So other than visiting people that I wanted to see… and I also kind of ran out of time to visit everyone I wanted to… what else have I had to do before being ready to move back to Australia?

Well, fixed my bike, sold my bike, posted stuff back to Australia, hung out with Bob a lot, read a lot.

My bike.. that fucking bike.  1st of all I haven’t been able to ride it since coming back from China due to be injured…and you know, not being able to walk or anything.

So when I finally went to start it and realised that I couldn’t… well…then it had to go into the shop to get fixed and get some wiring connections hooked back up..that I guess I damaged before whilst getting air on a speed bump.

So had to get all that fixed before advertising it online. 
Now it is sold, but the process …well I hate this process as much as trying to find a new rental house.  The people you deal with are just scum.  Pure scum!
Placed it online for 2,700 euros, and bikes like this are worth maybe 3,000 if selling privately.  Now its winter…so of course there’s not as many buyers, and I didn’t have much time so I priced it lower, knowing that I might only really get 2,400 for it.

I’ve had it for a year, its done me well, there’s a bit of rust on it.. but the bike is from 2004 and its superficial rust anyway, that I know you can fix for around 35 euros. It’s just that I didn’t have the time.

Obviously I should have put it in the shop way before and got them to take it away etc. and done all the physical lifting etc… but I’ve explained before that just because you look well…it doesn’t mean that you are, and this has an effect on other things in your life, not just physical stuff. … so the point is.. that didn’t happen.

You get a lot of people that are ‘tyre kickers’, meaning they think they want a bike, they like the bike you’re selling…but not sure if this is the right decision right at this time… and so usually just wait until someone else buys the bike and their decision is made for them.

People bidding 2,000.  For the bike, or telling me the bike is not in good quality, when they haven’t ridden the bike, or whatever.  They are all pure scum.  Especially the dealerships or people that sell the bike on, because in the end, they’re the ones that’s going to employ all those crappy tactics.

The guy that eventually bought the bike…ended up telling me that ‘the tyres were not in good condition’, which they were (6 months old)
that ‘its got some rust and that costs a lot of money to fix’  which it doesn’t 35 euros at most to rub off, and apply a new spray on zinc layer, and that ‘it has a missing scratch peg, that will cost money to replace, & a chip in one of the panels for which the panel needs to be replaced’  which again…are cheap 25 euros and the chip can be filled in..

I even told all this to him, because he kept decreasing his offer… to which I eventually told him, “look, I know what you’re doing, the rust is superficial, I know how much it costs to fix, as do you, and its around 35 euros, the tyres ARE in good condition, whether you say it or not… the engine runs perfectly, and has proven itself all through the winter, so I’m thinking actually that I should transfer it to my Dutch housemate, and get him to sell it, because you’re starting to annoy me.”

That quickly shut him up, but at the same time, I managed to get much less than I wanted for it.

But what is done is done.  And as much as someone pointing out hypothetical situations, and “oh what you should have done, or could have done”  blah blah… captain hindsight kind of stuff… well obviously I’m going to get angry at them.

So it’s done.  Time to move on.

Looking forward to riding my brother and dad’s Yamaha MT-07 when I get back to Australia.

Managed to post a lot of my stuff back to Australia, I think it cost about 200 euros all up.  Things included, books, documents, my helmet that I crashed in Ordos with, and old computer, some hard drives, some plugs, clothes, some suits etc., and even some medical documents ..  things that I’ll never be able to take with me in my limited suitcase space… nor do I want to, considering that I’ll be travelling for around 2 months and going to many different places.

I read/ listened to audio books a lot, I finished the ‘Bill the Vampire’ series.  Which was amazing.  I haven’t finished writing my series review on that, nor even the last book review, but it will be up soon.  I then managed to return a few of those books because they came out with a compilation one.

I finished Hell Divers-ghosts (book 2)  + The Art of Invisibility.  (a book that I’ve been meaning to finish for ages).

And today I managed to use those save credits on books I’ve had in my wish list for some time.

Bought a new suit

Turns out… that since the accident, and the fact that I spent 1 month in bed just sleeping and eating, plus the time after doing very little exercise ….this meant that I’m now someone that …well is not in the shape I’d like to be in.. .and in fact, far from it.

Also turns out, that as I was packing, and seeing what needed to be posted back etc., that I tried on a few of my older suits to find out which one I would wear to maxims wedding…. Turns out.. I didn’t fit into any of my odl suits. And like not even by a long shot.   Bugger.
Which is a shame.
So I had to buy a new suit.  Its blue & very nice material, and while its off the shelf, the jacket fits me very well (European styling) and the pants were modified to take in my larger size. 
So I’m happy with it.
Wish I got some new affordable shoes.. but we can’t have everything.  I think I spent too much on the suit to justify new shoes.

Have finally been going to the gym.  Been going for 2 weeks now in fact.

I came to a realisation that I should have come to a while ago, that I could do very light leg exercises.  Which knowing that the legs are the biggest muscles, working out these would have kept the weight off a little bit.

So… basically that’s what I’ve been working on.
Of course, for the 1st month and a half, where I couldn’t walk… of course I couldn’t have done that either.  So maybe its best that I only just started again now.
And upper body?  Well… this is fairly depressing for me, because it turns out I can only do half of what I could before.
For many machines that would involve shoulders or chest press, or related things, I was able to do about 50kg, and before china, going up 5kg every 2 weeks… which I think is pretty impressive.
But now.. 25kg, is about the limit.

The article I wrote about things looking ok, but actually not being so… well this adds to it I think.  [see that article here]
To know that you’ve gone that far backwards… well its just a shit feeling.

Oh yeah, I’ve also watched a lot of Rick & Morty with Bob, quite a few movies and played a few games with the house mates, that was all a lot of fun.  Probably not a great use of my time, but also kind of needed for the mental state that I’m in at the moment.

I’ve also been running my next project past a couple of close friends, and have got some great ideas & suggestions back.  So I’m really looking forward to starting this project when I get back to Australia.

Will give more details when I’m back in Australia.