The Fun Just Doesn't Stop! (Aug 19th)

Hi!

Well. First off, I’d like to apologize for being off the radar. I have no home phone yet (there’s a line but no life), so I’ve had to make an appointment for some dude from the phone company to come out this coming Wednesday to do something to make it go. Hmm. Whatever. And I used to have access to the little blog from work, but the IT Nazi’s have ended that bit of fun. No fun allowed. And there’s no one around at my little apartment with a wireless connection that I can sneak into, they’re all password protected. Honestly, in this day and age. So yeah. I’ve written the last couple to post at once. Kinda geeky, but that’s that!

Anyways, this week went by fast. We had the Wednesday off for ‘Peoples’ Day’ at the Ekka, even though most people don’t go on Peoples’ Day because it’s so crowded with people, but it was a mid-week day off. Excellent! I did laundry!

So yeah, work is fine. Good, kinda busy. Well, busy as I want it to be. Still love it! Boy, not having a phone at home these last 2 weeks or so is kind of a pain. So I spend most of my mornings at work sorting out stuff – like getting addresses changed, having the phone company come out to hook up my phone, etc. But yeah, work is still good. Overall there’s a lot I could do for the next while or so, so hopefully they’ll keep me around to do it all!??

And the little apartment. Yeah. Spent this weekend cleaning like a crazy woman (hee hee, they have some cleaning product here, can’t remember its name, but the ad is some crazy person cleaning with it madly, and the tag line is "There’s squeaky clean, and there’s freaky clean". Cracks me up every time). Place smells a little better for it. The gal that lived here before me, well, I don’t think cleaning was on her list of things to do. She had the carpets steam cleaned (which, with all the rain lately, only made the place smell like wet dog for about 4 days) but she never once vacuumed or really scrubbed. I’ll spare you the gory details. I’ll just say now that it’s more livable, but keep your shoes on. After the last place….. well, it’s hard to believe some people never learned to swing a mop or vacuum. – shudder -.

So, the little apartment is coming along. I did, this week, have the opportunity to chose between two other apartments in this little block that had suddenly come up for rent. One is right above mine. So I had a look through them (met the owners of the whole place) and came close to taking the upstairs one but Cindy came around with her common sense & local knowledge of the summers and had a look and decided that mine was better and it’ll be cooler for during the summer – plaster walls, big fluffy palm right in front. So I’ve stayed put. But the reason why the apartments came up for rent is that the guys who’d lived in them, well, they died. Eeeek. In the hospital, not in the places. They apparently lived here for 30 plus years, were in their 80’s and, well, that was that. Sad. But I have to say, the owners do nothing to keep these places up. Not one cent is invested to keep it looking nice. You should see the state of the threadbare carpets and fittings in the bathroom. And have I mentioned I have no stove? Yeah. I have a microwave and 2 hotplates (Natasha, little gem, donated her toaster oven to the cause). Geez, for the neighborhood, I’d fix these suckers up ‘til they sparkled and I had lines down the road of kids wanting to rent them at $300 plus a week. Maaaaan. I just don’t get the mind of the "property investor". I suppose the owners (who’ve only owned the place for 4 years) are just going to hang onto it until the price of the land skyrockets and a multi-millionaire makes them a silly offer to knock the building down to put up a mansion. Oh, wait, I was thinking of what I’d do if I had the dough.

Anyways, the little apartment will do for now. It already has. I can take a day off of work and not worry that my bank account will cave in on itself. I just hope that work keeps me until Feb at least and I can really make a dent in the bills and go on at least one or two adventures. Will keep you posted!

What else…… Oh yeah, had to take the little scooter in for its 6 month/1,000k check-up. So I have to pick it up after work on Monday. And wouldn’t you know it, we’re due to have rain allllll week. Oh dear. I’ve never ever ridden the little scooter in the rain (never wanted to!). And at rush hour. Oh dear. But hey, at least the little scooter will be living up to its warranty obligations! Gosh, hope the shop doesn’t find stuff wrong with it, like they do. Hmmmm. And I hope the rain stops just long enough for me to get home alive. We’ll find out!!!!

And that’s about it! Hope you’re all well up there!

BYE!
J!

(P.S. I managed to pick up the little scooter just fine.
No surprises from the mechanic - got a clean bill of health!
And no rain! Hooray!)

Let the Fun Begin! (Aug 12th)

Hi!

Well. I woke up Monday morning knowing this week was going to be pretty bloody busy. And it was.

So yeah, the first part of this week was packing, cleaning, sorting….. though I realised that you can only pack and clean so much ahead of time before you’re constantly making trips to dig through boxes. That got old pretty quick. Took the Thursday and Friday off to move and stuff. Moving day was nuts, as they usually are. Tho I rented a car for the occasion (I don’t have nearly enough stuff to warrant renting a real "truck"), so just rented a Mitsubishi Outlander. Big. Nice to have a car for a change. Shame it was only for the day to move. Anyways, Natasha’s friend Veronica was kind enough to help me hoof boxes down 4 sets of stairs (and across town and into the 'new' place). She had the week off before starting her new job and thought one nice way to spend one of her days off was to help me move. Hmmm. But she was a big help. Not messin’ around at all! No farting around or rest breaks (I don’t have much, but up and down 4 flights of stairs can take it outta you). All in all we did most of it in 2 trips by about noon. Pretty good. And then she had to go meet a friend of hers for lunch. Short and sweet! Then I tidied up the old place, packed up the fridge stuff and had the manager do his exit inspection (or whatever the heck it’s called). He didn’t even look through the place, just glanced around and declared "Ahhhh, it looks fine!" Cool. So all I had to pay was $77 to get the carpets cleaned (standard here) and I got all of my massive deposit back! Hooray! Money! But boy oh boy, so sad to leave that place. Was I spoiled there or what. Broke as all get out, but pretty happy. Oh well. Onwards!

And then came to the new place and, well, yeah. The less said about it the better. I keep telling myself 6 months is all, pay off the bills, save some money, yeah. So yeah, by Thursday night I was beat. But this was really nice – Cindy and Natasha came around and we went out to dinner at this really good Italian place up and around the corner from me. Goooooood food!!!!!!!!! Hooray to live so close to really good Italian food! And then we came back here and they helped me set up my bed (airbed) and a couple chairs that I saved from the old place (as he was going to throw them out) and I thought, well, better than no chairs! So we quickly set all that up, Natasha had to hit the road and Cindy and I stayed up drinking champagne and talking until late.

Then first thing Friday morning I picked Cindy up, we dropped the rental car off, and wandered over to the Ekka (country fair). Oh my god. We had The Best Day!!!!!!!!! It was sooooooo much fun! No crowds! It was most excellent! Not too hot, lovely and sunny, little breeze – it was perfect! We did all the stuff you do at fairs, rode the Ferris wheel, they have those bucket chairs from one end of the place to the other, ate all the junk food we could stand, looked at more cows than I could think possible, goats, chickens, llamas, all kinds of stuff. It was excellent. Then at the end of the day we did what all the other farmers did and went and had a beer in the ‘Stockman’s Bar’. Well. I never saw so many cowboy hats in one place and yet not hear country music. There were actually all kinds of folks there but the majority was all the livestock show people from out of town. It was cool. Lots of cowboys. And for being around cows all day, they sure all scrubbed up really nice – nicer than city boys I decided! All of them had nice, ironed shirts, tucked into nice khaki pants (Wrangler, of course) with belts and jackets. And everyone was really friendly. Then we wandered over to the main arena for the official opening of the fair. Well, that dragged on and on and on and on, and we’d been there all day as it was, so we ended up giving up. The fireworks show was still a good 45 minutes away and we were so tired. So we called it a night. But man oh man, we had the best day. It was so fun!

And then, Saturday morning, it was all go at my new little place! First Zoey and her husband Michael turned up with Kona (they kittysat while I moved and got settled), a tv, tv stand and a set of dishes. Then Jade and her husband came with a highboy and a dresser. Then Julian and Linus turned up with all kinds of stuff Julian had living in his garage that he thought I could use, including an old-ish desk with a 3-shelf bookcase attached (probably my favorite piece of furniture I now own!), 3 comfy-ish old chairs (2 which I made into a sort of 2-seater couch), some more dishes (Mexican themed, hmmmm), a fan, a real set of knives, all kinds of stuff. Man, I was pretty touched. No one wanted any money or beer or anything. They were just being nice and getting rid of their stuff. I was pretty overwhelmed. It’s made moving into this little dumpy place that much easier to bear. And everyone, whether they were being nice or not, said the place is fine and I could do lots with it. Ehhh, 6 months, I ain’t gonna do much! But their opinions have made it feel, well, not as embarrassing to have people come around. Jade said it’s kinda like a beach pad – little old, basic, but bright and comfy (minus the groovy beach a block away). So yeah, I can live here for a little bit. The most important thing is to save some dough, pay off these damn bills (scooter & credit card) once and for all and go on trips. I can do this!

So! Whew! Was a busy busy busy week! Am beat! But here I am. I’d say come for a visit but there’s no room for anyone to sleep! Hahaha!!!! So hope you’re all well up there!

BYE!
J!

Movin' Right Along! (Aug 26th)

Hi!

Well! Here I am! Ahhhhhh the joys of moving. It took 2+ weeks for Optus to get my phone/internet hooked up. So yeah, that's why I've been off the radar. I hate moving. But, nevermind, here I am alive, safe and sound!

The new, little apartment is, well, it's not new (at least 40+ years old, with the original carpet), but it is little. When we get a nice, sunny day, I'll have to get some photos. But really, I'm afraid it's a massive step down from the last digs. I gotta say, I'm embarrassed to have people over. But hey, it's cheap and I can save and that's the whole point of this move. It's only for 6 months........ Yeah. Hmm.

Anyways, what I did do is write the little blog anways for the weeks I was out of radar contact, so I won't go into all the fun of the move and stuff here - I already did!

So yeah. Anyways, back to the routine now. My god I'll actually have to work a full week next week! I haven't done that in, well, weeks! Hooray (says the bank)! Otherwise, work is still good. I have to admit tho, over these last couple weeks, I haven't been able to really concentrate at work, so I've slacked on the project I'm working on. I feel kinda bad. I work next to a gal who moans and groans and complains and gossips all day, so I have to contend with that. And then I also work next to a lovely gal who's very 18 and she loves to talk. So I have that to contend with as well. I have earphones for the music on the computer, but they can only cut out so much without my being rude. So yeah. Gonna get busy!


And, well, aside from work and settling in, not a lot has been happening. Oh my, it's rained solid for the past two weeks. I know they desperately need it, but it's been feeling like living back in Auckland. And we know how much I loved the weather there!!!! But, today, so far, it's been beautiful. Bright happy sun, little chilly, and the neighbors are smoking and the smoke blows right through my place, but the air around that is clean! Ahhhh, if only it would stay this way for longer than an hour! Ahhh, spoke too soon, here come the clouds. Sigh.

And that's about that! Going to go meet Natasha for our Sunday Yum Cha down by her house, on Caxton Street. Must take that library book back and pay those overdue fines from it being forgotten packed in a box. James Bond book "Live and Let Die". It was really good. I highly recommend them almost over the movies. And that's the weekend!

So hope you're all well up there! All I have to do now is savesavesave and hopefully go on an adventure or two or three and maybe even save enough to come up there!

BYE!
J!

Moving Around Chickens and Goats...

Hi!

Well. First off, apologies for not checking in yesterday. I ran around all weekend and come Sunday afternoon I’d had it. So Natasha and her friend Veronica invited me to meet them at the pub (The Paddington Tavern, or "Paddo" as it’s known to the locals). And, well, it was a very good evening but by the time I got home I was dead tired and it was waaaaay to late to be making any sense. So here I am, coming to you live from Work! Oooooooh, rebel. Honestly, it’s more "work" than I’ll do all week, and, bonus, I look busy!

So yeah. The week was fast, amazing for not having anything to do. I just know there’ll be stuff for me to be doing…. Soon. But yeah, so far so good. We (our little section) went to the pub for lunch on Friday (it’s across the street from the office. Like right across the street. Excellent) – I love when we do that. And the food is pretty darn good too. We’re getting a new office manager, so we went out for the gal who’s leaving. The new guy seems nice enough……. so hopefully I’ll continue to stay under the radar.

And then packed and cleaned the little apartment during the week, not that I have stuff to pack or much to clean….. Sad to be leaving, especially now with the weather turning into ‘wine on the balcony after work to watch the sunset’ kinda weather…….. Sigh. Oh well. Onwards and, well, onwards anyways…..

So the weekend was full of cleaning and errands to get stuff for the "new" little apartment, because I made the sort of mistake of renting a really expensive, fully furnished apartment, therefore I didn’t need stuff or could afford to pick stuff up along the way (and nowhere to stash it). So here I am. Picked up a vacuum…. an airbed….. clothes drying rack…… yeah.
So. Taking this Thursday and Friday off from work to move and clean and get organized. Then I’m going with Cindy to the Ekka on Friday! I went last year (before I got modern with the digital camera. Oh, I took pictures, just haven’t had them developed yet…. A year later!). The Ekka is their "country comes to the city" fair kinda thing; http://www.ekka.com.au/home/default.asp – it’s a bigbig fair with horses, cows, pigs, etc, fruit from the farmers, sheep dog trials, a parade of all the prize animals, rides, junk food, wine, cheese, art, everything. In fact, every state in Australia has one and everyone (in said host city) gets the day off to go! Course, most locals don’t, but it’s a day off! I went last year on "Public" day and I had the best time (even if it was insanely crowded) and am so happy to be going with Cindy too (and not on "public" day – less crowds) as she’s an excellent guide – she’s from here and knows all kinds of local stories and history. Ahhh, I’m really looking forward to it! Most locals don’t go anymore, it’s the kinda thing they did when they were kids. But for me, the tourist, I love it. In fact, this morning when I got to Central Station (to catch the train to come to work), hee hee, they had a little pen chock full of sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, etc, with a guy inside to supervise. It was a pretty funny sight to see in the middle of the train station. And lots of people stopped to take pictures and chat to the guy. Good thing I brought my camera today! The pictures didn’t come out so good, so hopefully the guy and his little friends will be there tomorrow!

And that’s about it! Hope you’re all well up there!

BYE!
J!