Friday AAAAAAHHHHHHHH

I AM SO BORED!!!!!!

I've been folding drawings just about the whole day yesterday and now the whole morning.  It's nearly midday.

I AM SO BORED!!

 

There are 133 days left for me.  It's given me such a burst of energy, this 'light at the end of the tunnel'!  Except now I'm more impatient... I even more badly want to go home and do stuff because work is so boring!!

 

I don't have anything wonderfully inspired to blog about.  bla bla bla bla bla

 

I'M BORED!!!!!

Scanning Sunday!

This weekend was so fun and relaxing!  Saturday, instead of going with G to the mall (it's become a regular Saturday thing due to meeting up with his parents for brunch there), I stayed home, and had a gentle start to my day.  Relaxed, unhurried breakfast, some tea and then I settled in to sort out my stuff.  Basically needed a bit of down-time to sit and figure out where I'm at:  I had a pile of paperwork to sort out, had to go through my to-do lists and prioritise things, etc.  It's given me a lot of peace of mind as there isn't that much that I *have* to do... I have to scan, I know that much!!

Apart from scanning the photos, I haven't got MUCH that I have to do... of course there still remains the mass of junk/junkblitzing to do at Mom's place, but otherwise, all I have to do is read through some Cosmo magazines (a last read before I get rid of them), and some other odds and ends but nothing MAJOR (slow, timeconsuming things like reading a pile of Cosmos or scanning photos).

The photos are still taking forever.  I'm not yet halfway through the 2nd box, and I still have 3 boxes, 1 packet and 3 albums left!!!  At least it's something 'slow' which I can double up on with doing something else which is dull:  clearing out my email box(es)!!  I won't be keeping my ISP-linked mailbox when we move so I may as well clear it out as much as I can before we leave.  And then there are LOADS of those stupid 'friendshippy' emails cluttering another mailbox (which I don't use anymore - it's just used to IM), which I have unbelievably left there for the past few years!  It's taken me ages, but I've whittled them down from 700 to 60.  My gmailbox is another story!! But, as they say in the classics, one step at a time!  I'm nearly done with clearing the friendshippy-mailbox, and then it's onto the ISP-linked one.  Yay!

Saturday evening we went out to Sis's G's birthday party/supper.  Man that was delicious food!  And we seriously overdosed on sugar!!!!!  All round a rather fun time!

That's all news for now that I can think of.

 

137 days left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday

This week has been very boring.  Work-wise, at least.  It hasn't been irritating, like last week... at least, the latter part of this week hasn't been.

I re-counted on my calendar and if I don't find anything else before the end of the year (and provided I LAST that long), I have 138 working days left.  That is, if the visa application runs smoothly and I don't work past the end of this year - it depends entirely on the visa application.  But at least it gives me a milestone to work towards.  It's already May, there are 7 months left, but only 138 WORKING days left.  That's not so bad.  I've counted down for much longer in the past (trip to India, trip to Aus, wedding), so this should go quickly - specially since it is ALREADY May!

I think 138 days... is not such a bad thing.  I cannot properly count down in weeks though as with the leave days I've put in, there are some not-full *working* weeks etc (and even a week off, if I'm lucky), so I'd have to count in calendar weeks, not working weeks.  But if anyone is wanting to know, I have 30 weeks until I'm officially free!  Days make it sound closer because I can subtract one each day - except over weekends.

YAYYYYYYYY!!!!

There have been promising 'discoveries' regarding the visa.  One of the forums I frequent has had a post - someone has put together some 'stats' regarding the application processing times etc, and it seems as if the number of people applying for the visa type we're applying for has dropped.  And they've apparently sped up with processing.  So, if we apply in (touch wood holds thumbs that ACS hurries up and gives a good assessment) say July, we might get assigned a case officer in September or so, which may even mean that we'll have the visa before mid-next year!!  I really don't know what it means for us - if all things work out superbly they might grant the visa before the end of this year but I'm not getting my hopes THAT far up!  But it'd be nice.  So, maybe my sticking it out at this co isn't all that bad, because I'll be able to 'sign off' here and PREPARE TO MOVE!!!!!!

It's just too exciting.  And, it means that I must SHAKE MY ASS and get scanning!  Eeek!  Too exciting.

Nothing much else is news for now... this weekend I want to stay at home as much as we can, and get to grips with stuff we have to do at home.  G will probably have homework to do, but that will enable me to batten down the hatches and get scanning.

Inspired

but nowhere to go.  Or unable to indulge in my inspiration.

We had a wonderful weekend - G's party on Saturday was fun... and Sunday after cleaning up we pretty much chilled: reading, relaxing, nibbling leftovers, basically taking a nice quiet break.

Because of the nice quiet break, I am now super-inspired to tackle things, like scanning those photos (I haven't for a week or 2 now)... because I WANT TO STITCH!!!!!!  Golden Ice is still in my cupboard, sulking.  I REALLY REALLY want to stitch, but at this time I really have to scan photos because we don't know how long the visa will take.

We're still waiting for the skills assessment - the website's status hasn't changed but that doesn't necessarily mean it hasn't been processed.  I'm going to keep looking in the postbox.

Once that's arrived we are SET to apply!  And because (depending on the skills assessment result) G's occupation is on their CSL list, it will hopefully be a prioritised application.  So they *might* take under a year to process it!!

WHICH MAKES SCANNING ALL THE MORE URGENT!! *trying to peptalk myself so that I SCAN and don't stitch*

Once the scanning is finished, I will have all the time in the world to stitch, read, play computer games, etc.

But of course, my IMMEDIATE problem is that I'm stuck at WORK right now, with all the energy in the world, and as usual, by the time this afternoon comes round, my energy and inspiration will have seeped into the ground and disappeared, to be replaced with tiredness by the time I get home.  Super-frustrating!!  But, I can hardly resign to go do stuff like that at home... because we don't know how long the visa processing will take, and I don't think it's wise for me to sit home for 1 year +.  It is still unlikely that I will be able to afford not to work as soon as we're in Aus, and having a gap of a year or more won't do me any favours when looking for a job!

One the 'once-in-Aus' side of things, houses are SO EXPENSIVE THERE!  A nice decent sized house costs at least about AU$400 000, which is in the region of R3m.  That would obviously be if we bought our dreamhome straight-off which isn't going to happen!  But there are some seriously awesome homes there!  I guess though that we will have to look at buying a house and paying it off - which is what everyone does - because we will be settling in Aus, not 'temporarily' residing there, which is what we're doing now while we're in SA.

I guess it'll be a large mind-set change, from everything here being considered against our limited time here, to having 'uncapped' time there to 'invest' in long-term things there.

Work is increasingly quiet here - the whole co is pretty much gearing up for 1 massive job, with all the small ones carrying on and being finished.  Hbbm's not getting anything new for now (it seems), so things are quiet.  Talking of hbbm, he's got (cancerous?) growths/sores on his nose... he says he's having chemo for it and it's from a lifetime of playing cricket in the sun without sunscreen.  Not good.

Anyway, no other news right now.  Crawling down to lunchtime and then hopefully the afternoon will go past quickly.

News

I checked the ACS website again (G and I each seem to check it daily) to see whether there's been any progress with his application.  There has been:  it now says 'in progress', where it used to say 'to be allocated'.  So!  There has been progress!!  Hopefully they RACE through it and send us the letter ASAP so we can apply THIS MONTH for the VISAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!  Yayyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other news:  we bought a new fridge yesterday.  We'd decided on an updated one of ours, and the salesman asked whether we'd rather want a silver one because it was going for R500 less than the white!  Colour is no biggie (we only took the white appliances before because they were R500 cheaper than the silver ones!), but I have a feeling it'll look a little unusual - the oven, microwave and washmachine (and even kettle+toaster) are all white, and the built-in cupboards are white too!

It should be delivered on Friday, and we're seriously hopefully they do because we're going to need it well in time to prepare eats for G's birthday!

Other news:  my phone's 3G/3.5G/whatever is faulty - so I can't connect to mig or the internet to check facebook.  Great.  Now my work day is even MORE damn boring! 

Gmail's coherence - maybe a hard night's drinking last night?

An error message I encountered, while trying to get to Gmail:

 

The requested URL could not be retrieved

---

While trying to retrieve the URL: mail.google.com:443

The following error was encountered:

Unable to determine IP address from host name for

The dnsserver returned:

No Address records

This means that:

 The cache

Unsettled time

We have a "minor" setback with the visa application:

Home affairs does not have G's mom's ID number on the unabridged birth certificate.

I phoned them to find out how to get it fixed and it involves amending the birth register, which entails: a copy of G's mom's ID, R70, a particular form, and 3 to 6 MONTHS' WAIT.

Afterwards, he has to apply for a new unabridged birth certificate, which takes '6 to 8 weeks' (see previous post for comment).  So, if we are FORTUNATE, we should have his 'correct' birth certificate in JANUARY NEXT YEAR.  The soonest POSSIBLE would probably be October.

That, as you can imagine, is TERRIFIC.  We are currently waiting for G's skills assessment, which I believe is only VALID for ONE YEAR after issue, and if home affairs fucks up and takes over a year to fix this...

What we are going to do, and I sincerely hope/pray that it works, is submit the 'incorrect' birth certificate, plus a copy of the application for amendment of birth register.  That's the best we can do, I don't see how we can wait until home affairs has fixed this mess.  I just hope they don't throw out the visa application completely because of this damn birth certificate!

And I've just read on one of my regular forums that Aus Govt has reduced the number of skilled migrants they're accepting from 118 000 to 110 000.  That is EVERYone applying as a skilled applicant: people who are sponsored, people on the critical skills list (CSL), and everyone else who has an occupation they need.  I can only take comfort from the fact that the sponsored people (employer sponsored and state sponsored) and CSL applicants are prioritised (G's application would fall under the CSL category), and each state has a quota for the year of sponsored people, so hopefully we would still fit in.

Still, this home affairs setback isn't wonderful.  Hopefully, also, once this mess-up has been sorted, we will have no other need for home affairs EVER.  And to think that I was thinking that while we were waiting for the birth certificates!

In OTHER NEWS:  our fridge died on Friday afternoon.  We got home and I noticed INSTANTLY that it was wrong.  It made an unusual sound.  It gradually lost all its coldness and everything slowly started to defrost.  That night we had a sizeable supper: trying to make use of as much frozen food (from the freezer compartment) as we could - without leftovers because *drumroll* we couldn't put it back in the fridge!  Not too much of a catastrophe, we didn't lose much as the fridge/freezer wasn't very fully stocked, and all we are really missing is milk for tea/coffee.

The technician came and took a brief look at it and said 'there's been a slow leak, it ran out of gas and the motor ran dry and burnt out.  Save yourself a lot of hassle and buy a new fridge'.  A new motor = R1500, and has 3 months' guarantee.  A new fridge is maybe R2500 (not sure), but it has a 2 year guarantee.  Yay.  It wasn't even 2.5 years old!  Gone, it seems, are the days of buying appliances that last a good decade or 2.

Great timing, fridge, it's G's birthday on Friday, and we are having a party on Saturday.  I don't know that we will have a fridge in time (hold thumbs), so it's going to be interesting.

And on that dreary note I shall sign off - I'm at work, the weather is dull, I'm doing filing.  All-round dreariness it seems.  Yay for my saviour: iPod!

TAKE A FUCKING HINT!!!

I'm sitting at my desk, playing solitaire.  It is lunch time - I have my ipod going, earphones in my ears.  I'm sitting with a cup of tea and 2 slices of toast & peanut butter.  I am holding one slice aloft as I eat it.

..and yet, one dude comes and 'slots in' a printed letter with corrections NEXT TO my PLATE, WHILE hbbm is busy EXPLAINING work (thankfully for after lunch), and then shortly afterwards, another guy pops past and asks about some change in a short letter, which isn't mine = not on my pc = ask whoever else it's from (the typist)... and then comes back with a change in a letter I'd typed before lunch...

and then he phones down after I'd reprinted it, to change 2 words and reprint it

... and then another guy, while I'm eating (trying to eat) with my earphones blaring a bit extra, comes past and calls me through my earphones, to print a short letter on letterhead.

IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO BE MORE OBVIOUS WITH THE FACT THAT I'M EATING?

DO I HAVE TO CHEW WITH MY MOUTH OPEN??!?!?!?

Home Affairs

Just NEED to rant for a moment:
We applied for our unabridged birth certificates at the end of Jan.  Were told that it takes 8 to 10 weeks, so I started phoning them at the beginning of April.  I have been phoning (the callcentre) AT LEAST weekly, sometimes even a few days in a row (I've been getting desperate).  I phoned Tuesday - G's is apparently ready, and has been since 3rd Feb (The fact that it took them a MONTH (since I started calling) to tell me this.... wtf????).  Mine is still lost in the system, waiting for a response from head office as to why exactly it is taking so long.

I phoned again yesterday to find out (confirm) that G's is ready - yes, and mine's still lost in the system.

This morning, I phone the branch we applied at, to make sure his is ready for collection before we go and waste hours on Sat morning.  The lady says yes it is but it's not printed yet - they will do that when we come to collect.  So, by chance (optimism beyond reality), I give her my ID no. to check.  Yes, she says, same thing - it's ready but they'll print it only when we come collect it.

?!?????????????!!!!!!!!!???????????

Waiting

The past week was successful, I'd say.  Mom seems open to the idea of getting rid of stuff, but it still is difficult.  But the whole roof-cavity is cleared out.  Next up: the garage.

I am ON THE CUSP of Act 3 in Diablo 2... I've finished Act 2 but haven't 'sailed east' yet.  I sincerely HOPE that I can buy 'mana potions' in Act 3 because I can't buy any in Act 2 or the areas in Act 1 anymore, and I haven't saved any.  It sucks because my stash is too small to store potions, gems, rings and all other things that I need to keep with me.  And I need mana potions in order not to die.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to playing more.

I'm also looking forward (haha) to getting our unabridged birth certificates.  Yay home affairs YOU SUCK!!

ACS - please hurry up with the skills assessment ;-)

No other news for now - other than YAYWOOTWHATEVER I'm back at work :-(

MAJOR PROGRESS

The past 3 days have been spent at Mom's place, sorting through stuff that has been stored in the roof cavity for the past 20 years (or so).

I think it's very reassuring to find that there isn't really that much stuff I've brought home with me. After going through MANY bags of stuff, mostly old school books and our baby/small kid clothing (why would anyone keep quite so much of this stuff I don't know)... I've picked out a few very special books and some super-special toys (not many at all). Mom really struggles with getting rid of stuff - it would seem as if every single one of our school books, from our whole school career, has been kept. And the amount of baby clothes - ok not quite HEAPS of it, but still more than I thought she'd kept. Baby-grows, small blouse-tops, basically baby clothes, and also pretty dresses, which I thought had been given away A LONG TIME AGO. But she wants to keep some special ones which translates into keeping a lot of them. I think she realises she must give up a lot of them, but it just seems a huge difficulty for her. I don't understand her attachment to the clothing, because a) we're still alive and it's not as if we've died/disappeared... b) we've grown up and it just is pointless keeping clothes we've outgrown and c) I don't see the fascination with baby clothes. Yes, they're small, maybe even cute, but to want to keep all of them simply because they're cute - to me it's like wanting to keep every cute thing I can find... just not possible or sane.

But, that's besides the point. We have cleared out the WHOLE roof cavity, so that all there is up there is 3 bags of Dad's clothes that Mom still wants to keep, 2 sponge mattresses, 4 chairs, a suitcase full of slides, Xmas decorations and a few pelmets which were up when they moved in which she wants to keep for when they move out and they take their 'nice' curtainrails with them (they've had the house for 35 years or so? I'm sure someone buying the house would not want that type of curtain-rail anymore!!!).

But... progress has been made. Next up is the garage, as there are things up there which haven't MOVED in 20 years. And my idea is to clear out those 2 major spaces, so that things which BELONG in a garage (like a gas-bottle) can GO INTO THE GARAGE, rather than be stored in the 3rd bedroom (my ex-room). Yes, things are so muddled and chaotic that there is a gas-bottle in my (ex-)bedroom. I think the garage is going to be hell because there are so many odds and ends which she is NOT going to want to throw away because they can be used to fix things. Shitty little offcuts of wood, or 3ml leftover paint in a tin, which 'can be used sometime when the money's tight, just to touch up something'... so they won't get thrown away.

After the garage, the next things to tackle will be: the outside toilet, the 2 wendyhouses/sheds, the cupboard/shelf in the bathroom, the built-in cupboards in Mom's room, my ex-bedroom, and then any other cupboards/clutter-collection-areas. Mom seriously hangs on to shit that everyone else would toss... but hopefully in freeing up space for her to put stuff that she's ORGANISED, it'll free up space so that she can organise more stuff, which will hopefully start a good cycle of organising... hopefully the organised house will get her to relax a bit and organise her thoughts too.

I have such bad allergies from all the dust... but I think it's worth it in the long run. I just wish I had a month more off from work to keep up the momentum on this junkblitz. The problem is, Mom's mind isn't logical right now... so she will waste time and energy with pointless tasks which only she sees the point of - like having many LITTLE dirtboxes/bags, which all get full and hang around, rather than 1 medium-sized dirtbox which EVERYTHING can go into and it can be taken out regularly. Her issue is that it would smell... so she divides the dirt into smelly/food stuff (which is more urgent to get taken out), boxes/containers/packaging/not smelly (not urgent to get taken out)... etc. So she ends up with subdivided rubbish which a) is a waste of goddamn energy and brainspace, and b) really is a bit pointless and it ends up never being taken out and driving my sister crazy having to deal with 'conditional dirtbins'. It's such a bizarre scenario, I can't even explain it clearly here!!

ANYWAY... time off would be nice - but isn't likely to happen. I'm just sad that this week has gone by so quickly - so much to do and so little time. Tonight we're going to M&J with sis and her G, for supper and games.

Right now, I'm going to play a bit of Diablo 2. At the moment I'm in Act 2, and I'm (if I recall right) level 21 Assassin. Yeehaaa!! I just wish that I had a bigger stash as I have already got too much gold (the limit for my level is 150 000 gold coins), and the other things I've collected have filled up my stash.

Ok, it's time for a bit of DIABLO 2!!!!