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keepforward · 5 years

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7SEEDS: Last chapter, translation and thoughts

TL;DR: I translated the very last 7SEEDS chapter. KEEP IN MIND IT’S THE VERY LAST ONE, AND MIGHT BE SPOILERIFIC. Also, I have a lot of feelings, thoughts about the romantic couples, Ango’s situation, and more~

Of course, Spoilers for EVERYTHING.

Finally, about a year after its release, I finished translating the last chapter for 7SEEDS. It’s been a wild ride, and I am honestly impressed with how far I’ve come, and how much I’ve managed to learn along the way. Resources like Romaji to Kanji and Jisho have been an invaluable source of help and knowledge, which I feel deserve credit here.

Since this might not be making much sense: I’ve been translating the unreleased 7SEEDS chapters on Otakumole (if anyone has an account there—hello!! This is lisahey :D). Unfortunately, the very last one was not updated there, and I have no photoshop skillz, so.. this is as close as I can get to releasing my own version of this chapter, partly as a tribute to Tamura’s wonderful work.

Now, to talk about the ending…

Let’s talk about the pairings. I’ll admit it: I’m a huge shipper. Aramaki and Ayu were probably my favorite couple, and I would have loved to see at least an awkward little first kiss between them. Still, I know—both still have a long way to go, and I feel like Tamura made it pretty clear that they would eventually pair up. When Ran mentions something about having a lot of couples, we can see a shot with Semimaru/Natsu, Aramaki/Ayu, Gengoro/Akane, Haru/Koruri, and, naturally, Hana/Arash, so I believe we could call it canon. Even so… I still long to see more of my favorite characters T_T Perhaps I will have to resort to writing fanfiction to get over all these FEELINGS.

In that same topic, I recently saw an illustration with the 7SEEDS couples, which features Ayu holding both Aramaki and Tsunomata’s arms. Could Tamura be trying to say both could work? I believe so, but—I get the feeling that, from now on, Aramaki will be more proactive in their relationship (he did admit to Haru that he felt jealous), and eventually win over, whereas Tsunomata just… doesn’t care. I mean, he did just find out about his dead girlfriend, and his frozen baby, so— the guy might need some time to process that. Weirdly, I could see him pairing up with Botan… if only for the fact that he mentioned that he likes older women with big breasts, lol.

It is also worth mentioning that Ango is #foreveralone on that illustration, but also sort of… blends in with Ryou and Matsuri? … I’ll admit, with how close Ryou is to Ango, I could picture a threesome there. They WILL be travelling together for a long time, after all.

Natsu/Semimaru is… alright. Now that he’s decided that he likes her, Semimaru is clearly quite proactive (I believe he’s kissed her several times already?), while Natsu remains somewhat insecure. Clearly, she cares about him, but… is it really in a romantic way? I feel like Semimaru will have to learn to be more tender before he can truly win her over.

Karita/Ran was just… weird, to be honest. It sort of made sense for Karita to have a crush on Ran (she IS pretty awesome), but for Ran to return those feelings seems a little out of the blue. Karita… is a good guy, but I don’t believe he’s an equal to Ran in terms of maturity or, ahem, intelligence. I kind of get the feeling that Ran is using him for sex, and because, while not terribly bright, he’s loyal and reliable. I guess that might be enough for her? Still, Ran/Nijiko makes a lot more sense, in my eyes. There is that sexy panel with them discussing about the house—and, let’s face it, Nijiko is more on Ran’s intellectual level. Buuut I guess that, in this world, procreation is important…

Sakuya is also alone, apparently looking in Hana’s direction. Am I the only one who found him irritating? My guess is that he eventually paired up with someone… but whom? Who’d be willing to put up with his condescending, smug, unbearable ass? D:

Character bashing aside… I’ve seen some criticism for Ryou/Matsuri, but, personally, I enjoy it. Ryou can be mean as hell, but I think he’s demonstrated that he both needs and enjoys the company of cheerful, caring people, like Matsuri and Koruri. Matsuri sees the world differently than he does, and she has the courage to face him when he’s being a dick—and I think he’s come to realize that he needs that. While he might not be able to return it, he needs Matsuri’s cheerfulness, and her caring. Otherwise, he gets trapped in his own world— something I think is laid bare during the ‘ship and atom bomb’ arc, where he was constantly on edge, thinking of reality as a “test” full of traps. I have a lot of feelings for them! <3

…Though, I do wish we had seen more interactions between Ango and Matsuri, seeing as she is basically dating his best friend now, and they will be travelling together—possibly for YEARS.

Other than that, I wonder about the children. Will Hibari ever become less of an insufferable brat? After the dogs saved her, I thought Tamura might choose for her to work with the animals, but that seemingly wasn’t the case. On the other hand, she’s working with Momota, so that might lay the grounds for them to pair up in the future. I wonder about a triangle with Hotaru, further amplifying Hibari’s hatred and jealousy, but… I DO hope it wouldn’t come to that. Maybe Hotaru can find ~love~ in someone older, seeing as most of them are only about 4-6 years older than her.

Now… to talk about something a little more serious: what did you guys think about Ango’s redemption arc? It kind of broke my heart that there was clearly no going back, and that even close friends like Koruri and Gengoro were turning their backs on him. In a way, I think he’s self-exiling, trying to atone for his crimes. Will they manage to open the Ark? And if they do… will he be able to live a normal life with the others? Or will he keep travelling the world? Either way, I just hope the kid can finally find some peace.

In that vein of thought: was anyone else slightly irked that everyone was acting pretty… sanctimonious-like? Like, hey, Gengoro… remember when you okayed using Momota, a 12-year-old child, as bait for dinosaurs? Remember how you did nothing to help him as Ango forced him to climb a cliff, claiming you “understood how he felt”?

I also regard Ran’s comment about them “paying their respects to Izayoi” with a grain of salt. Akio and her, are believe, and some of the greatest offenders—and yet, no one ever brings it up, or tries to hold them accountable for any of it! They acted as villains at some point, stopping Ryuusei from getting water (which he needed for Kurumi, who was pregnant at the time), they locked in Hara and company inside that underground shelter, leaving behind their own teammate to possibly DIE down there, had they not managed to escape— they beat their team if they didn’t finish their chores, they stole and killed Izayoi’s animals, driving him to a failed mass murder attempt—BUT NO, Ango is the ONLY bad guy here, amiright!?!??! Poor Izayoi! They were such close ~*~friends~*~.

And, now, don’t get me wrong—I know Ango did something horrible, and I actually think that Hana’s fear of him is very legitimate, and well executed. I just wish the others would admit that they, too, aren’t perfect.

Despite my complaints, I still regard 7SEEDS as one of the best mangas ever written. It was a pleasure to translate it—and, I admit, I got somewhat teary eyed when I typed in the final “*END*”, as well as Tamura’s last, grateful goodbye.

Thank YOU, Tamura, for giving us so much throughout the years. You made this world come alive, to the point where I could simply never get enough of these many, beloved characters. I want to see them continue to grow, to mingle, to develop— but I understand that all good things must come to an end. And what an ending! I enjoyed that little background about Chimaki’s father, and was very touched when it turned out he did, after all, remember that single memory he had with his father. I hope you enjoy this translation, and, if you have any questions or recommendations, please let me know!

Wow this turned out long o_o

#7SEEDS #7 seeds #Tamura Yumi #Yumi Tamura

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sileeeles · 6 years

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S9+ Review

Visually stunning. Amazing camera. Amazing screen. But as they say, looks aren't everything.

You will noticed that I mention and compare to HTC a lot, and this is because that its my only other point of reference. Its all I’ve had, Android wise, for the past 4 years.

So, mostly in order of things you encounter, I shall try to share my thoughts and feelings. First of all the size. Its fairly large. For people with dinky fingers/hands, I wouldn’t recommend it, I’d go with the regular S9. But the S9+ is perfect for me as I have larger hands and stubby fingers. I’ve always struggled on 4 inches or less especially with typing, I’ll come to that later. The main noticeable difference between the two is the camera setup. Beyond that the S9+ has a slightly larger battery capacity and 2 more gigabytes of ram over the S9.

One of the main things I thought would bug me, is the screen. The rounded corners. Which, overall, costs you 0.1 of an inch of screen real estate. And it hasn’t bothered me at all. Its rather cool and interesting. More interesting than that is the odd aspect ratio. 18:5.9. The .9 apparently accounts for the curvature of the glass at the sides. Which is another thing I thought would bug me. My wife didn’t get the S7 Edge because she thought the curves would be annoying, but these are more subtle and ... less curvy than those models. And it hasn't really been an issue. Sometimes (usually on badly optimized websites and a few pictures) the text spills over the edge no matter what you do, but turning the phone landscape usually makes everything visible. Apps and games all tend to scale themselves to whatever they work best at, but you can have them be full-screen if you wish. It warns you that some apps may no work or behave well when forced into full-screen, but thus far I’ve never had an issue.

The phone has a headphone socket (thank god) and has basically ripped off what HTC was doing with Boomsound. And more specifically, what they were doing with the HTC 10. You see, the Boomsound speakers that were part of the M7/M8/M9 were gone on the HTC 10. At the time (I had an M8), it was like a revelation. Why on earth wouldn't ALL smartphone manufacturers do this? Many of them, including Samsung, put the speaker on the back of the phone which was often muffled by your hand when you were holding it. HTC changed that, although rather than having the two speakers on the HTC 10, they opted to have one at the bottom of the phone, and used the earpiece speaker for the other. It worked, although something was lost in translation. It sounded good, and still a lot better than many of the other phones around at the time,but it never really had clear or consistent stereo or sound. Maybe because the down-firing speaker did the mids and lows, and the earpiece speaker did the highs, which were mostly just tinny and quiet. Rather than just the one speaker now, Samsung has seemingly copied HTC’s effort and used exactly the same system. However, it sounds infinitely better. The sound from it is very clear stereo, at times almost like it surrounds you. Partly, I assume, down to the Dolby Atmos/AKG tuning (which also includes some very nice and good sounding headphones in the box). As far as I know, HTC has not included Dolby in their phones since the Desire HD which also had SRS (and was my preferred sound setting).

We’ve also switched to USB C (also present on the S8/S8+) which is a much welcome improvement. In my experience it has been far more reliable and less damageable than Micro USB ever was, indeed after two years the USB C port on my HTC 10 is still going strong.

The physical buttons are something that will undoubtedly become a point of contention, largely because of the Bixby button. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bothered by Bixbys existence. By and large, you can just disable it and ignore the fact that it was ever there. But the button was placed stupidly. Directly below the volume buttons, particularly on the S9+ where there is a tad more reaching for things, meant that I was pressing it. A lot. Which is a problem. Because initially I disabled Bixby all together. But I didn't really want the button to go to waste. So I searched, and as you would imagine I wasn’t the only one wanting to re-map it. And someone has helped with that, they created an incredibly useful app called bxActions. Which I mapped to the Camera. But of course the same thing kept happening. I pressed the button by accident, and the camera kept popping up. So I disabled it again, and had it play/pause audio when the screen was off. Yes, I do know that there are features like double press and long press, and perhaps it is worth using those instead. However, they are “pro” features you need to pay for.

The home button and hardware touch keys are gone. Replaced instead with Androids navigation bar (which is re-mapable by default so you can put the buttons the right way around). The home key is pressure sensitive (what they call 3D Touch which sounds more like an Apple thing). I’ve not really needed to use it, to be honest, or understand what its for. If the phone is locked, you can press the home key (if you can find it) instead of the power button, which takes you to the lock screen and whatever method of security you happen to have (iris of whatever). But I can bypass needing to do any of that by just using my fingerprint. Which is what I tend to do, beyond the “hey look at this, my phone unlocks when I look at it” novelty. I’m also incredibly aware with this phone that it has the potential to get screen burn in. This increases exponentially with things that are on the screen for longer periods of time than others. Such as the navigation bar. What would lower that risk, is having the position of the symbols move a pixel or so from where it was last time, each time the phone is active or each time the navigation bar is on screen.

The phone, like the models before it including the s6/s7 has a glass back. But in Samsung's case, there is a reason for it extending all the way back to those models as well. How big a reason that is, ultimately, is down the the individual user. And I imagine, most of the individual users would rather they didn't have something that was breakable. As if the front of the phone wasn't already enough of a risk for that. The reason for it is Wireless charging. If you’re like me, nothing will ever beat the cable, and wireless charging is fiddly at best. You need to get it in the right spot, and from what I’ve seen, it was never really that fast. Certainly not as fast as the fast charger.

Using the phone is, at this point, pretty intuitive. If you’ve used Android for long enough, you know where everything is and how everything works. Software wise, there is not much that you can moan about. There is, overall, less bloatware and what there is, most of it can be uninstalled. Samsung wise, their layout of things is a little ... oddly arranged but you get used to it. At this point its pretty close to the way HTC was laying things out.

One thing that does bug me though, is that there is a lot of content they will charge you for. Such as themes. HTC never had such a system, indeed you could create and customize pretty much each area that you wanted. Wallpaper, lock-screen, app background, icons, ringtones, even the background of sms messages. Whilst Samsung themes will do this, there is no option to create each one individually yourself, and there is no way (at least that I’ve found) where you can apply individual items from certain themes. For instance if I only want the icons, I can’t do that. I need to install the whole theme and the re apply my wallpaper and ringtone afterwards etc. Another thing is the warning you get when you turn the volume up so far. I don't need it every time, yes I know its not sensible, its never for very long, go away! Its as bad as the Netflix "Are you still watching?" Yes. And my controller turned off two episodes ago and is over the other side of the room! Go away!

One thing I have been using that I would normally have ignored, largely because it was already there and I wanted to explore, is Samsung Health (which was previously just called S Health). It will allow you to track a variety of things, including steps every day, excersize, heart rate and stress (there are sensors in the phone that include this, which is pretty normal for Samsung). It even allows you to track sleep, and even has the ability to keep track of blood sugar levels and such for diabetics.

A few of the packaged defaults I have changed. For instance the keyboard. There is nothing wrong, or that I found wrong, with the default Samsung keyboard. I am just far to used to Swiftkey, and my defaults within that, so I installed that. It has a one handed mode just like the Samsung default, so it makes it easier to type with one hand. Also the music player I have used, and will probably always use on Android is PowerAmp. Also use Chrome as well.

The camera is probably the most interesting thing about the phone at this point. It was the most heavily marketed aspect of it (because, ultimately, I suspect there isn't much different from the S8+). Whilst everything thats included in it is, at this point, nothing new ... well, except the variable F-stop, maybe, its the way it has been implemented that is cool. More so on the S9+ with the extra telephoto lens. I was an avid user of the slow motion on the HTC 10 (and the M8 I had before it) and for the S9/S9+ to have that in a supercharged way, is very fun for me, although they aren’t the first to include 960FPS. That honour goes to the Sony Xperia XZ I believe.

The always on display is cool, although I’ve found that, honestly, id rather have it off than have it on, and if I have it on, the design I’d choose is the edge one. Thankfully the risk of burn in from this is minimal, as it changes position and never stays in one place too long.

Beyond the phone, some of the extras that I have found to be useful are the adapters included in the box. Specifically the Micro USB to USB C adapter. Because, more than once I’ve forgotten my charger, and nowhere (at least nowhere cheap) seems to have USB C cables for sale. They’re all bloody Micro USB. This adapter means that I needn’t worry if I forget my charger again. I just go into poundland and buy a cable. You also get the standard OTG adapter in the box. Samsung's intended purpose for this, I believe, is for you to connect your old phone to it and copy over your content. But it has many more uses beyond that including game controllers, even charging up other devices and connecting USB sticks to your phone.

#samsung #galaxy #s9 #s9+#s9 plus #htc #htc10 #boomsound #dolby #atmos #bixby #bxactions #usbc #android #electronic

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cladeymoore · 5 years

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Real Estate Investing and Expecting the Unexpected

The following is a guest post by Riley from Young and the Invested.

Real estate investing often meets unexpected pitfalls, such as acquiring a money pit, handling overly needy tenants, or buying in an area which did not measure up to your expectations. These are all the nature of the business and should be accounted for before you enter the market.

In my case, I am a landlord who encountered two unexpected, yet informative experiences early in my real estate investing career. In a classic cause and effect scenario, one major instance of damage led to the discovery of a safety hazard in need of immediate action.

While both put my tenant at risk, the latter led to a replacement mandate for every owner in the building. This led to a complex-wide special assessment you come to loathe as a condo owner. But like all things in life, unexpected expenses crop up and hopefully you have been smart enough to budget accordingly.

The subject of this post will be the trying time I had the pleasure of experiencing early in my real estate investing career. It is fitting the story takes place at my condo, the investment property I felt most certain would present the fewest problems.

Clearly, there was an expectations gap and reality had other things in store.

My Real Estate Investment – A Condo in a 14-Story High Rise

When I started my real estate investing adventure, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, I knew being a property owner would present its challenges. This did not dissuade me from venturing out, but rather served as a caution I needed to observe for myself and fully recognize.

When I bought my condo in New Orleans, I lived there for almost 3 years. The unit presented a great location near my job, offered me my own space, and most importantly, represented a great value in a rapidly improving area of town.

During my stay, I was fortunate only to encounter one clogged drainage pipe from my air-conditioner compressor. Otherwise, the unit never gave me a problem and led me to believe the maintenance and upkeep would not be a hassle. Expectations can be a dangerous thing.

When I moved out, I decided to lease the unit and thereby enhance my return on the real estate investment. Initially, I thought I would use any free cash flow to pay off my mortgage faster, but first I decided to build up a reserve to guard against unexpected repairs or unit vacancy.

My experience of requiring little maintenance, when combined with a property manager on site, made leasing the unit a foolproof decision in my mind.

In many ways, the arrangement paid off and was ideal as an investment. However, despite budgeting for repairs, I hadn’t fully prepared myself mentally for them. In my building, those responsibilities fall solely on the unit owners' shoulders and will crop up whether you expect them or not.

And when stuff breaks or requires attention, I've come to learn some repairs can be managed with less urgency while some require immediate attention. This is the story of the latter.

The Emerald City

My trying real estate investing story starts not in New Orleans, where I live and own the condo, but 2,500 miles away in the Emerald City, Seattle, Washington.

In late 2017, my family decided to visit my brother in Seattle for Thanksgiving. He had recently moved there after a lifetime of pining for the Pacific Northwest and found his place amongst his friends who had moved there ahead of him.

We planned to stay for the 4-day weekend and see what the city had to offer. After visiting Gas Works park, the Space Needle, Chihuly’s Glass Museum, and Pike Place Market, our health took a turn.

Seattle, famous for its wonderful fall weather (sarcasm), got my wife and I sick. It’s unfortunate because our health in no way reflected our time spent in the city. I can’t wait to go back.

Little did we know our health was soon to be the least of our problems.

100 Hours of Exhaustion and Desperation

Having trouble sleeping with congestion and all the ailments associated with a cold, the last thing we needed was a 3 AM phone call from my tenant in New Orleans. She called to tell me the bathroom ceiling had collapsed, and the debris had fallen all over the bathroom and hallway floors.

Partly groggy from the cold medication and partly delirious from the time of night, it took me a few moments to assess the situation and what needed to be done remotely.

After talking through the situation with my tenant, I immediately offered to pay for her to stay in a hotel until I could get this repaired. Almost serendipitously, she had other accommodations available through her work, a nice hotel downtown.

She remarked how she had intended to use her free stay benefits but never found the time. When life closes a door, it opens a window. Or, in this case, when life collapses your bathroom ceiling, it books you a free room at a luxury hotel.

Fortunately, we didn’t need to change our plans to leave Seattle early because we were headed home later that day. We would be able to assess the damage that same day and decide how best to proceed.

When we arrived, my tenant had already cleaned most of the debris and managed to secure the suspended light fixture to a wall. My 400 square foot efficiency suddenly had 20% of its ceiling in trash bags.

As it turns out, the cause of the ceiling collapse was a leaking pipe from the unit above mine. Apparently, over the course of 10 years it had slowly dripped onto my bathroom ceiling.

Much like the straw which broke the camel’s back, the final drop tipped the weight of the ceiling and forced it to collapse. The strangest part was the lack of visible water damage prior to the event.

Knowing I could not repair this myself, I was able to hire a contractor through a recommendation of the building manager. Within 36 hours, he was on site and ready to begin his repairs.

He removed the metal grating left behind from the formerly-attached sheetrock ceiling, ran fresh wire to the new lighting fixture, and replaced the new ceiling and walls which had been damaged.

Compounding Problems

In the process, he discovered a major malfunction with my electrical box housed in the bathroom. When the company designed the box in the 1950s, it had a design flaw which could result in a short-circuit and starting a fire.

As you can imagine, this tendency to short-circuit would only increase when exposed to condensation (i.e., from water damage which had accumulated over the previous decade).

My contractor offered to refer me to an electrician, but we soon found out he wouldn’t be available for at least a week. He also quoted me a price I couldn’t believe was accurate.

After speaking with my father, an electrical engineer, he said this would be something we could handle ourselves. However, we would need to replace the circuit breaker box before the contractor could finish the wall replacement around the box.

Otherwise, we'd have to re-replace the wall. That would be more time, more money, and more inconvenience for my tenant. The contractor told us it needed to be replaced within the next 24 hours or he'd have to return to make the wall repairs in 2 weeks, which was unacceptable.

Facing a tight schedule, my dad and I had to size, buy, remove, replace, and rewire the box ourselves.

Working with urgency, we worked all night to install the new box in time for the contractor to replace the wall in the morning.

Exhausted, still sick, and working under the cover of darkness (no power and no daylight), we managed to remedy the entire situation in a little over 100 hours.

We also saw a way to save money by doing the circuit box replacement ourselves. As for the ceiling, the unit owner above me assumed full responsibility and paid the contractor in full.

Later that day, my tenant was able to move back into the unit. I never thought such a small condo could lead to such a big problem.

Lessons Learned from Real Estate Investing

From my story, I hope to convey the following lessons:

Be prepared for anything as a landlord. Anything can happen. Try to keep a level head because losing your cool in situations like this can lead to poor outcomes. If you can roll up your sleeves and put in the work necessary to maintain your real estate investments, they can make a lot of money and prove to be worthwhile in the long-term.

Always keep your tenant’s interests in mind. I want to provide my tenants a high-quality living experience in exchange for fair rent. When I think of my tenants, I think about how I would want to be treated by a landlord. Thinking this way guides me not to cut corners and always keep their interests in mind.

No investment is without risks. Despite this investment providing a good return, it still comes with risks. Much like investing in index funds, there are still ebbs and flows with how your returns accumulate. The importance is to own and maintain the property over the long-term to see true results.

from Money 101 https://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2019/03/real-estate-investing-and-expecting-the-unexpected.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

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maxwellmmeyers · 5 years

Text

Real Estate Investing and Expecting the Unexpected

The following is a guest post by Riley from Young and the Invested.

Clearly, there was an expectations gap and reality had other things in store.

My Real Estate Investment – A Condo in a 14-Story High Rise

My experience of requiring little maintenance, when combined with a property manager on site, made leasing the unit a foolproof decision in my mind.

And when stuff breaks or requires attention, I've come to learn some repairs can be managed with less urgency while some require immediate attention. This is the story of the latter.

The Emerald City

My trying real estate investing story starts not in New Orleans, where I live and own the condo, but 2,500 miles away in the Emerald City, Seattle, Washington.

We planned to stay for the 4-day weekend and see what the city had to offer. After visiting Gas Works park, the Space Needle, Chihuly’s Glass Museum, and Pike Place Market, our health took a turn.

Seattle, famous for its wonderful fall weather (sarcasm), got my wife and I sick. It’s unfortunate because our health in no way reflected our time spent in the city. I can’t wait to go back.

Little did we know our health was soon to be the least of our problems.

100 Hours of Exhaustion and Desperation

Partly groggy from the cold medication and partly delirious from the time of night, it took me a few moments to assess the situation and what needed to be done remotely.

As it turns out, the cause of the ceiling collapse was a leaking pipe from the unit above mine. Apparently, over the course of 10 years it had slowly dripped onto my bathroom ceiling.

Knowing I could not repair this myself, I was able to hire a contractor through a recommendation of the building manager. Within 36 hours, he was on site and ready to begin his repairs.

He removed the metal grating left behind from the formerly-attached sheetrock ceiling, ran fresh wire to the new lighting fixture, and replaced the new ceiling and walls which had been damaged.

Compounding Problems

As you can imagine, this tendency to short-circuit would only increase when exposed to condensation (i.e., from water damage which had accumulated over the previous decade).

My contractor offered to refer me to an electrician, but we soon found out he wouldn’t be available for at least a week. He also quoted me a price I couldn’t believe was accurate.

Facing a tight schedule, my dad and I had to size, buy, remove, replace, and rewire the box ourselves.

Working with urgency, we worked all night to install the new box in time for the contractor to replace the wall in the morning.

Exhausted, still sick, and working under the cover of darkness (no power and no daylight), we managed to remedy the entire situation in a little over 100 hours.

We also saw a way to save money by doing the circuit box replacement ourselves. As for the ceiling, the unit owner above me assumed full responsibility and paid the contractor in full.

Later that day, my tenant was able to move back into the unit. I never thought such a small condo could lead to such a big problem.

Lessons Learned from Real Estate Investing

From my story, I hope to convey the following lessons:

from Money 101 https://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2019/03/real-estate-investing-and-expecting-the-unexpected.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

lindoig · 7 years

Text

Days 18 to 22 (May 14 to 18)

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums. Having inadvertently staged our own mini-celebration for Heather’s Mother’s Day last week, we forgot all about it this time until half the day had gone and messages started coming in from the kids. Notwithstanding, we tried hard to celebrate it again.

We went to the Mindel Beach Market in the afternoon. We arrived early because we had been advised that parking was a major issue, but it was pretty easy really. We strolled around for a few hours and Heather bought a couple of small items. It was reputed to have a wide selection of ethnic food outlets as well as some of the usual crafty stuff, but I didn’t feel that it quite lived up to its advertising. There were certainly lots of food outlets, but quite a few were simply replicating their neighbours and there was nothing really unusual at all. Still, we indulged ourselves and what we had was quite tasty. As the sun dropped toward the horizon, the crowds drifted from the Market down to the beach and at least a thousand or two ooh-ed and aah-ed and took thousands of photos as the light faded and the sea swallowed the burning globe. Actually, most people left before the sun was completely gone for some reason, leaving only a few hundred stalwart party people to dance the night away – and it looked like plenty of them had come well-prepared. But once again……. what is with all the people standing in the water, or splashing and swimming, with all the crocodile (and poison box jelly-fish) warning signs about?

Next day, we went west – not on the recommendation of the Visitors Centre where such a direction seemed a little odd. It was 100 or so kilometres to Dundee Beach, stopping a few times along the way to explore. There was not a lot to see, but we sat under a shady tree and ate our sangers and had a cuppa overlooking the brand-new boat-ramp and the ancient Arafura Sea. On the way back, we took a 50-odd kilometre detour north, up to the tip of the Cox Peninsula with Darwin on the horizon to the east. It was getting late so we didn’t hang around there for long and retreated to a couple of coldies and the air conditioner in the caravan.

Quite a lot of the area we travelled through that day had been burned. We have seen lots of fires as we have travelled in the NT. During the Wet, the grass grows to more than three metres high (almost as high as a very tall elephant's eye) and there is a policy of fuel reduction burning up here. People could easily get lost in the grass (a haven for all sorts of deadly snakes and other toothsome critters) so it is a very sensible policy in my view. Actually, the grass is so dense, you probably couldn’t get far enough into it to get lost, but they have apparently have some big bushfires over the years and burning off reduces the risk of uncontrollable conflagrations. For example, we were told that they burn the whole of Litchfield National Park every three years- one third each year and we saw plenty of fires there. We have seen numerous very hot fires right up to the very edge of the road as well as extensive blackened areas, many where there are plenty of logs and dead trees still smoking and the raptors are circling looking for some freshly baked prey – or maybe just trying to find a place to roost without burning their tootsies. We have not been inconvenienced at all by the fires. There are ample signs warning of the risk of low visibility due to smoke, but despite seeing thick smoke in the distance, all we have experienced is a few wispy areas where the aroma of burning leaves is really lovely. (Even when at home, we sometimes collect a few leaves and burn them of an evening just for the smell of the bush and we have enjoyed smelling that on a grander scale up here on lots of occasions.

Tuesday was FABULOUS. When we were on Bruny Island in April, we shared a table at the Bowls Club with a couple whose daughter and SIL have a tourism business up here so I contacted them and said we were interested (even negotiated a ‘family discount’ on account of the ‘referral’ from Kelly’s Mum.) The business is Adelaide River Tours, not to be confused with Adelaide River Cruises from whom they bought the business a couple of years ago. Very few people have heard of them and they are struggling a bit to get known, partly because the previous owner still operates and advertises his Jumping Croc Cruises that almost drown the airwaves up here. He advertises very heavily and Kelly and Alex are still trying to gain market share. We think their all-day tours are hugely better than the hour-long Jumping Croc tours, but horses for courses.

We were picked up at the caravan park gate at 8.15 and eventually joined about 8 other people and were taken to Adelaide River where we boarded their boat and cruised up river for 30-40 kilometres. We saw several crocodiles, one huge beast that investigated the boat quite closely for 10 minutes or so and we had to keep moving to avoid it getting too close. We also saw one by the shore eating what I think was a large olive python – it was having some trouble getting it down. Several of the crocs were relatively small, mainly 2-3 metres – and one cute little metre-long baby made a dash for the river right next to where I was in the boat. He was out of the water and among the mangroves and we just made eye contact when he decided it was safer in the water – they can really run fast!!! We had morning tea on the boat and lunch at the most amazing little private lease they have way up the river. It is just 100 square metres or so, well out of the water, but set up with battery-operated fans, gas barbeques, tables and chairs, even a dunny they have set up. A few of us went for short walks outside the leased area, but it was very hot and it was good to retreat to the relative cool of the shade in the shelter shed. They made us a barbecue, with lots of salads, fruit, cold drinks and a cuppa and we enjoyed an hour or so in the middle of nowhere. Then back on board for more exploring and a coldie or two on Goat Island – a very rustic resort run by a grossly extroverted eccentric with a crazy sense of humour and a singing dog (he plays the harmonica and the dog barks along with him.) All very kitch – ultra-kitch really – but he has carved out a profitable business in the middle of the bush catering for tourists like us, runaways from Darwin’s Big Smoke and fishermen who get helicoptered in to the tiny pad hacked from the jungle behind the ‘motel’.

It was then a run for home, stopping once or twice to check out a sunbaking croc – one truly enormous reptile that stayed around long enough for us to all get plenty of pics – and then delivered back to the caravan at about 6.15. It was a great day with interesting people – but only a few birds.

Wednesday seems a bit of a blur. We went out around 10am to buy a new stabiliser leg for the van – the new one we had fitted before leaving home wouldn’t wind down, no matter how hard I hammered it. I even pulled it completely apart and couldn’t get it to work. Of course, the guy who sold us the new one gave ours one solid belt and it worked fine after then, so we are now carrying a spare stabiliser that will probably never get used. I had to go to Medicare to sort out some issues we had in Alice Springs – and they were completely unhelpful, but we eventually resolved the issues ourselves (I hope). We went to the ferry terminal to pay for a tour we had booked, did a little bit of grocery shopping and somehow it was then after 4.30 – and neither of us can figure out how the hours slipped away. Maybe we had a nap during our travels but neither can remember that! Darwin is a lot bigger (and a LOT more spread out) than I imagined so maybe we spend a few of those hours driving from one side of town to the other – but I think not.

Thursday was also a little bit lost to us – maybe we are getting the hang of this sort of lifestyle and an hour or three spent doing something we can’t recall next day is not a big deal. I know we spent some time on our emails, paying bills, making phone calls and updating our blogs, and during the late afternoon, I went off on my own to the Botanical Gardens to try to spot some birds. There were plenty there and I saw a few that we hadn’t seen before on this trip, but nothing quite new to us. I didn’t see the pittas that they say are in the Gardens so that was a little disappointing – maybe I might need to make a return trip after next week and try to spot them allowing myself a bit more time to wander around. The gardens are quite extensive and definitely worth a visit. They are divided into numerous ecological and geographical environments and I found them really interesting.

(Species count 143, including 16 new ticks since leaving home)

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