2024 Week 8: New Directions

Jon and I finally got our first Airtasker job - to assemble and install an IKEA SLAKT bed in someone's bomb shelter. Now, assembling a bed sounds easy, right? Not this bed. This was a finicky design with built-in storage and drawers, and there were a million parts (4 boxes total) and the assembly booklet is thicker than, say, The Great Gatsby. It took us nearly 3 hours, but I guess it wasn't bad for a pair of n00bs.

I learnt one new culinary trick: how to cook chicken breast. I love to eat chicken breast but never had much success cooking it. It's always come out rubbery. I thought I needed some fancy sous vide machine to get it tender, but it turns out that all you need to do is pan-sear the chicken on both sides briefly, then cover and let the insides slowly steam until cooked. Even with just a little salt and pepper, they were good.

Also made a sort of chili with minced chicken, bell peppers, tomatoes and frozen spinach. But I didn't have any beans on hand so I used a packet of Gits Heat and Eat chickpeas. 

The result was a bit salty, but it went great with the frozen taftaan we got from Mustafa. 

Taftaan is a big puffy Persian bread kinda like Turkish pide. That was the main hit from that Mustafa haul. Some of the items pictured below: Gits and Haldiram RTE chickpeas $2.50 each (probably hits), methi or fenugreek prata $0.50 (miss), frozen taftaan $1 (hit!), frozen sheermal $1 (miss), Amul ice cream $1.90 (miss).

I've just been getting used to my new routine this week. Not only do I have more free time, I also have more money than when I was working part-time at the bookstore. It's weird. 

All this boredom is good for me, though. Better to be bored than busy with unfulfilling things. One result of this boredom is that I'm moving towards a mid-career switch into social services. I've started applying for jobs and looking into the gov's Career Conversion Programme, and on Friday I went to the NCSS Tribe job fair/event at PLQ too.

I don't know if this will work out for me or if I'll end up losing interest. But then, nothing is forever. I'm just glad I have the chance to try something that's interested me for years.

Realised that I finally have no anxiety around finances - after nearly 2.5 years! Money is something I worried a lot about when I first quit working full-time, even though I made a lot from freelancing. Then when the writing jobs dried up and I pivoted to working part-time and on rabbit boarding, I worried too. Now I'm all right. I'm not afraid to spend money anymore (although the frugal habits seem to die hard).

Maybe what's changed is that I have a new career goal/interest to work towards. So I know I won't be doing "this" (doing food delivery, working part-time, whatever) forever, and I'm under less pressure to find something that will work financially for the next 20 years.

New directions are good. I'm feeling optimistic and interested in the world again.

Here's Haybeon: