Well, Karen and I sure have been busy lately.

Busy planning our round the world trip, which is, I might add, only a little over 6 weeks away, as well as busy trying to finish off our investment house at Aldinga. I spent the weekend down there in the rain and mud installing a storm water system, and quite frankly, plumbers can keep plumbing - too much like manual labour for a lazy bastard like me. I will stick to the bigger, steel oil and gas pipelines installed by machines that I usually get involved with thanks very much.

Anyway, readers will remember that these two items are related, in that the purpose of the investment property was to fund the overseas trip, since we are no good at actually saving. However, like so many of the schemes that Karen and I dream up, they start with an initial idea and then get refined somewhat during the execution. For the following example, lets just assume refinement is the same as complication. The particular scheme in question started as, 1. buy block of land, 2. build house, 3. piss off OS with the profit. However now, due to the fact that the house is not going to be finished until a week before we go, which doesn't leave a heck of a lot of time to sell it, and also due to certain taxation advantages we can garner, the plan is as follows...

1. Finish house a week before OS trip. 2. Move in! Yes - you read right, move in. 3. Rent out house at Magill. 4. Enjoy Aldinga for a week and then leave to bum around OS for two months. 5. Come home, live at Aldinga while we get it ready to sell in the summertime, when hopefully the beach will be a bigger factor in the sale price. 6. Sell Aldinga, trying to time sale for when lease runs out and the tenants leave Magill. 7. Move back to Magill. 8. Pay off holiday and chunk of mortgage. 9. Maybe buy some toys as well but that will depend on the sensibility/temptation ratio at the time.

Such a simple plan what could possibly go wrong? (For those who don't know me, that was sarcasm)