A Year and a Half

Hello and welcome to another edition on what has been going on in this blog.

It's been a year and a half since I've moved to Pakenham to start a new life from Neerim South. There have had been difficulties I've encountered but it's been a big learning curve. There is a decent handful of firsts in my life such as planning my new hobby working on cars, flipping lawn mowers to start off with, meeting new people who are relatable, maintaining my unit to be a hospitable home although there isn't much housework that's needed and still building myself up.

Another intriguing thing for myself is discovering more fascinating things about the Autism spectrum. It began when last year I went to see my new psychiatrist in Melbourne as part of my mental health plan and to suss out my 'apparent' Schizophrenia. This may sound bizarre but throughout my life, I encounter intrusive thoughts. Some were uncomfortable whereas some are a nuisance. Although I'm currently medicated, the first 2 appointments with my now psychiatrist signal a turning point for me. He has indicated I've had bad experiences which from what I understand pops up in my mind so that I've had thoughts were uncomfortable. I hadn't had anyone telling me to do something bad nor I was hallucinating so that he doesn't see enough evidence that I have Schizophrenia. Lately, I'm thinking it's potentially to do with Autism. 

And another thing recalling what I've learnt from Asperger's Syndrome when the brain overruns, this is another fuel for thought for me. And then, there may be a potential I might have a degree of ADHD. This'll be something to look into and speaking of that, a psychologist I'm currently seeing reckons I should be re-evaluated. And that's understandable.

But now, something different.

Last year also, I've been taking up art again. As it happened, I had an escape to the National Gallery of Victoria and looked at the artworks on display so then, I went into it again.

As of the day when I publish this page. I have completed 2 paintings. One titled Abstract Mrs Brinks and another titled Black Sheep Banned shown below.

How I came up with this artwork is interesting. I've had noticed the black sheep nursery rhyme had an unsuspecting dark motif as it's been regarded as insulting to black people. But another thought I'll ask myself is are there any people who are offended. And this painting provides a talking point.

Of the interesting feedback I've had, one of my work colleagues described the sheep as though it's in a slaughterhouse. However, my mum when she looked at it when my parents came over to my house mentioned it's a killing of childhood with greatest sympathy for the sheep. On top of that, it's what art is all about. Not only to relax you but to send out anything you think of want it out for anyone else to see.

But anyway, I'll give you a rundown on the other artworks I've hung up along with some additions to my home.

This is my Old Grandma Hardcore painting that's hung up. That was one of my high school art projects. At the time, I was mesmerised by a grandmother who has played video games which I've seen on Youtube which I haven't seen before but amazed. In this painting, I've combined all the gaming consoles along with gaming references of the games she has played. And last but not least, her on the bottom right corner. There is also her quotation which says "Game On Fucker" but because I was at high school, it's against school policy for any profanities so it was modified to make it more family friendly.

For any outer space fanatics, here's your glimpse on the Planetary Assortments painting. As you can see, there are 8 main planets in our solar system in their actual sizes. From left, there's Neptune, Jupiter, Uranus and Saturn and at the bottom, there's Earth, Mars, Mercury and Venus. At the bottom of the painting, I have a wooden sculpture of a trojan horse and an old phone I've had which I've sacrificed for another artwork titled Technology is good if it works.

Before I hung up my paintings, I thought I'll hang up the key hooks which is a Richmond themed one featuring a Jack Riewoldt trading card and that is a good idea instead having keys into the backet below. I thought of showing you more paintings but I've decided not to as this page might get boring.

And in regards to cars, I'm still going with my new hobby working on cars. What I'll look to be doing is to flip cars to make additional money for a home loan deposit. I realise it can be hard to save up probably taking around 10 years to get the money. I have certainly had 2 accomplishments with me buying 6 lawn mowers to fix up and all sold plus working on my then Astra especially replacing the radiator and thrilled to the core I got it running again minus its ABS module failure.

My current car has been so far so good although it's an automatic but I won't give up on manual driving as I still have a dream car I want to do as part of my bucket list.

If you are wandering about my dream car as you're reading my blog for the first time, I came across this idea last year as something cool to do. This is suppose to be a series 2 AU Ford Falcon sedan and I'm wanting to do a junkyard rescue and build it up just like this sketch. And that lately brings up the topic of upcycling cars rather than scrapping them. It's rather wasteful when old cars when they have plenty of life left get scrapped and wasted especially how expensive cars are to buy and I find it ridiculous about the idea of having to trade in your cars between 3 or 5 years. Why do that when new cars are worth god knows how many money.

But a new thought popped up at a moment when I've seen an advertisement on TV about the new Audi SUVs being sporty to drive which I'll bring up now.

I'll bring up the Audi SQ7 being a not-so humble and nifty SUV such as the well regarded Toyota Land Cruiser but one of the German SUVs that are well driver and performance oriented especially with its big powerful brakes and a luxurious interior. But don't expect them to be bush bashed in Gippsland.

For this topic, I'll pick the model with the turbo V8 engine being the most sporty model and costing $166,400 AUD excluding on-road costs. All this for luxury and performance.

And then I'll bring up the idea of upcycling cars. I wanted my dream Falcon project to be like a high end weekend cruiser but being sporty at the same time. What I can do is when I'll start on the project, I would include all the costs that go with it and maybe compare it to the cost of buying a brand new sporty Audi SQ7.

I realise lately I believe in using elbow grease and enjoy fixing things. Earlier, I hadn't thought of all this but as I got myself into mechanics and anything DIY, I feel like a man that'll keep evolving much like a Pokemon.

Although there is a lot as I live by myself, I'm not too alone and I'll keep going.

See you next time!