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!!!!!!!

Photo status

Last count, I had 5193 photos scanned.  That's quite a pile of photos.  It hardly feels like I've really scanned that many.

I still have 8 photo albums to scan, which probably have 400 or so photos between them.  After that, another 100 in a flip-through set of small albums, and a packet of photos from G... I'd say maybe another 300 or so.  I'm waiting to hear from my cousins if they have any photos for me to scan... and G's parents and Mom might still have some odds and ends that I can scan.  So all in all, I'll probably reach 6000+.  Not bad!

It's about time that this comes to a close.  I'm starting to desperately crave cross-stitch, and PSP games too.  I haven't really been 'relaxing' at home (because I start quite soon after we get home), and I haven't stitched in MONTHS.  It must be doing some damage!  Golden Ice is crying out to be finished - I really want to finish the scanning and then pay total attention to him.  Still not sure where he'll be 'stabled', I'll probably put Golden Ice in Heremia's place, Heremia in Warpony's place and Warpony up on the empty hook in the bedroom.  I'd love to put a nail in the wall by the bathroom door but I kinda feel that we shouldn't add nails all over the place since we'll more than likely only be staying for another year and they already have plenty of other nails up on the walls.

What's 'disturbing' is the fact that I'm getting this 'craving' for a new cross stitch: the new, untouched threads, unmarked chart, blank fabric, everything crisp and new.  But!  Golden Ice is 'new' enough for now as I've not touched it for so long.

I've discovered a brilliant blog:  STFU, Parents.  I don't know the URL offhand, but it's google-able.  It's a very amusing site, where people post stuff that they've had inflicted on them on Facebook, or Twitter, etc.  Like constant potty-training updates or tweets during labour right up to 5mins before the baby is born... seriously!  Oh and PICTURES from 'successful' potty training... yes, people POST THAT ON FACEBOOK!!!  I'm seriously considering taking a screenshot from an ex-schoolmate's album, in which she has posted a 'black&white, for the squeemies' picture of her... well, I can't really tell (do I want to know?) but I think it's a caesarian.  Wonderful pic to pop up on my newsfeed and, seeing how FB recycles stuff (ie, you see news from 3 weeks ago), repeatedly pop up for weeks after.

Our ACS appeal letter arrived on Friday.  We got the refund from Postnet on Saturday - no hassles.  Now we're just waiting to hear from ACS.  Not sure if they're going to update the application status on their website, maybe we won't know they've even looked at it until we finally get the 2nd letter.

It is now nearly lunchtime, and I have 99 working days left for this year. 137 days left in total.  For now I'm just thrilled that I have only 99 working days left THIS WHOLE YEAR!!!  I guess it's a kinda 'pre-goal', because once I've reached the last working day of this year, I will only have 38 working days left in total!!

Saturday night we had avo sushi.  We were at the supermarket and had got everything we needed, except for salmon.  We were planning on popping to the more expensive grocery store upstairs, when our train of thought was completely disrupted by the realisation that the person who was ahead of us in the queue had left her credit card in the card slot.  I ran out to find the lady (luckily she seemed quite in a daze and wasn't far but she also couldn't recall what till she'd just been at), and we completely forgot to get the salmon.  But it was delicious with just avo.  Last night we had sushi WITH salmon, YUMMMMM!!!!!  And we watched Harry Potter 2.  Harry Potter 3 is lined up for tonight, then we're going to hire the 4th and 5th ones...

I do believe that that is all news for now... such a newsupdate this blogging thing is! :P

Postnet update

The plot thickens.

 

I kept checking DHL's website throughout the morning and afternoon.  Nothing.  At about 16:30, I phoned DHL and the lady there told me that the letter had only just been collected, at 15:55.  (Note: collected, not dropped off)

 

I immediately phoned Postnet, asked to speak to the manager, and told him that we had a slight problem.

 

Apparently the cow there told ME that the manager himself would drop off the letter at DHL that very morning, but told her MANAGER that the letter wasn't urgent and could wait til the DHL guy came to fetch stuff that afternoon!

 

WTF?!  First of all, make a STUFF UP, then promise to make amends, AND THEN not even BOTHER to follow through with a promise?  Sorry, no.

 

So on Saturday we are going to go fetch our refund!  R470, thank you very much, and no repeat business from US ever again!

 

Thankfully DHL is performing impeccably and our letter is already in Sydney, most likely being delivered tomorrow morning (their time).  YEEEHAAA

Photos!

On Sunday we popped in at G's parents' place and dropped off their photos. I finished everything they'd given me, including two VERY sticky, old albums whose photos had become glued. There aren't any more pics from them for now, which is a great relief, because that means I'm able to focus completely on the OTHER photos I got:

We went to see Mom & sis too, and Aunt+Uncle+cousin were there too. Aunt gave me her set of photo albums, plus a tin of photos from Gran.

They are INCREDIBLE! Old photos, from when Mom and her were growing up, plus a whole stack of OLDER pics, of Gran and Grampa approximately my age, and some even younger. Incredible. And more photos of Mom as a youngster. We really don't have many in our albums, so this is a great gift.

These pics have a far more profound effect on me than I thought they would because there's actually quite little I know about Gran or Grampa... REALLY know about them, not knew from grandchild's perspective but as an adult now. Seeing the pics of Grampa as a 20 year old... he looks so different from how I'd imagined he'd look. Gran too, even more different. It's incredible. This scanning has become such a journey for me, more than I'd foreseen.

It's like meeting people for the first time after hearing so much about them, except what I experienced as a child is the 'hear-say' and the photos the meeting. It has been a great revelation seeing G's parents, and his grandparents, in old photos, but this is closer to home, obviously.

I am currently scanning sis's box of photos, but I can't wait to settle in and savour the other photos. My family's photos.

Postnet

Saturday morning we dragged our sleepy asses out of bed, in order to drop off our skills assessment appeal letter at Postnet, to be collected (by DHL) on Monday to be couriered to Aus.

 

Last night, I checked DHL's track and trace, and there was no record of our parcel.  Warning bell.

 

This morning, I try again - still nothing.  I phone DHL, nope, no record of our parcel.

 

Phone Postnet.  It apparently would have been collected at 3:30 pm on Monday, and would probably only show on DHL's system FROM midnight only.  Thanks, but it should show already, right?

 

I phoned DHL - apparently the only reason they WOULDN'T have the parcel is if a) it wasn't ready at the time of collection or b) Postnet was closed when they got there.  This wouldn't be the case as Postnet has a regular agreed collection-time with DHL and wouldn't be closed at the time the DHL guy would come.

 

I phoned Postnet, the guy said he'd trace our parcel and phone me back.  1 hour goes past, I try again.  Speak to the lady we dealt with on Saturday.

 

She offers to trace the parcel for me and call me back, I say 'the guy there said he would too but an hour has passed, can I hold rather?... can you just tell me whether it was collected - can you check in your books to see what time it was collected?'

 

Not such a difficult thing to do, right?  This, somehow, was: she took 10mins to look in the book, come back to the phone and tell me that she's 'asked everyone in the whole office and it was found in the drawer, so it wasn't fetched yesterday'.

 

Yes, that is right.  DHL came yesterday to fetch the courier parcels, and our one?  Got LEFT BEHIND IN POSTNET'S BLOODY DRAWER!

 

"The manager is going to drop it off at DHL's office now this morning, it should show up on DHL's tracking tonight".

 

Guess we won't BOTHER going to Postnet again...!  R470 to 'forget' our parcel!  WTF!!!

Update!

Right now I'm scanning photos - as I have been pretty much constantly whenever I'm home without other things that I must do.

I've scanned over 4500 photos now. I still have 2 photo albums to work through (the pictures have become almost glued to the pages so I won't be able to take them out), I'm waiting on a picture box from my sis, a tin of pics from my aunt, plus any other odds and ends my mom and G's parents can find. Oh and I have a photo album of my own, and G's got a small packet of photos too. So, I'm getting there. I can't wait til it's all finished, I REALLY REALLY want to start stitching again!

And now for an update on the ACS assessment. I phoned ACS at 1:30am our time, and spoke to a very helpful lady there. Long story short, we are appealing the assessment, with a SUPER-DETAILED work reference letter backing up G's request for acknowledgment of his C#/C++/C specialisation. The whole process should take between 5 and 7 weeks (taking the week for delivery to ACS into account, but excluding postage back to us)... and hopefully we'll be A for AWAY and able to apply for the visa.

That was fun...er... not

I checked the post office track and trace site this morning, and the letter was ready for collection. During lunch I walked down and fetched it, and opened it and read it (via msn) to G. It's ... essentially useless.

The code required by the Aus govt to know that G has a critical skills list skill ... isn't right. They have the code to say he has skills but not the little set of letters in brackets that follow the code to specify which he has.

So now we start again. Make an appeal, I guess, which requires us to fork out another (70% of the application fee) pile of cash.

Yay. 12+ weeks down the drain.

Whatever.

It's NEARLY HERE!!

I just phoned our post office helpline.  Held for flippin' ages listening to a LOOPED Sarah Brightman - Deliver Me.  FFS PLEASE not a LOOP!!!  On my 3rd try I was lucky and someone answered.

 

THE LETTER IS GOING TO BE DELIVERED THIS WEEK!!!!  It's not just already in the country, it's already in the CITY!  It's so nearly here AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!

 

So we should know ASAP (before Friday, hopefully!) what the result is, AND WE CAN APPLY ASAP TOO!!!!!!!

 

OMG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

 

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stet

"Stet" is such a smug word.

This is why I hate the word "stet":