If you're married to an inventor, you know what I'm talking about. Every item stored has a purpose, or might have, one day. There are many, varied, potentially useful items, large and small. None can be disposed of. The shed overflows into piles around the garden, the outside undercover area is unuseable most of the time. The "office" is piled high and projects continually appear on the dining room table. Yes, I can see some of you wryly smiling in recognition. You other lucky women are shaking your heads in disbelief that anyone could live like that. Blessedly ignoant woman, let me shock you more. The project which remains spread over the dining room table and the experiment in the undercover area- they may not be touched, not one item, until The Inventor has completed his work. It's not how I work and the clutter drives me crazy, but I think a lot of inventors work this way. Ideas continually bounce around in their heads, and it gives them comfort having things around that can help them work with the ideas. Well, that's the case with My Inventor, anyway.
In Ipoh he will have access to a lab. Maybe that will mean I'll have less mess around the house and less disharmony within it. Before then, though, we have to tidy up the remnants of a few dozen ideas that are scattered around our Cairns home, and make it habitable. Welcome to my world.
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Friday, 18 May 2012
Excited?
I am getting excited now. Just as well- I have only 5 weeks of work left, then a few weeks to pack and sort things out before I leave. The Inventor is going over in three weeks' time to get things sorted out and to make sure the lab is ready, but he will probably return before the final departure.
The few who've heard of it say Ipoh is a lovely place. I hope so, because that's where we're going. Our Malaysian business partner has a lab there, where The Inventor will be based.
Although, his official career designation has moved between various titles but never "inventor", I have been married to an inventor for years. Nearly 27, in fact. He has turned out idea after idea, each piling on top of the last, only leaving the "Some day, maybe" pile when some person or company somewhere announces the new product. "Well, they fianlly thought of that", The Inventor announces, and the list becomes one shorter. Sometimes I could even convince him to dispose of the useful bits of junk accumulated for the development of that idea, if I was even aware of the reason for their presence.
In recent years the ideas have mostly been around green technology. But it's only the last three years that he has been able to devote a good deal of his thoughts to these ideas, mostly because ill-health forced him out of the workplace. I ramped up to full-time work, and we discovered new financial challenges as he took over running the household finances one one income. As I battled the stresses of his illness and our financial overcommittment in one of the worst economic downturns in my lifetime, I could see no way out. He struggled with seemingly unmanageble health issues, but his brain never stopped contemplating possibilities. Eventually, a change of drug regime settled the health issues, and a last-minute decision to enter a competition, combined with a serendipidous (or miraculous) series of events, hurtled what was a seed of an idea into the realms of international patent and commercial science. His new-found health meant he was able to throw himself into work with energy and pursue what is both an opportunity and a dream. New challenges and uncertainties present themselves each day, but we are both happier moving in a direction rather than a contstant spiral of everyday existence. And the direction looks good. Ipoh, here we come!
The few who've heard of it say Ipoh is a lovely place. I hope so, because that's where we're going. Our Malaysian business partner has a lab there, where The Inventor will be based.
Although, his official career designation has moved between various titles but never "inventor", I have been married to an inventor for years. Nearly 27, in fact. He has turned out idea after idea, each piling on top of the last, only leaving the "Some day, maybe" pile when some person or company somewhere announces the new product. "Well, they fianlly thought of that", The Inventor announces, and the list becomes one shorter. Sometimes I could even convince him to dispose of the useful bits of junk accumulated for the development of that idea, if I was even aware of the reason for their presence.
In recent years the ideas have mostly been around green technology. But it's only the last three years that he has been able to devote a good deal of his thoughts to these ideas, mostly because ill-health forced him out of the workplace. I ramped up to full-time work, and we discovered new financial challenges as he took over running the household finances one one income. As I battled the stresses of his illness and our financial overcommittment in one of the worst economic downturns in my lifetime, I could see no way out. He struggled with seemingly unmanageble health issues, but his brain never stopped contemplating possibilities. Eventually, a change of drug regime settled the health issues, and a last-minute decision to enter a competition, combined with a serendipidous (or miraculous) series of events, hurtled what was a seed of an idea into the realms of international patent and commercial science. His new-found health meant he was able to throw himself into work with energy and pursue what is both an opportunity and a dream. New challenges and uncertainties present themselves each day, but we are both happier moving in a direction rather than a contstant spiral of everyday existence. And the direction looks good. Ipoh, here we come!
Monday, 14 May 2012
Apprehensive
I've just been googling Ipoh. Until yesterday, I thought I was moving to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sure, it's in another country, but at least it's big,cosmopolitan, and has major air routes. I was getting more comfortable with the idea of living in KL, but that's not where we're headed after all. Apparenly, Ipoh is "close" to KL, so I spent a few hours finding out about it. It's 2 hours, 200km from KL according to Google Earth. Neither Malaysia Airlines or Air Asia fly there (I looked). In fact, I haven't yet found an airline that flies to KL from there, only Singapore. The tables have shifted slightly.
It doesn't change much. We're still planning to go- it's our opportunity to at last unleash the frustrated inventor trapped in my husand. It's been waiting for nearly 50 years, so leave we must. We will return victorious or defeated. We return wealthy or broken, heroic or unnoticed. But we'll give it our best- for the inventor, for me, for our finaciers, for humankind, for the Earth.
Today I'm just a bit more apprehensive than I was yesterday. My friends keep asking if I'm excited about the move. Yes, I'm excited, but at the moment, the terror outweighs the excitement, so what do I answer? By all rights, I should be excited- we are on the cusp of something big, really big, and have the money behind us to get it rolling. But I'm a realist, I've had enough knocks in my time, and I know that success at this venture won't come without cost.
We'll be leaving behind many dear friends. Our young adult son and daughter will be a long way away, back in Australia.I'll be leaving my two jobs, one which provides financial security, the other a sense of purpose and fulfilment. We'll have to settle into a new place, and find our niche. For every success, I know there'll be twice as many disappointments and setbacks, stress and problems. Apprehensive is my word for today.
It doesn't change much. We're still planning to go- it's our opportunity to at last unleash the frustrated inventor trapped in my husand. It's been waiting for nearly 50 years, so leave we must. We will return victorious or defeated. We return wealthy or broken, heroic or unnoticed. But we'll give it our best- for the inventor, for me, for our finaciers, for humankind, for the Earth.
Today I'm just a bit more apprehensive than I was yesterday. My friends keep asking if I'm excited about the move. Yes, I'm excited, but at the moment, the terror outweighs the excitement, so what do I answer? By all rights, I should be excited- we are on the cusp of something big, really big, and have the money behind us to get it rolling. But I'm a realist, I've had enough knocks in my time, and I know that success at this venture won't come without cost.
We'll be leaving behind many dear friends. Our young adult son and daughter will be a long way away, back in Australia.I'll be leaving my two jobs, one which provides financial security, the other a sense of purpose and fulfilment. We'll have to settle into a new place, and find our niche. For every success, I know there'll be twice as many disappointments and setbacks, stress and problems. Apprehensive is my word for today.
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