Ahh That's Better

Well after my sook last night and a good night's sleep, I feel better. I got a few things accomplished today and while I feel tired and have a headache, its been a good day.

Sheryn (MIL) and I went for an hour's drive up to our nearest major shopping town and spent money at Woolies, Target, and Cheap As Chips. I've got a new shopping strategy - never take a trolley :) I only used baskets today in the shops and I think it worked cos once I was lugging around a full and sometimes heavy basket, I just wanted to get out of there!

At Target I splashed out on some new underwear (which was marked down, so I saved as well!), a $20 earring and necklace set to wear with a dress I already have for my SFIL's 6th birthday next Saturday, and a book called Crunch Time by Michelle Bridges (aka the red team trainer in the Biggest Loser). The hot weather has made it really hard to exercise because not only does it confine me to inside, it also makes me lethargic and lazy and gives me more excuses. After seeing myself in a few mirrors at Target today, I decided I really need to do something about my weight. Its just not funny anymore (not that it ever was). I've battled with my weight ever since I've had an implanon contraceptive rod put in my arm (5.5 years) and my blood pressure is high (which is disappointing and a bit scary since I'm only 23), and in all honesty, I look gross. I hate seeing my reflection cos I can't hide from it.

But in happy news, I bought a home brew kit today :) I can't wait to taste my first brew. I've made up a canadian blonde mix and I hope to god I haven't stuffed it up! I've decided to brew it in our bathroom because its cool and we don't use it (we use the ensuite). James will probably hate it, but shit happens, and its only for a week until I can bottle it. But, when I made it up at 6pm, it was still hot and even the water coming out of the cold tap wasn't cold enough. The instructions say to have its temperature between 21 and 27 degrees - mine was hovering around 32. The instructions also suggest to add ice if it needs cooling. No ice here, so I flew into town, grabbed a bag, and flew back, taking about 30 minutes, so I hope that hasn't stuffed it up at all. It was before I added the yeast, but after I added the sugar, but I stirred it up again to make sure nothing had settled at the bottom before I added the yeast, so I hope I haven't stuffed it up! Just what I need - something else for James to say "I told you it wasn't going to be good..."

It was hot again today, but last night and tonight have been quite cool and windy. For instance right now its only 23 degrees and there's a massive breeze blowing through the house. Its good though cos it gives the dogs a bit of a reprieve, and it means I can turn the air con off :) I've heard so many stories of people's pets dying in the heat, so I've been trying my best to keep mine cool and they seem to be going ok. I'd hate to lose one!

Thank God That's Over

The working week, I mean. I had a shit afternoon and I was ready to snap. I won't go into it all cos it'll just make me feel bad, but I'm mos definitely happy to be at home in my own space again.

I emailed James some of the photos I posted to show him how good the zoom is etc. I think he's still cranky that I bought the camera. *sigh* We needed a new camera, and ours is a digital camera that you can also do videos with. He wanted a video camera that also takes stills. I'm yet to figure out why he wanted a video camera - there honestly hasn't been times when we've thought "damn, wish we had a video camera to capture that on". I just don't get it. But, I should've waited an extra day and talked to him first before I bought it. But shit happens, its over and done with now, and he'll just have to get over it sooner or later.

Still, we ended the phone conversation crappily, so I guess I'm a bit down about that too. I just wish he was home. Flies back on Tuesday. 4 sleeps to go...

Today I've decided to do something positive for myself and our finances by declaring war on my car loan. I currently have $16,500 left to pay off. So, every spare cent I have will go towards extra payments on that. I've bought one of those money boxes that can only be opened by a can opener, so all my change will go into that. Once its full, I'll put it into my loan. And I get paid fortnightly, so at every pay, if I'e got any money leftover from the last pay, I'll transfer that across into the loan. I'm not sure if it'll make a lot of difference, but its worth a shot. The more debt I pay now, the less we'll have to pay later.

We were expecting to receive an offer on our old house today, but we won't get it until Wednesday now. The people interested have been advised by their bank to not make an offer until Wednesday in case interest rates come down between now and then. If interest rates do come down and end up enabling them to offer more, then its all good, but we're impatient and want to know what kind of ball park range they're thinking. We should make at least $35k out of the sale, which $16,500 was going to pay out my car loan, and the rest was going to go on our mortgage (hence me wanting to pay the car loan off - means we can take more off the mortgage in the long run).

I'm going shopping with my MIL tomorrow - going to Cheap As Chips to get a few stationery items (my little niece and nephew love colouring and painting and drawing etc, so I'm going to make them up little art kits for their birthdays this year - getting supplies for that), and also might end up buying something to wear for my SFIL's birthday party which is next weekend. Hopefully I can find something I like and isn't too expensive. Probably not.

I'm stuffed. Absolutely stuffed. I'm going to either crawl off to the couch and curl up there, or silently haunt the Simple Savings forums. Probably a mix of both.

Woohoo My Camera's Here!

Hooray! And its sooooo good! I haven't taken too many photos yet because its too bloody hot to be anywhere but in front of the air con :) But here are the few that I've taken (and sorry if I stuff up the layout - haven't added photos to blog before):

This is taken from my back door. Far off in the distance, just off the corner of the shed, you can see a sort of tower?

This is how awesome the zoom is! Zoomed in completely, it shows the water tank and broadband tower :)

Our (very hot) blue heeler, Chopper.

Our (also very hot) kelpie, Ginnie.

And Pup. Ginnie is Pup's mum, and Pup is the last one out of a litter of 9! She was born last June and we're still looking for a home for her (and she doesn't have something wrong with her nose, just has some gravel stuck to it after playing!).

No doubt I'll post more photos as I get to take them :)

Well last night's play reading went very well. I was a bit nervous to start with, but didn't miss a line, so I think it went ok. We start proper rehearsals next Monday, and will have them every Monday and Thursday night until the end of May. Its going to be hectic! But good.

After we finished the read, MIL, SFIL and I were leaving and noticed a few bolts of lightning flash around. I dropped them off, then started the 18km drive home. I only just got out of town when I chickened out and turned around! There was so much lightning!! I've never seen so much over such a large area before! I have a choice of 3 roads I can take home (2 bitumen, 1 dirt) and this lightning storm covered all of these roads (a span of over 15km). It was just huge. I've almost been struck by lightning twice in my life (stories for another day) and usually it doesn't bother me at all. But there was no way I was driving through it last night! I know nothing could've happened because the rubber tyres are insulators, so if my car got zapped, the tyres would've taken the strike, but I just couldn't do it.

So, I'm laying in bed at my in-laws and I suddenly realise how hot and dry its been and how the lightning could very well spark a fire. I was concerned for my property, but I was mostly concerned about my dogs and what would happen to them if a fire started and it took a while for someone to realise. But the night went well and I came home to happy dogs this morning and an in tact property. A fire was started about 30km away, but it was contained quickly despite the conditions, so they were lucky.

Shit Its Hot!

Hi I'm Sarah, and I'm allergic to the heat [Hi Sarah]...

Ok, so I'm a bit dramatic. But I haaaate the heat. Its been 45 degrees today, and we're not getting any relief til the weekend. So, I thought I'd test our new inverter air conditioner out, and along with my meter readings, see just how much power it uses.

What a shock.

I've had it running for about 24 hours now set to 25 degrees, so it turns itself on and off as it pleases. I've used 30kw! I usually use under 10 a day (its just me home at the moment, but we run pumps for all our water, and we also have a poor fridge in the hot shed). But, I gotta say, its been worth it! I might put a bit of extra money aside for the next power bill and just leave it running. I'm bad, I know. I've told my cousin to come over whenever he and his fiancee want - they live about half a km down the road in a very old besser brick building and its like living in an oven.

Tonight is our first read through for the play - I auditioned for the local arts group for the first time, and I've scored a part of a maid called Beth. Its a british play called Dry Rot, and I'm not sure if I'm going to talk with an accent or not. Its a bit embarrassing, but I'm sure after tonight I won't be so nervous. My MIL and SFIL (step father in law) are both in it too, and my SFIL has been in heaps of them before, so it'll be good to do something with them.

I love it when the supermarket stuffs up! They ordered some 64 page exercise books since its back to school time, but stuffed up the order and ordered way too many, so they've got them out for 5 cents each!!! I grabbed 20 of them (all that were left by the time I got there) and just think its fantastic. I'd planned on making my niece and nephew little office sets for their birthdays this year (some stickers, textas, etc) so now I can add an exercise book each (and they're Bratz and Bob The Builder type ones, so the kids will love that too).

Our dogs have one of those plastic clam shell halves as their swimming pool in weather like this, but I'm about to go put some ice in their water (drinking and pool) to keep my doggos cool!

Arrrrr!

Well back to work today. Boo :( Nothing outstanding to report there. My MIL had an interview today for a different position in our organisation, and the interview panel were still talking behind closed doors well after 5. For some reason, I don't think she's going to get it, but I really hope she does!

After work tonight we had a Relay For Life team meeting. In a nutshell, Relay For Life is a fundraising event for the cancer council. You register your team before the event and work your butts off fundraising. You also have a theme and dress up your camp site etc. The actual Relay is very special and sort of a reward for all the hard fundraising you've been doing. Sorry, I'm not up for a big explanation tonight. Am very stuffed - after staying up late all weekend, I wasn't able to get to sleep last night. Last time I looked at the clock it was 12:30am, and then I woke up at 5. But anyway, at our team meeting, we worked out a lot of details for our costumes and camp site. We'd already decided a long time ago that we're going to be pirates, and I'm captain of the team, so I get to dress up as a pirate captain which will be great fun. No doubt I'll provide much more Relay info as it gets closer (its being held on 14-15 March).

I've asked James to buy me a homebrew kit for Kmart when he flies home next Tuesday - I can't wait!!! Its going to be so awesome. Although, I realised today that I stuff up every year. My birthday is Feb 27, and every year I hope that James will get a present for me (not necessarily something expensive, just something he's put some thought into, something a bit special), and every year I usually buy something a few weeks before my birthday that gets defaulted to birthday present. For example, yesterday I bought a digital camera, and now I want a homebrew kit.

James was telling me today that yesterday they had this snake lady up at Moomba as a bit of an entertainment/education thingo. She had 30 various snakes such as a womma, inland taipan, brown, king brown, and plenty of others. I am terrified of snakes, but even just hearing James talk about made it sound like a pretty cool presentation to see! He said she was showing how snakes can't really bite through much and also how they take a lot of provoking before they'll bite. They'd be pretty lucky (or unlucky, depending how you look at it!) to bite through jeans because the denim is a thicker fabric. Then she let a heap of the snakes loose (let me say also that they were all hand reared - not ust a few wild snakes she found on the drive up lol) and cornered one in particular and tried to provoke it and make it strike. But she couldn't do it! This poor snake was so terrified, it crawled into a little box (about the size of a muesli bar box) and hid in there. Even when she picked the box up and walked around the room with it, the snake didn't move because it was so scared. Of course there's always the exception to the rule - if you're mowing our lawn in thongs and shorts and run over a snake, of course there's a major chance that you'll get bitten. But whose fault is that? Imagine being deaf and only able to feel things by vibrations - you're laying in the sun on a nice warm day, and you feel the earth shake around you, harder and harder, and then the creature making these vibrations gets closer - you're going to do what it takes to protect yourself then run (or slither away). I'm still scared of being bitten by a snake, and they still freak me out (like sharks - there's just no soul in their eyes).

God I Love A Long Weekend

Woohoo its Australia Day! Ahh I love a long weekend! Not that I've done anything in particular. James is at work though (he works in the mining industry on a 2 week fly in, fly out roster) and he'll get double time for working today. Yay! Two things I've done that I'm excited about are making a sort of curtain, and buying a new digital camera.

The sort of curtain is for the sidelight next to our front door, which is currently a plain piece of glass. My mother in law is a wonderful leadlight creator, but she has been flat out with many things since we moved in and we don't want to add stress to her by asking her to make a sidelight for us - she knows we want one, but we're leaving it to "whenever you have time". My nearest neighbours are 500 metres down the road, so at night time if they got their binoculars out, they could spy on us a tiny bit, but we don't generally care (the neighbours are my cousin and his fiancee who I'm sure have better things to do than watch us lol). But its a warmer day here today (max 31), and I wanted to make the house as cool as possible by doing things like putting the ceiling fans on, keeping doors shut, only opening the blinds a tiny bit etc. It helps that our house has extra insulation in the walls and ceiling! But still, the heat was coming through this exposed sidelight, so I cut up some material, put some 3M temporary hooks on the wall/door frame, sewed some buttons with a little elastic hoop to both sides of the materials, and presto - a sort of curtain!

I will be excitedly checking the mail every day this week and will hopefully find my new digital camera. Its a Canon Powershot A2000 IS and I got it for $265 on ebay with a 2gb memory card (saving about $35). I've been without a digital camera for a few months now after our last one suddenly died after 5 faithful years of service. I just can't wait to get this new one! I've missed having a camera, and the new one is a beauty that will last us for years.

As part of Better Deal month at Simple Savings, I've tried shopping around for a good insurance package over the net this weekend. We currently require home & contents, home & landlords, and car insurance for at least 2 vehicles (we have 4 - 2 are our daily drives, and the other 2 are sentimental cars which we don't register all the time - I don't think the latter are insured at the moment, but I'm thinking perhaps they should be - need to discuss with James). Anyway, I'm a 23 year old who has never been booked for anything except a few speeding tickets, have never been in a car accident, or made claims on any vehicles, so therefore have a nice clean record. I've never ever missed any insurance payments. Yet, through their online "get a quote" facility, I'm yet to find an insurer who will actually insure me. I currently have insurance for my V8 (another hurdle the insurers don't like...) through CGU who I got though a local broker. Me thinks I might have to go back to the broker to try and see what deal I can get from them by combining all our insurances. I thought perhaps the online thingos don't like me trying to get insurance for my V8, so I tried it again from scratch for our Navara, but they didn't like that either. Bloody insurance companies!

Also with Better Deal month, I've looked at www.uswitch.com.au to find a better electricity provider, and they've come up with Simply Energy. I'm a bit wary of moving to lessor known provider - I tend to think "if they're so good, how come more people don't know about them?". I dunno. I just don't want to be gypped. Speaking of electricity, I've started tracking my usage as of yesterday. Not sure how this is going to help considering I think we're pretty good with our usage, but I guess there's always room for improvement, and it'll be easier to know how much the bill will be before it comes in.

My father in law has recently started to make some homebrew, and I must say, he's getting some wonderful results! And after talking to Faye and reading some of her blog, I think I may just have to investigate more - I mean, homebrew champagne?! Wow! James can only drink beer such as Hahn Super Dry or Pure Blonde that has no additives or preservatives otherwise he gets sick - I wonder if I can make homebrew with the same stuff? I know in our tiny country town supermarket you can get the Coopers kits - time to do some investigating :) Then our bar really will be complete!!

All organised - that feels better!

I've been without a personal internet connection for a few months now (have one at work, but we get tracked, so I haven't exactly been able to spend time on my favourite sites!), and over the last couple of days I've been catching up with all things Simple Savings. One thing I've downloaded from one of the other members is a budget spreadsheet. I thought it would be fairly basic, but would have everything required - but I was wrong! Its amazing! The amount of time this person has put into making this spreadsheet is phenomenal! There are worksheets for everything: income, loans, home banking, home bills, home living, investments, transport, medical, food, school, insurance, clothing, animals, ebay, recreation, grooming, and general, and it also has a summary page so you can see all your data neatly. Its just perfect! So I've spent the afternoon entering all transactions we've made in January.

We have not been Simple Savers at all this month - we bought a boat and a billiard table. They're both items on our wishlist, but neither of us expected to be buying them so soon. My mum is sadly a pokie addict, but she won $10k this month and gave us some money, so that took care of paying for the boat, and we had enough to buy the billiard table as well. They're both good things in the long run - the billiard table is already proving its worth by providing lots of in home entertainment - instead of going out, we've had friends over every Friday and Saturday night for drinks and a few games, so its proving to be great. After moving out of the town, we'd planned to make ourselves a "bar" with everything we'd normally get at the pub (well nearly everything - we don't have beer on tap, but there's certainly some in the fridge!). Our mates love it and its certainly cheaper than a night out at the pub.

The boat however has come with trouble. It was being sold through a local general store and its owner lives in Adelaide (has a holiday property down this way). He assured us it was fine and worked well and he'd never had trouble with it. James took puppa down to look at it, and he gave it the stamp of approval. They weren't able to start the motor though because it'll break it if it doesn't get started in water. So, boat bought, brought home, and lovingly dusted off. The big moment comes when its time to start the motor... except the motor doesn't start. So James takes it off to a local boat motor mechanic who promptly finds that the piston has melted inside. This is a very big deal. It is not easy to melt a piston. It generally happens when the motor is started out of the water, and because there's no water to pump through, well I'm sure you can imagine what happens. A very very loud bang, probably lots of smoke, and in our case, a motor that is simply not worth fixing (it'd be cheaper to buy another motor than it would be to replace the piston since it has melted in such a way). So after a few tantys by James, we decide to fork out $500 to buy a secondhand motor which seems to be of the same vintage as the boat (both look like they're from the 60s). To be on the safe side, James and Puppa spend time performing general maintenance on the replacement motor before even thinking about starting it. But eventually the time comes when its ready to push the magical button... and what do you know, it works! Hurrah!

The boat was been wonderful to cruise around in and is much comfier than our old dinghy. Strange discovery though - I've gotten sea sick in boats before about 12-14ft big, but never once felt sick in our little dinghy. After a few goes in the new boat, I started to feel very green (new boat is 15ft). Not sure what it is about bigger boats (and they're not big by most people's standards!), but I just can't stomach them for too long. This is ok though - I'm perfectly happy basking in the warmth of the shade on the beach, reading a book in between naps, while the boys go out fishing or just generally boating around.

So now that we've bought two big ticket items in less than a month, its time to curb the spending a bit. We're not in any financial trouble, it just seems to be wise to keep a lid on things for a little while. Having said that, I believe Clive will be helping James line the games room next time James is home - another big expense! But another worthwile cost. Very worthwhile actually it will help keep the dust out and temperature down, not to mention it will look very nice.

I'm In Love

No, I don't have a boyfriend on the side, and no I'm not talking about my dear hubby James (although I most definitely do love him!) - no, I'm in love with my ipod nano. It seems to have even taken place of my beloved books, for now at least. Today I watched an episode of McLeod's Daughters, played a few games of monopoly and yahtzee, and also watched What Happens In Vegas. Add that to sleeping in until 10am, and I haven't really done much today! Oh, I haven't sat around on my butt all day, I did do some dancing. I think I might go for a run tomorrow. Not sure.

We have 15 trees planted so far and I think I might go and buy a few more tomorrow. It'll be hard work on the crowbar to dig holes for them, but that will be good for me. Its hard work for James in a few spots - bloody limestone! Limestone has been both a blessing and a curse for us - if Rocy Glen didn't have limestone, it wouldn't have its name, but it probably would have also been sold off as viable farming land a long time ago. But its still painful for us - having the septic trench dug wasn't pretty! But its part of our home.

We have 2 dwarf sugar gums (eucalyptus cladocalyx nana), 4 eucalyptus cladocalyx (sugar gum), 1 eucalyptus lansdowneana subsp. albo purpurea (crimson mallee), 2 eucalyptus torwood, apparently 3 eucalyptus sideroxylon rosea (pink flowering ironbark) - one looks completely different from the other two so I think one may have been mislabelled, 1 eucalyptus leucoxylon (rosea), 1 eucalyptus forrestiana (fuschia gum) and 1 eucalyptus caesia (silver princess - or as James calls it, our "Sarah" tree).

Tonight I ate my first ever home grown cherry tomato, and god it was good! No pesticides or chemicals or even fertiliser - just straight dirt and regular watering! There are so many tomatoes waiting to redden up - its great! My other veggies are growing as well and all have flowers - lebanese cucumber, mixed capsicum, and butternut pumpkins. I love it!

Our old house is still up for sale after over a year on the market, and someone suggested that I make a memory box of the house, and shut the lid on it (physically and metophorically) to resolve any outstanding attachment to the house that may be subconsciously warding off potential buyers. May sound like mumbo jumbo, but hell, I'll give anything a shot. So, earlier in the week, I completed my memory box and shut the lid. We had someone look though the house on Thursday and we apparently talking to their bank yesterday, so I hope its done the trick. If not, I've still got a lovely memory box that I'll treasure for years to come.

Sheryn and Rob are going to buy me a fruit tree for my birthday which will be absolutely lovely. Sheryn and I went to the garden centre earlier in the week to see what they had in stock, and I left her with the choice of an apricot or a lemon tree. Their apricot tree went absolutely berserk this year - it was fantastic! So many apricots, all for free, and so much better quality than the crappy cardboard supermaret ones (that cost around $12 a kilo!!). Now I just have to plan where I'm going to have an orchard. People have given me advice about having them near the eucalypts we've already planted so I'm not gallavanting across the countryside all the time to water trees, but I was thinking of the area behing the shed (sort of between the shed and the motorbike track). Will see what James thinks.

Last time he was away at work, our windmill came loose. We'd had it tied up because its very old and disconnected from a pump, so to leave it going will quickly wear out its parts and render it useless. Well, its kind of useless at the moment, but I just love it to bits. James knows stacks about windmills after working on sheep stations (he regularly did maintenance on their windmills) and I asked him if it was worth getting parts for ours, not necessarily to pump the bore with, but just to be able to have the windmill spin around, but he said it wouldn't be worth it because it would only end up wearing the old thing out. So, for those few days where it flapped and spun around in the wind, I just loved it. Not sure exactly why, I just did.

23 January 2008

Long time, no update! Wow, have our lives changed. We're now living at Rocky Glen and loving every minute of it. Its very different from when we moved into our Minlaton house, and its great - just different. Like when we moved into the Minlaton house, we felt a big pressure to have things like gardens and verandahs done quickly. Out here, we've started stuff but there's nowhere near as much pressure. So far we've planted some grass in the backyard (which is doing great), I've started a "test" veggie garden out the front (which is doing ok), and we've planted trees (15 so far, but we add a few more every now and then).

Our games room is just amazing. James has done so much work in there, and its a really wonderful, fun place. We've got our big projector screen and projector, our bar, a table and chairs, couch, and recently have added a billiard table. And its still comfortable, like its not squeezy or packed in. Its been great to reuse some of our old furniture as well - like we've got our old purple couch in there, and the table and chairs outdoor set we got as an engagement present is in there which is great cos it gets it out the weather and away from the dogs (which will make it last longer - despite being an ourdoor setting, it was starting to deteriorate).

We still don't have a landline phone - I applied for one back in September and Telstra are still fucking us around! They're absolutely hopeless. We got our internet installed this week though so at least I have the phone through that. Sheryn was telling me today that Cindy's phone has been disconnected - Cindy claims its some problem with Telstra, but its pretty clear to us that its probably because they didn't pay their bill. I don't know how they can live on the edge so much. I guess they didn't choose to all at once, just many many bad decisions have added up and provided this result. I feel sorry for them, but they're also kind of role models of what not to do, unfortunately.

I started off in a great routine once we moved out here - the house was always clean and it was never any fuss because it was all kept up with. The house isn't a bombsite at the moment, not cose, but I'm a bit out of my routine and it shows. Might be time to take this Australia Day long weekend to an advantage and get back on top!

We had Angela and Jason look at the house yesterday - they loved it and were apparently talking to their bank today. I just hope they can afford enough to put a good offer in because I just really want to be rid of the house. I'm really starting to feel desperate about moving on - I want to get off the corporate carousel and into being a stay at home mum.