Every Avenue

Hello and welcome again. It's been a year since I have moved back to my parents' house but I wasn't wanting to throw away my life I have built up myself. There have had been serious hurdles particularly with work but for those who just got into this post, let me recap what has gone on.

Throughout the start of this year, I was let's say underemployed. Rostered on very little days, sometimes none. That landed me in a serious rut to the point that if I had to leave Repco where I'm currently employed, my life would might as well be over. I tried to go with recruitment services. I hoped to go with Centrelink to get myself into an employment agency but because I'm partly on a Disability Support Pension, they'll only allow me to be put into a disability employment service and only get me to work a maximum of 8 hours a week. This is nowhere near ideal for me but luck had stricken when the Pakenham Repco store called me to fill in and I'm glad that I've accepted the manager's request.

Since filling in at the Pakenham store, I've had the task of relearning the tasks working at the counter from not only serving trade and retail customers but picking orders then confirming shipping, doing some material requests which involves ordering products from other stores including NAPA, some delivery driving duties which I'm discovering along with the other staff members could become an ideal job when the times comes to get a new full-time job. And these are the extra tasks which I've had the honour of taking on especially the past times when I struggle to get work than can still plague me. I've been lucky to work over the years and it's worth mentioning that I'm not just some Centrelink recipient who receives the Disability Support Pension.

Now, with the few months passed and this year's Federal election over, my next task is to move out from my parents' house and back to the south east of Melbourne to continue on with my new life.

This was my exciting moment this year, going out attending house inspections. I still held on my intentions of finding rentals within the Casey area (suburbs included Berwick, Narre Warren, even Cranbourne North, Clyde North and Hampton Park) as they're more activities there. Also, I intend to live in a house with a housemate and have a 2 car garage and utilise it to keep cars to fix up and sell.

But then, it hadn't gone entirely my way. With Centrelink providing rent assistant to it's recipients, I gave it a shot as they'll provide 75 cent for every dollar of rent we'll pay. Once I've organised getting rent assistance when I've been accepted as a tenant and going to move out, the rent assistance didn't turn out greatly as they'll give me the amount that's too small. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the lease which left me disheartened.

Other than that, there have been things I took onboard. Just about all the rentals I've looked at are townhouses and believe me, they're seriously good houses to live in where land spaces are a premium. Townhouses have 2 storeys-the first provides the kitchen-dining room, lounge room, laundry and access to the garage up to 2 cars. The second storey consists of 3 bedrooms and a bathroom although visitors will need to walk up and down stairs. Along with the small backyard, you'll realise the moment you visit a townhouse and you may ask do we really need a house with a big block of land, big backyard and just one big single storey house. To me, I don't see the need to go there. But these are the ever-growing stepping stones that accumulate as my life goes by.

The biggest hurdle preventing me from moving is finding a suitable housemate. Because I don't have a great deal of friends or know anymore people, this proved to be a hard task. I've had a few friends who I've asked including one when we were housemates previously and although they're able to meet financial criteria, the idea fell through. So what other ideas can I pursue?

Later, the real estate agent back when I lived in Pakenham suggested the idea of living in a rooming house since last year.

I gave that idea a go and once I contacted the real estate, we've organised a visit at the new rooming house in Drouin. Here are the things I took onboard.

Each resident has their own bedroom, living, bathroom and kitchenette.

This is a random example by the way. That photograph is of an apartment space in Tokyo but you'll get the idea.

Next, rent is paid weekly including utilities, residents are to provide their own internet services. When I had the look at the rooming house in Drouin, the weekly rent stands approximately $300 AUD or so. But then, drawbacks spring up.

Car parking spaces are extremely limited and then, I'll have to live with other people but can be bad when they have unfavourable personalities like when I have encountered back when I lived in a sharehouse with 5 other people. Since then, that big scenario had put me off living in a sharehouse.

There's another rooming house in Officer but first, I'll present you all with this dilemma.

What you're looking at is a map of this particular region of Victoria. The red circle highlights where Drouin is where I took the look at the rooming house there. The 2 amber circles highlight where the Repco stores I currently work at. You'll realise how long my commutes I expect to take but to make this easier to understand, I shall give you this rundown on the approximate fuel bills each month.

To start off, my monthly fuel bill when living in Neerim South stands approximately at $265 AUD. And commuting around 1,670 kilometres (1,038 miles).

If I live in the Drouin rooming house, I'll expect to travel 1352 kilometres (840 miles) each month and spend $217 AUD on petrol. From here, I'll save around 318 kilometres (198 miles) off my commute. Even 15 minutes shaved off.

But if I live in a rooming house at Officer, I'll expect to travel around 380 kilometres (236 miles) each month and spend $52.19 AUD on petrol. In comparison to Drouin, there's the significant saving of 972 kilometres (604 miles) to commute so in that sense, it'll be worth living in Officer. However, the weekly rent expected will be within more than $400 AUD and along with using my storage unit and paying rent there so in the end, I've decided it wouldn't be too worthwhile.

With that idea ruled out, I've attempted to find other ideas. There's an idea of getting into public housing but my current financial situation aren't dire enough along with the big waiting list. And next to no guarantees when I can get into one so it's safe to rule that idea out. I've been given a lead to any homeless services where I can give those services a call to find any clients who'll be willing to become a potential housemate. But no further luck. Not even a single person on the Flatmates website had put their hand up.

With the feeling of diminishing hope building up, a homeless service gave me the lead which is the Fairy Floss Real Estate group on Facebook.

In this group, members advertise vacant rooms and themselves looking for a room to move into. I joined mid-September and set about posting an idea of having a housemate to move out with. And despite having positive reactions, I didn't get anywhere when I posted my expression of interest. On top of that, I have pretty much run out of luck. The best thing I can do is to meet more people.

As much as I'm currently in a handful of groups including the SECAN arts hub and the Unique Rides car group, I still face certain hurdles but another idea popped up which is attending walking groups. The idea was brought up when a person who I've been keeping contact with since we met at the Rockup group via Meetup has been telling me that he got into walking groups since last year and meeting various people including young women. I then decided to give walking groups a go.

Last month, I've started participating. The first event was unsuccessful but later, another event popped up. Mid way, there was the walking event at Lysterfield Lake which is north of Narre Warren. It is convenient enough to drive there and once I've attended the walk there, I've been able to engage in conversations for once.

And here are the couple of photos I've taken. I've been able to talk about what I've been up to including starting up my new life with art and some Pokemon talk. With cars, I've had talks with a particular participant even about a Nissan Pintara with the second generation being my first car. And even talks about the Holden Vectra, both near non-existent on our public roads. On top of all that, this is a start.

What you're seeing here is the bigger and exciting blurb which is the singles dating walk.

The big trouble that has plagued me throughout my life is the fact I've never dated anyone. What doesn't help is a lack of opportunities for singles like myself to meet others to mingle and become a couple. This wasn't a problem for my grandfather back when he was young. I can remember back in his youthful days they go out for dances to meet potential partners. There was a moment when my then grandmother was sitting by herself according to my grandfather. He asked her to dance with him and this is how my family is initiated.

Sadly, these days are long gone and nowadays, there aren't much in a way to meet and even date someone else until now.

Within the start of this month, I've submitted myself to participate at this singles dating walk in Glen Iris. Hopeful to meet up, the event got postponed due to bad weather for 2 weeks. In the next 2 weeks, I've been able to attend. Starting from the Sinclair Avenue playground and we all walk switching partners although at that event, there had been more males than females.

Other than that, I met and got to know 3 women. It's been an experience and a good learning curve to add. There's a particular one out of the 3 who'll be keeping in touch, we end up connecting through Instagram as we both have our own accounts and she especially likes to meet up with me for a coffee. And that is a definite experience worthwhile, maybe more to come.

Anyway, the ideas I've pursued hadn't worked out but some carry some potential. I hoped to find a potential housemate but that ended up falling into the too hard basket and after that, the easy route will be to live in a sharehouse especially in the outer south east of Melbourne. I came up with my own conditions after some hard lessons learnt from living at a previous sharehouse and these including a maximum of 4 housemates and another matter which'll be how they'll get along. I should also mention my autism at times on inspections as we're not the usual people who blend in with other people, more in a social setting.

I'll still intend of keeping the idea of living in a sharehouse as a temporary thing but when a time comes to move back into a rental, a worthy idea would be to move in with a partner.

Just to recap, things hadn't gone well and even when I come up with anything that can make things possible, they fell flat on the face but I tried. But anything that goes well positioning myself to life that'll be perhaps treasurable for years to come, that'll be under to be continued. My idea anyway.

See you next time!