2024 - what a crap year

Update #1 - started this on New Year's Eve last, first chance I've had to update it since.

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Well, we're here at last.. last day of 2024. We made it !!

I've been reflecting over the past few days on everything that has happened this year, good and bad, only to realise that the bad outnumbered the good by several orders of magnitude. Let's examine a few of them, shall we ?

Car: Because my ex-wife had finally allowed the house to be sold (and then tried to make away with a more significant portion of the proceeds than she was entitled to), I decided to buy myself a Suzuki Jimmny 4WD, only to find that it was woefully underpowered and although economical fuel-wise, it was just a toy. Fortunately, I could sell it and only lost $1000 on it, so that wasn't all that bad.

Jobs: Since being dismissed by Bendigo Bank in December 2022, basically for telling someone a joke (more privately if you're interested), I have applied for over 300 jobs of various types - everything from things I had always wanted to try to IT Support jobs as I did at Bendigo, which I was qualified and experienced for. Of all of those jobs, I received 2 TWO interviews!  One was from a hospital, and someone was more qualified for that position, and I can't fault them there. The second one the Hiring Manager actually said "You're perfect for the position, if anything you could be over-qualified (how the hell can you be OVER-QUALIFIED ??) but you're too old. Our CEO is only 40, and you're older than that."

When I pointed out that what he had said was illegal and ageist (stupid term), all he said was, "If you tell anyone, I'll deny I said it and say that you're just complaining because you didn't get the job - and you can't prove a damn thing. I'll publicly call you a liar, and you can do nothing about it."

Needless to say, I told him what I thought of his ethics and his company and what he could do with his job. I also documented this and sent it to the CEO, the company board, and the Fair Work Commission. Nothing further was heard from anyone about it, but I believe the company is on the verge of going bust.

I'm still applying for them, but I'm getting more and more depressed about not having work. Not that I draw my self-esteem from what I do for a job, but I need to be earning money and contributing to society - probably a foreign concept to most people these days, but that's just me.  I just wish these agencies realised that they NEED to contact people who apply, and not just the successful ones. Not hearing is the worst part.

There are many jobs around, ones that I am well qualified for, but I'm not getting any replies, even with a professionally written resume...Because of two reasons as I understand it;

Firstly, I'm 66 years old; although I look and feel like I'm 45, they won't even take a risk, even though my age isn't mentioned anywhere on my applications or Resume - and if I can get away with not saying it in the job application, I will (some have forms that won't allow you to progress unless you enter it).

Secondly, and this is the hard one in that I can't prove it; I'm advised by a couple of friends who still work at Bendigo Bank that the Bank is giving me inaccurate, dishonest references when anyone calls for them. It's happened a few times that I am aware of where they have said that "he was sacked for breaching the Code of Conduct", discussion of which is itself a breach of their Code of Conduct and pretty bloody poor form. Legally, all they can really say is "Jon worked here from <date> to <date> and his job title was <title>" - nothing else. Of course, proving all this is going to be hard as my contacts there are frightened that the bank will be vindictive against them if they put their names on anything.

Still, maybe a call to Fair Work Australia and/or the Australian Financial Credit Agency might help - or at least make it VERY uncomfortable for them.

Church: As of today (1/1/25) I have been going to Grace West at Glenmore Park for almost 2 years and, apart from a tiny incident where one of the ministers raised something in front of a group of people that, if taken the wrong way, could have been very damaging to my reputation, I've been delighted there. I did leave for a little while and go back to my old Church at Maroubra, but I realised I was just avoiding the issue (which was a non-issue as far as I was concerned). I look forward to getting more involved in the life of the Church in the coming year. There is also a young lady that I am rather attracted to - I'm too introverted to do anything overt, but maybe the coming year will provide an opportunity to get to know her better. Who knows, maybe there's life left in this old dog yet !!  I don't think I can survive on my own for years to come..

Driving: I ended up losing all of my points over the previous 2 years, primarily because after the sacking and divorce, and associated drama, my head just wasn't in the right place, and 90% of them were on the bike with stupid roadside cameras - ones that do bugger all for road safety and are just for revenue raising. Of course, you can't get the Government to accept that, so I'm on a "good boy" licence until April 2025 - basically, I have 2 points to last me until then, and if I lose those, I get a mandatory 6 months suspension. In hindsight, taking the 3 months was probably a good option, as fighting the tickets is almost impossible. The moron they have reviewing the tickets is so narrow-minded and myopic that it's impossible to get them to see reason.

I did get one further ticket in May 2024, which I objected to, and got the usual "you shouldn't have gone over the speed limit" answer, even when I did so to avoid a potentially fatal accident. So screw it, I took it to court. And I won (largely).

What happened was I was travelling South on Mulgoa Rd going through the intersection at the Paceway when a vehicle travelling the other way commenced a (to him) right-hand turn, which would have ploughed him right into me had I tried to stop. So I blipped the throttle, shot through the intersection and then braked hard and back to 55kph.

I checked the mirror and the van that turned was still going through the intersection, his numberplate in the photos is in full view. The interesting thing is that traffic travelling North does NOT get a right turn arrow until Southbound gets a red light. I mentioned this in court but nothing was done to the other driver as far as I know. Justice in NSW?  I think not.

The magistrate agreed with me that I did the only thing I could do, dismissed the ticket and the fine, but for some strange reason, ordered me to do the Traffic Offenders Intervention Program - after 40+ years of driving and riding bikes. I tried to do it with RoadSense, but their presentation made me want to rip my eyeballs out. Their statistics were all from Queensland, and the woman's voice narrating it made me want to stick Ice Picks in my ears.  Other companies have not replied to me or are closed until after Christmas/New Year.

I've since done the TOIP course with a different company, one that actually had a decent course; the only thing I hated was that you could only do one session every 24 hours. Otherwise, I would have finished it in a day.

Got another ticket, ironically at the same lights, for going through a red turn arrow - the bloody thing was YELLOW when I went through. After I crossed the line, I glanced at it turning red, but I had already crossed, so that doesn't count, according to the Police. The other one where I was doing 68 in a 60 zone I'll cop if I have to, but the accuracy of the cameras I will call into question. My car has an ANALOGUE speedo which showed my speed as a tad over 60 when I went through the lights, which is fine as far as I can tell. Otherwise, you either have to drive 55 everywhere or hit the brakes right before each camera to make sure you're not just that poofteenth on a K over.

I still maintain my assertion that these cameras are just revenue-gathering instruments, poorly designed and calibrated to suck the most $$$ from the public and do nothing at all to reduce the road toll.

I did purchase myself a Jeep Wrangler, though, for rainy days - I had to replace the whole suspension on it and the bullbar, but it was worth it. Guys at Truracks in Penrith did a fantastic job.

Family: I saw my eldest daughter once last year when she dropped some divorce paperwork for me. Didn't even speak to me, just handed me the papers and walked away. So be it, if she wants to act like a child I can't stop her.

I did, however, gift her $20,000 for a new car if she ever got her licence, plus she owes me for the credit card I paid off. I'm sending her a letter of demand in the next week for the $1600 back and demanding the return of the $20,000 if she hasn't bought a car yet.

My youngest, about to turn 20, would only ever ring me to ask to borrow money, at last count she owes me around $23,000, which she agreed to pay back over a year or two. So far I have seen NOTHING. She will be getting a letter of demand in the new year with a detailed list of everything she borrowed, and if she does not make an acceptable repayment plan, I will get lawyers involved.

There is also the matter of her Section 14 Court Case from, I think, 2023 that she did not attend. Basically, her boyfriend was selling weed out of her car, and when the Police caught them, she ran and denied knowing anything about it. She went to court and was put on a Section 14, which basically means she had to see a Psychiatrist for a year - she didn't go at all and didn't follow up with the GP. If she does not agree to repay the money I will be reporting that to the Court - I should have done it ages ago. Her Mother has her Father's millions to draw on, she can pay it, I don't care any more.

And I found out something interesting too - because the divorce had not been granted yet when my Ex bought another house, that house becomes Marital Property, and I could be entitled to a large chunk of it - whether I follow it up or not is as yet undecided.

Investments: This is the worst part of the year, and to a certain extent, it's probably 
my own fault, but I invested in an opportunity that I saw on the Internet, which I thought I had researched adequately, but I apparently hadn't. Let's just say that the Police are looking into it and seem to be confident that I will possibly get most of it back (well, the AFP are, anyway), but it will probably take time. My own stupidity, I realise that.

Housing: After being "evicted" from my studio apartment (given a 90-day-get-out notice with no reason - thank the Lord that as of tomorrow they won't be able to do that any more) I found a one bedroom place opposite Nepean Hospital. Rent is reasonable (a little on the high side, but it's OK), and the agency (Bespoke Realty) is fantastic to deal with (far better than those twerps at TAG RE).

And now I get a call that the owner of my unit wants to sell, so I've had an agent here taking photos. If they get an investor, I'm still on a lease until November 6th, 2025, and there's nothing they can do to cancel the lease until they agree to pay me a large amount. If the purchaser wants to live here, they could be screwed and have to pay the aforementioned Large Amount of Money as well.

My love life: Pretty much non-existent. A couple of ladies expressed affection for me, but then they started asking for money, which was a BIG red flag, so they got cut off immediately. Pity, as one, was very easy on the eye.

Some nights, it would be great to have someone to cuddle up with on the lounge and watch TV or go for a bike ride with. Still, after a 25-year marriage and finding out she had been cheating on me the whole time, to the point where my youngest daughter is (according to her) not mine, I'm in no hurry to make any further mistakes.

Health in General: I had an incident early in the year where I was having problems breathing when I exerted myself, so I drove up to Nepean Hospital ER, thinking that they would just check me over and give me some meds, but I was admitted for 8 days with blood clots on my lungs.  Now medicated up the wazoo, and no repercussions so far. The fantastic thing about the whole incident is that I parked the Suzuki in a 2-hour parking space for 8 days AND DIDN'T GET A TICKET !!

I paid $38,000 to a Dental Provider to have my top teeth removed and replaced with false ones, and then my bottom teeth done as well. After almost a year of getting the top teeth done, the false ones are bloody awful, and I can't wear them. I no longer trust that dentist and will be looking both for a new one in the new year and at starting malpractice proceedings against Supercare Dental - more litigation, oh joy !!

Mental Health: This is an area that I guess most people feel largely uncomfortable dealing with, but it has been such a problem for me that I guess I've learned to cope with it better than many. I tried committing suicide in April 2022, and due to the excellent care at St John of God at North Richmond, I was able to get myself sorted. Basically, the family GP kept upping the dose of antidepressants I was on every time my ex said my meds weren't working. That just made me worse, leading up to the suicide attempt. Fortunately, the Psychiatrist at StJoG got me onto a better medication, to the point where I am totally off them now, and I am feeling great. Also, Russell from Riverlands Therapy has been a massive help to me in coping with my feelings.

I'm now seeing someone at the Salvation Army hub in Penrith (a Psychologist) who, while very nice and happy to help as much as she can, doesn't seem to understand everything that has happened to me thus far. I'll do the 6 weeks with her and see how things go.