebody. If you want to discuss matters in depth, the Guestbook is not really the place to start back and forth discussions, head to the "Bulletin Board", which is the tab right next to GuestBook, and join in there. Again here I do not moderate anything, other than for the reasons above, and enjoy reading and joining in with all sorts of discussions. One of my current favourite topics is the guy/gal who thinks this is all one big hoax, and has promised to eat his/her hat if this ever gets to auction. Frequently Asked Questions:- There are quite a few questions that are frequently raised, and I am regularly updating the "FAQ" page. So if you do have questions, check out the "FAQ" page first to see if it is answered there, then try the forums, and if you still can't find an answer, contact me direct through the "Contact Me" page. Please be patient with me, as I say I am essentially a one man band here, and have an inbox with over a thousand messages I still have to go through. Apologies for any delays. I will hopefully get caught up over the next couple of days. And finally, I would like to make it clear that I have no intention of discussing details of my marriage, or reasons for our separation. I regulary get asked about this, and always say that although the separation was the initial trigger for doing this, I am not doing this for revenge, or out of spite. It is over two years since we parted, so I have had plenty to think about my motivations for this. I am doing this looking forward to an exciting new future, not looking backwards with regret. Laura has refused to comment on any of this, and I respect her decision in that. She is a person of great integrity, and I only hope that I can show as much integrity throughout the rest of this auction as she has. So, please don't ask, I don't intend to answer, and it really is not at all relevant. Thanks. Once again, thank you all for your comments, good wishes, and offers of support. This is turning out to be an incredible experience. Best regards, Ian 1 comments
There are some fantastic and innovative ideas out there, and one of my current favourites is Bookcrossing. A couple of years ago, I went to visit Marty, and one of his housemates had a drum kit set up. I sat down and had a bash, and quite enjoyed it. "Here," said Mike, "take a set of sticks home and practice." "I can't take your drumsticks." "Yeah you can, I just found a whole load more of them in the garage, share the wealth, man." The next day, while delivering rugs, our customer allowed us to fill several carrier bags with the tastiest oranges from the tree in her garden. On the way home I dropped in at Marty's, and grabbed a bag full of oranges, and gave them to Mike. I told him where they had come from, and grinned, "Share the wealth." "That's awesome," he said, "I love oranges, and I've got nothing for breakfast. Yeah, share the wealth, nice." A couple of days later I finished the book I was reading, and thought that a particular friend of mine would like to read it. I passed it on to her, and told her the "Share the wealth" story. I said I did not want the book back, I would never read it again and it would just gather dust on my bookshelf. All I asked was that when she finished it she pass it on to someone else that she thought would enjoy it. I thought about this afterwards. I have always had this attitude with books. It is better that someone else reads it rather than it gather dust for ever more on a shelf. And my thoughts led me to think of "The Share The Wealth Book Club" My idea never got any further than that, but for my birthday Laura designed and printed a label for the club. They are still here in my desk drawer, along with the drumsticks, I think. Just a couple of months ago while travelling across Australia, I gave a book to a friend and told her about my original idea, and she suggested I look up Bookcrossing on the internet. I went and had a look at the site, and it is very similar to what I thought of, but they have taken it to the next level, way beyond anything I could imagine. You can register a book, and get a unique ID for it, which you put inside the book, then leave it wherever you like. If someone else finds it they can log in and register as the new owner, and can then pass it on later. Some books build up an incredible history of travel from owner to owner. I have registered, and have left books in parks, train stations, at bus stops, and handed over personally. Take a look at www.bookcrossing.com, dust off some of those books that you will never read again, and share the wealth. Ian 0 comments
However, as many people point out, others have had their marriages fail, and yet have not taken such a course, they simply deal with what has happened and try to move on. I guess that for me, this is my way of dealing with and moving on. But there are other influences at work too, no decision is ever taken because of one factor. In anything we do we weigh up all of our previous experiences, our thoughts and actions, our beliefs and goals, and make a decision based on all of these. For as long as I can remember I think have looked at things in a different way to most other people. I have always had an eye for the unusual and the exciting. I have never really enjoyed working for other people, and have spent a great deal of my life being self-employed, or running a business alongside a job. I can remember at school, myself and a friend would use the commonroom oven at lunch time to make baked potatoes and sell them to the other kids. Since those early days I have quite a few jobs, but have also spent alot of time working for myself. I have been a freelance outdoor ed instructor, an independent motor trader, dealt in mobile phone accessories, run a jet ski hire business, a cycle hire business, a wedding cars business, printed magazines, imported stuff from China to sell on eBay, and much more. For as long as I can remember, Richard Branson has been a personal hero. I read with fascination his autobiography, "Losing My Virginity", and recently a friend gave me a copy of his more recent book, "Screw It, Let's Do It".  For me, the attitude expressed in this book is what life is about, and I find his thoughts insightful and encouraging. Alot of the people who have commented on my current course of action have suggested that they would perhaps like to do something like this, but would never be able to - do yourselves a favour and read this book. I think that the copy I was given is an abridged version aimed at teenage readers, bought by mistake, and I intend to buy the unabridged version too if available. I would recommend this as an ideal gift for any youngster trying to find their feet, and I don't say this because I think RB needs any kind of help from me, he seems to be doing okay on his own, but because I really believe this is how life should be. The lessons are simple, believe in yourself, value friends and family, act with honesty and integrity, make mistakes and learn form them, and never give up. His Epilogue lists the following as the lessons he has learned throughout his life:- Just do it Think yes, not no Challenge yourself Have goals Have fun Make a difference Stand on your own two feet Be loyal Live life to the full When people ask why I am doing this, perhaps I should refer them to the above list. Ian 0 comments
A friend pointed out the link to me, and I took a look, and a listen. http://riseandshine.tv/2008/03/17/march-17th-2008-life-for-sale/ "About Rise and Shine :- This is a pilot for a new kind of radio programme. Rise and Shine is a live experimental breakfast show, in which songwriters face the daily challenge of writing a song based on news and current events. The pilot lasts one month, starting February 26th, 2008. You’ll be able to download the rough demos for free, and we’ll be selling the finished tunes on behalf of BuskAid, a remarkable South Africa-based musical charity." I was picked on 17th March as the subject for the song of the day - "Life For Sale" - the story of a dream turned sour. What an honour! The idea behind the show is that they are raising money for BuskAid, and as of today they have raised $301. There are only two more days to run until the end of their initial one month long trial period, so if you want to listen, and perhaps even chip in for BuskAid, go along and have a look. http://riseandshine.tv/2008/03/17/march-17th-2008-life-for-sale/ 0 comments
http://www.earthhour.org/ I think this is an incredible idea, and I love things like this that use the power of the internet to connect us all globally. Check out the website, register, and turn off your lights tomorrow, Saturday March 29th 2008, at 8pm. Easy! 0 comments
Duncan wrote a piece on my upcoming auction, and tagged it as internet fraud/internet scam, hence it being passed on to me by my concerned friend. I understand people's skepticism, I mean I would be one of the first to say, "Hold on, wait a minute," if I had come across this. However, what was apparent from Duncan's piece was that he had read a news article somewhere, but had not bothered to visit my site. He did bring up one question though that I have been asked a few times now with regards to mortgages and debts. I believe this arrises out of the differences in the way mortgages work in the US, with a new purchaser often taking over the payments of a previous owner. I have addressed this issue in the "FAQ" section of my website, and felt that I should answer Duncan's points, suggest he visit my website, and perhaps prepare to eat his big red hat when he is proved wrong. To his credit Duncan did go and take a look at my site, and in his response to my comments, said that he now felt that that it may well be genuine. In lieu of the hat, he has offered to eat a Vegemite sandwich, which would be suitable. Good on ya, Duncan. Check out his article and my response to it at:- http://www.236.com/blog/w/duncan_quirk/aussie_sells_his_soul_on_ebay_5253.php 0 comments
We have been doing a bit of barbequeing, a bit of lounging around in the spa, and a bit of game playing on the big screen. Here are a couple of pictures from the last couple of days, in no particular order. 1). Sunset from the front garden on 28/03/08 2). Parrots in the front garden   3). The "Alfred Chicken" PlayStation Challenge 4). Pizza in the spa:-   (The pizza delivery system is great. You can order the pizza to be delivered, put a notice on the front door to direct the delivery person around the side of the house, have the money ready while you are in the spa (Australian money is waterproof, of course!), and have the pizzas delivered directly to the spa, where the body board acts as a floating table. That's lifestyle!!) 3 comments
One thing that I have found really interesting is how much people make assumptions from what they read, or what they hear, and that has led me to wonder about my own assumptions. Let me give you several examples, taken directly from comments that have been made about what I am doing:- I have been asked many times about how I could possibly leave my dog behind. On the website there is a video featuring Baxter, the dog in question. People have assumed that Baxter is mine, that I am leaving him behind, and one person even wondered if I was planning on having him put down if the new owner did not want him!! I have never said that Baxter is my dog, in fact he belongs to my friend Marty, and I make that quite clear in the text that accompanies the video, but that has not stopped many jumping to their own conclusions. I get many emails of support and encouragement about what I am doing. Alot of these offer counselling, or suggest that if I am so depressed, I should get help, and some people have contacted me worried that I may be a suicide risk. It is now over two years since I separated from my wife, and I reckon I have moved on pretty well, this is, I think, the final stage in that process. I have never professed to be unhappy, and in every interview I have done have always stated that I am doing this with an excitement in looking forward to a new future. I get alot of emails suggesting that I need to turn to God for my answers, and the assumption contained within this is that I currently do not have a god in my life. Many people have offered relationship advice, or even offered to go on dates. This would suggest that they assume I am currently single. The above assumptions may be correct, or they may be wrong, I have never really discussed either in any detail, the point I am making is that we all jump to these conclusions, often completely unaware that we have done so, based on the less-than-complete facts at our disposal. It makes me wonder what assumptions I may have made that might be completely wrong, and have tried to start to question my own assumptions. But it is very difficult to stand back and be completely objective, because it is hard to sort out in your own mind what you know to be true, and what you have simply assumed to be true. Hmmm, I assume this will give you some food for thought!! 0 comments
The first was a posting which a friend brought to my attention, and left me amusingly shocked at first, allow me to quote directly from Barry Whitman from Perth:- This is 100% true, i have worked in the W.A. police force to try and bring down some of these organisations. He is one of the most influential people in the White supremacy movement in the world. He is responsible for the deaths of 1000's of blacks. Barry himself references a quote two postings earlier from another person. At first I thought, oh dear, this is pretty serious, but then spotted the posting date, 1st April. I reckon the only person that looks like a fool is the idiot who posted the comment. Enough said! Secondly, I would like to answer a comment that seems to come back again and again in both the "Guestbook" and the "Bulletin Board". Here are a couple of samples of the theory, taken from the Guestbook: ...This is all a scam, Ian is going to make a fortune thru webhits... I'm sorry, but I must be missing something here. I would be grateful if any of these people could explain exactly where they think this money comes from. Just because a website has a large amount of traffic does not mean that it is making any money. For a website to make money it has to have adverts and banners which direct traffic to another site, the owners of which are willing to pay to have that traffic directed to their site. There are two traditional money making models on the internet, which work as follows:- 1). You have a product that you sell, you build a website, bring traffic to your site, and sell your product to your visitors, or 2). You set up a site with quality content, and create a large volume of traffic, and then sell advertising on your site, to direct your traffic to other sites. My site does not fall into either of these two categories, although now does have some advertising on it. My site is designed simply to publicise and inform about the upcoming auction on the 22nd June, and hopefully allow as many people as possible know what is happening. My intention was to not put any advertising on this site but in the light of the traffic this site generated, like many other sites who don’t get questioned or abused for doing so, I have recently decided to put up some Google Ads to cover some of the cost of the website hosting (read below). However, I would like to show you a snapshot of my statement. Hurray, of the 700,000 plus webhits over the last week, I have made an oustanding total of $23.16 from Google AdSense!!!! Will I retire now, or do you think I should wait a bit? Ahh. There was to be a snapsot of my Google Ads statement here, but I am told this is against Google's user agreement, so I am not able to show you that. I imagine that this may fuel further speculation from the conspiracy theorists, but check Google's terms and conditions - wouldn't want to risk losing that $23.16, would I? I'm not making any money from the videos shown on Youtube, much the same as thousands of other people who put their videos up there every day. And I don't think you've seen me saying "this blog is brought to you today by such and such..." I haven’t received a cent from any radio, press or television interview I have done so far. They haven’t offered, I haven’t asked. This site was designed and put together for free by a good friend of mine. I would have never been able to pay for the amount of time and effort she put into it, but I am happy to provide a link to her business webpage. As for the links to the people like phpBB who wrote the code for the forum I am using, they are part of a great community of developers who offer their scripts freely in exchange of one small thing: recognition for their work. I have simply given this where due. In fact, so far, this website has cost me money, as the email below illustrates: ----- Original Message ----- Guess which option I took! As a result, there is now a banner for ICDSoft on my homepage. Of course, you can read all this and still decide it's a scam, that's up to you. But I guess you would be within your rights to ask, why would I do it if it's all so hard ? In the last 2 years since the separation with my wife, I have tried in many ways to put the past behind me. I moved from Perth to Kalgoorlie for six months and started a completely new career. I spent the following year working away up north, only returning to Perth one week out of three. I bought an old campervan and drove on my own across Australia 8000km from Perth to Sydney over a period of 8 weeks in an attempt to find some answers and a new direction for my life. Nothing really worked and I still had to come back to the same house, the same things, and the same memories. Now, I feel that I might have found a way to deal with this once and for all. As I said, my life will go on auction on Ebay on the 22nd of June and hopefully someone will have seen enough things that he/she/they like on this website to want to bid on it. And if one of my most tenacious detractors on the "Bulletin Board" is true to his word, you will soon be able to see a video on YouTube of someone eating his hat. And I am willing to bet YouTube won't be paying him any money either! 1 comments
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This has obviously made some parts of implementing this idea a bit tricky, and uploading video is one of the biggest challenges I have faced. I often have to go to a friend's house to do this, as it takes so long here, perhaps two hours to upload a two minute clip, and often the upload fails and I have to start again. In my previous home we had a great high-speed broadband connection, but for most of last year I worked away from home in the mines in far-north Western Australia. I was only home one week out of three, and was out and about most of the time I was here in Perth. then for the first two months of this year I was away travelling, so broadband would have been a complete waste of money. However, now I find that I am really struggling without it, and have had all sorts of issues over the last three weeks. So, I have finally got myself organised, contacted a local firm, and got connected to broadband again. Advantages of this are many. I can now upload and download without the severe time issues I faced, I can use video chat once again, I can use my phone again, it's like a whole new world opening up once more!! Welcome back to the 21st Century Ian!! 0 comments
Below is a picture of Perth as it is now, and you can see on the right where the new development is planned, where the river and city meet. Click on the picture to see a larger version.  Take a look at the fly-thru video on the PerthWaterFront website, and browse the details of what is being proposed, or click on the play button in the YouTube video below http://www.perthwaterfront.com.au/flythru.php 0 comments
Most radio stations simply ring up and do the interview on the telephone, either live direct to air, or pre-recorded for transmission later. The Canadian Broadcating Commission however wanted to get me in a studio and connect directly, so sound quality would be much better. So at 6.30am I headed into the city on the bike, and arrived at the ABC studio in time for an early start. You can hear the full interview with Nora Young on the Spark show blog here: http://www.cbc.ca/spark/blog/2008/03/get_a_life_on_ebay.html I managed to persuade the documentary people to give me a bit of the footage they took of my end of the interview, and have included part of it here for your interest. Click on the Play button below: 0 comments
Well, they are obviously staying here as part of the complete package which will be auctioned in late June, and I thought I better make a start now if I am ever going to manage to see them all. There are 65 episodes up to the end of Season 5, so I have to average an episode a day, with a couple of days to spare, if I am going to see them all before the auction gets started. So the other night I sat down with Season 1, Disc 1, and got hooked. I watched four episodes the first evening. I reckon I should make it easily if I continue at this rate!! 
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On Sunday my friend Melanie went along to watch the finals, unfortunately I was unable to make it. This is what she saw:- "Beach, surf and Surf Life Saving are Australian icons. This week, Scarborough Beach hosted the 2008 Australia Surf Life Saving Championship. I have been busy all week and yesterday's weather wasn't great but this morning, the blue sky and warm weather were too inviting to give this event a miss. For more details see: http://www.aussies2008.com or http://www.aussies.slsa.asn.au Click on any of the pictures below to see a larger version:         
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People often make a night of it, by taking a hamper of food, a few beers or wine, and have a picnic before the movie starts. Last night I went with a few friends to the Somerville Outdoor Cinema in the grounds of UWA (University of Western Australia) to see the documentary "War Dance". The cinema is in a lovely setting, the screen framed by pine trees, and comfortable seats set out in rows. We had taken jumpers and blankets, as it is now autumn, and the evenings are getting cooler - this is the last week of the outdoor cinema season this year at Somerville.   The movie we saw was called "War Dance", which is an amazing documentary following the lives of a group of children from a school in a refugee camp in northern Uganda as the enter the national tribal dance conpetition, and travel to Kampala to compete. While the dancing is spectacular and joyous, the story behind the lives of the children is heart-breaking. They have gone through such terror and hardship, and tell their stories with such directness, that it is impossible not to feel their pain and suffering. One of the most confronting scenes is where one of the young girls lies sobbing in the bush where her murdered father is buried, and her mother tries to quieten her, because they are still in the bush in rebel country, and it is not safe to make too much noise. There is such a huge contrast in the pain and terror and sadness of the childrens' stories to the absolute joy and pride they show and feel when they dance. This is an absolute must-see film for anyone who thinks they are having a bad time of things. It certainly puts your own worries and concerns into perspective, and the thoughts it provokes linger on long after the credits roll.  
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I think many people find the idea of leaving everything you have behind pretty challenging. I do too, but I also think that it will be very liberating. I once read a news article about a couple who had to flee from their house, which had been completely burned during bushfires. They returned to find that they had nothing left at all, all photo albums had gone, all their past had gone up in smoke. And yet they later said that it had been amazingly freeing experience, and they were so positive about the fact that they had survived, and that the possessions were not all that important when viewed on a wider scale. A few people have now pointed me in the direction of the artist Michael Landy, who in 2001 destroyed everything he owned, as an art project. He set himself up in a premises in London, and over a period of 14 days, fed everything he owned, over 5000 items, through a specially constructed crunching machine. He destroyed his 20,000 pound car, and several valuable works of art. The estimated total value of everything he had, which was all destroyed leaving him with absolutely nothing, was over 100,000 pounds!! I reckon this puts my idea into perspective - I am only selling my stuff!! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/01/28/nart28.xml "What makes this project particularly poignant is that Michael is part of a generation of artists who, like Damien Hirst, has produced so much work and money for themselves. This is quite a philosophical and radical work. We are all conditioned that our material belongings define us in a way, and this is really the reversal of all that." 0 comments
I had all sorts of plans on how to spread the word via the internet. I would ask friends to forward an email for me in the hope that it would spread. I would write to YouTube asking if I could get a video featured with them. I would ask eBay to mention it in their newsletter. I would set up a FaceBook page and a MySpace page. I was hoping that there would be enough interest that word would spread virally across the internet. Well, it didn't quite work out that way! I did write to both YouTube and eBay, but never got the chance to follow up with FaceBook and MySpace, because publicity-wise, the results exceeded even my wildest dreams. I had told my friend Simon in the UK what I was about to do. He works as a freelance journalist, and he said he would write a piece and see if he could get it in a UK paper for me. He tried a few of the national daily newspapers, and had only a small amount of interest. He had also offered his piece to The Northern Echo, my old hometown newspaper, who were interested, and rang me for further details, and then ran a full page article. From there, the next day several UK national papers called me, and the day afterwards things just went mad. My phone never stopped ringing, Australian TV, UK breakfast TV, newspapers. And it pretty much continued in the same manner for two weeks, all across the world. I had not seen the original article until a couple of days ago. There is an online version, but my mum in England just posted me a copy of the article cut from the paper. So here it is, the article that started it all for me, thank you Northern Echo. Click on the picture below to see a larger version. 
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Some of the most interesting and informative skydive training I ever received was from Mossy, often late on a Friday or Saturday night after a few beers. I miss those "training" sessions. One night Mossy asked me the best question that I reckon I have ever been asked in my life. He said, "Ian, I've got a question for you, I'm going to ask it, then I'm off to the toilet. I expect an answer when I get back." He then asked me his question, and off he went, leaving me two drunken minutes to ponder my answer. And I think it is a question to which we should all have an answer. All big corporations have an answer to this, and many smaller companies do too, and they are only talking about a business, not their lives. The question was, "What is your life's Mission Statement?" If you have not come across the phrase before, check it out here:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_statement I thought about my answer, and it came pretty easily, and when Mossy returned and asked me for an answer, I said, "Okay, my life's Mission Statement is...." Well, it doesn't really matter what I said, but I would ask you the same question, "What is your life's Mission Statement?" Take a couple of minutes to think about what your life really means, what your life is really about, what is really important to you, what you really want to achieve, what you really believe in. I found my answer to be enlightening and liberating, and I think is almost certainly one of the main factors that set me off down the road that has led me to do what I am now doing. Cheers Mossy, it was good seeing you again. Ian Okay, okay, if you insist. My answer was, "My life is about experiencing as much as I can, and fitting in as much adventure as I can, without having any adverse impact on anyone else's life." When I asked Mossy what his Mission Statement was, it was very similar to mine, but I reckon he has got much closer to achieving it than I have, but I am busy trying to catch up!! 0 comments
I am currently on a long weekend away south of Perth at a friend's place in Margaret River. He lives in a lovely leafy street just back from the main street through the down, and I decided to use his front garden as the backdrop for the video. I came down here to watch the Drug Aware Surf Pro Competition, but so too did thousands of others, and what is usually a very quiet street was pretty busy, and it took nine attempts to film a one minute video without cars rumbling by. The first time I got a quiet minute without traffic I stuffed it up too - very frustrating, so it's a bit short this time round. Speak to you again in another ten days. Ian 0 comments
Apparently the waves had been pretty big earlier in the competition, and Friday had been very spectacular. There was still a good swell, and the men's final was interesting, with Aussie Tom Whittaker taking winner's honours by the end of the competition. Paige Hareb from New Zealand won the ladies comp. Margaret River is a fantastic area about three hours drive south of Perth, and is a big favourite for a weekend away, or a longer holiday. There is some beautiful countryside, fantastic beaches with world-class surf, whale-watching in whale season, and more wineries than you could ever hope to visit. More on the wineries to follow in a later post... In the meantime, for more details on the surfing, see the Drug Aware Pro website:- http://drugawarepro.com      
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Each winery offers a tasting of it's range of wines, and by lunch time we had done a fair bit of tasting! Lunch at the Bootleg Brewery was followed by more wine tasting. The weather was great, a lovely warm sunny day. A very enjoyable day was had by all. The wineries (and brewery) we visited were: Vasse Felix Bettenays Hay Shed Hill Bootleg Brewery Clairault Wills Domain Adinfern More about Margaret River here: http://www.margaretriver.com http://www.margaret-river-online.com.au         
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Collie is about two hours' drive south of Perth, about half an hour inland from the coast. I have not been through Collie before, and had the impression that it was just a small mining town. On the Saturday Sean and I took a drive around, and went to Wellington Dam, and followed the Collie River down streams from there. The river is beautiful, and has many swimming areas, camp sites, barbeques, and some lovely scenery. Sean planned to take his family camping shortly for a weekend. Collie has also just hit the national headlines too, by winning the radio station Triple J "One Night Stand" competition. So on 26th April the town gets a huge free concert put on by Triple J, featuring Aussie bands Cog, Pnau and Faker. Should be a good day - I hope I'm not working that Saturday!! http://www.triplej.net.au/events/one_night_stand_08/  
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"The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday." I was blindsided at 11pm one Wednesday night. 0 comments
It's a FAKE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! He's not a fake - he's just a sad git trying to be famous for nothing like everyone else in this day + age... He is a FAKE - check out the link someone else pointed out - seriously - this dude is a liar and a fake and wants to be famous trading off the back of a false sob story!! Broken hearted? Liar ! There have also been several threads on the Bulletin Board of a similar nature, most notably from my two main Bulletin Board detractors, eddiesloper and skeptik. Eddiesloper is pretty overt with his criticism, happy to directly accuse me of being a fraud and a hoaxer. Skeptik is obviously skeptical(!!) and has many questions to ask in an effort to somehow prove that I have some mysterious hidden agenda, or to use his own phrase, a "big fat scheme with dubious motivations". Take a look at the following posts if interested:- ian is a fraud and a hoaxer, AP got stung! by eddiesloper Give us some REAL answers please.. by skeptik Is your girlfiend going with you? by skeptik I understand where these suspicions and questions come from, which in the main part, for those who haven't seen it, is an article that appeared in The West Australian newspaper on 19th March. Someone has posted the article on the internet, and it can be seen here: http://img106.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=07135_newspaperArticle_122_795lo.jpg or simply click on the image below to see a larger version:  Unfortunately I cannot find the article on The West's website any longer, I assume they only keep items on there for a certain length of time. I include the article here, because although it presents me, my motivations and my honesty or otherwise in a bad light, I have nothing to hide. I also believe that most people are intelligent enough to read between the lines of the wild assumptions of a trashy tabloid article. This article has been referenced several times in the GuestBook by "someone who knows" from Perth, who calls me a liar and a con-man, based on this "evidence". What I find interesting is how easily some people accept the words of a tabloid journalist as proof of something. Do you really think that Katie Hampson, who wrote the article, and who has never even met me, has any idea of how I feel about the break-down of my marriage? Of course not! Katie Hampson knows nothing about me or anyone else in my life, other than hearsay gathered from some unknown colleague at my skydive club, who sees me at most once a month. I parted from my wife about two and a quarter years ago now, and yes, it still saddens me now - we were together for over 12 years. However, because I try to move on in life, and over a year after our separation start seeing someone else, that obviously does not mean that I have completely got over what happened, but perhaps it does mean that I have started the process of accepting and moving on. How long do you think Katie Hampson would expect that I should wallow in sadness, and not make any effort to build a new life for myself? Three years, five, ten? Would that prove that I am still saddened by the failure of my marriage? It takes what it takes, life goes on, and we have to do the best we can to deal with the stuff life throws at us. In the "WHY" page of the website I say that the initial reason for starting this project is a sad one, but I also state:- "So now that I have been spurred into action by events in my life which have brought me to this point, I am pretty excited about the whole thing. I am looking forward to moving on, and shedding the past. I am excited about the future, and really having no idea where events might lead me. I love the adventurous nature of the project, and am excited about a new start." This text has remained unchanged since the website went live on 14th March. So although the initial reason is sad, I feel I am now moving on, and if you have listened to any interview I have done, I have always stated that I hope that shedding the house and belongings that my wife and I shared together will be the final step I need to take in that moving on process. So in conclusion, I ask those who suggest that "It's a fake!", or that I am a "liar and a con-man", please tell me exactly what you think is actually fake? Do you think my house does not exist? Do you think that I do not want to sell up and move on? Do you think that perhaps I wasn't married, or that I am still not saddened by the failure of my marriage? Do you think...? I don't know what you think, I have no idea, because everything I have said and done has been in a spirit of truth and integrity. To the skeptics, you can keep asking your questions, there is no hidden truth to get closer to, no secret agenda to be revealed, no skeletons to be released from the closet, no "big fat scheme with dubious motivations", no "trying to hide the true nature of what I am doing". What do you feel you need to know next? What type of cereal I have for breakfast? What the colour of my underwear is? However, I must point out that these couple of skeptics are a tiny, but vocal minority. I really must thank the thousands of others who have offered good wishes, encouragement and support, on the GuestBook, in the Bulletin Boards, and via email. Thanks to all of you. You are the people I would prefer to spend my time answering questions from and talking to, rather than trying to convince a couple of negative minds that the schemes they see everywhere do not actually exist. 0 comments
Illinois-shaped corn flake sells for $US1350 on eBay The text and picture from the article appear below, incase the article is removed from The West's website:- Illinois-shaped corn flake sells for $US1350 I have a whole box of cornflakes in my pantry, which will be included as part of the auction, and I am pretty sure that somewhere inside the box there will be a flake that is shaped just like Australia!! 0 comments
Unfortunately the downside of all this is that I no longer trust any of my friends, have eaten alot more pasta than I usually do, and am always looking over my shoulder in a suspicious fashion, wondering if I am about to get "whacked". Ahh, foggedabouditt!! I love the theme tune and video at the start of each episode. If you haven't seen it before you can take a look here:- When we first arrived in Perth Laura and I rented Series 1 of The Sopranos and got hooked then, but that was six years ago, and I never got any further with the story until now. However, Laura, Marty and I made a Perth-based video inspired by The Sopranos theme, filming most of the material in and around Northbridge, Perth's entertainment area. Because we have tried to capture the gritty feel of The Sopranos, the video probably doesn't present Perth in the best light! Footnote: In a recent UK Channel 4 documentary, "The 50 Greatest Television Dramas", The Sopranos was voted Number 1. http://thoughtwad.blogspot.com/2007/03/best-of-best.html http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/03/50_greatest_tv_dramas.html 0 comments
For those of you unfamiliar with Ron's work, there are further details here: http://ronjeremy.com/ http://www.ronjeremy-themovie.com/ For further info, see: "Ron Jeremy, Brothels, And A Life for Sale" 0 comments
A while ago I talked about the nature of assumption in one of my blog postings, which can be seen here: 82 days to go!! The nature of assumption. While I appreciate the good intentions behind such messages and articles, it still surprises me that people make so many assumptions without any real evidence to support them. The first article below, for example, from "Pulpit" blog, assumes I am taking this action out of sheer desperation, and suggests that I need a new heart, not a new start. Personally I feel that my heart is in pretty good shape, and I also think that at times we all need a new start. I don't agree that the end result after a new start is inevitably the same as before. The other forum discussion is from a gaming website, and reflects quite different interests. Nicodemus came looking for Jesus asking how to be re-born. Perhaps if he had an xbox 360, like these guys, he would never have left home in the first place!!   Links to the actual websites: Pulpit Discussion Gamespot Discussion 0 comments
Melanie has kids, and has made a video to show how family-friendly Perth is, and this shows a selection of the great family facilities and entertainment Perth has to offer. So here it is, in place of my usual chat. Music: Mission Impossible Theme Love Generation by Bob Sinclar 0 comments
Before you read any further, please watch it now and test yourself on the “awareness test”. Once you’re read the rest of this blog, doing the test is pointless, and without experiencing the test yourself, I think you may find it hard to get what I’m trying to say. So... how did you do? Did you pass? Or, did you fail miserably like me? I failed to see it the first time and couldn’t see anything else the second time and wondered how I could possibly have missed it the first place. I have already spoken in previous blogs about the nature of assumption (82 days to go!!), and how the wide range of different responses to my ALife4Sale website has absolutely amazed me. When I designed this website, I spent many hours writing and re-writing it's contents to try to express and show my life as best I could. But no matter what I put in there, the way it will be interpreted by others is up to them, and is completely beyond my control. When we communicate with people, we tend to assume that they will understand what we say and more to the point, why we said it and the way we said it too. But often communication goes beyond words, and what is said is strongly influenced by our own experiences and views of the world, and so is what we see or hear. And as a listener, what we hear also greatly depends on how much we (consciously or otherwise) block what we don’t want to hear. If you’re like me, you concentrated on counting the passes of the white team when watching the video because it was what your expectation of the video was about. But this is not all that you saw. Your eyes saw it, but your brain didn’t process it. Same video both times, completely different interpretation of it the second time around. For me, it raises a very important question: when a relationship ends, can you really talk about a bolt from the blue or should you be more honest and admit that maybe the warning signs were there all along, like moonwalking bears, but you just didn’t see them, or saw them and chose to ignore them totally until they were too obvious to be missed? Was I listening to the white team all along, when all she really talked about was the dancing bear? 1 comments
http://members.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=alife4sale There isn't very much done yet, and at the moment it is all simply copied and pasted from the pages of the website, so there is quite a bit more work to do yet. I will be working on it over the next few weeks to get it just how I want it. In the meantime, please feel free to make any suggestions that you think would help, by emailing through the "Contact Me" page, or by leaving a comment here. Thanks. 0 comments
The past couple of years have seen towns winning from so far out in the bush that it would have taken days to get there. This year, the winning town is only two hours south of Perth, and I know people who live there! Far too good an opportunity too miss! The three main bands are:- Cog Pnau Faker I am particularly looking forward to seeing Faker, who are apparently very good live. So we are currently at Sean's house cramming down a few beers before heading down to the footy oval - it's an alcohol-free event! Photos to follow tomorrow. In the meantime you can see more about Triple J, One Night Stand in Collie, and even listen live to the event by using the links below. Triple J website One Night Stand in Collie Listen Live The concert will be played on Triple J this evening from 6pm Sydney time (Eastern Standard Time), and you can listen online from the link above. You can check the current time in Sydney by clicking here. 0 comments
What a great day out! Sean, Chris and I headed down to Collie Oval after downing a few quick beers, and enjoyed the fairground rides and the bands. Later we met up with a few more of Sean's friends and headed to the after-concert street party at the local pub, where more bands played late into the night. Great fun! You can read more about it on the Triple J website, where there are lots of behind the scenes videos, interviews and pictures. Here are a few of our pictures from the day:-            
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On several occasions I have turned up at work with a film crew, or suggested that they go there to speak to Jenny. She first appeared on Australian early evening current affairs TV show "Today Tonight". Click here to watch the "Today Tonight" article. Next I arrived with a crew from US breakfast TV, although they did not use anything they filmed in the shop, unfortunately. This was followed by a visit by a Japanese TV crew, and an Australian documentary film crew too. The end result of all this interest is that Dennis and Jenny very kindly offered me some time off to deal with all these enquiries and interviews. But things have really quietened down now, and my other issue is that my finances are running a bit thin too. It has been just over six weeks since this project started, and I haven't been working during that time, so it's time to get back to work today. Find out more about Jenny Jones Rugs at: www.JennyJonesRugs.com and find out more about the job offered at JJR as part of the auction at: www.alife4sale.com/list_Job.htm   
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I picked out my koala bear as an example of something that will be hard to leave behind.  One of my reasons, or perhaps the main reason, for what I am doing is that I have a house filled with items that have sad memories attached to them. There are however quite a few items that are reminders of happier occasions, and my koala is one of them. I became an Australian citizen on Australia Day, 26th January, 2006. This had been a goal I set before leaving the UK to live here, and it was a proud day when I achieved this goal. After the Australia Day ceremony we went to a friend's house where we had a traditional Australia Day back garden party, eating food from the barbeque, drinking beer and enjoying the sun. Dress code was the traditional stubbies, singlet and thongs. (Translation: shorts, vest and flip-flops). We listened to the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown, and each had a bet on what we thought would be number one, with Longy being the winner. In the evening we wandered down to a great vantage point overlooking the city, and watched the Australia Day fireworks. My good friend Em gave me an Australia Day package, which contained among other things, a big bottle of VB (Victoria Bitter), a bottle of Vegemite, and my koala. The beer and the vegemite are long gone, but I still have my koala sat on the shelves in the front room as a reminder of that day. He will be hard to leave behind, but stay he will, along with everything else. You can see a video of that day below:- 0 comments
Canada and Australia feature the most attractive destinations in the Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking of cities' liveability worldwide. Cities with the best scores benefit from relatively low crime rates, little threat from instability or terrorism and well-developed infrastructures. Vancouver comes out on top, as it has done in previous surveys. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Liveability Index quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual's lifestyle in any given location, and allows for direct comparison between locations. Perth is ranked as the fourth most liveable city in the world. Out of the top ten of the world's most liveable cities, four of them are in Australia. Click the thumbnail below to see a larger picture:-  You can see the actual article online here:- Liveability ranking 0 comments
Eric Cullen, age 47 and still very much a young boy at heart. He's a product of the 1960’s, born of English parentage in the midlands town of Loughcaster. I found his webpage quite interesting, as he is a similar age as me, and came from the UK with his wife to live in Australia, although he did so long before I did. He lived and worked in Sydney, until ... One evening whilst Eric made his way home from work, he noticed that a very large dark cloud had formed over the harbour bridge. “Something’s brewing” thought Eric. It was, and a divorce just like lightning came like a bolt from out of the blue. Eric was all alone in a strange land. I know that feeling, Eric! Eric's answer was eventually to buy himself a Land Rover, and with his new partner, and a dog, head into the outback. There are many obvious parallels with my own story, and in reading Eric's tale, I can see that he is now very happy and content where he is, and I hope one day that I can find the same contentment. Good on ya, Eric! Take a look at the site at: http://www.pomgonewalkabout.com/ There are some wonderful Australian outback photographs on the site too, have a look at the Gallery page. Here are a couple of my favourites:-    Photographs copyright Eric Cullen. 0 comments
The picture is of Whitehaven Beach, in the Whitsunday Islands further up Australia's east coast, in Queensland. Whitehaven Beach is listed as one of the world's top ten beaches, and is a stunning place. We had visited it a couple of years before on an earlier trip to Australia. We both liked the sentiment below the picture, and the whole image summed up our attitude to life, and our reasons for moving to Australia. I still look at that picture now, and read the words, and think that it is very good advice. I also suppose that this sort of thinking is part of my reason for doing what I am doing now. It is all part of making a new life, as the life I had when we bought that picture is no longer possible for me.    The text reads:- Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. Take a look at a higher quality image of the photograph itself here. There are also more details from Ken Duncan about the photo here. For your interest, Guardian travel writer Gavin McOwan lists his top ten beaches as being:- 1. Las Islas Cies, Galicia, Spain 2. Tayrona national park, Colombia 3. Porto da Barra, Salvador, Brazil 4. Anywhere on Palawan, the Philippines 5. Nungwi, Zanzibar, Tanzania 6. Arambol, Goa, India 7. Whitehaven, Whitsunday Islands, Queensland, Australia 8. Shell Beach, Isle of Purbeck, Dorset 9. Sinclair´s Bay, Caithness, Scotland 10. Aroa, Aitutaki, One Foot Island, Cook Islands You can read his article online by clicking here. To find out more about Ken Duncan and see some of his amazing photography, visit his website at: http://www.kenduncan.com/ 0 comments
There isn't really anything to update you about, so instead of making a video of me with not much to say, I'll show you a bird's eye view of Perth. I found this video on YouTube, and don't know who made it, but it is a great tour of Perth by helicopter. The trip takes off from Bursood casino, flies west over the city, and then north-west to the coast at Hillarys Boat Harbour. From here, the trip turns south and follows the coast down past Scarborough, Cottesloe and on down to Fremantle, before turning back to the east and following the river back to Burswood. Perth really is a beautiful city - see for yourself:- 0 comments
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Tess from Brisbane left a great quote on the Guest Book a day or two ago which I liked:- "At the end of the day, our only true possessions are the memories we keep inside" 0 comments
My original approach was simply to detail anything of value: the house, the car, the bike, jet ski, computer, skydive gear, cameras, etc .... I never expected this event to raise such worldwide interest and people to have such an interest in me and my personal stuff, so I spent time presenting my house and my valuable items the same way a real estate agent might in order to sell it all in the more traditional way. I also intended to present small items of no financial value but which have a "sentimental" value to me in this blog in the days leading to the auction and still intend to do so. In fact, you can see more about my koala bear by clicking here. As for the contents of my kitchen drawers, my bathroom cabinet or my fridge, really, I don't think it makes much difference. Have a look in your own kitchen drawers, and I am sure the contents of mine will be somewhat similar. I'm pretty sure that anyone who places a bid on my auction will be not be worried about how much toothpaste or soap I leave behind in the bathroom, and I imagine that a lot of that stuff will actually be thrown away by the new owner of my life, due to total disinterest or even basic hygiene. Then again, when a cornflake sells on Ebay for $1350, and a piece of burnt toast sells for $28,000, it might become much more lucrative for the winner of the auction to place these items back on Ebay one by one: "For sale - worn shoes which belonged to the guy who sold his life on Ebay!!" Who knows, he/she/they might end up making a fortune out of selling what they don't want bit by bit. From the emails I have received so far, quite a few items have raised alot of interest. So, I haven't made a detailed list of smaller contents because I still live in the house and it changes slightly on a daily basis. Between now and June, I will buy and eat food so the contents of my fridge will vary. I might break a glass, throw away a pair of socks with holes in them, but I might buy a new pair of scissors. In fact I mentioned on the website that I wanted to install speakers next to the spa for a better spa-based movie and music experience. Well, I did that a week or two ago. And I couldn't resist getting a copy of the latest James Bond Movie, Casino Royale so it has now been added to my DVD collection. But be assured, what I have listed and detailed on the website as part of the auction will not change, unless some unforseen accident or breakage occurs!! If it doesn’t fit in my wallet, I won’t take it with me. If you win the auction, it’s yours! 0 comments
2006 census data for the city of Perth I was intrigued to find that 31% of people living here were born overseas, and almost 10% of people living here were born in England. I am now one of the 11.5% who are separated or divorced, one of the 61% employed full-time, one of the 78% living in a detached house. That is an interesting statistic, I wonder how that compares to England, where there is so much terraced housing. The last house I owned in the UK was a two-bedroomed terraced house. I never imagined owning a house as nice as this one a few short years after arriving in Oz with very little money. But Australians refer to Australia as the lucky country, and I certainly think that Perth really is a great place to live and work. 0 comments
This was back in 1979, so parachutes were alot more basic than they are these days, and were round, similar to the sort of thing you see in WWII movies. After jumping you simply fall to earth with a minimal amount of directional control, and are supposed to land with a parachute landing roll, because you land pretty hard. Skydiving today is much more advanced, with wing shaped canopies, which are fast, responsive, very steerable, and when done correctly, can land you on the ground very gently. So, back in July 1979, on a sunny day in Bridlington in northern England, after a day of training I made a parachute jump from 2500 feet. However, unlike most of the other fathers that I knew would have done, my dad didn’t just come and watch, he came and did the parachute jump with me. Because I was doing the jump on my sixteenth birthday, the youngest age anyone could jump in the UK, I was the youngest person to have done a parachute jump. And of course, the local press were interested in doing a story. The guy came and took a couple of pictures and asked some questions, and went away to write his article, which appeared in The Northern Echo, which incidentally ran the very first newspaper article about ALife4Sale. And the title for the article: "The Fall Of The House Of Usher" And for 28 years since then I have intended to read the story by Edgar Allan Poe. Well, while browsing the internet this evening, I stumbled upon MSN Movies, and discovered that there is a movie due out tomorrow, 9th May, based on Edgar Allan Poe's story, The Fall Of The House of Usher. The movie is called "House Of Usher". Synopsis: When a young man, Victor, visits his old friend Roderick Usher and Usher’s sister Madeliene at their crumbling family estate, he discovers the two decaying as quickly as their mansion. He soon discovers that the only thing keeping the Ushers alive is a terrifying secret. Inspired by the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. When we reach the start, or perhaps more appropriately the end, of my auction, I wonder who will be the first to use the news headline: "The Sale Of The House Of Usher" 0 comments
After the separation from my wife, I took the fairly drastic step of packing my car with a few belongings, and driving six hours into the goldfields to the east of Perth, with no job, or even place to stay when I got there. In the mining town of Kalgoorlie I finally got a job as a driver of the huge trucks in the gold mine there. It was one of the best things I have ever done, in terms of experience, fun, meeting some great people, and dealing with a tough personal situation. Back in Perth almost two years later, I am back at work in the city, and because I have a train station almost on my doorstep, I have been commuting to work by train most days. In many ways I like it, because I have time to read a bit, or listen to some music, or simply just sit and watch the world go by - much more relaxing than driving to and from work. This morning, I took the train and found myself walking along through the main station in Perth amongst hundreds of other peak-hour-city-commuters down a long narrow train station corridor. Every one was following the unwritten laws of the morning commuter: keep left, keep moving, stay out of everyone else's space. I have to admit, I didn't like the feeling of being herded like a rat through a maze, and longed for my days in a mine truck, driving in Kalgoorlie or Telfer, no commuting, no crowds, endless open space. As I was walking along, I thought about a video I had watched recently, which put a smile back on my face again. I found myself running through wild scenarios in my head of what it would be like to do something unusual, to give people something to talk about when they got home that evening. However, like everyone else, I had to be somewhere very soon, so I continued on my way and boarded the next train to work. Take a look at this experiment/piece of art/street theatre?? I'm not really sure what to call it. But I would have loved to have seen it, or even better, have been a part of it! I heard about on my favourite radio station Triple J a few weeks ago:- 0 comments
I went searching online, expecting to have to buy the book at Amazon, but found that the book is in the public domain, and there is a free audiobook available to download. I thought I would download that, and perhaps listen to it on the train on the way to work. However, I downloaded it and listened to the first part, and discovered that it is a machine-generated book from the text, and is read in a very monotonous, robot-like tone. I only managed a couple of lines without bursting out laughing, and after two minutes realised that I had no idea what the droning voice was talking about. It was just so soul-less that it was impossible to concentrate on. You can give it a try if you like at Project Gutenberg by clicking here. Back to the website, and a bit more of a search uncovered the text version, which I downloaded and read last night. It's a dark an ominous tale, but written in an older style that makes reading it a bit hard. I imagine it will be about another 28 years before I get around to reading it again, but I would like to see the movie. Have a read for yourself here. ========================================= On a different note, literally, while searching I stumbled upon "House Of Usher", prog-rock combo:- House of Usher is a five-piece progressive rock group which deftly skates along the borders of modern rock, taking the listener on explorations of classical, jazz and world music idioms. Their songs are symphonic in scope, thanks to their first-rate rhythm section, intricate instrumental interplay and arresting melodies. In a field where groups sound so similar, House of Usher is a breath of fresh air, serving up music which is distinctive and unique. Have a listen to their "intricate instrumental interplay" at: http://www.houseofusher.com/ 0 comments
I like this sort of attitude as it reflects my own vision on life, and in a kind of way is similar to the message with the photo I have in my lounge room (51 days to go!!) "Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life." In my past, as I have said before I have often followed the road less travelled. I have had many jobs, been self-employed, travelled, migrated and have always enjoyed doing things that are a bit different and exciting. I personally think there are some interesting messages and ideas in this image, and I have asked a few people what it means to them, and have had a few different answers. Have a look at the picture before reading on, and see what your interpretation of it's message would be:-  To me it is a reminder that it is good to be an individual, to do the things you really want to do or achieve, whatever the consequences. But sometimes, when you dare to do something a bit different, there will always be someone to disapprove of it and try to set you back into the line. Take a look at some of the comments in the GuestBook or on the Bulletin Boards for an idea of what I mean. But does this mean that you shouldn't be an individual? That you shouldn't do exactly what it is that you feel you want to do, or need to do? Or is it easier to just take a more middle-of-the-road option and avoid criticism or confrontation? I am all for following the unbeaten track and I personally enjoy all aspects of it. I always have, and probably always will, and I certainly think that this current adventure of selling my life on eBay fits my "paint the roof pink" criteria. Fortunately the police haven't arrived on my doorstep yet, and I hope they don't, but I have had a fair dose of questioning and criticism about what I am doing and why! I hope the guy in the picture gets let off with a stern warning, and can keep his pink roof, but in reality I think the council will have it painted to match all of the others again before he gets out of prison! Just to clarify: this poster is not mine, it is not in my house and so it will not be included in the auction. To find out more about Mordillo, you can go to his website: http://www.mordillo.com 0 comments
I have had cause to stop and consider expectations this weekend, and had to deal with certain disappointments. My mirror in the dining room is a bit of a disappointment. It's another job done, but it didn't quite work out as I had hoped. I have been meaning to make and hang a mirror in the dining room for a while now. I have had the mirror and wood laid around for a while, and my friend Andy took the wood to work to put a groove in it to sit the mirror in. My original plan was to angle the mirror so that people in the spa, sat on the wrong side to be able to view the huge projector screen, would be able to see the screen in the reflection in the mirror. However, when I tried this, the mirror would have had to have been very angled, and looked rather odd, so I abandoned the idea. A bit of a disappointment, as all my original measurements indicated it would work very well. The mirror still looks great, and completes the dining room, the wood having been chosen to match the dining table and chairs.  
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My job at the shop is part of the complete package that is being offered for auction. To find out more, take a look here:- www.alife4sale.com/list_Job.htm To find out more about Jenny Jones Rugs go to their website:- www.JennyJonesRugs.com Music is Viva! by Bond 0 comments
In December I finished working up in the mines in far north Western Australia, and took a couple of months off to travel in a camper van across Australia. While over in New South Wales I visited my friend Alan and his family, and met his sister Jane again after meeting her about ten years previously. It turned out that she and her husband Darryl were in a similar position to me, in that one chapter of their lives had come to an end, and for them it was time to take drastic action and start a new life. Darryl had both given up his job, and Jane was winding up her own business, they were renting the house out, and packing a couple of suitcases. Their plan was to move over to Perth, and start working in the mines as geologists, something they had both done as a career many years before. So with two spare bedrooms I was only too happy to offer accomodation to help them find their feet in Perth, and get started in their new life. They stayed here for about two months, and it was great having them here. On many evenings I would come home to find a wonderful meal cooked, and a glass of red wine waiting for me. But sadly, on Sunday they moved out, having found their own accomodation in the city. But the very next day I got a call from Scott and Janine, friends from the UK who are travelling and working in Australia, and have been living in Margaret River for the last couple of months. They are on the move again, and are now staying in Perth for a while before heading further north, on to Broome and eventually Darwin.    So they moved in on Monday. And when I got home last night there was a wonderful meal ready for me. Marvellous! Keep up the good work guys! Good luck in the new home Darryl and Jane, welcome Scott and Janine. 0 comments
If you can keep your head when all about you Rudyard Kipling This was one of my father's favourite poems, and I have read it many times since the day he introduced me to it as a child. I think it is packed full of wisdom, and has many suggestions for leading a decent life. At different periods in my life, certain lines have had greater significance than others. At the moment these lines stand out for me, for obvious reasons, I suppose:- Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, I haven't managed to never breathe a word about my loss over the past couple of years, but I do feel that I am doing pretty well on building things up again. This poem was voted Britain's Favourite Poem in a 1995 BBC opinion poll. I had a couple of poems posted on the Bulletin Board, in a thread entitled "Just a note". Posting this poem was my response to the others that were posted. You can read that by clicking here. Find out more about Rudyard Kipling at the two links below. He was also well known for stories such as The Jungle Book and The Man Who Would Be King, which is one of my favourite movies ever! He also created the characters Gunga Din and Thomas Atkins (who was the genesis of the term 'Tommy' commonly used to refer to British soldiers), as well as coining the phrase "The Thin Red Line". Wikipedia: Rudyard Kipling BBC: Rudyard Kipling 0 comments
"Man tries selling 'slag' wife on eBay!" Take a look at the article here:- http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=563391 And some people thought that my eBay answer to marital troubles was extreme!! Another guy I have discovered took an unusual step in order to sell his wife's wedding gown - he wore it himself in the pictures he put on his eBay listing. This is his original eBay listing:- http://weddingdressguy.com/original_ebay_ad/ebaylisting.html There is a big article here about what happened to him:- http://www.snopes.com/love/revenge/weddress.asp He also now has his own site www.WeddingDressGuy.com, where you can buy all sorts of Wedding Dress Guy merchandise, including t-shirts, mugs and aprons:- http://www.weddingdressguy.com/merchandise.php Finally, on a more comical note, check out this guy's sale on eBay. It's not his whole wife he is selling, just something that belongs to her:- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/31/ebay_box_sale/   
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When I was at college in Liverpool I had a tattoo done on my shoulder and in more recent years, I had my tongue pierced. As many people have suggested about my current auction, a couple of friends suggested the tongue ring may have been a small scale mid-life crisis action! I was into my forties at the time, after all! Perhaps so, but I enjoyed the surprise some people showed when they realised that I had a tongue ring. I wore it for about two years, and took it out at a party a while ago to swap it for another one. I didn't like the new one, and soon took that out. I haven't put it back in since, and I think my tongue ring days are behind me now. It would be a bit difficult to leave my tattoo behind without some gory surgery but I will be leaving the two tongue rings, which I no longer use, as part as the contents of the house.  The silver stud was the one that I wore all the time, and when I decided to change it for the coloured one at a party one night, two of my friends had to get tools out of the shed to get it out. We had all had a few drinks by then, and I suppose it could have turned into a bit of disaster. However, all worked out well and they successfully removed it and replaced with the other one. The multi-coloured one, I only wore briefly that night because it felt so wierd. It's bright colour and shape certainly made it noticable. So nowadays I don't use either tongue ring, and on the day I walk out of the house, I will make sure I leave both in the bathroom. The new owner of my life can do whatever he/she/they like with them - throw them away, sell them on eBay, or just leave them where they are in the bathroom cabinet! 0 comments
I watched a couple of games on the TV, and was a bit mystified as to what the rules were, and what the players were trying to achieve, but Craig sat down and gave me a run through of the plays, and it all started to make sense. Craig insisted that we should come along to a couple of games at Subi, and we did so a few times during the year we lived with him. I became a Dockers supporter by default. I haven't been to a live game since then, but Scott and Janine, who are currently staying with me, were keen to see a game (I think Scott more so than Janine), so along with Mel and her kids we took the train up to Subi. The kids were amazed by the size of the crowd, and despite our seats having somewhat limited visibility (we were lucky to get them at all pretty much last minute) we all thoroughly enjoyed the game. "Carn the Dockers!", shouted at high volume with an Australian accent can be translated as "Come on the Dockers!" Unfortunately, all the shouting in the world was no help today. Ten minutes into the final quarter the Dockers were up by 18 points, three goals, with only 15 minutes to go! And yet once again they somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!! The Dockers lost to the Western Bulldogs, by 114 to 111! The scorelines in AFL are amazing, as it is such a fast moving game, and the crowd gets thrill after thrill as the goals stack up. It is all such a great family-friendly atmosphere, and opposing team supporters happily sit together in friendly rivalry. Oh well, maybe next week - "Carn the Dockers!"           Find out more about AFL (Australian Football League at:- http://www.afl.com.au/ and more about Freo Dockers at:- http://www.fremantlefc.com.au/ 0 comments
Having the Monday off means I can get loads of stuff done when all the stores are open, so today will be a busy day, and I am up early, and am doing my blog early too, to free up the rest of the day for life's normal chores. A couple of my jobs are up in Freo, and already the weather is looking good, so I imagine the motorbike will be coming out later this morning. Friends Scott and Janine are leaving today, and are continuing their travels northwards, up the west coast of Australia. They plan a couple of stops on the west coast, and are very excited about going to Exmouth, and seeing Ningaloo Reef. Thet are going at the best time of the year, as it is right in the middle of whale shark season. I went years ago, and took a trip out past the reef on a boat, where you can snorkel with these gentle, plankton-eating giants - it was an absolutely amazing experience. The pix below are not of me - the one I saw was smaller than this, but this gives you an idea of the amazing size these creatures grow to.   From there they plan to travel across the tropical top end of Australia, through some of the national parks up there that are spectacular. They plan to stop off in Broome, and perhaps work there for a while, and then head on for Darwin. I have seen very little of Australia's "top end", and would love to do so in future. As a final legacy, Scott quickly and easily solved my dining room/spa mirror issues, with a simple solution. I had hoped to have the mirror positioned so that someone sat on the wrong side of the spa to view the big screen would be able to see a reflection of it in the mirror. However, when I hung the mirror, I could not get the angle right. See blog 41 days to go!! When I explained the problem to Scott, he just said, "Hang pictures there and there, when you use the spa, swap the mirror with that picture, easy!"   The solution works perfectly, the problem just needed a fresh pair of eyes to see the answer. Thanks Scott. Good luck on your travels, both of you. It's been great having you here. 0 comments
Since I started this blog at Auction-Day Minus 100, I have had many messages and comments about the many things I have written about, but this is an amazing first! Coming home from work tonight, I found a large envelope in my mailbox, and inside was a book, a DVD and a card. The book is a collection of Edgar Allan Poe's novels including "The Fall Of The House Of Usher" and the DVD is the original 1960 version of the same story, starring Vincent Price. Read more about it at IMDB by clicking here.  The card simply said: "Ian, good luck on your new adventures.". It is a great present and I feel amazed and bemused that someone went to all this effort just for me. However, I also feel a bit bad that I will have to leave it behind when the time comes to leave the house. However, that is the nature of this adventure. So, a new DVD and a new book have been added to the auction and, like the citizenship koala, Paula's house warming picture or my 100th skydive certificate, everything that is in the house, whether simply functional, such as the pots and pans, or close to my heart, such as the items pictured below, it all stays. However, I will certainly take with me the fond memory of this.   So, whoever you are, I'm sure you'll be reading this blog. Many thanks for your thoughtful present, and thanks for the memory. It is very much appreciated. 0 comments
Here are a just a few of the more unusual ones that I found! The Ian Usher Saga! A Japanese to English (or vice versa) translation. What would happen if you did the same thing? I have no idea what this one says! Nor do I have any idea what this is about, but the title "Million Dollar Home Page" is encouraging! Technorati is an interesting resource, and quicky discovers mentions contained in blogs of anything you may be interested in:- www.technorati.com 1 comments
I think it all now seems a bit unreal, as it is a couple of months since I launched the website, and after the initial spike of interest, things have slowly returned to normal. For the past month I have been happily living the normal work routine, and fitting in the rest of my life around that, and apart from the occasional phonecall, and replying to emails, there really is not much to remind me of what is about to happen. The only thing that has been a constant reminder is doing a daily blog, and on occasion, when it has just been another normal day at work, it is sometimes difficult to find anything relevant or interesting to say. But over the past couple of days things have started to happen which have perhaps given me a bit of a flavour of what may be to come. I have had quite a few phonecalls, and currently have interest from US TV, Japanese TV and Australian TV in coming to film the start of the auction, and hopefully a sucessful conclusion to the auction too. So now I am starting to get excited again, and am looking forward to the whole process again of interviews and and questions and film crews around the house. Six months ago I had not even thought of the idea of doing this, and now I have all this stuff going on! Who knows what I will be doing or where I will be six months from now? How exciting!! 0 comments
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There is now quite an element of competition, and two weeks ago Matt did a great apple pie with ice cream, and last week Paula's mountain of multi-coloured cup-cakes lasted almost three days, there were so many of them. And so yesterday my turn came around again, and I decided I would have a go at a carrot cake. My cooking skills are not too good, so I searched the internet for a reasonably easy recipe, and followed it to the letter. I had to stop off at the shops on Thursday night on the way home to purchase a confusing list of ingredients, and spent quite some time searching for stuff such as vanilla essence and bicarbonate of soda, which are not items that usually appear on my shopping list! I had to borrow a couple of cake tins, so I'm afraid they are not part of the contents of the house. They are not something that I have ever had a need for before, and imagine it will be quite a while before I ever need one again! I was quite impressed with my efforts though, and proudly present my pictures to make your taste bud tingle! Although the recipe promised 18 portions from the ingredients used, the two cakes had all gone by the end of today, and there were only six of us there!. However, this was maybe because I didn't ration it out as strictly as Paula did with her cup-cakes, and took quite an active role myself in devouring it.      
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It is a beautiful place, very mountainous and rugged, with some amazing scenery, and so well organised for people to travel around, with beautiful free camp sites right on the edges of stunning deseted beaches. I had heard of the Tasmanian Tiger before, but was intrigued and saddened to read it's story once again in a museum in Hobart. The Tasmanian Tiger, sometimes called the Tasmanian Wolf, or more properly known as the Thylacine, has a sad history. The Thylacine was a marsupial, having a pouch like a kangaroo, but was much more like a dog or wolf, although completely unrelated to either of these. Sadly, because it was carnivorous it came into conflict with early settlers in Tasmania, and like most other animals that conflict with human interests, it did not come off too well.  ...from Wikipedia... The last known surviving thylacine died in Hobart Zoo, and there is some black and white footage of this last survivor, which was filmed in 1933. Allow me to introduce you to Benjamin:- There is alot more detail on Thylacines at Wikipedia, which suggests that Benjamin may have been a female, or at the Australian Museum website. Since their supposed extinction there have been many reported sightings of Thylacines in the wild, but none have been substantiated. There are a few intriguing bits of grainy film on YouTube:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUM4B2B3SC4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e4svNE40aQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jalw2qHjdfY But now there is new hope for the long-lost Thylacine, as scientists at the university Melbourne have managed to put thylacine DNA into a mouse embryo in what the university's Dr Andrew Pask says is the first time DNA from an extinct species has been used "to induce a functional response in another living organism." Read the following article for more details:- http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/20/2249778.htm The article makes fascinating reading, and there are some interesting discussion points raised in the comments afterwards. There are some very entertaining comments too. These are a few that I liked:- "Jurrasic Park here we come." "I would just love a big striped mouse that could devour next door's bird killing bloody cat." "I live in hope for one day I might actually get to taste some Dodo." "Lets hope these mad scientists have another team working on building a better/stronger mouse trap." "It's all ok... They've all got degrees... it's being done by a University... all possible precautions are being taken. Nobody should have any concerns. These people are professionals." 0 comments
Six years ago, when Laura and I moved from England to Australia, we sold pretty much everything we had, and gave away alot of the stuff we couldn't bear to sell, to friends and family. When we arrived in Australia all we had was a rucsac full of clothes each. So I have gathered plenty of stuff over the past six years or so, alot of it being the things that make an empty house into a home. But if I am selling the house to free myself to travel, or to do anything else I fancy, then I don't need the household stuff. I've already cleared from my life a few of the things that reminded me too much of Laura. Our wedding photos, for example, are with her, I would not want them around my house, even put away in the back of one of the cupboards. I've also moved around alot in the past two years. When we sold our house after our separation I packed a few things in my car, and moved 600km to live in a caravan in Kalgoorlie while I was working as a truck driver in the Kalgoorlie SuperPit. So there isn't too much of any sort of really meaningful stuff in the house anyway. So it is probably fairly easy for me to be able to walk away from it all as I usually don't get too attached to things. However there are a few items around the house that will be harder than others to leave behind: some of my photographs, my harmonica from the days when I tried to learn how to play, my koala bear, my house warming post card from Paula, some of my favourite music CDs, etc... But as I have always said, they are all staying when I leave, and they can all be yours if like, just make your bid from June 22nd. 0 comments
So after some effort I was able to get in touch directly with an eBay account manager, who has been very helpful. He has just contacted me today to let me know that I am now able to schedule my auction and start working on the listing, ready for going live on 22nd June. This really brings it home that we are getting close now, and this is about to happen. I have already been doing some work on the listing, and have posted an idea of how it will look at my eBay "About Me" page:- http://members.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=alife4sale There is still a bit of work to be done, and some videos to be added, but you can see how it is shaping up. As the date of the auction approaches I have been doing a bit of research into how best to list my auction on eBay, and have had a couple of approaches from companies offering "Auction Sniping" services, asking me to run ads for their services on my website. Before I started this process, although I have used eBay quite a bit, I had never come across the term "auction sniping", and was very skeptical about it. I did not take up any of the offers to run adverts, as I felt that this might be percieved as advertising services which may offer people an advantage. However, I have looked into auction sniping, and have been quite interested and impressed with some of the services they offer. Basically, an auction sniping website is one which will place bids on your behalf on an eBay auction, without you having to be online yourself to make your bids. It is very much like a proxy bid service in any standard offline auction, but the big difference is that auction sniping software waits until the last seconds of an auction to make your bid for you, with the possibility of winning the auction in the last seconds. I wondered if this offers an unfair advantage, but further study showed me that an auction sniper will still only win if their maximum bid is higher than anyone elses. Which simply backs up what I have said in my FAQ from Day 100, that it is much wiser to decide on your maximum bid early, and place that bid, than try to hang on until the dying seconds of the auction, and try to pay less. If you are the highest bidder you still pay just over the bid of the next highest bidder, not your maximum, but have less chance of losing out at the last second. Here is what I wrote on my FAQ page:- Q: Can you give me some eBay tips? In my research on various auction sniping websites, I found a great post in one of the Bulletin Board forums, which explains it all very clearly in some depth:- http://community.auctionsniper.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/585608021/m/8841030472 "A snipe is a last minute bid, generally placed in the last minute or closing seconds of an auction. This can be done manually, with you sitting in front of your computer, bidding at the last second, or it can be done via software, such as Auction Sniper. The point is to get a high bid in, giving others little time to respond with a counterbid. The lesson seems pretty clear to me, and the fact that auctions now take place on the internet, as well as in more traditional sale rooms does not change the basic rules one bit. Decide what you are willing to pay, place a bid that will take you up to that amount and no higher, and then stick to it. If you are outbid, do not get carried away in the heat of the moment!! Good luck to all from me too! 0 comments
When we lived together in our previous house we had all of the accessories that most households have, and when we divided most of those goods, it was decided that I would keep most of the furniture. This was all put into storage at a friends place, and off I went into the desert. Six months later I returned, a fully qualified and suitably experienced truckie (see this video for more detail on what that involves). My new house had been completed and I moved in, putting all the furniture in there. I started working in a mine way up north in Western Australia on a fly-in fly-out basis. The company would fly our whole crew out to site, and we would live there for two weeks, working six twelve-hour day shifts, followed by seven twelve-hour night shifts. We were then flown home and had eight days off, before heading back to work again. Work uniform in the mines has certain requirements, including steel toe-cap boots, and orange reflective shirts. However, the presentation of these uniform is completely irrelevant. Alot of guys work in oily or dirty conditions, and a clean, crisply ironed shirt is not a requirement. It was completely acceptable, and very common to turn up at work unshaven, hair uncombed, and shirt fresh out of the tumble drier, still creased and wrinkled. At home on my eight days off I lived almost constantly in bare feet, shorts and a t-shirt. So it never even occurred to me that I didn't have an ironing board! I did have an iron however. In our previous home we had two of them for some reason, and I had been given the oldest of the two. Since returning to Perth it had sat unused under the sink in my laundry. But when Darryl and Jane moved into my house a couple of months ago they were both working in an office in the city, and had moved over from New South Wales with just the clothes they needed. Jane struggled with my old iron for a while, using a towel on the floor as an ironing board, but one day she got a shock from it, and into the bin it went. She eventually bought a new iron and ironing board, and as my old one was now no longer working it was very useful for ironing my JJR work shirts. However, when Darrl and Jane moved out into their own place, they took both the iron and ironing board with them. For the past two weeks my shirts have looked a bit crumpled, more like mining attire than shop attire! But I won't be here for much longer, if things go well next month, so I am going to do without an iron and ironing board. So be warned, if you buy my life, and ironing is important to you, you will need to arrange your own ironing equipment! 0 comments
I have long been a fan of Manchester group The Charlatans, but The Charltans and I have not always seen eye to eye musically. All had gone well with them from their first album, and for the next four albums I remained a big fan. Their fourth and fifth albums, "The Charlatans" and "Telling Stories" were quite a high spot in their career, but as far as I am concerned, it all went horribly wrong at album number seven. "Wonderland" did not sit very well with me, but as it came out several of us bought tickets to their concert that year, and went along to see them play. I had seen them before, and had previously been very happy with their peformance. But the Wonderland tour was a bit of a disappointment, to say the least. I reckoned after the concert that out of the twenty or so songs that they had played, most were from the somewhat dreary new album, and maybe only three or so were from the popular, and in my opinion, much better, back catalogue. So by my reckoning, as I explained to my brother and the rest of the concert goers with us later on in the pub, out of the twenty pounds I had paid for my ticket, I was happy to pay three, but the group owed me seventeen pounds back. It was a controversial claim, and resulted in a heated debate. It has since become a bit of a standing joke between me and Martin, my brother. Several mediocre albums later The Charlatans released album number ten "You Cross My Path", and it was available for free, downloadable from www.xfm.co.uk for nothing! They were giving it away for free!! I did not have high hopes, although had enjoyed the first single released from the album a month or so earlier. However, I was very pleasantly surprised, it really is a return to form, and it's back to The Charlatans that I know and love, So now, by my reckoning, they owe me seventeen pounds, less the cost of a new CD, about twelve quid, as I haven't had to buy the new album. So now Martin and I agree that a couple of pints, bought by The Charlatans would settle the matter to everyone's satisfaction. But as I danced around last night to their song "How High", I remembered how good they were, and still are. The song contains the phrase "lyrics of your life", and although I have never really understood the context in which it is used in the song, I think it's a great phrase. I would recommend giving them a listen if you are not familiar with them. Other songs you could look for are:- "The Only One I Know" "Then" "Sproston Green" "Jesus Hairdo" "Just When You're Thinking Things Over" "Feeling Holy" "One To Another" So I reckon if I tell anyone reading this about the group, and maybe five people tell me they have downloaded some Charlatans music (not that I condone any form of music piracy!!) I am prepared to call it quits with the group and write off the debt. I don't think the whole album is available anymore, I can no longer find the link on xfm.co.uk, but there are a couple of free tracks you can listen to here, or on their MySpace page. It's up to you guys, do I continue to hold this grudge, or let it go? Let me know if you have discovered the "lyrics of your life"! As part of my CD collection I have the first five albums, which will be yours if you win the auction. Ah, can only find four albums when I look for them to take a photo, maybe lost the other a a party or something, but the best three are still there anyway....  More links:- http://www.thecharlatans.net/ http://www.myspace.com/thecharlatans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlatans_UK 0 comments
Paula, who I have known for three years now, since she started working at JJR, is leaving to go travelling and working abroad. So today is her last day at work, and this evening we will all be going out to help her celebrate her departure. The plan will be to have a couple of beers at the shop before jumping on the train to Fremantle. We have booked two games of Q-Zar, and a game or two on the air-hockey tables - I imagine it may all get a bit competitive! Afterwards we are going to Zapata's Mexican Restaurant for dinner and a cocktail or two! Their banquet menu looks very tasty. I imagine a few of us will carry on into town for the rest of the evening afterwards. I am really looking forward to it, I haven't had a proper night out for a while. Good luck on your travels, Paula. We might be in London next time we meet! Que Sera Sera. 0 comments
However, a couple of days ago, when I sat down at a computer that one of the other staff members had been using, they had no swift answer as to why they needed to access their FaceBook profile. But just before I clicked to close the window I noticed the topic on display, and feeling (only a bit) guilty, I started to read, amazed and excited. Three weeks ago, I mentioned an event called "The Big Freeze", which occured in New York's Grand Central Station. See blog entry: 44 days to go!! My final comment was, "I would have loved to have seen it, or even better, have been a part of it!" So this is what I found on the open FaceBook profile:- Link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=13817238966 Picture (click to see a larger version):-  So only three weeks after writing about it, here was a chance to join in what will perhaps be the biggest freeze ever done! And if I hadn't sat down just then at that computer, I would have been hearing about it tonight on the news, instead of having been a part of it. Isn't it amazing how things like this happen? So this morning I took the train up to the city, still nursing a bit of a hangover from Paula's Leaving Do last night (see yesterdays blog). Unfortunately Perth's usually reliable weather let us down this morning, and the train ride to the city was dark and gloomy. We passed through a couple of storms on the way to the city, and it looked like it was going to be a very wet event. At the appointed time we met at the State Library for a quick briefing, and people started heading off to the mall in the city centre where the freeze would happen. The skies were still dark and rain was lashing down , so we waited for a while under cover at the library. Eventually the rain eased and we made a dash for the city, and got undercover again before the next downpour. At the appointed place there were hundreds of people sheltering wherever they could under walkways and in shop doorways,but just before midday many people headed out into the shopping mall. I was just checking my phone to see what time it was when the horn went, and everybody just stopped. I froze looking down at my phone, but could look around without moving my head. There were people frozen everywhere, some guys in front of me had a piano in the middle of the street, others were pointing, and there were umberellas everywhere. It was absolutely amazing, as a sort of silence and stillness descended over the square, broken only by what sounded like the horrified screaming of a terrified child - very surreal. But the rain continued to pour down, and other shoppers hurried in and out around us. I was interesting to listen to what people had to say as the walked among us. Eventually the horn went again, and we all began moving, and a big cheer went up. It was an extraordinary experience. The amosphere afterwards was great, complete strangers chatting excitedly to each other about what had just happened. Melanie and her kids had come with us, but Melanie had had serious doubts about her kids being able to stand still and quiet for even one minute, but they both did very well, enjoying being part of it all, both hyper-excited to have stayed still for the whole five minutes. I don't think that the number of freezers will have been anywhere near enough to have been a record, but it was still a fantastic event to take part in. Thanks to those who organised it - very well done. Here are a couple of pictures of a wet and windy gathering at the library:-    Other peoples pictures:- FaceBook Pictures And here are a few videos from YouTube:- This first one is the official video from the organisers:- Press links:- "The West Australian" (before the event) 0 comments
But winter can be quite a different experience, depending on where you live in the world. Here in Perth, our winters feel more like a early spring or late autumn in England. I remember as a child winters in the north of England, when the town we lived in would be cut off by snow for several days. We had to dress up in so many layers of clothes to keep warm outside when we made snowmen, or had running snowball battles through the school yard.    That seems so long ago now when on a chilly winter's day here, sometimes you have to put an extra jumper on over your t-shirt. Evenings and nights are getting a bit chilly now, but as yet I haven't had to get the gas heater out of the shed. But the days are still quite nice, apart from yesterday's torrential downpour for The Big Perth Freeze (see yesterday's blog). Just to give you an idea, I have been wearing a fleecy jacket most days to catch the train to work in the morning, but pretty much every day I have been working in a short-sleeved shirt all day. Here is a chart of the weather we have had for the last 2 weeks. Nice, isn't it? Forecast:
 For more details, go to Western Australian Bureau of Meteorology 0 comments
What a lovely day! 0 comments
I have had many emails suggesting that I should watch the movie, and there is a discussion on the Bulletin Board that references the book and the movie too. It makes quite interesting reading. Take a look here:- "Get Over Yourself Buddy" Note: comments in this topic reveal some key plot elements, so do not read the forum topic if you have not seen the movie and do not want to know the ending. And so last night I finally got around to watching the movie. Chris decides to leave society behind, and as the story develops he removes himself more and more from the world that he feels he has no connection to, eventually living in the wilderness of Alaska. On his journey he meets a wealth of interesting people, all of them drawn to him because of his free spirit and open approach to life. One of my favourite parts of the film is his discussion with an old man he befriends, on the subject of why he is going to do what he intends, and move out to live in the wilderness. "What are you runnin' away from?" his friend asks him. Although much of Chris's reasoning for making radical changes in his life resonates with me, I don't see myself being too much like him in my motivations. I don't really share his idealistic nature, and can never imagine myself burning the last of my money by the roadside before setting off! And I don't think I could handle the solitude and loneliness that he seems to thrive on. However, it's a great movie, and I highly recommend it to anyone dissatisfied with their lot in life, or questioning what life is about. The "eventual and tragic realisation" that Chris discovers is something that I have already realised long ago. I can't reveal that truth without spoiling the plot a little, but if you want to know what Chris finally realises, either watch the movie, or you can find out in the full synopsis section at IMBD.com - just follow the link below, and click on "full synopsis". Find out more about the movie "Into The Wild" at IMDB.com:- 
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However, to compensate for any disappointment this may have caused, I am letting you know of an added extra that my auction has, which has not yet been mentioned in any of the website pages at all. As I have often mentioned in the blog, my career path to this point has not been very structured, and I have spent as much time working for myself as I have working for other people. Even when I have been in a job, I have often engaged in some other part-time self-employment. A few years ago, while working for Jenny Jones Rugs, I did an online and telephone-based correspondence course in internet business and marketing. One fact that was very clear from the course I did was that one of the best products to sell on the internet is information, as that is what a huge amount of people using the internet are looking for. Information is such a great product, as it only has to be created once, as an article, a book, a video, a course, or whatever format suits. Once it is created it can be sold over and over again for very little further effort. If that information can also be delivered digitally over the internet, by automated systems, it is cost-free and effort-free to distribute too. The internet marketing course was run by The Internet Marketing Centre, which can be found at www.MarketingTips.com. They have some amazing and eye-opening products and courses. As part of the course I did I received a copy of their brilliant "Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business On The Internet". I guess this package helped me a bit in the creation of the ALife4Sale website, which has received a fair amount of praise. Although I also have to give a huge amount of credit to my brilliant web designer Melanie, of www.m2c2.com.au. This course is still in my house, and is included as part of my auction:-  Anyway, my studies caused me to look at my interests and hobbies, as well as what people search for on the internet. One of my passions is video editing, and I decided to write an information book on turning your raw video footage into interesting, well-edited movie masterpieces! And the website that developed from that was, and still is, www.BetterMovieMaking.com. The main page is a sales page for the book itself, "The Complete Guide To Better Movie Making". Alongside the sales page is a movie gallery, a monthly newsletter and a blog. The username and password for the movie gallery are:- username: moviemaker password: director I have let the website slip a bit, and haven't really updated it for about eight months, but every now and then I get an email to say that another payment of $47 has been made to me, which is nice. It all works automatically, so if someone decides to make a purchase they can do so, they make a payment that is paid to me automatically, and then they get sent to a download page where they can download their purchase, all withoout any effort from me. This only happens very occasionally though, as I have not really made any marketing efforts for a long time. This extra item is included as part of my life, and is a complete, online business, which is currently operating, with some (fairly limited) success. There are no guarantees about how well you could do with it if you were interested in putting in some effort, but it is there for the new owner of my life. Use it, sell it, ignore it and forget about it - it's your choice if you win the auction. I will put some details of this in the "Job" section of the ALife4Sale site, as this is probably where it fits best. 0 comments
I suppose my ears always prick up now when I hear mention of a quirky internet story, and I thought this one was really good, and the guys being interviewed were funny and interesting. Nate and Dev Sturdey, from Melbourne, were living in Banff in Canada, and while emptying a bin in a hotel room where he worked, Nate found a picture of a happy-looking guy, that had obviously been thrown away. He kept the picture, took it home and put it up on his fridge. Visitors would often ask who the guy in the picture was, and he would say, "That's Happy Guy", and proceed to tell the story of how he had come by the picture. Almost seven years later he decided to search for this guy, and brother Dev set up a FaceBook group called "Who Is Happy Guy?" You can see it by clicking here. There is also a Happy Guy website, but there is no detail there, just the picture:-  And there is an interview on ABC Radio National (Australia), which you can listen to here (towards the bottom of the page on the left side):- http://www.abc.net.au/bestof/archive/20080526.htm The FaceBook group now has almost 3,000 members, and without even knowing it, Happy Guy has become a celebrity. And of course, thanks to the worldwide reach of the internet, they have actually found Happy Guy. His name is Paul Daggett, and he still lives in Banff in Canada. When the Banff Tourist Board heard about the story, they decided it was such a good publicity opportunity, and offered to fly the guys out from Melbourne to Banff to meet Happy Guy. They set off in a couple of days, on June 8th. Good luck guys, what an adventure. I wish I could make it to your leaving party. As Dev says on his FaceBook posting, "Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination...." I couldn't agree more! The exciting part is that you never quite know where that journey is going to take you. Here is Happy Guy Paul Daggett himself on breakfast TV (Part 1):- Happy Guy Paul Daggett himself on breakfast TV (Part 2) with Nate and Dev on the phone:- 0 comments
I have always had goals, and lists of things I would like to do, but have never been very organised about it, and my filing system tends to consist of many bits of paper, scattered around the house, tidied away into drawers and cupboards in a fairly random fashion. The question on the Bulletin Board prompted me to go looking for a particular list I remembered writing a few years ago after reading a book about goal-setting and achievement. I could not find the list, I have searched high and low, but I did find all sorts of interesting things hidden away in drawers. One that I thought was very appropriate was a Christmas card I had received from my mum. She always adds interesting extra things to her letters or cards, such as newspaper articles, lists of things such as the best places to visit in the world, or quotes and words of wisdom. Inside the Christmas card she had stuck a Post-It note with a quote written on it. The quote is from Voltaire, an 18th century French writer and philosopher. You can read more about Voltaire at Wikipedia. I thought the quote was very relevant to me:- "Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game." I get a huge amount of support and encouragement for how I have decided to play the hand of cards I have been dealt. I also get a fair share of criticism and questioning about the path I have chosen, which I expected from the start. After all, I guess the choices I have made are a bit unusual. But I have always believed that life is just a game, not necessarily to be won in the traditional sense of beating somebody else, to to be won in terms of living the best life you can with the chances you are given, and enjoying the game as best you can for the brief period that you are a part of it. So whether people do or don't agree with, or understand, what I am doing, or why I am doing it, doesn't really matter. This is just my way of playing the cards I have been dealt. You have a completely different set of cards, and can play them however you like, it's completely up to you. Good luck in the game, I hope you enjoy it. More quotes from Voltaire:- http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Voltaire/1 http://thinkexist.com/quotes/voltaire/ 0 comments
Rottnest Island is Perth's very own holiday island, less than 20 kilometres off the coast at Fremantle. It is a beautiful place, offering all sorts of attractions. There are some beautiful secluded beaches, some great diving, whale watching in season, surfing, snorkelling, fishing, or just relaxing away from it all. There are only a few vehicles on the island, mainly service vehicles, and a small bus service. Other than that the best means of getting around is by bicycle, and in summer the island is busy with cyclists travelling in all directions. One of the islands big attractions is the quokka, a small marsupial, which looks something like a cross between a kangaroo and a rat. In fact it was the quokka that gave the island it's name, Dutch explorer William de Vlamingh initially thinking the island was infested by large rats. Rottnest means rat's nest. We took the ferry over early this morning, and cycled around half the island, stopping at the lighthouse and WWII gun emplacements, before heading for the Quokka Arms for a well-earned pint. A great day out!        More info on Rotto here:- http://www.rottnestisland.com/en/default.htm http://www.rottnest.biz/ 0 comments
In the meantime I would like to offer a challenge to all the movie lovers out there. When the website went live back in March, I posted a video on YouTube about my entertainment system and I used a few of the movies and DVDs I have to make it. There are 7 movies, 1 video game (PlayStation 1) and 1 live concert used in this video. Watch it as many times as you like and when you think you've got them all, go to: http://www.alife4sale.com/other_VideoChallenge.php Enter your name, email address and your list, in any order, of the movies, the game, and the band that appear in the video. Your response will be sent to me and I will pick a winner at random from the correct entries one week from today, and will let you know in the blog one week from today who that winner is. It is really just for fun, but I will offer a small and meaningful prize to the winner. In fact I have two ideas for a suitable prize, but will give the final choice to the winner as to which they will choose. Of course, all of these DVDs are included in the auction and the ultimate prize will be for the new owner(s) of my life to watch them all from the new spa on his/her/their new entertainment system. Good luck. 0 comments
So yesterday we went to fuel it up, and headed to Kwinana Beach, a short five minute drive away. It was a nice warm sunny afternoon, and after the initial shock of plunging into the water, the sea was not too cold, although it was probably worse for Alan as he did not have a wetsuit! Unfortunately it was a bit windy, and it was coming in from the north-west, which made the usually sheltered bay a bit choppy. This was great fun for me, but Alan, who has never been on a jet ski before, struggled a bit at first. He picked it up pretty quickly though, and was soon flying around the bay with a huge grin on his face. Afterwards we gave the ski a quick wash off, and warmed up in the spa with a couple of beers. Winter in Perth - wonderful!          0 comments
I haven't been at work for a few days now as my friend Alan has been staying with me for a while. He flew out early this morning to return home, so yesterday we went up to the city to meet Darryl, and have a couple of quiet drinks. The Elephant and Wheelbarrow is the first pub I had a drink in when I arrived in Perth six and a half years ago, and it hasn't changed a bit since then. It is in Northbridge, which is Perth's entertainment area just to the north of the city. Darryl and Jane, who stayed with me for about seven weeks when they first arrived in Perth, have now moved into a great apartment a couple of minutes walk from The Elephant and Wheelbarrow - very handy! Jane is Alan's sister, but she is currently away for the week, but Darryl was keen for a pint or two! It was a bit cool outside, so we sat inside by the fire, and were there much longer than planned! Eventually we headed out for a lovely Vietnamese meal - Northbridge has a wealth of restaurants serving food from all over the world - and then after a few more drinks I caught the train home. Having the train drop me off pretty close to home makes a day or night out in the city so easy!   
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Towards the end of 1993 I can remember my father grumbling occasionally of stomach pains, but he wasn't a person to complain too much, and he simply got on with life. He was 60 at the time, just about to turn 61, and was looking forward to retiring to travel the world in a couple of years time. The following is something I wrote not long after that time:- Christmas in Darlington was the usual family affair. My brother Martin was home for a couple of days, and in time-honoured fashion we went out for a drink on Christmas Eve, and as usual we promised mum that we would not drink so much that we would be too ill to face the Christmas dinner she would be making. However, as usual the Christmas spirit was upon us, and on Christmas morning we both felt quite queasy, although not quite as bad as the year before. So this week in Australia it is Bowel Cancer Awareness Week (8th to 14th June), and today is Red Apple Day. You can read more about it here:- http://www.bowelcanceraustralia.org/bowel_cancer/awareness.html Bowel Cancer is treatable if discovered early enough, and can be screened for with a simple test. It is recommended that anybody over 50 should be tested, and people with a family history of bowel cancer should be tested from an earlier age. My dad died when I was 30 years old. After he died our doctor suggested that both myself and my brother should be regularly screened from the age of 40. I turn 45 in just over a month or so, and this is one of those things that just seems to get put off again and again. I keep saying I am going to get round it, but as yet never have. I have just made a comittment to myself today that I will do this before the end of this year! My dad's death had a huge impact on me, and pretty much stopped me in my tracks. I still think now about all the plans he had and all the things he was going to do, the places he was going to see, and I feel sad that he missed out on all of this. And I suppose in a way this has shaped my attitude of simply getting on an doing what feels right, right at this moment. I don't know what my dad would think of what I am doing now, but I know he would have supported me in this as much as he supported me in everything else I chose to do. Thank you dad, for all that you gave me, I miss you. More information at:- Bowel Cancer & Digestive Research Institute Australia The Institute’s mission is to decrease the impact of bowel cancer and digestive diseases in our society and help save lives through support of ongoing medical research and responsibly raising community awareness of risk factors and symptoms, in order to facilitate early diagnosis and participation in screening programs, where applicable. More at:- http://www.itscrunchtime.org/ict/html/home.htm or make a donation here:- http://www.bowelcanceraustralia.org/bowel_cancer/mission.html 0 comments
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is reputed to be the English translation of an ancient Chinese proverb and curse. It is reported that it was the first of three curses of increasing severity, the following two being: "May you come to the attention of those in authority." and "May you find what you are looking for." There is actually no real evidence that there is any real Chinese saying that this is directly translated from, but one theory is that it may be related to the Chinese proverb, "It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period". Perhaps it is more likely to be of recent and western origin, although it seems to be intended to sound Chinese, similar to the "Confucious he say..." words of wisdom, and it is undoubtedly ascribed to the Chinese to make it sound more wise, inscrutable, enduring and ancient. The saying was used by Robert F. Kennedy in his Day of Affirmation Address in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1966, and has been referenced in movies, TV shows and books. While initially sounding like a blessing, this is in fact supposed to be a curse, suggesting that interesting times are not always good to find oneself in! But sometimes the most difficult times can be the most interesting and the most rewarding too. They challenge us, they test us, and occasionally they can even bring out the best in us. So the saying could perhaps be perceived as a blessing too. For me, as I approach the start of the auction, just over a week away now, I certainly feel that I am living in interesting times! I guess I will know in just over two weeks whether this is a blessing or a curse!! Reference: Wikipedia 0 comments
Unfortunately it is not possible to show you a scheduled advert, so I have put the same information into my eBay "About Me" page, which you can see here:- My eBay "About Me" page As soon as the auction goes live I will change the "About Me" page so that it features all of the videos from the website, and from the blog from the past three months. The advert is pretty similar to the website, but a bit more succinct and factual, focussing much more on the "What", and less on the "Who" and "Why". So if you want to see how the advert will look, here it is:- My eBay "About Me" page Oh, and don't forget that tomorrow is closing day for entries for the ALife4Sale Movie Quiz. See blog 14 days to go!! for entry details. 2 comments
The answers are as follows:- MOVIES: The Last Samurai Master And Commander Ronin Air Force One Where Eagles Dare Gladiator Matrix GAME: Driver 2 GROUP: AC/DC (Live at Donnington) Nobody got the Playstation game correct, and nodody got the movie Where Eagles Dare, which is an absolute war movie classic starring Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton. A must-see! I have an original cinema poster from this movie, framed on the wall behind the big screen so it is displayed when the screen is powered away, which is, of course, included as part of the package:-  However, there is a winner, who came the closest to having everything right. Congratulations to David Sloan, triumphant winner of the Great ALife4Sale Blog Movie Quiz! David even spotted where the live concert was filmed from the tiny portion of it shown! Well done! As promised I am offering David the choice between two small but meaningful prizes:- Prize Option 1:- Book - "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" This is a great reference book for any movie lover, and I often refer to it before heading out to the DVD rental store.  There is a copy of the list of the 1001 movies online, which can be viewed by clicking here. Prize Option 2: A pair of wine glasses form Voyager Estate in Margaret River:-   These glasses are very appropriate as a movie quiz prize, as I won them originally in a movie quiz four years ago. Laura and I went with three other couples down to Margaret River, where we rented a beautiful huge house by the ocean for a long weekend. We went on a wine tour (of course), and ate, drank and relaxed at the house for the weekend, and went swimming at the beach less than 100 metres away. All the photos I have from that weekend are pretty blurred, and I blame the camera - nothing to do with the amount of alochol we consumed!   Anyway, someone brought a DVD-based movie quiz game, and one evening we decided that the prize would be the two glasses we had somehow collected on the wine tour - we were not really sure who owned them, as we had got them as part of a package with six bottles of wine bought, or something! And so with a marvellous late rally, Laura and I won the game and took the prize. And here they are four years later on offer to another movie quiz winner. Congratulations David, take your pick! I will let you know David's prize choice as soon as I hear from him. For everyone else, whatever item David does not pick will remain in the house to be part of the auction package. Good luck if you are bidding. 1 comments
I am absolutely amazed by the amount of email I get from people telling me about something I have inspired them to do. One person said that they had realised that they needed to sell their house to move on after a loss, and that my actions had brought this realisation home. Someone else told me that they had gone and done something entirely for themselves, after spending a lifetime looking after others and never considering their own needs. I had a song wrote about my sale which was used for charity fund-raising. I got an email back in April from Misty, who said that I had inspired to to start a painting. This is what she said in her first email to me:- "Well... hello Mr. Usher. My name is Misty and I live the in USA. I read your story online as did millions of others and I wanted to write to thank you. I am an artist always looking for inspiration and your story did just that. This message thing kinda sucks because I can't attach any pictures to it.... but today I finished a sketch for a future painting.. inspired by your story. If you can close your eyes... picture a blank canvas with the outline of a man (you).. and inside his outline are all kinds of images... the Eiffel Tower in the left leg, a tropical paradise on the left thigh, an arctic glacier on the right lower leg, African safari on the left thigh. The Great Wall of China spans your torso with a volcano rising out of the right chest and shoulder. Island Gods cover the right arm, and mountains cover the left arm. And finally... from the collarbone to the top of the head is Space... the ultimate place to travel. My colors in my art are very vivid and bright, and poetry often accompanies the painting. So... before you go up for bid and take your keys, I wanted to share that with you as a little push to say that someone half way around the world gets it.... and here in my house... we wish you all the best. Go for it.... and live your life down to the last little minute! Maybe when I finish the piece... I'll be able to send you a photo..... Thanks again! Misty." So today I received another email from Misty, and her painting is finished, and she sent me a photograph of the finished work. She also sent me the words of the poem around the painting, which read as follows:- Tragedy forces change sometimes to scary to entertain -- some crumble, some thrive, some go insane -- Ian took a dive -- sold his life down to the last little bit -- one neat, tidy package all up for bid -- my life isn't tragic -- but such an adventure opens the universe WIDE -- hair blowing -- fear aside -- the sights are glorious!!  When I decided it was time for me to move on I could never have dreamed that someone halfway around the world from me would do such an amazing thing, inspired by my actions. Thank you Misty, I LOVE the painting. You and others who write to me with your ideas, stories and insirations are making this such a wonderful adventure, more so than I could have ever hoped for. 1 comments
But today I have just started to get an idea of how things might turn out over the next couple of weeks. This morning I got an email from eBay in the UK wanting to know if I could do an interview this evening with a big national newspaper in the UK. I have just got off the phone with them now. Next an Australian TV company called, they will be turning up with their cameras first thing in the morning to film for an early evening current affairs programme which is broadcast nationally. After their call I took one from Reuters, who wanted photos and a story to distribute worldwide. At the moment Thursday is free in my diary, but I suspect not for long, and then on Friday a Japanese TV crew turns up to film some material before and during the start of the auction. I reckon my phone is going to be busy again for the next couple of weeks!! I'm looking forward to it..... I think!! 0 comments
As promised I said I'd let you know what prize David, the movie quiz winner, picked. He had the choice between a book, "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", or a couple of wine glasses that I won a few years ago, also in a movie quiz. See Blog: 7 days to go!! for more details. David picked the book, for two reasons. Firstly, as he correctly pointed out, it had a much better chance of surviving the international shipment, and secondly he suggested that "the winner of your auction can use the glasses to toast their new life in the house too." Nice idea. Hope you enjoy the book David. EBAY AUCTION NUMBER:- My life has been scheduled for sale starting 12 Noon Western Australia Time on 22nd June, and the listing will go live at that time. You will be unable to see the auction listing itself until that time, but there will be links to it from all pages of my website. To find the listing yourself when it goes live, go to eBay.com.au, and look in the following category:- eBay.com.au > Home > Real Estate > For Sale > WA The item number will be 250255442325. MY EBAY "ABOUT ME" PAGE In the meantime, until the auction begins, you can see pretty much how the listing will look at my eBay "About Me" page. MY EBAY USERNAME AND MY EBAY FEEDBACK My eBay username is ALife4Sale. I have been asked a couple of times how I could have this as a username, when my eBay account was opened way back in 2001. eBay allows a user to change their eBay ID, which is a simple process done through your eBay "My Account" section. When I first registered with eBay I had my original username which I used until recently. I changed this just over 3 months ago to ALife4Sale, for this auction, and will probably change it back after all this is over. I did consider setting up a new eBay account for this auction, but as I have bought and sold on eBay for some time now, I have built up a good record of feedback, currently 100% positive. I felt that using my current eBay account would be better than adding a new one, as people could then see that I have been on eBay for a while, and am well regarded as an honest and fair trader. I hope that this helps to establish the credibility of the sale. WHERE IS EDDIESLOPER? The Bulletin Board has been pretty quiet now for a while, but in the early days, when I first launched the website, there was alot of activity there. Some of it makes very interesting reading. Alot of it is very positive and encouraging, some of it is skeptical, which I always expected, and am happy to answer, and a very small portion accuses me directly of being a liar and a fake! One of my main Bulletin Board detractor was "eddiesloper". eddie accused me of scamming the media, and directly called me a hoaxer and a fraud. eddie suggested that this would never get to auction, and that he/she would eat his/her hat if it did. See the following articles:- Ian is a fraud and a hoaxer, AP got stung! The power of the internet to fool believers Tricky interview question - how much do you expect to get? Is Ian gaming the media? and many more... (eddie was quite busy for a while there!) and finally this one:- Will eddiesloper take the deer-stalker challenge? Well, hat-eating time is almost here, eddie. Haven't heard from you for a while! Join in on the Bulletin Board if you like, pick whatever username you fancy, and have your say. I try to respond as often as I can to the posts there. AND FINALLY... I did my first pre-auction TV interview this morning with Australian TV station Channel 7, for their early evening current affairs programme Today Tonight. The piece they filmed is scheduled for transmission on Friday evening, and I am pretty sure the piece will appear on their website too, which can be found here:- http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com// Depending on which parts of the interview they use, there are a couple of interesting new bits of info... hmm, intriguing! 2 comments
I have been talking to a very helpful representative from eBay in the build up to the auction, and it was suggested that I run a pre-approval process, much like many higher profile auctions do, such as when Scarlett Johansson auctioned herself for a date. (Hey, now there's an idea... :-) I believe the final bid was over $40,000!!)  This will mean only allowing people to bid if they have been pre-approved. It is unfortunate that I even have to consider doing this, but it is obviously necessary in order to try to avoid fake bidding. Hopefully any serious bidders will appreciate why this has to be done, as it is for their protection from the idiots among us who take pleasure in spoiling things for other people. So in order to be able to bid, please go to the following page to register:- http://www.alife4sale.com/ebay_Registration.php Good luck if you are planning on bidding. 0 comments
"Home Open" is from 1pm to 3pm tomorrow, Saturday 21st June, no appointment necessary. Contact Me for further details through the "Contact Me" page if you want to come along. See you there if you can make it. 
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First thing this morning Channel 7 (Australia) called, and want me on Weekend Sunrise early morning TV tomorrow morning. Because the show is filmed in Sydney, which is two hours ahead of us here in Perth, I have to get up before 5am to get to the studio in time for the slot I am booked in for. Oh dear! It's just like being back in the mines! After Channel 7's call, a representative of a Japanese TV station turned up to film some stuff, as I tried to get the house organised and tidied for the Home Open at 1pm. Fortunately I had done most of what needed to be done the day before, and by lunchtime the house was looking it's best ever! Maybe I shouldn't sell it - it looks great! Just kidding! The Home Open went well, with quite a few people coming through to take a look. Some knew all about the auction, some had no idea that everything was included, and were quite surprised by the idea. During the Home Open a different Channel 7 team from the news department came and filmed a piece for this evening's news I did another interview by phone this afternoon, with The Guardian newspaper in the UK and I am currently waiting for a radio station in Ireland to call. And the auction hasn't even started yet!! Here are a few good links to some of the publicity recently put online:- This one was a fun interview, done via Skype with webcam:- http://revision3.com/internetsuperstar/life4sale/ Reuters Press Agency: http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSSP5039620080619 The Sun newspaper (UK) http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article1308754.ece The West Australian: http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=491805 Sydney Morning Herald: http://news.smh.com.au/national/perth-man-to-auction-entire-life-on-ebay-20080619-2thf.html NineMSN: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=583023 Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080620/wr_nm/auction_life_dc;_ylt=ArLmNjGXnci.WHoXriafY9ys0NUE 2 comments
Didn't get much video of it happening, but this was the moment it started:- Link to the auction:- http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250255442325 2 comments
Yesterday was fun, with the launch of the sale at noon. There were a couple of camera crews there, and a few friends. The afternoon was a whirl of trying to sort out the eBay auction, deal with the film crew requests, answer the phone as much as I could, talk to friends, all done while still managing to drink a fair quantity of champagne, wine then beer! We had a couple of small technical difficulties, which my web designer struggled to resolve as soon as the auction started, but we were unable to get the help we needed from eBay at noon on a Sunday. Pre-registration to bid was already confirmed with them, and was supposed to be switched on as soon as the auction started. However, it did not work, and the help centre where my support agent works was closed. We were unable to get any further useful help, and I said it should be no problem, it would be resolved in the morning, before bids got too high. By the end of the afternoon, bids were at about $300,000, and I thought that would be it. However, by bedtime, it had gone up to over $650,000!! I was staggered. I was up again at 4am this morning, and on my way to the Channel 9 studios for an early morning appearance. I had a couple of minutes before I had to set off, and quickly turned the computer on to see how the bidding was going - I just burst out laughing - it was at $1.9 million, and as I sat there in dis-belief, it went over $2million!! I drove up to the studio in a bit of a daze, and discussed this during the interview. I guess now, as I look back at the end of a roller-coaster of a day, I was pretty trusting, or naive, to think these might be genuine bids, but throughout the day I also tried to maintain a realistic and skeptical attitude about it all. The phone rang a couple of times on the way home, and I did two live radio interviews while driving along. When I got home, both home phone and mobile phone were going constantly. I have no idea how many interviews I did, but every time I hung up, the phone would ring again immediately, and I was off again, usually with the same set of questions. Eventually I got a short break, and gave eBay a call, and got some peace by turning the mobile phone off. My helpful support guy soon had the issue resolved, and no more bidding was allowed, other than by registered users. I left the mobile switched off, which gave me a bit of time to do some other stuff on the computer, such as try to read some emails, and do some more bidder registrations. Calls kept coming in though, and I only got bits and pieces done. Two more TV stations called, and their crews turned up at the house, and after a hurried lunch, the phone calls continued. It was all good fun, and I was thoroughly enjoying feeling like a millionaire. During this time I was trying to get into the bidder details section of eBay, but managed to achieve nothing until I finally gave up and turned the home phone off too, and managed to concentrate on what I was doing. I think most people don't realise the level of information a seller can access about bidders, and I soon had home phone numbers for all the top bidders. A few entertaining phonecalls later, I had weeded out some definate fakes. It was very satisfying to get a bidder on the line, and tell them who I was. "Oh!" was the usual surprised reply, followed usually by some lame excuse, "My friend must have done it / my eBay account has been hijacked / I've changed my mind." Hmmmmm. I wasn't too surprised, and started the drudge of deleting all the suspect bids - there were ALOT! There are obviously alot of very bored idiots out there who need to get a life, but who think it's better to bid on mine with no intention or ability to follow it up. Eventually, as I worked backwards through the bids, I discovered that the highest bid from a genuinely registered bidder was down at $155,000, and I decided to delete all bids above that. I may have deleted some genuine ones, but if they want to place their bids again, they will be welcome to when they register. I've been sorting that out now for a couple of hours, and re-emailed all the registered bidders to let them know what was going on, and to apologise for the palava! It's obviously disappointing, but not too surprising, and there is still a long way to go. I am getting heaps of email demanding to know what is going on, with bidding going up and down, some even suggesting this is all evidence of a big hoax. The only hoaxers here are the idiots bidding on something they have no intention of following up on. Anyway, what a fun day, but very tiring. The phones are still off, and I think they'll stay that way until morning. I'm off to bed! Goodnight. Link to the auction:- http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250255442325 0 comments
"How much do you hope to sell your life for?" and "Who do you think will buy it?" My answer to the first question has always been a cheery, tongue-in-cheek reply, "Well, as much as possible would be an honest answer I suppose, but I guess that really will depend on who the buyer is and why they buy it." This usually prompts the second question, "So who do you think the buyer might be?" and my answer is, "I really don't know!" When I first hit upon the idea to do this, I had a certain expectations of the type of person that I was perhaps offering this package to. These were my original thoughts: A PERTH-BASED PURCHASER The house alone might be of interest to a traditional type of real estate purchaser, looking for a new home here in Perth. The house would suit a single person, a couple or or even a family. They would of course get all sorts extras too. A PERTH-BASED, OR AUSTRALIAN-BASED PROPERTY INVESTOR Alot of people ask me "Why sell your house, hold on to it and rent it out. Perth is currently experiencing a very tight rental market, the area that I live in is a good location, close to transport, shops, schools, beach, etc. This is tempting, but really does not fit in with my current goals, which are much more achievable if I am free to travel without a mortgage to look after. A BUYER MOVING FROM ELSEWHERE IN AUSTRALIA One of my initial thoughts were that perhaps this would be of interest to someone moving to Perth from another part of Australia, perhaps coming here to work in the booming mining industry. AN OVERSEAS BUYER Having moved from the UK myself over six years ago, I know from personal experience how it is to settle in another city in another country. Maybe someone already planning to come to Perth would want an easy start, with a house, car, and everything else they needed already set up, and a ready introduction to some potential new friends too. However, since I launched the website just over three months ago the suggestions have been coming in thick and fast. Here are a few other ideas that have been suggested as potential purchase motivations. PROFIT FROM SELLING ITEMS INDIVIDUALLY I thought this idea was brilliant when it was suggested by email from a Japanese TV viewer. In the early days, just after I launched the site, a Japanese TV network interviewed me, and one particular question they had was about what I would most regret leaving behind. I told them about my Australia Day Koala Bear. I had a few emails afterwards wondering if I would sell the bear separately. But one email suggested that not only the bear, but most of the stuff in the house would be sought after by collectors of unusual stuff. I wasn't really sure, but since then I have had quite a few emails asking if they could buy some small item, maybe my watch, or some shoes. This has amazed me! But maybe there is an opportunity for someone to buy the whole package, and auction off EVERYTHING, one item at a time, and still have a house worth $420,000 at the end. Food for thought! 15 MINUTES OF FAME Believe it or not, I have been approached by several TV stations who are very interested in finding out about and meeting with the buyer after the auction. It appears that there will be quite alot of interest in the buyer, and I guess they will be put into the spotlight somewhat. Maybe the buyer will be looking for their 15 minutes of fame. Maybe they will be trying to launch a singing career, or break into the movies. Maybe they are a band or perhaps a record company looking for a unique promotional opportunity! Who knows? UNIQUE ADVERTISING PROSPECT And on the subject of unique promotional opportunities, I just got sent a link to a website called The Bachelor Guy, who suggests that for a large company looking for some pretty unique publicity, this mght be a great purchase: "And anyone is eligible to bid, including corporations, or some rich guy with money to burn, looking to create publicity from all this. (Think Marc Ecko and Barry Bonds' homerun ball.)" Step on up Coca Cola, Red Bull, Ronald McDonald, or Richard Branson. Haha. Wow!! What an amazing adventure this is turning out to be! Link to the auction:- http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250255442325 3 comments
People seem to think that huge traffic automatically means huge money, but where do they imagine the money comes from? I discussed this in some detail way back when I launched the website, and you can read the blog article here: 81 days to go! Some more issues to deal with. Basically, money on the internet comes from either being paid for adverts that are placed on your site for other people's products, or by selling your own product. For a while I ran some Google AdSense ads, and a couple of Amazon ones, in an effort to cover my web-hosting costs! My website hosting company are called ICDSoft, and I cannot speak highly enough of them. They have been kind enough to agree to run an ad on my homepage instead of charging me what would be quite a sum of money for the huge amount of traffic the site is receiving. I got an email from them this morning stating that daily hits are over 150,000, but they forsee no problems, and have a plan in place if traffic increases further. The site has run flawlessly, and if you are looking for excellent value webhosting, have a look at www.ICDSoft.com Anyway, I decided to spend all of my Google AdSense income in one big, hasty, rash purchase, and now own my first Ferrari. I was torn between a couple of models, and almost went for the F50, but in the end I decided on the 2006 model Ferrari Superamerica, with the open top. As with everything else, this will remain with the house for the new owner to enjoy:-    Thank you Google AdSense, I couldn't have done it without you! Link to the auction:- http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250255442325 1 comments
Auction ends in 5 days!! "Who will buy it?" One of the suggestions for a possible purchase motivation came from the website The Bachelor Guy, who suggests that this auction would make a great publicity purchase for a big company, or individual, who wants some big international exposure. The Bachelor Guy references the story of Barry Bonds, Matt Murphy and Marc Ecko, and the famous home-run ball. Well, I must ask for forgiveness from our American friends, but I was not familiar with this story, as I am not a baseball follower (sorry!), but I went and did some research. For people not familiar with this story, THIS IS TRULY AMAZING!!! - "only in America!" I'll let Wikipedia explain... Bonds' accomplishments place him among the greatest baseball players of all-time. He has a record-setting seven Most Valuable Player awards, including a record-setting three consecutive MVPs. He is a fourteen time All-star, eight time gold glove-winner and he holds numerous Major League Baseball records. He currently holds the all-time Major League Baseball home run record with 762, and is also the all-time career leader in both walks (2,558) and intentional walks (688). He holds numerous other records, including the single-season Major League record for home runs (73), set in 2001. In September 2007, Ecko was the winning bidder in the auction for Barry Bonds' record-breaking 756th home run ball, paying $752,467 for it. To determine the fate of the ball, he started a website, www.vote756.com, which let visitors vote on what they think should happen to it. Visitors' choices were giving the ball to the Hall of Fame, branding the ball with an asterisk before giving it to the Hall of Fame, and putting the ball on a rocket to be launched into space. Over 10,000,000 votes were tallied in all. I believe there was some controversy over alleged steroid use, hence the asterix and space options, read more at either of the Wikipedia links below. The thing that truly amazes me is $750,000, for a baseball!! I have a soccer ball, an Aussie Rules football, and quite a few golfballs here too. I might go out to the sports store and buy a baseball too, assuming they stock them here! Are you reading this, Marc Ecko? http://marceckoenterprises.com/ References:- Barry Bonds - Wikipedia Marc Ecko - Wikipedia Link to the auction:- http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250255442325 0 comments
I really don't mind this, and as I said on the show, they say that immitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I am quite flattered! One of my favourites is the guy in the UK who has listed his life, living in a cardboard box on the streets of Exeter, for sale. His name is Simon "Parky" Kaye, and he has a great sense of humour. Any money he makes from his sale is going to UK homeless charity "Shelter", and I was pleased to be the first to make a bid for Parky's life. I have since been outbid, but may have another go, as it still looks like a bargain at US$2.25, as I write this. Take a look at his listing here: ALife4Sale - Life For Sale - Simon "Parky" Kaye So Parky's auction also got a mention on the "Today" show this morning, and the video of that can be seen here: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-au&brand=ninemsn I will also post a copy of it on my YouTube account if I can get hold of one, it should appear at the top of the video page here: http://www.alife4sale.com/other_Video.php or at YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ALife4SaleVideos I haven't got a video copy of this show, but there was a great feature on my auction a couple of days ago on web TV show breitbart.tv. This morning Scott Baker, one of the presenters contacted me, and we did an interview by web cam, which was great fun. I am really looking forward to seeing what they make from it. The first article can be watched here: http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=118233 There is a day by day account of the auction, and the chaotic life I am living throughout this week on the auction listing itself. Go to the listing, then scroll down past all the description to the bottom, where there a few additions, sort of like a daily diary. Link to the auction:- http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250255442325 A couple of other quick point with regard to the auction listing: 1). Any questions? Please try the FAQ page first, there are alot of answers there to many of the questions people are asking. 2). There are even more answers to regularly asked questions at the bottom of the auction listing, scroll right down and please read them before asking anything, it may already have been answered. 3). Although I realy appreciate all the messages wishing me well, the eBay questions section is not the right place to offer them, and makes it much harder to answer the important questions about the auction. Any general comments and messages can be put on the GuestBook, or if you feel you need to, you can use the Contact Me page. 4). Only registered bidders are able to bid. If you are thinking of making a bid, consider the following: - if you simply want to watch the auction you do not need to register - it is a single auction - nothing is being sold separately - check the current price - are you wanting to bid above that? (don't bother registering if not) - consider your visa situation - do you have an Australian Residency Visa? (don't bother registering if not) - or do you have you the right to invest in Australia? (this is controlled by the Foreign Investment Review Board, see the FAQ page) (don't bother registering if not) - consider your own financial situation - are you able to settle immediately? (don't bother registering if not) 5). Finally - A Warning! If the final bid proves to be a fake bidder, I will have no hesitation in releasing all the details I have about you to the world's media! They will find you! If you want to register to bid, don't leave it to the last moment! You can find the registration form here. Please fill in all details in full: http://www.alife4sale.com/ebay_Registration.php Good luck to all. Ian Link to the auction:- http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250255442325 0 comments
After today's fun webcast, I have decided to webcast the end of the auction live from home, so tomorrow, at 11.30am Perth time, I am going to show the view of the front room of my house, as seen from the top of the fridge on a live web cam video broadcast. I have been giving the software a bit of a try-out, and did a one hour webcast today, which seemed to go okay. I imagine there are going to be quite a few people there. The Japanese TV crew are definately here, and I imagine a couple of other TV news crews, and a few friends too. You can view the broadcast here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/alife4sale There is a text box to the right of the video screen on this page, but I am not answering any questions tomorrow, I am just watching the end of the auction myself. Broadcast Date: Sunday 29th June Broadcast Time: 11.30am (Perth, Western Australia Time) Broadcast Length: 1 hour You can check the current time in Perth here: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_AU-WA.aspx?city=Perth 0 comments
So I will post something that really has nothing to do with the auction, but is something I would like to support, because I know this guy has the determination to make things happen. My friend Chris, who I met when working in the SuperPit goldmine in Kalgoorlie gave me this letter, and if anyone can offer any thoughts or ideas, he would love to hear from you. Over to you, Chris:- June 20, 2008 Chris can be contacted at: projectsouthamerica@live.com Good luck Chris. Link to the auction:- http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250255442325 1 comments
I would like to say many thanks to all who have helped out with the preparation and organisation of the auction, the website maintenance, the publicity, and all the stuff that has gone on behind the scenes. It has been alot harder than I ever imagined it might be, but alot more interest has been shown the world over than I ever expected, or even imagined in my wildest dreams. Biggest thanks of all to my brilliant web designer, who did all of this in spare time, working around a full-time job and other committments. This wouldn't have been half the fun it has been without your help, support and suggestions. It has been an absolutely amazing and fun experience, and I have learned alot, both about myself and about the world in general. Finally, I would like to thank everyone out there who has taken an interest, and to all who have felt moved to email and offer support, advice, comments, and in many cases to share your own "blindsided" experriences. What an honour. I now starting to making plans as to what I will do next, and I am very excited about them. Alot of my new ideas and goals come from comments and questions on the GuestBook and in the Bulletin Boards, so thanks again for giving me a new direction. Many people have asked if I will be keeping a blog about what happens to me after this, and where I end up travelling to. Absolutely! I am very flattered that there are a few out there that are interested enough to ask. More to follow in tomorrows blog, when I get myself organised here.... Keep an eye on this blog over the next few days for updates on how the settlement is progressing, and when I expect to set off. Once again, huge thanks to all of you. It's been great fun! Best wishes to all. Ian Usher June 29th 2008 3 comments
I have been asked a few times if I have a list of goals, or things I want to achieve, and this has set me thinking over the last few months about what I really want from life, and what I would like to do. I have always had goals, and lists of things I have always wanted to do, and a few years ago I sat down and wrote a list of 100 goals - things that I would like to achieve in my lifetime. I had a look for that list, but could not find it. So I started to write another. I realised that I had actually achieved a couple of things off my original list of 100, but not many! During this process I realised what I wanted to do next - I wanted to start ticking some things off this list. I have always believed that life is all about adventure and experience, not about being safe and secure, so it is perhaps time to challenge myself, and step right out of my comfort zone. So this is the challenge I have set for myself... ACHIEVE 100 GOALS IN 100 WEEKS !! Because so many people have expressed an interest in following what happens to me and where I end up going to, I started making a website. However, as the auction approached, I had less and less time to work on it, and it is still quite incomplete. You can take a look at it here: www.100goals100weeks.com Please bear in mind that the site is quite a way from being complete yet, so some of the features are not working, but I hope to have it all up and running by the time I set off. My new project will be something you too can follow, even assist with, and if you like take part in if you wish. At the moment I am ten goals short of my complete list of 100, so I am looking for any suggestions as to what I might add to the list. Please send any ideas to me via the "Contact Me" page at 100goals100weeks.com. Once again, thanks to all who have offered support and encouragement throughout the ALife4Sale process, and to those who have expressed an interest in knowing what happens next. I am very flattered. Thank you. 0 comments Blog navigation:-
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.... and ....
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