Nothing to report... apart from

The music shop I was looking into got sold, or so the owner says. I didn't buy it. I was thinking about buying it, but it didn't work out.

Funny part was, I was continuously asking questions about the business, yet when I went to return the financial documents yesterday, when I told them I'll contact them next week with an offer. The owner said to me "It's already been sold. It got sold last week".

So I congratulated him and walked away.

Why wouldn't he have told me about it being sold while I phoned and emailed him all week with questions?

I think he didn't want to sell me the business because I was asking too many questions. Questions which were diving into the business too deep, probably to uncover some dark secrets I'll only find out about once I've invested my money and bet my house on it. Screw that. That's why I pay my accountant money, so he tells me what's worth looking at and what isn't.

To top things off, I got sent the final financial details to the scooter shop I was looking at too. My mate was planning on partnering up with me for this, as it seemed like a worth while deal.

My accountant said otherwise. Through his detective work, we discovered the business is losing about $200,000 per year. And for the last three years the owners have gone more and more into debt because of it. WTF? $200,000 per year. And that's been happening for at least three years according to the books.

I asked my accountant about it, if it was an error in numbers. He said he was going by what the Tax Return says, which is pretty much set in concrete.

This sucks. But I must solder on.

Other than that, I'm sorry to say that I have nothing of real relevance, depth and interest to report. This isn't my usual philosophical post.

I'm tired. I'm in pain, I cut my finger today, and I had rehearsals tonight. Playing guitar was so difficult, I came home early, there was no point in continuing to play half-arsed.

I hope it heals up by next week.

I'm surprised

I've spent the last 6 months looking at other businesses that are for sale. There's a number of reasons why I'm doing this.

One big reason is to find a business that's successful as well as enjoyable. A business that can stand on its own two feet whether I'm there or not. A business like this is hard to find.

The reason behind this that my wife and I want to have a business that operates while we can take the time to raise our yet to be born children. Or if we decide not to have kids because we both also agree that the world is over populated enough, just to have a good income that comes in without us doing much at all. Yeah, we're lazy. :)

The other thing is, with my business, I've hit a limit. I can no longer grow. I didn't see this coming, otherwise I would have made the choice to stop what I was doing quite a while ago. But hindsight is a wonderful thing... ain't it?

Another reason for looking at businesses for sale is to see how they operate. Looking at buying a business makes you really sit down and see how they operate. What I've found recently is that the business can be turning over $2M a year, yet they can run into a loss of $20,000. Or you find a business that brings in $140,000 per year, but makes a profit of $40,000.

However, I'm also looking at businesses that are bringing in larger sums of money, as their potential is bigger. But that is the surprise. I assumed that the more a business brings in, the more profit ends up on the table. The $2M dollar business proved that wrong. However, there's a lot wrong with the business and fixing up the loose ends may yield a damned good result. On the other had you have the smaller earning businesses, but looking at them, they're not doing too much better than me. I'd sacrifice the $10,000 per year less than I get now from my business than spend my life savings on buying one that's only making $10K more. I think I could make my business make a further $10K just by diversifying. But I don't want to, because that's yet another area of "expertise" I'll have to service.

I am truly surprised at the way a lot of businesses are operating, big or small. And I'm, in a way, assured that my business is actually okay.

That's all fine and dandy, but my income is still limited. I'm not earning what I want and what I'd like. And what that is, is a limit which I've hit with my business in its current guise. I can't make any improvements to that unless I change it drastically. And by that I mean restructure. So I might as well put in the hard work of restructuring into a business that makes millions over one that makes tens of thousands. The effort is the same, the return is ten fold.

Once I acquire a business that can stand on its own two feet, I can then change my lifestyle so I myself don't have to be at work in order for the business to work for me.

I'm still looking. I know they're out there.

What's a Bouzouki?

This isn't a silly question.

A Bouzouki is a string instrument, usually with 8 strings.

It's popular amongst Greek musicians but can be used anywhere you want to add some good string instrument sounds.

The Bouzouki is part of the lute family of instruments that has a pear shaped body and a really long neck.

The top of the body is flat, the back of the body is rounded and has multiple lines or panels of wood. They say the more panels of wood it has, the better the sound.

This is an image of a bouzouki with a high count of "ribs" as I like to call them.

The cheaper models have less "ribs" which don't give it as good a sound. In truth they probably sound just fine, but I guess when you're a professional, it matters.

The sound of the bouzouki has a very strong attack with not much sustain. It's a very trebly sound to which I've provided a video clip of one to see and hear it in action below.

I guess it can almost be akin to a banjo. Another instrument I want to have. My wife loves them and wants me to own one just so I can play it for her.

Hollywood surprises me. Wow.

A story I just read where Hollywood film makers are starting to only look for "real" actors and actresses are becoming the norm.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7069895.ece

The end of the article tells that Hollywood is changing. And it seems for the better.

I for one am still not 100% on the whole thing. The reason is, I barely watch any TV. I watch television shows. However, I watch them when I want, and I get to see them right after they aired on television, not three years later on local TV broadcasts. Thanks to the Internet, I can watch my favourite shows.

Though most movies I watch only seem to play at small, art house cinemas where that's the first and last time you'll hear of the film. It is highly likely that you won't get to see it again at the video shop because the foreign section is generally littered with Asian martial arts films. Also none of which I find boring and tedious to watch, but after a while you've seen one you've seen them all.

Hollywood films on the other hand are exactly like that. I once went to a video shop with a friend, he rented something like 8 films and was disappointed "I can't find anything good to watch" he said as he walked up to the counter to pay for the 8 rentals he just picked. I found that funny. Nothing to watch, yet you're going to waste the next 16-20 hours of your life watching what you don't like.

Is that weird or am I the only person that goes against this grain?

When he asked me if I would like to pick a film, I said "No. I looked through the shop, there's nothing here for me."

He said "A whole shop of DVD's and you can't find one film you like?"

Nope. :)

When we got to his place, he put a film on. I stared blankly at the TV wondering about playing my guitar, passing the time away, instead of watching regurgitated garbage spewing forth from a town I spent a couple of years in, I'd rather waste time chatting about things with my friends.

In fact, when it comes to films, the closest to enjoyment I get from watching them is 5 second films on Youtube. They sum it all up within 5 seconds. There's no point in seeing the full length film now. I got the gist of it.

But now Hollywood says that we don't like puffy, false lips, false breasts, manicured models and photoshopped images. We want the real thing. Something like that makes you stand up and peer over the fence to see what's going on.

I'm sure there's always going to be the usual filth people call movies. But this news might illustrate a turn for the better. Hell may freeze over, and I might enjoy watching films again. At least, Hollywood ones, that it.

I still like my Asian kung-fu and Euro-arthouse stuff.

Darling Harbour - Day 2 - For the love of it

Well, the sound guy did a better job today. Still lots of issues, but who cares?

I certainly don't. Playing live in front of possibly 10,000 people (not 200,000 like they said.... perhaps they meant overall) was fun for me and a new limit to the amount of crowd I've played music to. The previous record being 500 people at a charity event many years ago.

So, what was it like?

Well, people were still fretting over being late, being unprepared, going over time and being more late. I think the thing I hated the most was seeing people who help organise the events rolling their eyes and saying "I can't wait till this is all over". Which kept me thinking "Why are you here if you're not enjoying yourself?", "Why did you put your hand up to do this if you're going to hate the experience?"

I guess there's always that sense of accomplishment or something to prove when they can say THEY organised the festival. But truth be told. They hated almost every minute of it.

I on the other hand loved the whole experience. Even watching people fretting about, stressing, as if a life was on the line. I love that the sound guys are trying their best. I love that there was feedback, and no sound, I love that all the performers coming off stage were sweating in the heat of the afternoon. I love that everyone was on edge.

It seems so surreal, because I stand there and watch it all while staying cool. I'm not sure what it is. I'm excited about the whole thing. Performing music, live, on stage, and in front of hundreds if not thousands of people is like a drug for me. I get nervous. I'm not going to say I don't. But I'm just as comfortable playing music in my room alone as I am in front of 10,000 people. I can say that now, 10,000 people. hehehe. I guess it's because I've been performing live since I was six years old. But I know people who've been performing just as long and still get nervous.

In the end, we did our performance. We helped each other out, and thanked each other in the end. It's that kind of support I love the most.

I loved the whole experience and even though in a way I'm happy to not be around those people who found the whole thing a chore, I'm still happy about the whole experience, I'd do it again. However out Sax player made a good point, "You do this for the love, what happens when the love runs out?"

I said "It won't, but if it does, I want some money for it." However, I think if the love ran out for me, I wouldn't have been up there yesterday and today doing the shows for nothing. In fact I'd have asked for the money up front. So, I can safely say, I'm still in love with performance and have been for the last 25 years. I think the love would have worn off already if I wasn't.

Crazy Prices

There is no doubt that inflation is always going to be around. Even when the economy goes Boom! Or Kasplodes for that matter. The thing is, I don't think people's wages are rising at the same rate to eleviate the issue of not being able to afford things.

And what I mean by things is the basic necessities. Things we need these days to live. In a modern society, we need a lot. But are these things materialistic or do we really need them to survive?

We need food, but when the price of petrol goes up, so does food. Why? Simply put, tractors that farmers use run on petrol. The trucks that transport the produce use petrol. And when I say petrol, it's more than likely going to be Diesel fuel. But it's still petroleum based, and will also be affected by the cost of oil.

The obvious solution is that everyone have their own little farm in their back yard. However some people's backyards are as big as my outhouse. Even if they were to start their own tomato plant, you could really only have one or two.

There are places that have Co-Op grocery stores that make no profit and provide local produce, however prices are still high. You could start a Co-Op farm where the people who want to eat the produce, pay for the seeds, the equipment, etc. And they volunteer to come by after work or the weekend to do whatever needs doing to grow their produce.

This idea is nice, but generally there won't be enough land in the suburban area to have a farm to support a coulpe of hundred households.

So, really, there is no ideal solution for this. But perhaps that's the answer. There will never be one solution. Maybe the person with a big block of land can set up their own farm in their own backyard, while the person who lives in a inner city terrace house with a backyard the size of my bathroom can join a Co-Op or some sorts where they travel out to the farm once a week, or a roster or something and help around until their crops are ripe and ready to pick. The hard work pays off with fresh produce that hasn't been stored in a freezer for 6 months and gas-ripened when it needs to hit the self.

The sad truth is, all this would cost a small fortune to set up.

Which brings me to the next necessity. Power. We kinda need electricity of some sort in our modern world. Without it, I wouldn't be writing this blog, you wouldn't be reading it. We wouldn't enjoy ice cold drinks, or sit in our homes with a good book or watch TV, if you're into that thing.

There was an announcement on the news the other day that electricity prices were doing up (again). For the last 5 years of my life I've been seriously thinking about solar panels on the roof, but sadly, an installation that can help me at least get started is going to cost a small fortune. Roughly equating to about $10,000.

Now, this doesn't sound like too much money when you consider the savings later on, and the environmental impacts. But the thing that cheeses me off the most is when I read up on news about Solar panels that are better, more efficient and cheaper to make, yet we never see them on the market.

People say, "Oh, solar? You'll take 10 to 20 years to pay that off" And the sad truth is, it's just that... the truth.

I have no solution there except for, get rid of your fridge, your TV, your computer, anything that plugs into a wall to work. It's a stupid and unrealistic answer. However, the alternative is that if you still want solar, you can always buy a small installation now and expand it slowly over time. While this is ideal, you're still going to need to invest a lot of money.

Recently a shop in the local area invested $180,000 in a solar installation. They were in the local paper and started their reasons where because power was the only thing left on their To-Do list to make them completely free from any environmental impacts their company put on the planet. They also said that the power savings were going to be great news for cashflow. However, I can't stop thinking about the price of the installation. It did cover their entire roof. But people don't have that sort of money laying around. Successful business or not. So they've naturally taken out a loan to pay for it. For some reason, I doubt the money they're saving is offsetting the loan they took out to pay for the installation. A loan that is almost the same as my entire mortgage for my house.

So, how can you start saving the environment and the dollars when it cost so much to change to things like solar. Wind is a cheaper option, but a suburban based turbine will cause a number of issues. One is that it'll be too small to power anything decent. It certainly can't compete with solar, and the sun shines more than the wind blows out here.

The other issue is that they get noisy and your neighbours aren't going to like that.

The alternative is, something I leant to before. Don't use electricity at all. But lets be realistic, it can't happen.

Another alternative is to just go completely off the grid, a lot like my friends in the States do who read this do. And while I love the idea, and I can see myself going it eventually. I don't see everyone doing it. And I still can't see how you'll survive completely off the grid without some form of income to buy those things you can't grow or make yourself.

I think you'll still need to earn money from something to pay for things you can't provide yourself with. And what about if you have a family? Wife and kids will have to help out with growing your own fruit and veg. Help with making dwellings, furniture, etc. If you have no income, and lets face it, if you live off the grid, you're generally living somewhere where there isn't power or water to begin with. What you have to do is provide everything for yourself.

You can start off cashed up like some I know. But that's an exception, and a rare one. What can you do?

My ideal would be to buy a block of land out in Sofala, where I just went camping and build my own place up there over a few years. Get it powered with solar, get some rain water tanks in. And make sure it's up on a hill. The river has been know to flood.

I'd make the shack big enough to have my wife and me. And we are planning on having kids eventually, so there would have to be enough room for him or her too.

The good thing about Sofala is that its 40 km's North of a major country town. So there's hospital and food if needed. And it's rural enough to live however you like the rest of the time.

The wife hates it because there's no coast line. She's a water girl and loves the beach.

What would it take for you to move to an alternative life where you rely on your own resources to live?

Lesson 4 complete

I have been teaching guitar lessons for a month now. I've had a great time doing it and plan on continuing so. I have had two other student enquiries, but they were too far away for me to travel to. So, at the moment it's still just the first student I got from when I first started.

He's been coming along nicely and asks a lot of questions, which I like.

He's also honest and tells me he doesn't practice.

But I think he's going to enjoy playing music once he starts to learn some more. We've already got some of his favourite bands and songs they sing lined up which we'll play in simplified form once he has the basics down.

He's jealous that other people he knows can play effortlessly. But I've been reassuring him that while it looks effortless, a lot of effort went into being able to play like that in the first place.

I can't wait to get a few more customers like him and the Revesby School of Music will open its doors at a new premises.

Stagg Chili - Careful, it burns

Camping is fun. I do it at least twice a year. There's two trips I take, one around March and another around November. I won't go on much about the one I take in November because it's a bit of a secret 60's surf spot and the locals will kill me if I spread the word. So how do I know about it? My friend was a local. We went there for years before he died.

Today I'm going to talk about a camping spot I discovered many years ago by accident from an idiot bike riding friend. He's not an idiot because he rode bikes, he's just an idiot. We'll call him Bill. I'm using his real name to throw you off into thinking that's his false name to protect his identity, betting on the fact that people are too suspicious these days.

Anyway, the camping destination is Sofala, located about 40 km's North of Bathurst, home of the great annual racing event where Holden vs Ford in a battle to conquer "The Mountain". It's a lovely, hilly track that's actually got people living on the side lines. The track, even though it's a dedicated track and not a street that's been converted to a track once a year, it is a public road and you are allowed to drive on it any time you please. Watch out for the under cover cop who has a nice, fast car to catch you. Imagine the day you land that job. Being a cop and driving around the track all day. I'd get fired the next day for speeding, and probably letting anyone else on the track have a go at it too. "Hey, it's a race track!"

So, Sofala. How did I find out about it? One day my friends who I use to ride with said "Lets go camping one day soon." And I said, organise it and I'll be there.

The plan was to ride to Bathurst, and that's about it. I brought a tent, a sleeping bag, some basic food, a knife, a small saw and a torch (that's a flashlight for you United Stations fans). My friends brought nothing with them besides a backpack full of clothes. We arrived in Bathurst and I turned to my friend and ask "Right, we're here. Now what?" He shrugged, "I duno". I rolled my eyes, told them to go get food from the grocery shop across the road and come back here in 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, I went to the information kiosk to ask about places to camp that are friendly to bikers. The rather fetching country bumpkin (read: hot farmers daughter) said "You can go around here to camp, but it's a caravan park and they charge you, or you can travel 40 km's North to a place called Sofala, where a lot of it is private property, but you are allowed to camp anywhere along the river. Blink and you'll miss it, so stay alert."

We'll take it!

So I took the map, and when my mates got back, I said "Follow me".

Sofala is a small town. When we first arrived there was a sign at the entry into town which told you what Sofala was about. In its hey day there were over 28,000 people. Which is a heck of a lot in a town this size. Every inch of the river had been mined for gold during the Gold Rush. The sign now says there's about 12 people living in town, although in 2006 there were 200+ people there. A lot of them frequent the pub. The general store closed down about 5 years ago when the old lady who ran it died. It's now been fenced off. A new take-away shop is open which serves Fish 'n Chips, burgers, and so on. The pub is still there and recovered nicely from the floods in 1986 where the back half got washed away.

I love Sofala because every time I enter that pub the regulars don't snarl at you because you're not a local. They greet you as if you're their mate and they just haven't seen you in a while. I struck up a conversation with one of them a couple of days ago. We did the getting to know you, then complaining about city problems, living in suburbia, and him complaining about country life, but still sticking it in that his lifestyle is better than mine.

My mates and I arrived at about 2:00 pm and decided to start setting up the tent, get the table out, and have a beer. We then harvested some wood just for the night and scouted out bigger trees that had fallen to drag back to the campsite for chopping up and sawing tomorrow.

The fire was lit for the evening and we cooked up some food. One of my mates stuck a can of Stagg Chili directly on the fire and I said "That's going to explode. I've seen Mythbusters and cans explode. This will explode."

They all assured me it was okay..... lies. They had no idea.

Then BOOOOOOM! Sure enough, the can exploded. Though, it exploded all over my mates face and clothes. Stagg Chili everwhere. Boiling hot. Chili hot. And a large chunk of chili and meat stuck to his forehead, which ended up burning his skin so badly that it started to bleed. He was in the direct firing line of this can. His face was burning from the heat of the chili and the temperature of the chili. We all laughed. Now he has a scar on his forehead.

He was validated the following day when he took the hot plate off the fire with a shovel, then 5 seconds later, grabbed it with his hand. Left a nice red mark on his fingers. He is a bit green when it comes to camping though, and each year I've taken him he slowly learns something new. I think this years lessons were about hot things. Last year's lesson was about knives.

Besides having to babysit with the cooking and told-you-so's. I enjoyed myself. I got a bit of a laugh at someone else's misfortune. Which I'm not happy with myself about, but one can't help but feel some humour enter my body when watching someone who calls their daughter clumsy as anything, "Don't know where she gets it from" and continuously hurts themselves almost while saying it. It's hilarious. Well, I find it humorous.

I did most of the cooking again, mostly because I wanted to eat while all the food was hot, not wait for one thing to cook then wait for the next thing to cook and the first thing I cooked getting cold. So I blazed through breakfast, lunch and dinner so we all ate at the same time, and all the food was hot, and cooked right.

Camping was great. Entertaining. Relaxing. And I can't wait to do it all again next year just to see what my mate hurts himself with this time.

Spanners and works

Call them what you like, curve balls, a spanner in the works, fly in the ointment. It's all the same. But it's different for everyone. One persons problem is usually another persons advantage, or at the least, not their problem so who cares, right?

I think people care. If they didn't, they wouldn't want to read about them, hear about them or learn about them. I personally love hearing about other peoples problems. I take advantage of it. Not in a bad way, but for myself. I learn from it and avoid it. Or I try it myself knowing the pitfalls and come out with success.

However, sometimes when you have a go at something all by yourself. There isn't anyone to campare to, there isn't anyone to ask how they did it, or what they did to get to where they are. You don't want to follow their exact footsteps, but you want to know where its safe to tread and where you'll come unstuck and fall into a great big, dirty hole.

Then there's the crossroads. When you wander around lost for weeks, months or sometimes years. No alternatives, no choices, no nothing. Just dreary much the sameness. Then you are greeted with the crossroads. A place where all of a sudden the road changes. You now have choices, and usually its too many.

I've hit these crossroads many times, and it's one thing in life that doesn't get easier the more times you do it.

My crossroads is, that I found a music school that's quite local, and its for sale at a price I can afford. To anyone else, this sounds brilliant. What an opportunity! Then I can sweeten it for you by saying, this school has been established for over 50 years. So its got a great reputation, good clientele and isn't going anywhere soon.

However, I've already started my commitment to my music school. But it is early days, and I can just say "Stuff it, lets do it".

Naturally I'm not going to buy a business just like that. I need to see their financial details. I need to see how much money they're actually making. Then I need to run all that by my accountant. Wait for his nod of approval and move in.

This all sounds like such a brilliant opportunity. So, why is it a spanner in the works?

It wasn't the plan.

When speaking to my wife about it last night, she said "And what about your music school". Well, my music school is a music school. This music school that's for sale is a music school. It's the same thing really. The only catch is, this one costs money, but comes with all the clients and teachers.

So I'm basically paying to fast forward my school a couple of years. Is it worth it? Well, that will have to wait for the books to clear the accountants eagle eyes. I'm looking at this as an opportunity. If the accounts look bad, then it's back to building by school and keep on moving forward in the normal "play" mode, not fast forward.

The spanners are frustrating though.

Nylon string guitars

I have been playing guitar for about 17 years now, and I've noticed something really humorous. When people see my new guitar, which is a classical guitar. They almost laugh and think it's a toy.

I find it really funny that people's mentality over a guitar with nylon strings seems to be that if it's not a steel string guitar, it's a toy that kids use to learn on.

Why is that?

Second lesson

Had my second session with my first student. Went really well. He's going great and picking things up nicely.

I also had a chat to a few mates today. Both of which are leaving their industries and going to pursue other avenues. Seems to be the order of the year. Lots of change.

My apologies for such a short entry. I'll have more to talk about the less busy I get and the more time I have to reflect.