Un/progress

Wow-o, we had a massive thunderstorm last night.  Very bright lightning, loud thunder, superstrong winds, lashing rain and HAIL!!!  Oh my word hail like we've never had before!  It sounded like people on the roof banging with walking sticks.  This morning the sky still looked grumpy, but it seems to have cleared up.

This week we watched a few movies.  Night at the Museum 2, Nightmare Before Christmas, Watchmen, Finding Nemo and Over the Hedge.  NATM2 was good, some very funny bits in it!  Nightmare was very entertaining, an unusual story, and some WEIRD featurettes on the disk!  Excellently expressive characters, I loved the Skelington's face!  Watchmen was WEIRD.  Utterly bizarre... I guess I missed out on things not having read the comics, but it was still WEIRD.  And it had the most irrelevant sex scene in a movie!  G showed me the 'extent' of the scene in the comic book and it was about 5 frames.  Finding Nemo, I've seen before but G hadn't!  He hadn't seen the bit about the Squishy!!  So, now he's up to speed.  And Over the Hedge.  Very funny!  I loved Hammy.  Steve Carell was Hammy, and I could so picture him doing all those things too, having seen the bloopers and outtakes of other Steve Carell movies.  It was a very funny movie and fascinating to watch the featurettes (how they made the movie, etc).

This weekend, we made progress.  We dropped off teddies and clothes for donation to charity at Mom's and we had lunch with Mom + Sis.  I got some more photos to scan, yes, FINALLY, odds and ends from Mom to scan.  I now have horrendous allergies too.  There is just so much dust there.  The framed pics I brought home were coated in dust.  It was quite a struggle to get the pics out without getting dust everywhere.  

They got some replacement (to be-) built-in cupboards, which are being stored in my room until Mom's friend is able to do the installation.  But, they've been incorporated into the 'furniture' in my room, and are being used as storage for stuff she has to sort.  It's... so depressing.   As I was sitting in Mom's room with her as she found pics for me, she was telling me what certain things were.  There's just so much STUFF.  Indescribable, because of the quantity of unsorted items.

The most depressing part is the fact that if you suggest that she leave the garden/outdoor maintenance stuff and focus on clearing up inside so that she is able to move to a smaller place (so that she doesn't HAVE this problem - unmanageable outside maintenance issues), she just argues that no one would buy a house with a green pool/weeds/x/y/z problem.  I say to her that someone would, and they'd fix everything up (which I reckon someone would), or be able to afford garden-service, etc.  Or anything!  Regardless, it wouldn't be her problem anymore.  But no.  It doesn't compute.  I just don't see a way through.  There's just too much stuff.  I guess I'm destined to forever fret about her, still here in SA with all her stuff, in this unsafe country, when she COULD be with us, in Aus.  Living a free, uncomplicated life.  I worry enough as it is, living an hour's drive away.  It's going to make the whole move so difficult.

My 'chore-tasks' take so long.  Scanning papers I guess I should do now rather than carry on tackling that inbox (220 or so emails in that inbox).  The papers belong to Mom, so I want to finish them and give them back, and to scan them I have to sit at the desk, where with the rest of the 'chores' I can sit anywhere with my laptop, so I want to get it over and done with.  Oh and if I'm done scanning, I can put the scanner away and dig out Golden Ice.  Then, I can leisurely go through that inbox, backup my pc, go through my gmailbox, etc.  And after finishing that initial inbox, I can alternate between the gmailbox and FUN STUFF like stitching etc!

I can't believe I'm pretty much finished with the photos!!  7300+-.  I made a CD for G's parents, I've made a backup of all of it, I just have to make a CD for Aunt and for Cousins.  I don't think Mom has much left to give me, if anything.

34 working days left til I'm on leave, 192 til I'm done here.  It's nearly November already!!  Wow!

Friday

It's Friday!  A gorgeous sunny Friday.

 

I am SO BORED right now.  I have nothing to do... I've done some work and have it here waiting til hbbm gets to deal with it.  Sigh.

It's SO FRUSTRATING sitting here with nothing to do, because as ALWAYS there are loads of things I *could* be doing.  At the moment, at home, I've been going through my inbox which has a backlog of emails to go through and delete.  I have 254 left, which will take a while to do because I can only do it in the evenings and that's maybe 1hr or 2.  If I could sit for a solid few hours and do it, it'd be finished in no time.  But no, I'm stuck doing nothing at work.

The things I have 'lined up' to do over this next while are very dull, chore-like tasks.  Clearing that inbox, scanning old letters+papers from Dad, making a backup of stuff on my laptop, doing a lot of house-keeping with my laptop (yes lots of saved stuff that I don't really need), going through my gmailbox (2200 emails omg!).  Boring slow dull timeconsuming tasks.  But vital.

And every single day at work, I look at the list and wish that I could just get to DO them, instead of sitting bored at work.  If I could work a 4 day week, I'm sure it wouldn't take so long.  It's just the pointlessness of my sitting here doing nothing.  I want to do all these things before the end of the year, so that I can relax over the holidays.  I want to relax next year, without dumb chore-tasks to do, apart (obviously) from the usual day-to-day chores!  Those are fine, those don't take hours and days.

 

No news regarding the visa application.  I can't believe after all this time, circumstances have conspired against us and we have to wait longer.  It's already going to be November, and no application.  It got so close, within our reach, only to be pushed mere millimetres out of our reach.

Minimalising

Yesterday I finally tackled a box of teddies that was in the study.  I went through it, taking out the ones I don't want to keep THAT BADLY.  It's quite a difficult thing to do.  On the one hand, I feel strange, thinking that I don't have much that's mine, like, part of my history.  Like, once we find a house in Brisbane and move in and put everything in its place, there won't be much apart from functional stuff, or purely 'collectibles' stuff (like my My Little Ponies/Breyer/Julip horses, or my matchbox cars, etc).  But on the other hand, I can't really keep a lot of stuff 'just because'.  I don't really need a whole box of teddies from my childhood.  I had an epiphany last night, chatting to Mom on msn:  I can't hang on to them, keeping them in a box for the next few decades, because I could rather be enjoying the *memory* of them and some kid could be enjoying *having* them, at the same time.

I more than halved the box of 'keeps'.  All I have left are very special, like 3 knitted things Mom made, a Cabbage Patch doll, etc.  It's sad, almost.  But then, I think I want to give more of them away.  I'll see.

The mood I was in gave me impetus to go into the study and assess what all I have in there, too.  It's really not that much.  I've made a list, and I don't have that much that I have to sort through.  I'm going to go through that stuff and check what's what and sort them out, so that it's easier to decide what to keep and what not to keep.  G's got a far bigger 'stash' to go through than me... although I'll probably end up keeping more of my stuff than he will of his.  It'll be nice though to have everything organised so I know what's what and what's where!  And I really don't think we'll have much to take with us when we move... seeing as we won't be taking MUCH furniture.  Together, CDs, books, clothes and kitchen stuff will probably make up more than 75% of our stuff!

The wait before applying for the visa is already feeling long.  It's very exciting, thinking that in a year's time we'll have the visas (touch wood, and all that jazz).  What's more exciting is the fact that someone on the forum (a 175 CSL visa applicant) I frequent, has been assigned a CO after 2 MONTHS!!  That is damn quick.  I think I would pass out if we were to get ours THAT soon... but it'd be awesome.  Then if we got the visa soon after THAT, we could activate the visa and then wait out the rest of G's commitment to his work, all the while preparing and sorting things out (like bank accounts etc) beforehand.  But anyway, that's not LIKELY so we'll just hang in there.

In other news:  yet ANOTHER of my lunchbreaks was fucked up.  K who works just down the road from me sms'ed to ask if I was free at lunch, and whether I'd like to go out for coffee at lunch.  I replied saying 'yes, but I'll let you know if anything comes up'.

All was fine, until 12:50.  Yes, TEN MINUTES TO ONE, 10mins til lunch.  I'd been BORED the ENTIRE morning, with nothing to do but drawings to fold...

Hbbm comes to me and says "can you come to my office, I have an email to send off before lunch".

Oh god.  It takes 15mins.  5mins into my lunchbreak do I get out of there.  And, because it was past lunch-start, K was probably AT the bloody coffeeshop.  So there was nothing else for me to do but to sms and apologise for STANDING HIM UP AGAIN!!!  There's no way, at 5+ past 1, that I'd be able to get there in time (it'd take 10-15mins to get there, plus 10-15mins to get back, lunch is 45mins) to even ORDER something, nevermind HAVE anything!!!!!!!!

I WAS SO ANGRY!!!!!!!  Why the FUCKING HELL does this ALWAYS FUCKING HAPPEN?????  Seriously!!  I don't GO OUT during lunch EVER, I NEVER make plans, except on the ONE SINGLE FUCKING RANDOM DAY that I say 'yes, that sounds great' MURPHY'S FUCKING LAW just SLASHES MY FACE with a bitchslap.  It's not like hbbm KNOWS that I have plans to spitefully make me stay late into lunch, and TECHNICALLY I could stay out an extra 5mins, but JEES!!!!!  It hardly HELPS when you're supposed to MEET someone!

Seriously, I give up.  I don't know what to do.  I was so angry and frustrated I could have cried or broken something OR BOTH!!!!

I just FUCKINGWELL GIVE UP!!!!!  Murphy you have won!  I give you my fucking soul, you asshole. You win, you turd!!  I will never say 'yes' to meeting ANYONE during lunch EVER AGAIN!!!!  Are you HAPPY NOW?!?!?

WE GOT IT!!

ACS emailed G a copy of his skills assessment letter.

It says:

Your skills have been assessed to be suitable for migration under 2231-79 (C++/C# Specialist) of the ASCO Code

So, we are now READY TO APPLY FOR THE VISA!!!!!!!

I can't believe it's happening! We're going to apply before the end of Oct!!!!!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday thoughts

Last night I stayed up til around midnight.  I finished scanning.  139 photos in one evening.  It was an ordeal but I couldn't face another whole evening spent scanning photos.  Now that that's done, I have old letters to Dad and other old documents (like a certified copy of his drivers' license in the 1940s) to scan.  It's a PILE, but I'm sure I'll manage.  It's laborious in another way:  each image has to be given a specific file name because they're (say) pages in a letter, or front/back of a document (like drivers').

I have 41 working days left til I'm on leave.  I cannot wait.

Today I'm not on the switchboard at lunch - it's my Thursday off!

I got a parcel from Take2 today.  It was the 2nd of 2 orders, but while this one is WAY early, the 1st order is waiting for 2 things to come in.  I'm VERY pleased it's so early!  Yay, Take2.  In this parcel, I have: 
Miley Cyrus - Breakout (platinum edition - I love all the 'extras' and bonus stuff you get in 'platinum/exclusive editions' HAHA).  Yes, you read right, Miley Cyrus... Hannah Montana, say what you will but she (as Miley) doesn't have a bad voice and I enjoyed listening to it on the plane when we were on honeymoon so I thought 'what the hell!' and pressed 'buy'.

Mariah Carey - Daydream.  I listened to this tape TO DEATH when I was in school, and I think that I'd miss it if I were to move to Aus and no longer have a tapedeck.  Dunno, I haven't listened to it for AGES, but I think it's because it's only on tape.  On a tangent - I don't really enjoy her new stuff at all, it's too rappy and 'junky'.  Yes, listening to her EARLY albums (Emotions, for one) is quite a... time-tunnel, but I think her technique (and song-choice/style) did improve in the mid-90s, then from Butterfly, it started to change.  Anyway, I can still enjoy some of the music without having to be an avid follower of her entire life, so!  I also want to get her album Music Box, also for old times' sake!

The Orb - Okie Dokie It's The Orb On Kompakt.  I'm listening to this right now and it's mellow, quiet, unadventurous sounding background music.  Ok background music makes it sound DULL, but sometimes you don't FEEL like thumping hyper music which makes you wanna jump around.

Next up:  The Orbital - Blue Album.  Haven't listened to it yet, will do so once The Orb is done.

The other order that's still to come is:  Daft Punk - Homework, Daft Punk - Human After All, Paul Simon - Rhythm of the Saints, The Levellers - One Way of Life (best of), The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die, and Alex and Me - Irene Pepperberg (book).

No other news.  Oh wait!  News:  today, I have 199 working days left (total).  YAY passed the 200 mark!  Now to wait for Friday 9 April when it's 99!  Tuesday 22 June it'll be 49, and that's when it'll REALLY be close, unless the goalposts shift AGAIN.  It's looking more certain that G is going to be committed to his co. til end of September 2010 (start date being 1 October 2009), so my being at home for 2 months (Sept+Oct 2010) isn't too bad, but DIAC seem to be changing things all the time, so who knows.  I just sincerely hope that THIS countdown doesn't need to be recalculated AGAIN.  We shall have to wait and see.

Travel etiquette list

THE UNWRITTEN RULES OF PLANE ETIQUETTE

The company has drawn on its 12 years' experience to compile a list of 10 commonly aired in-flight grievances and to suggest strategies that can be adopted to minimise the risk of passenger-related turbulence at 30,000 feet.

 

Flight Centre South Africa's GM for marketing Liane Cowan said the unofficial guide covered a range of in-flight concerns from luggage placement and seat-related border crossings to toilet etiquette and rights to the middle arm rests.

"South African travellers are extremely good natured and don't tend to get too upset or let too many things overshadow the excitement of taking off overseas," she said.

"In compiling this guide, we have looked at the issues that have been aired from time to time and have suggested ways that these issues can be avoided."

1. Boarding and disembarking by row
Boarding your flight is straight forward – simply join the queue when invited.

Once aboard, carry your luggage directly in front or directly behind, as luggage carried to the side will leave a path of destruction (and more than a few headaches) among the aisle-seat dwellers who have already occupied their positions.

When it's time to disembark, don't try to beat passenger 1A to the door if you're seated in row 50. The passengers in rows 2 to 49 just won't let it happen.

2. The overhead locker
This humble storage unit is now prime real estate, as travellers cram more into their hand luggage to avoid checked baggage charges, to reduce the risk of lost luggage and to pave the way for a fast airport getaway.

Ensure your bag is within the required dimensions, only bring one and, wherever possible, stow it in the locker directly above you. Don't deposit your bag above seat 1A and then proceed to your seat at the back of the plane. Trust us – there will be flow-on effects.

3. The arm rest
Let's face it; the middle seat doesn't have a lot going for it. As you settle in to your window or aisle seat, spare a thought for the disadvantaged middle seat dweller.

If you have established early elbow dominance on shared armrests, make some space for the middle seat dweller, who otherwise faces a long and uncomfortable journey without arm support.

4. Chair reclining
On short flights (under two hours), reclining should be kept to a minimum and avoided completely during meal times. On longer flights, the one-in, all-in rule should apply.

5. Border crossings
Space is an extremely precious commodity in the economy cabin.

Don't attempt to cross your neighbour's border (unless invited) by stretching the legs or extending the arm span to read a fold-out map or a broadsheet newspaper. Changing the channel on your neighbour's entertainment screen, stealing peanuts and reading over the shoulder are also frowned upon.

6. Footwear
You're in close proximity to your neighbours. If there is any suggestion or past history of odour issues, footwear should remain on or should be carefully secured.

7. Mindless chatter
Before engaging in mid-flight banter with your neighbour, look for the obvious clues that point to a reluctant chatterer.

Headphones on or face buried in a book means "I don't want to talk".

8. Knees in the back
You're in a confined space, so the occasional bump to the seat in front is inevitable. Regular knees in the back are, however, almost a declaration of war.

9. Hands off the headrest
Like knees in the back, hands on the headrest in front are frowned upon.

Avoid the temptation to pull the headrest in front for extra leverage when standing. The consequences of a poorly timed headrest shake can range from mild whiplash to severe red wine spillage.

10. The bathroom Reaching the bathroom without breaching one or two of the rules above can be challenging.

So, if you're likely to be a regular bathroom visitor, request an aisle seat and empty the tanks before boarding to avoid the rush that inevitably occurs once the fasten seatbelt sign is switched off.

On arrival at the bathroom, "fast and clean" are the rules. Toilet-based readers take note – the complementary newspaper should remain in the seat pocket.

They left ONE thing off the list:  kids.  Keep your kids QUIET and DON'T LET THEM PISS OTHER PEOPLE OFF.  It is YOUR responsibility to ensure they don't interfere with other people, not the airhostess/es or other passengers.

 

*micro-rant over :D

A week later!

And it's been quite a week!

 

Various reasons, too many to list.

Work is still dull, but at least I've been getting things to do which is nice.  Right now I've got not much to do:  waiting for HBBM to proof-read a letter that I will then print onto letterhead and scan to email from his PC.  And some filing for a colleague.

I've been scanning up quite a storm.  I have about 200 photos left to scan (excluding Mom's odds&ends).  I want to keep my head against the grindstone this week so I can be finished by Friday - we're having the usual meet-up with M+J, sis and her-G.  Saturday is chores day, probably, and I have to clean the fishtank.  Sunday we're going for all-you-can-eat Indian lunch!

We completely rearranged the study on the weekend.  The mostly-empty freestanding wardrobe was moved from the bedroom to the study, and now everything that has to be sorted and tidied and 'culled' is in the study ONLY, and not anywhere in the rest of the house.  Or that's the plan.  There are some clothes we need to drop off (donating them to charity), I have a whole batch of wedding/honeymoon things to scrapbook (but at least it's a finite collection), and I've got some Cosmo magazines to go through too, but that's about it for the rest of the house.  It's so much neater in the study now, the books are all in bookshelves, non-books that were hogging bookshelf space have been put into the wardrobe and the luggage/bags are now in/on the wardrobe too.  So now there's actual floorspace to walk around in there.  It's a false-tidiness though, as we're going to have to go through everything that's been packed away and 'cull' it, but at least it's not CLUTTERY and irritating to look at.  It's liveable now. 

I'm actually quite amped to do the sort-through, but it'll probably only be at the end of the year (when I'm on leave for 3 weeks).  Sadly now is not the time to unpack things and allocate a permanent-place to them because we simply don't have space... THAT aspect of the tidying-process will have to wait until we move into a long-term/permanent home in Aus.

ACS still haven't made any 'moves' on the status of our appeal.  It's getting EXCRUTIATING now, because we are READY TO APPLY for the visa but cannot.  And in light of recent changes and impending overhaul of the entire visa system, we're quite 'eager' to at least get our foot in the door so that we are at least in the queue!  At present, DIAC says our visa should take 12 months or less to be processed.  So, NOW IS THE TIME!!!!  Now, while there IS a guideline time-frame!  Nothing for it but to keep looking in the postbox, even though the website should show any status changes AND G should get an email saying we can expect the letter to be sent soon.  *sigh*

I had quite an exciting stint on eBay this weekend:  I found a LocoRoco beanie and a hanging-advertising dangling-banner kind of thing.  The hat was an absolute steal (including shipping etc it's come to under R150 - considering how much you could expect to pay for a big-name-brand beanie, a hard-to-find, promo item like this for that little is BRILLIANT!!).  The ad-thingie wasn't expensive either, now just to hope and pray they actually GET TO ME and don't go AWOL in the post.

It's nearly lunch.  This Thursday is my no-switchboard-duty day so YAY!!  Small joys so sweet.

Sometimes I just cannot understand HBBM.  This morning, he comes to me and asks me about renewing his car license.  How does it work.  I say that if I recall right, if his license has expired (which it has) he has to go there to the traffic dept/licensing dept.  He throws his hands in the air and moans 'I CAN'T GO STAND IN THE QUEUE FOR 2 HOURS... GOD HELP ME, I'll have to get (messenger guy) to go do it for me!  God, I can't spend half my day there!  No way!  There must be some other way of doing it'.  So I um and ahh a little bit and then remember that I'd researched all this shit LAST YEAR too!  So he finds my note in his file.  You CAN renew it 'remotely', by phoning their call centre, getting a ref. no., making a deposit using said ref. no., and then they post it to you which takes 3 weeks.  They CAN'T do it, however, if it's already expired (as you'd be driving without a license for 3 weeks).  I wrote a whole story on a piece of paper for him, so as to avoid this scenario in future, but obviously it hasn't helped. 

But what gets me is the TOTAL INCOMPREHENSION, the inconceivability!! that he'd go stand in the queue at the traffic department!  No WAY!  Jees, dude, grab your big boy handbag and deal with it!  You're a citizen too, it's YOUR car, and YOUR slip-up.  You deal with it!

 

ANYway, it is now lunch!!  I have 43 working days left until I'm on leave!  Yay!!!

Boredom

I'm bored, today, it's 10:55 and I've been bored almost the whole morning.  Sucks!!!!

 

Right now I'm having Earl Grey tea.  I keep typing "Early" instead of "Earl" for some reason.

 

I'm bored.  I have some 'filing' to do (packing away some jobs into appleboxes), but I'm waiting for the messenger-guy to make up the boxes for me.

 

For some godunknown reason MSN at work doesn't work anymore.  Thanks, boss/IT for making work EVEN MORE damn boring than it was.  At least I'm able to use MSN on my phone, but jees, really.  And typing up on my phone is extremely tiring.  Yay carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

This morning, a lady from a company we deal with phoned me... she apparently left a message for me on Monday or Tuesday last week (when I was off sick), but I never got it... anyway, she wants to know about whether HBBM can have a meeting with her boss, etc so I check with HBBM and phone her back.  She sounded really ill on the phone before, and said "I can't talk long I really can hardly breathe" so when I phoned back I asked her what was wrong.

 

BOY OH BOY bad mistake.

 

She went on for about 15mins, telling me EVERYTHING in super-detail that happened.  To sum it up, she broke a tooth and went to have it extracted and it was long, difficult and traumatic and bloody and she's had a violent migraine ever since.  Oh and she's on her period "so I was bleeding from both ends".  Ok, sorry to inflict that kind of mental image on you but JEES!!!  Seriously... I think she's doped from something (not medication cos 'NOTHING STAYS DOWN'), to tell me all kinds of things, like her ex-husband was having their son stay with him for the weekend and her boyfriend was staying over at *his* child's mother and this and that and so on and so her boyfriend was 'sorting out trouble with his child's mother because she's suicidal and all that stuff and then he comes home and I'm like this so he went somewhere else so he didn't stress me out more'... jeepers.

Um.  Thanks for um... confiding in me.  A bit... unprofessional, perhaps?  A bit TMI... considering things like you're referring to your sister, 'the one with the twins' and I actually have NO CLUE wtf you are talking about.

WOW-O.

Concerns

I've just had an epiphany of sorts.

Ok first of all - a disclaimer:  I am not in any way 'knowledgeable' about SA politics, I'm just typing up my impressions of it.  Second of all - it's just my opinion/impressions.  Thirdly, I'm assuming that the 'readers' of this post are SA or are familiar with the names of the politicians.

 

Malema is a cry-wolf.  He spews extremist drivel and everyone wishes he'd shut up because he's a moron but nobody actually stops him.  I'm not sure what his 'position' is in the country, as far as I know he's not part of the ANC (ruling party) but the ANCYL - I'm not sure of the relationship between the two but is the ANCYL by extension the ruling party?  I don't understand.  Regardless, this clown is spouting shit and 'making changes' in SA.

But... what if he's PURPOSEFULLY allowed to spout shit?  In comparison to his rantings and ravings, the president Zuma seems sensible and calm.  Despite 'showering' to cleanse himself of the risk of getting AIDS/HIV, amongst other major problems (I won't go into detail now), he is a vision of calm in comparison to Malema.  But what if that's the point?  If people FERVENTLY mistrust Malema, and all they have to fall back on is 'staid' Zuma, he becomes a trustworthy thing, merely by occasionally 'denouncing' things Malema has said. 

What if that is the whole point, and in gaining unspoken trust and support, he is then able to make drastic, unfair changes?  I won't go into much detail here either, but it's just a matter of changing one small bit of legislation at a time, and we could be fast-tracked to become a second Zimbabwe.

That is very scary.  On that note, I really hope that we are able to move to Aus ASAP in 2011.  If we were able to move even in October 2010, it'd be great.  The sooner the better.  And I'm hoping that once we get there, we are able to assist family in moving too.  My sister, who finishes her part-time study for a degree end of 2012 - I hope that we will be able to sponsor her then.  And Mom, too.  And of course G's parents and sister.  I'm not sure the routes we could use (ie, skilled/parents/dependent family, etc), but I hope that we can do it.  Sadly we wouldn't be able to sponsor friends, but jeepers I wish we could do that too.

 

Ok, that's the post for today... unless I get inspiration for more.

Excitement

Today hbbm is out of town, so I'm bored (for now).  I had a bit of work to do but it's done so I'm sitting contemplating a little.

 

I have 51 working days left for the whole year!!

 

THAT'S SO FRICKIN' AWESOME!! 

 

3 months (including October), 10 weeks, 51 days til the end of the work-year for me.  Minus a day or 2 (or 4) for when G's in hospital and I'm (probably) going to take unpaid leave.  I just cannot expect G's parents or anyone else to take me to and from work for those 4 days.

Total time left, then, until end of Aug 2010:  11 months (including October), +-44 weeks (I still have to work out when I want to take leave so probably will be more like 42 weeks total), 209 days.

If the visa is granted within 12 months (as DIAC say) and we apply before the end of this month, we should have it by October 2010.  Which leaves me with 2 months after stopping work in which I'm not working and we probably wouldn't have got the visa yet.  Which is fine.  It looks more and more like G's going to be committed to his co until past October 2010 anyway, so it would work out 100% if we get the visa, go over for a holiday to activate the visa while he's still working and then come back to wrap things up after he finishes with work.  But it's all a matter of details, then.  For now, it's 'sit tight' for a year minimum, and try to stay alive at work.

I had a bing-bing moment earlier:  I just have my aunt's wedding album/s and my cousin's (few) photos to scan, and then I'm pretty much DONE with all of the photos!!  Now just to pester Mom for the odds and ends lying around at home, but I reckon that's going to take a while.  But regardless, that's going to be ONE HELLUVA TASK ... COMPLETED!!  I'll be able to burn DVDs for the respective family members :D

Means I have to pack Golden Ice away for a while, but I wasn't feeling very inspired anyway.  I think this task being finished is going to give me a real boost.  Plus, while the PC is set up to scan, I'll scan those old papers and letters to Dad.  Once those 2 large tasks are done, I'll be able to settle down and relax, with stitching, gaming and reading (etc), and just odds and ends to do like wash my teddies (the ones I'm keeping), go through old Cosmo's and give them away... oh I must also clear out my email boxes, save stuff on my laptop and then back it all up.  I think I should bump up that task to a higher priority so I can empty out my laptop a little.

 

OH AND... I almost forgot - something I remembered a couple of weeks ago:  I still have the wedding and honeymoon to scrapbook!

 

SO EXCITING!!!!!!

Wednesday woooooooooo

Today is Wednesday.  I am happy right now, because...

 

WELL JUST BECAUSE :D

 

I was off sick from work yesterday and Monday, had a cold and felt really grotty and thought 'stuff it, I'm staying home'.  Thursday last week was a public holiday and Friday I was on leave, so it ended up being an unintentionally lonnnnnnnggggggggg weekend.

Thursday we popped in at G's parents for tea and cupcakes.  Woolies has chocolate cupcakes with mini-Astros - they are so yum and have become a bit of an irresistible treat.

Friday we borrowed G's dad's Jeep to take junk to the dump.  Yes, we FINALLY got rid of the old security gate, the dead microwave, a dead TV, scanner, some vertical blinds, etc, that had been stuffed under our staircase +- ever since we moved in or the respective thing died/was replaced.  We dumped that first, then headed on through to Mom's, where we got a 'jeep-load' of junk (literally junk, like rusted paint tins, a bit of soffit from gawdknowswhere, under-carpet insulation, some random wire spring-like things, etc).  I'd say that's quite an accomplishment!  Mom still (!) has to actually take the old things from the roof-cavity away to be donated/sold/whatever, who knows when that will happen, but at least there isn't this pile of crap building up in the garden.  It's a small but significant step in the right direction.  There is hope yet.  It's just a pity G's dad is selling the Jeep but I'm sure we can still make a plan to take other junk to the dump.  I must say that the emptied space under our staircase is such a relief - not that it was bothering me, but it just feels like the place is a little lighter.  I really don't think we're going to have loads to take with us to Aus.  Whatever we will take will be very special to us.

On Wednesday, G told me he has a secret/surprise for me.  Saturday morning, I had to have a bag packed for 1 night, and we were dropping Dude off at his parents.  All he told me was that we would be driving around looking for things.  After dropping Dude off, we set out.  The weather wasn't terrific because it was overcast and looked like rain but we basically 'raced' the weather - G handed me a paper with a map of sorts and said 'we're looking for Bamboo'.  He'd left a big clue on the map though, and I was THRILLED to work out that we were heading off for a LONG DRIVE to Knysna!!! 

It was stunning the whole way (amazing farmlands and hills and mountains), and only a few hours after leaving home did I realise that we would be going right past my cousins' place and that we could meet up with them!  So I sms'd my mom giving her some clues and said "can you guess where we're headed?" and she excitedly sms'ed "to see J+L??  you guys are rascals" (she loves driving trips and holidays and also J+L!).  We stopped for lunch somewhere in the middle of nowhere (it was beautiful), and then I sms'd J saying 'yo, you guys up for meeting up this evening or tomorrow morning?'.  We didn't make it to see them on Saturday, so G and I went and explored Knysna's waterfront and had supper at a restaurant there.  It's such a 'small town' and the waterfront is very small, but it was nice and so very quiet.  Sunday we met up with my cousins for brunch.  At one point after we'd got to their local mall, J sms'd saying "we're nearly there, L is just painting the picasso" - a humorous reference to her almost obsessive need to put on full-on make-up for all occasions!  They were there quite soon, and to my surprise they brought their mom, who I hadn't seen for maybe the better part of a decade!!  It was lovely to see her, and we had a big hug.  I really hope we can see more of them in future.

After chatting in the toy shop (G and I were automatically drawn into the toyshop by all the fancy toys like cars and meccano) for probably half an hour, we set out to find lunch.  Decided on a restaurant, but unfortunately despite being HARDLY full or hectically busy, they seriously messed up our order, twice.  And they were horrendously slow to add to it, and to add insult to injury, they charged R13 for a 330ml Coke.  Jeepers!  But anyway, we had a lovely time with them - and I got the photos L had kept aside for me to scan!

We headed off from there at about 2pm (if I recall correctly), and it was drizzly and rainy and at times very windy on our drive back.  We stopped a couple of times, but made good time until we hit the pass back into Town... it was backed up from the top of the mountain to further than the eye could see.  I sms'd my aunt who lives out that way, to find out if we could perhaps drop in at their place and wait out the crush of traffic, and it took about an hour for us to get off that road to head out their way. 

By that stage we both needed a pitstop, so we stopped in at a restaurant after searching in vain for a petrol station with a loo!!  My cousin phoned and then I spoke to her dad and he couldn't give us directions to their place so the 2 of them popped in their car and came to lead us to their place.  It was fun seeing their (tiny) place after hearing so much about it, and lovely to see them again too.  We basically just chatted, sharing news and hearing stories, and then as we were getting up to leave, my aunt dug out some more photos for me to scan - her wedding album/s and some other random photos.  Then they took their car and escorted us back onto the road home (there was a lot of construction and lots of diversions so we might have got lost), and then we were A for Away.  We eventually got home at about 22:00.  Monday I went to the doctor and afterwards we popped in at G's parents to pick up Dude.  He's such a sweetie and seemed glad to see us again despite only missing us for 2 nights.

So that's the weekend news, and today I feel so... distant.  Work feels so irrelevant, I feel like exploring the world.  There is such a large world out there, and I don't feel like I'm in it!  Maybe the holiday was just what I needed, except it was a little short.  Next time, we can take a LONGGGGGGGG holiday!!

News regarding the ACS assessment/visa:  ACS still hasn't done anything further, so G's going to email them later.  And the whole visa scenario has changed (but thankfully not for us - for now).  The 175 CSL visas, according to the DIAC email/website, will be granted within 12 months of application.  Which is good.  It's been taking between 7 and 10 months to process them, but there was never a 'they will be done by' time given, so at least we know now (within reason) that if we apply in October, hopefully we'll get the visa by the end of 2010.  Which fits our timeline fine.  I just hope we get the ACS letter SOON, so that we can apply and BEGIN!!  So exciting!  But it forces consideration and contemplation, as once we get the visa and move, we leave everything behind.  I think I'll sit down and think about everything, this week...

 

:D

Recalculation

I have resigned myself to having to work til end of August 2010 (at least).  I just can't sit doing nothing for 6+ months.  If the visa takes longer, I might have to work until end of Feb 2011.

So my countdown, today, stands at 56 working days left for this year, 214 working days left til my last day at work.

There are no jobs out there, and I can't study for 1 year - it's just not worth the time, money and effort because a 'certificate' in something doesn't count towards anything.

So, I'm pretty much stuck in this morgue for another year.  I am so elated I don't know what to do with myself.

Why are things so dull

So many thoughts, emotions, worries, concerns... sadness... and an inability to put them into words

Specumalations!

I'm bored... there are 100 working days (21 weeks) left until end of Feb 2010, and 62 working days (13 weeks) til I go on leave at the end of this year.  I'm so bored, hbbm has gone out to a meeting and will be back at 13:00.  His work is so much quieter than usual, so I've got less to do too.  I've been 'meditating' on my diary/calendar again... :-P

The ACS appeal status hasn't changed, but the 'case managed by' name is different today.  Dunno if that means there's progress, but we'll see.  I hope we get the result soon - BEFORE the end of September, if it's all good!

My rough calculations (optimistic, of course), based an international 175 CSL visa applicants' spreadsheet and other info that's out there, mean that if we apply before end of October this year, we should get a CO in about March/April 2010.  It appears that currently the 'average' no. of days it takes before you get a CO is 150+ days.  Then, hopefully we should get the visa in about June/July 2010.  The 'average' no. of days to get the visa is 200+, but I'm giving an estimate of 250 to be safe.  It all depends... but anyway...

G's work situation seems to be that he will be committed to the co until October (or thereabouts) 2010.  If we get the visa in June or July (or so), next year, we'd have until +- March 2011 to actually move there or at least activate our permanent residence status (it depends on the date of the PCCs or the Medicals).

So it seems that, if all works out right, we should be moving in 2011.  It sucks that everything has taken so long as we'd (optimistically, beyond all reality!!) hoped to have moved well in time before the SWC next year.  I'm still dreading the SWC and the utter shambles that will probably come straight after it, if not before or during it.

But anyway, the only 'problem' with moving only in March 2011 (or thereabouts), is... I'll have been sitting home for over a year, doing nothing.  I'll have to find another job in the interim... but judging from the current situation THERE ARE NO JOBS!

So I don't know what exactly I'm going to do.  But I'm not, CERTAINLY not, going to stay here unless there is absolutely nothing else I can do.  Jeepers even typing that makes me feel hell depressed HAHAHA!!!!  Another 6 months of this place, tacked onto my countdown??  Jeepers!!!!!!

So yeah, I have to sit down and think very hard what I want to do for the year.  I CAN'T very well just sit at home 24/7.

~~~

I seem to...

...blog most workdays!

It's Thursday, I am having delicious tea and have just had a chocolate brownie (I think that's what it's called).  Very yummy!

Last night G and I went to one of the local malls for him to get more medicine, and as we were walking out of the pharmacy, a guy who had been bothering the pharmacy cashiers/pharmacists made off with some stuff - he'd shoplifted.  The one pharmacist (Carl - a very unusual looking guy) ran after him... the shoplifter wasn't a tall guy, but Carl is VERY tall so Carl hardly had to run after him, and luckily a carguard/security guard across the road got in the shoplifter's way so Carl was able to get the stuff back.  Why the guy would want to shoplift some disposable nappies is beyond me, but anyway.  He failed.  Yay Carl!

While we were at the mall, G and I stopped to have supper (I'd planned to make sushi but the rice would have taken so long that we'd only have eaten at about 10pm!), and we also stopped in at the music/game/video/DVD/etc shop there, and I bought Wall-E for PSP.  After we got home, G, Dude and I had a hang-out session on the bed:  G working on his laptop, me playing Wall-E and Dude trying to eat the PSP.  He's not happy with sitting nearby, no he has to nibble the buttons, or climb up onto the actual screen while I'm playing.  Such a sweet cheeky nunu.  He's busy 'quilling' so his head is full of pin-feathers and he's very grumpy lately but hopefully he'll be back to normal soon so I can give him headscratches.

We're still waiting for the ACS result.  It's already nearly 8 weeks and their website says an appeal takes 6 weeks.  I've emailed them to ask how long it actually takes as the confirmation of application email says 12 weeks so I'm not sure which timeline to go with.  I just wish this would HAPPEN already, so we can at least have the 'satisfaction' or milestone of actually applying for the visa!

This whole week has been dumb.  I was so bored that I dug out all the file dividers in the office (that I know of) and erased all the pencil-names on them.  And I tackled the pink-folders and erased the pencil-names or tippexed out the pen-names on them.  It was a slow, boring, dull job which took ages, and probably will go unnoticed (except for the typist who actually cares about these things), but at least I was 'busy' and there is a visible result from my work.  Crazy, when you think about it:  I spent 12 years at school and 1.5 years at college, to sit tippexing all day.  I guess it's a break from filing and folding drawings, but it's still shit.  I will wait though, my time will be here sooner than I realise, I'm just waiting for this phase to finish.  102 working days left til end of Feb next year.  That's really not so much!  On Tuesday next week my countdown will have reached the double digits!!!!  This week is nearly done, then the week after next is a short week cos of a public holiday and a leave day.  Can't wait!

I can't think of anything else to blog now.  *snore*  back to filing.  At 1pm SHARP I will be AT the SWITCHBOARD for that COW.  And then at 1:45pm SHARP I will LEAVE the SWITCHBOARD.  How petty.  Dumb bitch.

Anyway, that's all for now.  *yawn*!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday waiting

It's already Wednesday, which is strange cos it feels like a Tuesday.  Thankfully it's a Wednesday, means we're closer to the weekend!

Nothing has (so far) come of my email to the bosses.  I've managed to ignore her the whole of Friday, Monday, Tuesday and today, as much as is possible.  She did, however, inform me yesterday (past 4pm) that the following morning (today) she will be going to the traffic dept to fetch her license.  Thanks, bitch for giving me ample warning... but anyway, I did my time, she came in earlier than 10:30 (her approximate time of arrival), but I don't believe her story of going to the traffic dept.  Dunno, she's a bitch and she cries wolf "being sick" and going to see the doctor when she has an interview, for eg.  Anyway, yesterday she whined at everyone that she had a stomach bug, and she came to work this morning carrying a large brownpaper pharmacy packet... so I dunno, hey.  I smell something that smells like bullshit.

Yesterday evening, after having a ROUGH day (both me and G had crap days), we got home to... the brat next door blowing a happy-new-year style tweeter.  What... the... fuck... is... WRONG WITH THOSE PEOPLE?!??!?!  What in all hell makes them think that it's FINE to do stuff like that?  He was standing out in their garden, tweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeting the fucking thing at his mother who was inside the house.  And then he'd run indoors to tweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet at her, and then run outside again.  What... the fuck.  Seriously, in a COMPLEX/COMMUNAL type residential set up, oh and I suspect that they have a vuvuzela too, because we heard THAT a couple of times TOO.  The problem is, we can't yell out the window every single time they make a noise, because they make noise ALL THE TIME!!  And no, it's not us being 'triggered' by noises, they just ARE noisy assholes who don't give a fuck.

I sincerely wish the other brats in the complex would see some sense.  Since they (and their moo mother who should tell them not to) don't 'see' the logic of NOT PLAYING in the driveway, the only solution I see is for one of her MANY (wtf, is she a wannabe Duggar or something?!) brats to be involved in an 'accident'*.  I wish someone would accidentally, gently knock her kid over with one of their 'PRECIOUS' cars, so that the obvious would be made, well, obvious!  You DON'T PLAY WHERE CARS DRIVE!  But the big flaw in that 'lesson' is that the driver of the car would be blamed and everything would be THEIR fault, of COURSE it wouldn't be the brat or their mother at fault!

Anyway, G and I are both feeling the 'lack' of point of having this 'wonderful' home with garden+windows+carport and everything, if we can't even enjoy it, despite paying the rent for it.  Out of curiosity, I looked online to see if there were any places out there, but they're all terrible and majorly expensive, so I guess all we can do is stick it out until we move and we can get a small FREESTANDING home on its OWN PLOT/ERF.

I'm comforted by the fact that it's not just me who feels this way, but it sucks to have to stick around for an uncertain length of time because we just don't know when we'll get the visa.  A person sometimes just wishes for a bit of peace and quiet at home after a SHITTY DAY AT THE OFFICE but it seems an impossible piece of heaven that no one is entitled to.

*  I don't wish horrible accidents on anyone, but sometimes there's just this extreme need for a bit of commonsense reinforcement.  Call it karma?  Or maybe 'carma' HARDYHAR!!!!

Reading and contemplation

I'm currently reading up on Australia. Queensland, Brisbane, Sydney, New South Wales, etc.

I have found out 2 things:

Jørn Utzon died in the same month that we went to see the Sydney Opera House. We got to see the Sydney Opera House, which he never got to see despite having designed and built (most of) it. Somehow, it's touching... makes me feel weird. I know LOADS of people go to the Opera House every day, but *our* visit happened to be that particular month. Hectic though, he was 90!

The second thing I found out is this: the area in Redfern that we walked around (lost) trying to find our hotel, is a block or 2 away from The Block.

Wikipedia has the following to say about The Block:

The Block is a colloquial but universally applied name given to a block of housing in Redfern Sydney. The block was purchased over a period of 30 years by the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) for use as a project in Aboriginal-managed housing.

The Block is probably the most famous feature of the suburb of Redfern, although in point of fact it is located on the western border of that suburb, on the edge of Darlington. The focus of life in the Block has always been Eveleigh Street, which is its eastern border, with railway lines on the other side of that street.

This area and surrounds has a high street crime rate and is "no go area" for Sydney Taxi Drivers. This is exacerbating the racism experienced by the diverse members of the community, who are being refused taxi service.

The area around The Block is now reportedly the subject of plans for massive redevelopment by private developers at the instigation of the New South Wales state government - see Redfern-Eveleigh-Darlington.

Seriously, a dangerous area, which the hotel front-desk guy warned us about, saying 'never, never go there'. We walked through there, as touristy as could be (save for a Hawaiian shirt or 2), dragging luggage and suitcase, lost, at about 7pm. We are still alive. Nothing happened! I'm not saying it isn't a dangerous area, just that it's evidently NOT AS BAD AS CAPE TOWN CITY ANYWHERE!!!

I'm so looking forward to living in Aus!!! Where to choose to live?! Probably Brisbane, with lots of holidays to the other cities :D Can't wait!

I'm sorry, BITCH, but I've had enough

I have seriously HAD IT with the receptionist.

A bit of background: I'm first in line to stand in for the receptionist whenever she needs to go away from her desk. It is just one of my duties. Officially, it is so that she can go to the toilet or make a cup of tea or attend to some work that requires her being away from her desk, but unofficially (based on 'good working relationship') it allows for her to go make tea, toast sandwiches, quickly run out to draw money, etc. It is one of those give and take things.

Except, she's been abusing me.

A few weeks ago, at 1pm (lunchtime), I was warming some lunch (pizza leftovers) in the microwave, and passed her desk bringing a cup of hot chocolate to my desk. She asked me if she could quickly go to the toilet, so I asked her why the accountant (whose switchboard lunch-duty day it was) wasn't there yet. She said that she'd volunteered to sit through lunch for her, as the accountant had a headache. I told her she could quickly go, while my food was in the microwave, so that I didn't have to wait (and let it go cold) once it was ready (because she would be back by then).

She took 10minutes, while I was waiting, to go to the toilet. Except, she didn't JUST go to the toilet, SHE MADE HER LUNCH THEN TOO. I went towards the kitchen and met her coming out with her food, and said to her "I thought you were just going to the loo..?? I've been listening the whole time" so she replied "I was listening from the kitchen". Nice, you could have TOLD ME so that I could have eaten before my FOOD WENT COLD! Thank you for volunteering to stand in for someone then USING MY LUNCHBREAK instead!!!!

Anyway, today, at 1pm, I'm getting up to go warm my lunch (pizza leftovers again), as, although Thursdays are my switchboard lunch-duty days, today is my once-in-6-weeks Thursday off. She says "can I just go to the loo and make tea", so, because my food isn't yet warming/going cold, I agree. I head to the kitchen, after 5mins, to make some tea in the meantime, to find her TOASTING SANDWICHES AND MAKING A WHOLE GOURMET MEAL. I say "you're making food now??" so she says "yes, I said I was going to make tea" so I said "tea, you said tea, not lunch", so she replies "tea is food, is the same thing" so I said "no, tea is tea, tea tea"... I was so angry I just left my mug there and stormed back to my desk so that I wouldn't lose it and give her a slap.

She took FIFTEEN MINUTES of MY lunchbreak.

I waited, til I'd cooled off (after having my food and tea), and wrote a civil email to her:

(her name)

Please can we reach an agreement regarding lunch times.

I am happy to stand in for you to make food/go to the toilet on the days where you have to sit at the switchboard during lunch, as I understand about being hungry and having to sit at the phone without actually getting a lunchbreak the whole day.

But please don’t do it during my lunch break - plan ahead and ask me BEFORE 13:00. It is my lunch time that you are using up and I don’t get the time back afterwards because my hours resume at 13:45 (that is when lunch time is officially over and I have to be available immediately for Mr Colussi or whoever else may need me urgently). When I sit at the switchboard on normal Thursdays, I usually don’t get the time back afterwards to have my OWN lunch for this same reason, so I basically miss out on a lunchbreak most Thursdays.

As the receptionist, I didn’t have anyone like a (my name) who is there to sit for you whenever you wish, I had to run to and from the kitchen to make my food outside of lunch-time, so as to go during a quiet time when I could hear the phone from the kitchen. I am happy to listen for you so that you don’t have to starve or run around, but I’m not happy about doing this if you abuse my goodwill by using up my lunch time.

I don’t want to stir up hard feelings or have an argument, but I have to bring it up so that we can resolve it.

I would not call that a rude or aggressive email.

I, however, get this as a reply. Please bear with me, it is pasted verbatim (yes, she really IS THIS FUCKING ILLITERATE):

You know that mostly before one I get so busy and normally you get here at 1:05 or 13:10 have I complain about that NO!!!!!!!!!! starting from now you will be here from 13h00 and I will do the same to you, I didn’t think I was abusing your goodwill which so you were also abusing mine by coming late to releave me, starting from now you will be here at 13h00 sharp and I’ll be back at 13:45 sharp as well, no lhard feeling is that you just know how are welling to help and not I always know you don’t like to help when it comes to switch board.

. As the receptionist, I didn’t have anyone like a (my name) who is there to sit for you whenever you wish, I had to run to and from the kitchen to make my food outside of lunch-time, so as to go during a quiet time when I could hear the phone from the kitchen. I am happy to listen for you so that you don’t have to starve or run around, but I’m not happy about doing this if you abuse my goodwill by using up my lunch time.

This highlighted one I wont urgeu about because it was like this before I came.

The italics is her quoting my email.

Oh, my, god. I cannot believe her GALL!! And then to go on and accuse me of being LATE to relieve her?!?!?!?!??!?!?! I am never late unless my BOSS has delayed me. I go and make my tea BEFORE lunch so that I am READY AT 13:00, but she often makes me wait while she tidies up her desk, which can take 5mins and wastes time. Not to mention her often coming BACK late!! The UTTER CHEEK to reply with such a lie, I'm just ... baffled. Enraged!

I have emailed the bosses, as this is UNACCEPTABLE. I tried to resolve this amicably, but she turns around and LIES and gets all aggressive about it.

I'm so fed up. If I get crap from EITHER the bosses, or her, I'm going to resign. I'm sorry, but this is unacceptable.

BRT

BRT stands for Bus Rapid Transit.  It is a system that is being put in place to provide public transport, supplementing the train, bus, taxi and private transport systems, so that there will be sufficient transport systems in place ready for the Soccer World Cup, next year.

Or it is supposed to be.  Except, the taxi mob have got it into their heads that this BRT is going to threaten their jobs*.  So, instead of 'adapt or die', they've decided to SHOOT AT THE BUSES.  Killing commuters... shooting at the buses.  How DARE the public use OTHER MODES OF TRANSPORT?!?!??!?!?!?

Oh... my... god... what the fuck is wrong with these people?  Seriously, where else in the WHOLE WORLD do you find people so VIOLENTLY anti-progress??

*  if people had a CHOICE, they would never USE those bloody taxis in the first place!  They essentially have a monopoly due to sheer lack of CHOICE on the part of the commuters, who are mostly very poor people who can't afford anything else.  So these terrorists feel that their monopoly will be affected, thereby losing them money, etc etc, nevermind the little FACT that TOURISTS WOULD NEVER USE their flipping 'services' ANYWAY, so they wouldn't have be MAKING any money off them in the first place!!

Sunshine Island

I grabbed some time in the garden on Saturday, just long enough to cut a twig of Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow and Jasmine.  I stuck them into a glass with water, and they've been filling the whole lounge with their beautiful, therapeutic scent.  It really makes it feel summery.

I stitched a lot this weekend.  Golden Ice is looking good, I've 'edited' his forelock on the chart so I'm going to leave out the topmost part of his forelock (it makes him look like a punkrocker or something)... so he's gonna be STUNNING.  I'm so nearly done with the whole right-half of the chart, once I'm done with it I'm going to cut that half off the chart so I have less paper hanging around.  Then my aim will be to do the top left quadrant of the design so that I can cut that part off too.  The thing is, only the bottom left quadrant has a lot of stitching (nearly every block is a stitch).  Anyway, GI Joe is coming along nicely.

I hope that winter's on its way out now.  The light and brightness that comes with Spring really makes everything more happy and positive.  I understand so well the idea of 'springcleaning'... and there's a feeling of impending clearout!

Both G and I feel superamped now to start making moves, but we have to wait... gotta wait for ACS and also gotta wait til his co. change happens.  It's all too exciting.  I'm going to head-down for the next while though:  I have plenty of stitching to do, plus springcleaning (my emailboxes, my laptop, etc plus we have to finally ACTUALLY get rid of junk that's been hanging around for an age)... plus other things.  I just wish I had more time during the day... the usual 'gripe'.

I can't think of anything else to write now... I have some filing.  I have 110 days left here (72 this year).  I've now been here 5.5 years (at the end of today), and I have 6 months left.

Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye (apparently by Gracie Field, don't think I've heard it before)

Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Cheerio, here I go, on my way
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay
Give me a smile I can keep all the while
In my heart while I'm away
Till we meet once again, you and I
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Cheerio, here I go on my way
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay
Give me a smile I can keep all the while
In my heart while I'm away
Till we meet once again, you and I
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye...
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Cheerio, here I go, on my way
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay
Give me a smile I can keep all the while
In my heart while I'm away
Till we meet once again, you and I
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Cheerio, here I go, on my way
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay
Give me a smile I can keep all the while
In my heart while I'm away
Till we meet once again you and I
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye...
Goodbye everybody, I'll do my best for ye

111 / 73

My tally is 73 left for this year.  The bosses released the dates the office will be closed at the end of the year, so I've put in my leave.  The 16th Dec is a public holiday and the office closes on the 18th, so I've put in my 4 days leave so I finish work for this year on 11th Dec.  The office lunch is on 15th, so I miss it!  Yay!  It's always so awkward...  I haven't missed many of them, but they're ALWAYS so awkward, and it doesn't feel worth the 'free food' to sit and feel so badly awkward through a long lunch.

No ACS news.  If they work according to their previous 'schedule', we should get it middle of September.  We'll wait and see.  I just hope that it'll be positive so we can go ahead an apply already.  It's been such a delay cos, if the previous assessment was correct, we could have applied in July.  But if you take it further back, if we'd sorted the ACS stuff out BEFORE the IELTS test, we could have already had the results and have applied in um... April or so?  But regardless... it doesn't serve any purpose retrospecting like that.  I just hope they HURRY UP eek.

Work has been so unbearably boring.  'Nuff said.

There's been a competition on the radio for the past week, to win tickets to go on holiday to India, to follow the 20/20 cricket, sightsee a little bit, etc.  It requires listening out for keywords throughout the day to earn points, as you need a certain number of points to get an entry into the draw.  I've been listening to the radio on my phone, using the earphones so no one else can hear (we can't listen to music/radio at work so I'm sneaking it hehe).  It's been SUCH A PLEASURE listening to the radio during the day (it's been pretty much all day each day this week), because it's been like a happy, lively connection to the outside world which is a nice change from feeling like a captive zombie in a morgue.  The only problem is the UTTERLY SHIT signal reception in here... it's unbelievable.  Anyway, I'm holding thumbs because a holiday to India would be AWESOME, and watching cricket and going sightseeing with the DJ would be cool too.

No other NEWS NEWS at all.  Oh, except G's work change is looking more and more definite.  So we will have a direction again! 

Nearly weekend.  I'm so bored.  Can I go home now?

I just give up!

I just fuckingwell give up.

 

A friend, who works about 10mins' walk away from me, emailed me earlier this week to ask whether I could meet up with him and his sister during lunch on Thursday (today).  At first I couldn't, until I swapped switchboard day for this week, so I was free on Thursday.  I emailed telling him and so we were on for lunch today.  I didn't pack lunch, because it was all arranged.

 

Except, now, at 12:50, hbbm gets a phonecall, regarding something he's been working on since 16:55 yesterday.  It has to go out today, during lunch.

 

YES, my fucking lunch.

 

MY FUCKING LUNCH.

 

He asked whether I was going out during lunch... but it's a fucking rhetorical question because it would just create such a fucking fuss if I were actually to GO out when I'm needed here that I JUST GIVE UP!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So I sit WAITING AROUND til 13:30, before I even GET ANYTHING to work on.

 

So all this basically is, is WAITING, WASTING MY LUNCH BREAK.

 

Thanks so much.

Nickelback - If Today Was Your Last Day

My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each day's a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind
And try to take the path less traveled by
That first step you take is the longest stride

If today was your last day
And tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have?
If today was your last day

Against the grain should be a way of life
What's worth the prize is always worth the fight
Every second counts 'cause there's no second try
So live like you'll never live it twice
Don't take the free ride in your own life

If today was your last day
And tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have?
Would you call old friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories
Would you forgive your enemies?
Would you find that one you're dreamin' of?
Swear up and down to God above
That you finally fall in love
If today was your last day

If today was your last day
Would you make your mark by mending a broken heart?
You know it's never too late to shoot for the stars
Regardless of who you are
So do whatever it takes
'Cause you can't rewind a moment in this life
Let nothin' stand in your way
Cause the hands of time are never on your side

If today was your last day
And tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?

Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have?
Would you call old friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories
Would you forgive your enemies?
Would you find that one you're dreamin' of?
Swear up and down to God above
That you finally fall in love
If today was your last day

Friendslist cull

Such a liberating feeling!

After much dithering, I went through my FB friendslist, 'labelling' each friend as 'keep' and 'deletable'.  I was going to dither still more, but I accidentally defriended someone (luckily one of the deletables) so I thought 'what the hell!' and deleted ALL of them.  Seriously, do I really need to concern myself with the day-to-day lives of people who barely spoke to me in high school?  In 10 years, no contact was made up until friend-request on FB.  Are they *really* friends?  Do I really want to share my day-to-day life with them?  Would they even notice my absence from their friends list?  *shrugs* I guess it's hardly important.  I think another cull will happen again in the future.  It just gets to a point where if someone doesn't say a WORD to you in years, then you can hardly call them 'friends'...

What spurred me into action (to 'classify' the people on my friends list) was the fact that an ex-colleague had the lack of manners to lift photos from my FB album(s?) and email them to people who are still my colleagues, WITHOUT ASKING first.  Not even a MENTION that they had done it.  I don't know, now, what all photos HAVE been emailed (ie, from other of my albums), but the ones I KNOW of are wedding photos, and yay, hbbm gets to see my wedding pics.

Thanks, moron, I really wanted to have my wedding photos emailed to all and sundry.  I was actually going to bring some photos with me to work, to show, because then at least I can take them HOME with me afterwards.  I hadn't brought them to work yet, yes, procrastination etc, but also there's the small fact that the wedding pics DVD is faulty/damaged and we OURSELVES can't view the pics.  We've been waiting for ages for a replacement... but yah... regardless.  Thank you, moron.  I really appreciate your 'friendship'.

I need to get out of here

I'm... so... bored...

 

And, to make things so much more joyful, the receptionist just farted.

 

Yes, she farted.  Twice... saying 'oops sorry'.

 

Jees, thanks lady.

 

Lovely.

 

I need to get out of here.

 

I just need to get out of here...

 

O.o

The Cardigans - Starter

This is a start
that I know I'll believe in
so I'm leavin' everything behind
Keeping the parts
that I know I'll be needing
and I breed to be a better kind
And I'm leavin' everyone behind

This is the age
when my past should be gone
but it's just stronger than the aims I have
Turning the pages
I used to hang on to
I was young and I have changed my mind
And I'm leaving everything behind

New beginning again
a bit closer
new beginning again
a little bit closer
New beginning again
a bit closer to the end

This is the time
it's a delicate line
to the beginning of what's yet to come
Lifetimes of changes
a strange generation
explanations never come in time
So I'm leavin' everything behind

Gripes

YAY a Ranty McRant blogpost!!

First of all, I don't care how much SMALLER it would be living in a freestanding house (because of not being able to afford a suitably-sized one), but once we're in Aus, I am not staying in a flat/townhouse/duplex/conjoined place.  If we have to park the car in the street because all our stuff can't fit in the house and has to be stuffed into the garage, so be it.  I'm just tired (seriously had enough) of having someone sharing a wall and making unadulterated noise like slamming doors, banging things on kitchen counters, bashing things against the walls, letting things bang on the floors, having a yell session for about 20mins solid, having tantrums which last 30mins+, stamping around in high-heels on tiled floors (yes that sound DOES carry, you cowbitchneighbour) and last but not least, their kid having nightmares and screaming the fucking building down.  Yes I'm referring to OUR neighbours (who else?).  But seriously.  Screaming, not just crying, hell, not even waking up screaming and then crying out of shock, no... screaming/crying/wailing/screaming/wailing/crying all looped, for everyone's benefit.

I'm just... so... over it.  So over having to 'share' lifespace with INCONSIDERATE ASSHOLES.  I understand that just because a house is freestanding, doesn't mean it has a magic sound-proof, interference-proof barrier, but at least it won't be JOINED so we won't have to hear every time one of the neighbours flushes their toilet.  And we can finally be freed from brats playing around our car.

Ok that's Rant no. 1.  2nd one isn't so much a rant as a grumble/snark.

Hbbm came in this morning, complaining about being stuck in traffic for 45mins.  Sorry, dude, 45mins, stuck in a Merc 550 SLK?  WTF?  No sympathy, sorry.  Try catching the train, from 30kms away, leaving home at +-7:00, sitting stuck in a 'broken down' train (delayed for an unknowable time, for some unknowable reason which is made-up by the train company anyway), that's if you even get your right train and aren't forced to take a late train (which can be delayed by sometimes over an hour), getting to work late AND STILL GETTING GRIEF FROM THE BOSS/ES!  Some people live even further away, so my experiences aren't even THAT BAD.. but regardless of where you are, or how early you have to get up, you get the same stupid 'grief':  why don't you catch an earlier train?  why did you miss your train? you should get up earlier!  Seriously, I won't even go into DETAILS as to why we sometimes missed our trains, but trains don't run PERFECTLY TO SCHEDULE even in the most 1st world country, you dumbasses.

Work is so exceptionally dull that I even have time to blog (when I feel like it anyway).  My 'routine' for every morning is:  check my private mail, check the ACS status, open my diary and put a pencil line through the previous day's date on the year-calendar page, go to the previous day's page (page-a-day diary), take the to-do-list post-it note off that page and restick it onto the current day.  After that, I 'meditate' about what still has to happen.  Like, when we can expect the ACS result, etc.  Once that's done, I get to look forward to a whole day of dull.

I have 118 working days left til the end of Feb 2010, 80 working days left til office closes end of this year.  24 working weeks til end of Feb 2010, 16 working weeks left for this year.  5.5 working months til end of Feb 2010, 3.5 working months til end of this year.

I have 7.5hours left til 5pm today.  Joy.

Thoughts for today

It's Monday YIPPEE!! :-/

In our lovely little country, we're having a trainstrike.  Yay.  Once one group strikes, then everyone strikes.  I reckon EVERYONE should just have a sit and sulk day where nobody works the whole day, and then everyone can get it out of their damn systems!

This weekend was a nice relaxing, lazy one.  The dude didn't come to finish our security gate, so we just sat doing nothing really cos we were kinda waiting for him.  Sunday was pretty much the same (lazing), but we visited G's parents.  I got about 200 more photos to scan, YAY!!  There are some fun ones in the batch, like 2 of G with a ponytail :-D

*gasp* I BROAK THE LAAWWW gollygosh, by surfing the net at work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh big deal... dumb asses.  No one came to yell at me so whatever.  I went onto the Aus quarantine website, to find out if there's been any changes to whether we can take Dude with us.  So far, no change.  The quarantine/import procedure for a pet bird from NZ is quite extensive but not majorly troublesome, so I sent them a query on their website to ask whether they are able to look at each case (from a country OTHER than NZ) on an individual basis and formulate procedure.  It's worth a shot.  Maybe I'll get a glimmer of hope, they might well reply saying that they're working on formulating procedures for our country, or something, in future, so by the time we move maybe we can take Dude.  I really hope that we are able to take him... I don't care if it costs a fortune, he's my sweet Bumble and I can't bear the thought of leaving him behind.

I'm so sleepy now.  It's so boring, but I feel amped cos there are only 120 working days left for me... it really doesn't feel like lots.  In fact, it's really only about 6 months.  And I feel like some *movements* now.  G, hopefully, will get some concrete info regarding his job changes soon, so we can re-focus our plan/time-scale, etc.  I'm hoping we get the ACS result by the end of the month so that next month we can apply already... but we just have to wait and see with it.  It really is dull now, this waiting BEFORE we can apply.  It's not really possible to think along these lines (or at least, I shouldn't) but I have to acknowledge the fact that if the ACS result had been correct, we would already have applied for the visa!!  Bleh!  Hurry up pleeeeeeeeeeeeease...

Growth

This month, so far, has been quite... interesting.

G's results are back, and thankfully it's nothing serious.  He's on cortisone for a month, then, depending on the effect of the cortisone, will either go for a drip (with the possibility of a follow-up drip at a later stage) which takes 5 days to do, in hospital, OR a year's course of tablets.  Or both!

We should have the ACS result by the end of the month, maybe in early September.

Work is still dull.  There are 121 working days left for me, 83 left this year.

G's work is possibly changing quite significantly, but for now that's still in the proposal stage and nothing's certain.  For ease of progress, we're hoping that the change DOES happen: it'll give us a solid base on which to prepare for our move, and a definite starting point.  If it doesn't happen, things will continue to be 'prospective' only, until the end of his contract.

My sweet Dude, cute Bumble.  I clipped his nails last night, and he wasn't very fazed.  One of his toes (inner back, hard to reach) he wasn't too happy about, so I tried to hold him in the blanket but didn't manage to clip it and had to let him out.  He seemed to be more relieved to be out of the blanket than afraid or terrorised.  Maybe he realised that if he didn't allow me to clip his nails OUT of the blanket then he's asking to be blanketed, because he didn't fuss after the blanket and I was able to clip that troublesome nail.

Afterwards, G and I played Rummikub on the bed, with Dude in accompaniment.  The Rummikub tiles make a fascinating click-clack sound which matches his ball's sound so he was quite happy.  Overall he was a happy bird, he got so much neckscratching I think he was on cloud 9.  He's such a sweetie pie!!  It really sucks leaving the house in the morning, knowing he's bored and alone during the day, when I *could* (wishful thinking) be home with him :-D

 I have just got 150 A3 drawings to fold.  Wow.

G's parents have dug out another +-180 photos for me to scan :-D  I must still round up all the photos Mom has all over the place though.

Golden Ice is growing.  I can't wait to stitch more!

No other news, for now.

Inspired cooking

G's been 'out of action' since Thursday. He had an MRI, nerve conduction study, xrays, blood tests and a lumbar puncture, and has been suffering from a post-lumbar puncture headache since Thursday evening. The doctor is going to see us next week, after poring over G's test results, and hopefully he'll have an answer as to what exactly is causing G's relentless lower-leg pain. We're hoping that the xray and MRI reports saying 'normal' is a good sign that nothing serious is wrong, but regardless, we're staying 'neutral' and neither optimistic nor pessimistic about it.

Because of G being out of action, we haven't gone to the shops, and have since run out of bread. Technically, I could drive to the shops myself, but I don't believe I would be able to manoeuvre out of the parking bay and parking lot without incident, nevermind actually get into the parking at the shop. No biggie: it has inspired me to come up with interesting meal plans.

Yesterday afternoon, for lunch, I made tortillas. Diced sliced ham, sliced mushrooms, grated Gouda and some creamy honey mustard. Stuck that in the oven to grill lightly, and voila! Quite yummy, a nice use of 'leftovers': the ham and mushrooms were a few days in the fridge, by that stage.

Yesterday's supper entailed smoked chicken cut up chunkily, mayonnaise and baked potatoes. G looked up a nice 'recipe' to bake potatoes: you use a bit of oil mixed with a bit of salt, to coat each potato. It was VERY delicious. The mayonnaise gave the meal a nice tang, and the smoked chicken and potato went very well together.

Tonight's supper: smoked chicken (also cut up chunkily), 'cape cottage' (plain chunky) cottage cheese and some sunflower seeds, mixed together in a pancake. Very delicious. The pancake mix we made came from the Hulett's website, so it wasn't a savoury-pancake recipe, and we made 6 pancakes in total. We each had 2 filled pancakes for supper and 1 pancake with golden syrup for dessert.

YUM!!!

I don't recall blogging about it, but I've finished scanning.

Yes, I HAVE FINISHED! Until I get given more photos, that is. My tally: 6282. That is Six Thousand, Two Hundred and Eighty Two photographs! That's quite a lot. I'm very pleased I managed without having a nervous breakdown :P I am now rewarding myself... well I wouldn't even call it "rewarding". I'm now resuming normal life, and have started stitching.

Worked on Golden Ice most of yesterday, and most of today too. I'm not really happy with his mane/forelock (as I may have mentioned LONGGGGGGGG ago (whenever last I blogged about him)), so I may edit the picture even more and rechart that part. I don't like how he has hair like an 80s rocker. I know leaving off his 'just behind ears' mane will take away quite a bit of the 80s-rocker-look, but I'm now considering leaving off more mane so that he looks a bit more real... but....................... I shall see how it goes. I haven't reached a point yet where this is important. He's still beautiful, regardless.

I have thoroughly enjoyed being on leave, doing things during my own time and not having a thought about work. It's already Sunday (I was on leave Thursday and Friday) but tomorrow is a public holiday. I really can't wait until we can spend time like this, relaxing, more regularly. There is a possibility that a change in G's work scenario is going to happen, which might shift the balance between work+relaxation time for him. I hope so, I think he hopes so too... it'll be nice to have a more 'normal' work week with no homework nor the feeling that the whole company's destiny rests on his shoulders.

That's all blog-news for now, back to a bit of stitching before it's sleep time! A picture of Golden Ice will be posted soon.

Stuff

Scanning update:  I've reached 5 994... I think (I can't remember the exact figure).  I know my status said I'd reached 6 000, but I miscalculated (out of sheer enthusiasm :-/ ), and I've got about 6 photos left to scan to reach 6 000. About 300 photos left of this batch.  G's mom is going to give me a few more on Thursday.  Photos haven't been forthcoming from Mom, but that is to be expected... and also from G's dad - in light of current circumstances, completely understandable.  I may, upon scanning G's mom's photos, take a long break and actually stitch.  We'll see.

ACS update:  no change in the status,  we're expecting the letter to arrive in early September.  Can't wait, it's time now.

Nothing else much is going on... I've taken Thursday and Friday off, cos Monday is a holiday.  Thursday G and I have a long day ahead of us.  I may or may not blog about it - depends how I/we feel.

Everything depends.

I had a good chat to Te about it, her experience with these things really is hugely comforting.  Thursday is just going to be long, I think.  I'm going to prepare myself with eats (and money to buy lunch, etc), my phone (fully charged so I can play games/sms/chat), a book or 2 (or 3), etc.  Oh and my iPod.  And phone earphones, for when the iPod goes flat.

I really hope ACS hurries up, so we can APPLY already.  I just hope that it all goes smoothly... I hope Thursday goes smoothly.    I hope everything goes smoothly.

Life is a lemon

I don't care much for 'life'.

Why is it that life seems so full of potential, when you're a kid... it's just... SO OPEN TO EXPERIENCES and EXCITING!  So much to learn, so much to do!  Just WAIT til you're out of school and LIFE STARTS!  I'll do this, this, this, that, this OH I can't WAIT!!

What is it that starts, exactly?  Daily grind?  Slaps in the face, boredom, trudge-work like chores, tiredness, problems, other people causing shit, all that starts?

Yay.  It's shit.

I'm tired, so very tired of this 'life'.  Yes counting down whatever bla bla bla fucking bla, but LIFE ITSELF is just... dull.  Shit.

Work life, dull as shit, same damn day every single day.  Pointless.

Home life, always problems.  Why do we have to live next door to &*^%#%%^!^?  I really don't know.  Is this what life is?  Living your days with NEIGHBOUR PROBLEMS??

Why?

 

WHY??????

 

I'm so pissed off... but actually am... I dunno, it's... the last straw... I feel brokenspirited right now.  I just ... can't.

 

Something so "small" as GRASS GROWING INTO THEIR GUTTER.  We get emailed by the owner of our place.  That's all fair and well... except ...

 

GRASS IS INTERFERING WITH THE ENJOYMENT OF THEIR BACK-YARD.  OUR grass.  In THEIR gutter.  It's INTERFERING.  Their OUTDOORS life.

 

Wait a second... OUTDOORS life?  They HAVE an outdoors life?  Yes, they do, they CERTAINLY do, one that INTERFERES with our INDOORS life!  Yes, *!#!$%$&*%&#*, your 'blessed' and enjoyable outdoors life, which you are ENTITLED to, interferes with our INDOORS life (GOOD LORD!!!  Yes, we are actually entitled to one!), because YOU STINK US OUT, IN OUR HOUSE, LIKE CANCER!!  We don't HAVE an outdoors life, you bitches, BECAUSE OF YOU!!!!!!

 

I wish there was something I could do, but there isn't - do YOU want to try speak to SMOKERS??  Try convince them that they are actually STINKING??   Jeesus why do you think there is a LAW about smoking in public places... because THEY THEMSELVES don't give a fuck else there wouldn't be a NEED for such a law!!  (oh and anyway "it's their own garden, they're entitled to smoke there!" and THAT is why I want to glue-seal up the fucking windows).

 

I wish that I wasn't atheist, so that I could believe in the 'balance' of life and that somehow, justice would be served... that their life would be just a tiny bit LESS enjoyable because of what they do... but no.

 

I wish that with a lot of things: people who litter, people who don't change the loo roll/refill the kettle+sugar at work, people who abuse animals, people who try/succeed in denying women the right to control their own bodies (anti-choice people), people who are inconsiderate (drivers, shoppers, etc) ANYONE who just ... I dunno. I... just wish that there was some.... payback.  Some sort of feeling that my being (for eg) one of the few people at work who refills the sugar... it's actually worth it.  It's worth the effort.

 

Pffffff!

Dear X

Hi X

 

I wish we could be like normal people... sharing a relationship like normal people.

 

I wish we could hang out, and chat about things, spend time with each other, sharing experiences and growing together.

 

I wish our relationship wasn't one-sided despite a desperate need for it to be two-way.

 

I wish it wasn't all about offloading... just pouring out of endless, unsolveable problems, which I have tried making suggestions about...

 

An endless cycle of how she treats you, because you LET her treat you like that.  You always have.  She's always been like that, it's not my doing, it has nothing to do with me.  It has never had anything to do with me... my whole life, I've sat to the side and been excluded from it... I've wished she would stop, that you'd stop her, but you never did.  You still don't.  And now you can't.

 

It shouldn't have anything to do with you and me, our relationship, but somehow it always does.  It's always poured all over me:  the misery and complaints, partnered with a clawing need for comfort which I can't give.  It's the kind of comfort that one can only get from oneself... and yet you can't... and I wonder, now, whether you ever could.

 

I am only able to show you that I care by spending time with you and doing things with you... but I can't.  I can't share with you parts of my life - yes, I actually do have a life.  A real, grown-up life, with its own problems and trials, but also with its own joys and fun.  But you aren't really part of it.  I could try invite you in, except... it's like we're in two rooms separated by a long passage, and my door is open, but yours isn't.

 

Sometimes, I really could do with your care, just a small part of you, just sometimes.  Sometimes, significant things happen, which we should, I guess, share.  Something's coming up, soon, and I really could do with your support.  Scratch that, I really could do with just being able to talk to you about it.  But I can't.  I guess I should get used to that.  I don't see what else I can do.

Progress

I cleaned the fishtank today, it was a week overdue, but now it looks stunning again.

I'm scanning now, after doing the fishtank, which I did only after lazing away most of the afternoon, soaking up the sunrays. Beautiful day, today.

Yesterday was another stunning day - we met up with G's parents for breakfast, then came home. I'd been wanting to take a drive around our neighbourhood for a while now, ever since getting the old (1960s to 1970s) letters to dad, because they have the addresses that Grandma and Grandpa used to live at. They weren't far from where we are. First one we went to wasn't in a very bad area at all... up on a hillside, but the houses are mostly redone/upgraded and I didn't see any with the name that they used to call their house. I don't have a house number either, so no luck there. We went on down into the area below this, which is quite 'scaly' i.e. quite grubby, not very pleasant and not somewhere I'd care to be stuck in with a broken car. Luckily we weren't, but again couldn't find anything. The closest 'fit' we could find was Walmer Square, but the place we were looking for was Walmer Mansions. Maybe the same place, or somewhere that's been since demolished.

The last place we went to... is still there. The house number is there, it doesn't look like a VERY modern house, so probably wasn't refurbished recently, and might well be the house they stayed in during the early 1960s. I took photos from the car. I don't know how fond of that place they were, they seemed far more fond of the 1st house we tried to find.

All in all, it was a day tinged with history. I just wish Dad was around to tell him about it. Or to take him with us... to ask him about the places. To ask him about a lot of things.

I've really enjoyed scanning the photos from my Aunt, there are so many photos of my mom as a kid, and Gran and Grampa at most ages. One thing I want to do, before we move to Aus, is go to gran and grampa's grave, pay my respects. I have never been to their grave, when Grampa died I was 'too young' and when Gran died, her burial was so rushed (by "uncle" - I won't go into detail right now) that I don't think any of the rest of us got to attend the funeral! I would like to take a photo, for a reference and reminder, because I won't have been there many times to remember it, and also it would be a sort of final photo of them.

Not much other news, for now. Waiting for ACS to do their thing. Work... bleh. I have 95 working days this year.

I will blog again, when I think of news!!

96 and counting

Ok this is still dull.  I wake up each morning feeling completely and utterly groundhogday-ish... yet ANOTHER work day of the same stuff, repeated.  This morning I really didn't want to get out of bed as it was raining like mad!

What's crazy is that it's nearly August.  I guess wishing away the time does actually work, because it's past the middlepoint of the year.  2009 has, so far, been the speediest year ever.

ACS sent G a notification mail with his appeal's reference number, so we can track its progress.  At the moment it's "to be allocated" (yay we've restarted the whole process!!), but hopefully it'll take quicker as it's an appeal.

It's so weird to me how people on forums are so emo.  I don't know if emo is the right word but OH MAN people get so touchy.  No, I didn't piss anyone off, I was a bystander.  One of the forums I frequent to pick up information on the SA-Aus move had a meltdown of sorts.  3 of the 'senior' members (one was the forum creator) had a bit of a tizz, and the only really active topic (190+ pages) on the forum was closed.  So it basically means that forum is closed as none of the other topics were alive.  But it's so silly - someone 'upstages' someone else, or someone edits their own post, and people get butthurt.

Anyway, the other forum I frequent is alive and well and everyone's more chilled there!!  And, I'm getting the impression that DIAC are really racing through the visa applications, because they're apparently taking +- 5 months to assign case officers.  Just reading the forum members' timeline and an 'international' spreadsheet of information from lots of applicants gives me such a boost.  5 months to get a case officer!  Usually doesn't take long to get the actual visa after you get a case officer, so if we are lucky and can apply in September, we may well have a case officer by March and who knows, maybe a visa before July?  That would seriously rule!!

Ok enough VISA FRICKIN' stuff now.

And enough PHOTOS STUFF now.

I have to remark that ever since the neighbour's brat has learnt how to speak, the TANTRUMS AND SCREAMING have lessened.  Now I guess he can actually EXPRESS what he wants and doesn't have to bash things and wail.  He's still a brat though and they're still bloody annoying (and stinky), but at least we don't have to listen to the Saga of Igor Bashing The Walls every day.  Yay!!!!!

Thank heavens for a motorplan.  The car repairs 'cost' R8000.  To replace a door lock (which I guess contains the central locking system) and the front brakes.  Jeeeeeeeeeeeeepers!!

Tues night we watched Bolt which was VERY funny!!!  A really entertaining, funny movie - Rhino is a legend!  We've hired Evan Almighty and HP4 to watch tonight and Friday evening.

It seems more and more certain that we will live in Brisbane.  Just judging from what others say, everything points to Brisbane.  Sydney is wonderful, but apparently extremely expensive.  Melbourne apparently has cruddy weather, Cairns is HOT AND HUMID, Perth is just too far from everything for me to really like, Adelaide is cooler, whereas Brisbane is cheap, not TOO humid, doesn't have cruddy weather and not far from everything (a 1.5hr plane trip to Sydney, which is great cos we can go on holiday anytime! :D)  Oh and we know people who are in Brisbane (as well as another friend who is going to be moving to Brisbane soon - he's already got his visa but is in no actual hurry to move yet).  Oh and I know it's not a big issue, but Queensland doesn't have daylight savings. 

I really can't wait until we're settled there though, because there's so much I want to do which I can't do while we're in this 'transitional' state.  G was explaining music (theory) to me last night, and I got a serious urge to bang out sounds on a piano.  I don't know if a keyboard would suffice (a piano engages more senses, I've always thought) but we'll see - maybe we can get a piano over there, seeing as G can play and I'd love to mess about and at least find out whether I have an affinity to it or not (I've never had the opportunity to try).

I have 6 working months (most of December will be holidays if I'm able to put in leave, as the office closes for 2 weeks), 27 working weeks, 134 working days left!!!!!!!