Weekly notes 46/2025
Table of Contents
Thumbnail image: Named after famed Australian artist Brett Whiteley, the Brett Whiteley Place in North Sydney seems to have gotten an early Christmas tree.
What’s been happening #
Meta: Yes, I’ve been slipping in getting my weekly notes out. We should be back to regular schedule soon, the house hunt has been painful.
We bought a house. I can’t believe it’s done. The past week has been such a blur and stressful that I can’t believe it’s over. We’d been house hunting for the past few weeks now, and the workflow has been the same - keep checking for new properties, mark them for inspection, reach out to agents to get the pricing info, and then on Thursday/Friday, reach out to our mortgage broker for property valuation for the properties we were interested in and then finalize the inspection plan for Saturday/Sunday.
Last week I had mentioned going to the auction to see how it went and the house got passed on. After the auction both Jo & I looked at each other and realized we actually liked the place and considered making an offer. However, since auction rules were still on until midnight, we decided to think about it and head back home. We found out there was another inspection scheduled the next day, so we decided to pay a second visit to check out the property again. The second visit was good and gave us confidence to go ahead and make the offer.
The next few days were pretty stressful. Our usual solicitor was on his annual leave so we weren’t sure who to reach out to. Thankfully he replied to our email and the partner of the firm got involved. There were a few email exchanges between our and the vendor’s solicitors with respect to some contract clauses. In between this, we had the real estate agent constantly calling Jo and asking for updates. We were also waiting to hear about finance approval status - we didn’t want to sign the contract till we had conditional finance approval. Finally, on Wednesday evening, we received unconditional approval from our lender and the next day, after having let our solicitor know, we got the go-ahead to sign the contract.
It’s a relief to get our house sorted - then again, the prospect of the mortgage is quite terrifying. Anyway that’s for later. We don’t move till January as our current apartment’s lease starts later. In my usual style, I’ve already started a Trello board for all the things required for our move. I’m also looking at things we can do at our new place (maybe a small little rack, for example) but all that will come at a much later time! For now, as we head into the end of November/December, we look forward to relaxing a little.
Deposit paid, contract signed - it was time to celebrate! We went over to a nearby pub and had a drink and tacos (what a way to celebrate, eh?!). Of course the real celebration was due for the weekend - it was concert time. We had Metallica playing this weekend supported by Suicidal Tendencies and Evanescence. We missed most of Suicidal Tendencies' set as the queue to get in and at the merch store was… long.
But no way were we going to miss Evanescence and Metallica. Evanescence came first, with Amy Lee sounding amazing as ever. The set list was pretty good, covering a few songs from all of their albums. Amy took to the piano for Lithium & My Immortal and ended the set with “Bring Me to Life”, a fantastic way to get everyone pumped up.
Metallica took the stage a while later and were immediately greeted with great reception from the crowd. They kicked things off with a small recording of AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)” with clips from the audience, which was a nice touch. Despite being a tour to promote the 72 Seasons album, they only played one song from it, “Lux Æterna” while covering some of their popular songs including For Whom the Bell Tolls, Sad but True, Nothing Else Matters and my favourites The Unforgiven and One. Many of the songs featured some amazing pyro work - and to see One performed live with the amazing pyro took it to the next level. Really glad we didn’t miss it!
What we ate #
The Hayberry Diner & Bar, Crows Nest - A rustic little bar in Crows Nest that packs quite a character. We went here to celebrate our new house purchase with a drink and some tacos. We also ordered some cauliflower wings, which packed some good heat. For drinks, Jo ordered a cocktail called “Lemony Snicket” while I got a mezcal-based drink called Mexellent. The drinks were really good. The main taco itself was pretty average, but hey, nothing to get our mood down.
Music of the Week #
I found out Soundgarden was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so this week’s song is “Black Hole Sun” performed by Brandi Carlile at the induction.
Link of the week #
Came across this amazing video of Matthias Krantz trying to teach an octopus how to play the piano (!). Superb video covering 3D printing, biology, marine biology, music and more. Must-watch.
Thanks for reading. #
Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead.
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