World Cup Full of Chores to Sell

Hi!

Well. Here we are. Sunday evening. Got the hip and groovy jazz tunes with Mal Stanley on ABC radio; got the cool glass of Rosemount standby white wine; not too many twittering birds out there this weekend, but that is certainly due to the fact that we've had a snap heatwave. In my teeny apartment, both Saturday and today, it got up to 90 degrees, 60% humidity. Yuck. No idea where this came from because we're supposed to have just started Spring for cryin' out loud. So needless to say most of the poor local birds must be down at Southbank at the public man-made beach there. Or somewhere else not in my trees......... So yes, tunes, sunset and cool wine on a hot day - life is good!

So work. Yep. It's good. Still awesome to have work to do and a team to actually help! Even tho I wasn't as busy this past week as my first week, I just know I was still helpful. They haven't told me not to come back yet! Next on their list of things to get me to help them with is to learn Corel (the old-school drawing tool that preceded things like Photoshop and Illustrator... why they still use it am not sure........ could just be because the F/A-18 manuals are old-ish and that's just what the illustrations are in..... Hmm.) so I can help the one guy with the drawings. Cool! Learning new stuff is always way bitchin'! And my old department, well, it's still there. I make sure to say hi to my Boss once a week or so and let him know what's happening. He's afraid I won't come back..... Hmmmm. So yes, work is, like, totally awesome! And am still working on all this Permanent Residency stuff for them...... Next on the list is the required health checks - x-rays, blood, basically every bodily fluid and whatnot they want to check to ensure I don't burden their medical system. I had to do this when I went for PR in NZ, if only I could hand in all those results and x-rays, I'd save myself $317 bucks!

And then there were the weekends. Pretty quiet really. Saturday was laundry and tidying. I'm determined to sell some stuff on eBay, so I've taken pictures of most of the things I want to sell (that took a good part of the day), including my desk, TV stand, boots, scooter jacket and helmets, oh, all kinds of stuff, and that all involved cleaning, trashing and filing. Now I have a nice clean desk and great pictures of my stuff! Plus, I had to take apart my couch so I could disconnect the "L" shaped loungey bit and just have a straight 3-seater couch. It's the chaise loungey bit that I want to sell. What a mission, but it feels good to get rid of stuff (hopefully people will buy it) and hopefully make a buck or two for once instead of leaving it on the street or making a trip to Salvation Army like I usually do. Fingers crossed! I hear you can get addicted to this eBay lark..... good thing I A) have a teeny apartment and B) can't afford to buy that much disposable stuff! Say nothing of not possessing an addictive personality (thank you good genetic line)!

And today was more chores and a good go at this whole eBay thing. Took me a few hours to finally figure out what to do, but I'm pretty sure I managed to list that beast of an air-conditioning unit that has taken over a corner of my teeny kitchen...... I put it up for auction and we'll wait and see if I did it right before I go crazy and list everything. I didn't know that you're limited to only selling like 10 things or making $2,500 a month. Huh. Why put limits? Who cares? I suppose it's to stop "professionals", however that would work....... I just want to get rid of my clutter!!!! So will keep you posted how this eBay fun goes!

And that's about that. Oh, won't be checking in next weekend (well, maybe Monday) because am off to Wellington, New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup match between the US and Australia (Australia's so gonna win, I'll just get that on the record now)! A friend had tickets to nearly every game, which he'd bought for himself and his girlfriend. Well, they broke up and needless to say he had a spare ticket - sweeeeeet. Sad they didn't work out, but bonus for me! So he and I are off first thing this Friday morning (the game is Friday evening). Saturday we're planning to go on a winery tour for half the day around Marlborough (which will involve taking the ferry from Wellington to Picton, at the top of the South Island, something I've never actually done, so am looking forward to it. Although I hear that stretch of sea between the two islands can be reeeeeeeeally rough....... Good times!). Then that Sunday we'll have a good wander around town and get on a plane and come home (we don't get in until 10.40pm or so). Short and sweet, which is probably how NZ is best visited. Should be really interesting and really kinda fun! Neat! I've only been to Wellington once for a quick weekend. Oh, and once for like a day when Mom and I were there on our Big Tour of the South Island about 5 years ago...... It's not a bad city if you hit the weather right (which is rare). So, knowing the weather is gonna be crap most of the time, I bought a proper rain/wind jacket (on sale, like 75% off - sweet) because that's what the weather does in Wellington and since leaving the place (and NYC come to think of it) I got rid of all that kind of gear. Hmmm. So yes, an Adventure - should be fun!

So there you go. Hope you're all well up there. Hope no one has any natural (or unnatural) disasters to contend with like last weeks' multi-state power outage. I'd say come on down but the weather seems to be turning early, so I'd say your window of opportunity has closed, unless you like Florida-in-the-summer type weather........! Will check in next week, Monday, hopefully, after another Adventure has been had! Hooray!

BYE!

J!

P.S. Blogger has changed how I can layout my photos, seems I can't put them where I want, other than left, center or right, hmmm - so apologies if they have really goofy and awkward spacing. Give me a minute to work out the bugs of their new system...... 

Foxed by Ikea and Other Chores.....

Hi!

Well. Here we are, Sunday late afternoon. Just early enough to catch the strange show-tunes radio show (a bit of Tony Bennett, Marlene Dietrich, you get the idea..... ) as I wait for the way cool jazz tunes radio show. The afternoon is warm and breezy, the birds aren't as chatty as they usually are, but that's probably because it's been so incredibly windy (and chilly at night) over the last couple of days - they're too busy clinging to their branches to want to talk about anything! Missed checking in last weekend but I had a very "constructive" reason...... So here we are, got the nice, cool stand-by glass of white wine (Verse 1 Sem. Sav. Blanc) - life is good!

So work. Work is good. In fact, it's, like, totally awesome! I was "head-hunted" (conversation in a kitchen between me and my "new" boss) by another department to come and help them (indefinitely, from the looks of things) with their technical publications - their F/A-18 publications to be exact! So have been learning lots and lots and actually being helpful to a group of people! Imagine that?! Sweet! It's not so much editing-editing, more technical publishing, managing electronic documents through the systems, but learning lots and helping lots, which is a hell of a lot more than I do in my usual department. And the best part is is that my Boss is all for it! Tho he reminded me, after I enthusiastically updated him as to how things in their team were going, that I would eventually have to come back to his department. I kind of laughed and tried to assure him I would..... I really like it with this new team. They're friendly, nice, smart, thankful for my help, it's awesome! Like being on a temp gig except I know the people and where the kitchen and toilets are. I'm totally digging it. Hooray for work!

And then there were the weekends. Last weekend was pretty quiet, chores, etc, that is, until Sunday. Sunday I went to Ikea with the cool new car. Pret-ty exciting. I had such a good time I went through the place twice. First time was to pick up all the stuff I "needed" and the second run through was to look for ideas. Like I need them. After the first run I got to mah car with alllllll my stuff (still in carrier bags, forgetting that I'm allowed to use a shopping cart - I'm that trained to only buy what I can carry), loaded it all up (even had to put one set of seats down for the long mirrors - cooool) and I stood there thinking, 'well, I have all this time, no buses to catch, I might go through and take my time and look at stuff'. So I did. Still spent $150 that second time but it was worth it to have a bunch of stuff including plastic hangars that won't snap in half like all my other non-Ikea ones have! And yes, it was just so awesome to have my own big wheels to haul it all home in. And haul it home in reasonable time. Before, it would take me 3 buses each way and almost 2 hours each way just to get there, never mind actually shopping, checking out and waiting for 3 more buses and two more hours to go home. That would take all damn day. This time I could actually take my time and browse, like normal people. It was really pretty awesome. So got home and got stuck right in putting it all together, hanging it all up. For years I've been meaning to buy a zip-line to hang curtains from to separate my bed from the rest of the room as you walk through it. Hard to explain so I tried to take a picture. I think it looks way bitchin'. And then I bought a new bedside table. That bastard took me over 3 hours to put together because they left out a fairly major step (actually attaching the drawer runners to the inside). Shame it took me that long to figure it out but I got there in the end. And I'm this close to writing to them to tell them they missed a big step. But I got it and I like it. My goal is to sell most of my things on eBay and with that money, replace it with new stuff. What can I say - my place is super teeny and I get pretty sick of looking at the same stuff all the time. Plus, they're finally coming out with more space-saver furniture/stuff. They had tons of it in NYC but because Australians have the largest houses on the planet, Ikea here doesn't think space-saving, but they're slowly realizing that not everyone can afford to live in a 3,000 square foot palace. Some of us live in teeny inner-city palaces. At least my cordless drill finally got a good workout! So that was last weekend! Hooray for Ikealand!
And this weekend, well, it started off pretty well Friday night with pizza and games at Jason & Clare's, which is always an excellent night that goes too quickly. And Saturday and Sunday were finishing hanging my mirrors and patching some of the holes I'd drilled, and the usual chores of course. I guess maybe I have a bit of spring/cabin fever where I have this incredible urge to get rid of everything and go minimalist. Just have to figure out this eBay thing............

So there you are. Sorry I didn't check in last weekend, but as you can see I was foxed by an Ikea bedside table. Hmmmm. But never mind. I hope you're all well up there. Gee, I heard all about the power-outage in San Diego, bummer. But I was happy to hear the only "looting" that was halfheartedly done was booze. How funny. Any other city, stores would've been set on fire with trashcans through the windows. San Diego, what do they "loot"? Not water, not batteries, not food - booze. Excellent. I love San Diego. I hope everyone survived ok and learned a lesson to have a flashlight, a battery-operated radio and food! You just never know! I guess I only say that because we're starting to come in to our storm season and the only thing I have is candles. Remember those wax lips we'd get out trick-or-treating? Yeah, you could never really eat those, hard as we'd try. So your power outage reminded me of what I don't have but what I'll need for our lively storm season coming up. That is, if it's anything like last year or a few years previous....! Gotta be prepared! So yes, drop a line and let me know how you all are! Like I said, we're into Spring - perfect weather for checking the place out - c'mon down!

BYE!
J!