Ping Update

I haven't pinged for over a week now :P

Moving House Sux!

Well I've just endured the most horrendous week! Moving out of my 2 bedroom house, in which I have lived for four and a half years. If you could imagine two people who have a tendancy to be messy, an inbuilt loathing of throwing anything away and a general distaste for cleaning - then you could have an idea of the magnitude of the job that we attempted to complete in 7 days.


To properly explain, I'll start with the weather. Sydney is in a drought. So the week we moved out, it rained. Not a solid soaking useful rain. Not even a helpful rain over the catchment areas. It rained in a stupid on again, off again, bloody pooring down fashion. We realised that the weather would not be on our side, so we organised two blokes and a truck. By this point we were half way through the week and the only thing moved by this point was the scuba gear. feeling positive at this point..

So the two blokes turn up, late but with a really big Ute (it deserves capitals for the size of the tray alone!). Then they ask us twice what needs to go on the Ute (once for each bloke), over an hour later the load on the Ute is looking precarious. A total of 9 Mac +es, 5 Ikea bookcases, 3 shelving units, 1 mattress, 1 fridge, 1 filing cabinet, a cubic meter of books plus many boxes have all gone on. And I'm really wondering, just how much will fall off in transit. I'm also wondering how much I really care - not much as the day is getting on and we haven't left yet. The blokes are securing the load with multiple ropes and a careful selection of knots - at this point Mike & I bolt!

And down comes the rain spectacularly! So much for a non-moldy mattress! oh well, at least we have a nice lunch cooked for us (cheesy pasta! yum!) and we can play with the cat (The Vomitron - he vomits a lot). we're entertained. we're fed and we're warm. But importantly after a 40 minute drive, we've been waiting almost another 40 minutes for our two blokes in the Ute. I make some phone calls, leave some messages and they turn up. It took them 70 minutes to drive the distance because they opted to turn right on Parramatta road (head East) instead of left (head West). hmmm, whoever said women can't navigate hadn't met these two prime orienteerers!

Right so we've moved the bulky items, been rained on and on and returned to the scene of the crime. And I really can't say I can see much of a difference. Because we are moving overseas, we are much more viscious in throwing out/recycling our posessions rather than moving them - as what good will they be in 12-18 months time? So after borrowing 2 council bins, we have filled 2 and 1/2 bins and our recycle bin is chockas! We decide to hire a ute (much smaller with a cage) and drive off to the local tip. This turns into its own challenge as my little inner-west Sydney suburb does not have a tip of any kind - they refer you to inquire of other suburbs! The Cheek!!
Chullora council comes to our aid - they have a tip and its open all weekend! Yeah! So we do the nasty (including 3 monitors) we dispose of over 300kgs of rubbish. Which in itself is shocking! The weekend has passed in a blur of packing things into boxes and moving said boxes. I'm now officially sick of boxes and now using plastic bags as an alternative! I'm recycling :)

I did have the good sense to organise a cleaner - there is just no way I was going to pack up a house and then clean it until it sparkled! The cleaners turn up - two smiling ladies - and after promising them an empty house to clean, I have two curtains to change over and I've piled everything left in the living room. So they set to work and I waited for Mike to turn up.. and eventually he arrived, then left pursuing coffee! ARG! He did have the good grace to bring me a coffee, but when he started gardening over finished the removal of remaining items from the Lounge - I could bear no more and started ordering him around. I didn't want to be bossy but we did need to complete the inside before considering the outside!!!

Anyhow after all the boxing, moving of boxes, bags, rugs, bookshelves and books. Its all done.
We've had the final inspection and the landlord was pleased. I was relieved!

So I went and had an hour massage. I swear I'll never have that much crap again!

Online Shopping Bliss

I have found a little patch of shopping Nirvana - online!

As preparation for moving overseas, I've been looking into what indepsensible

items I can buy online and have delivered. And good skin care is top of the list. My reading into South Korea indicates that pollution can be a problem - I'm hoping it won't be but planning that it will! So all this has led me to find a great little online store called Absolutely Gorgeous. You gotta love a stylin' chick like this one!

They have a great range of Australian products - I couldn't leave home (let alone the country) without my Shizen lipgloss. Shizen is the most amazing stuff - nice gloss, nice smell and it prevents cold sores. Its just soooo yummy!




I'm not just raving in a lunatic style fashion because of the balm or because they have many cool lip balms/glosses, and really cute eye shadow colours (see>>).
But because I've exchanged emails with the Absolutely Gorgeous Lady - and she's fast answering my questions (ie. do you have that in pink??) and she's been really nice when I did place an order ... eventually! Lastly she's just fabulous because everything I ordered arrived really quickly and was exactly as good or better than I was expecting!


Now I'm just waiting to see what my new skin care is like.. But unlike on eBay - where you have to wait and hope; I'm looking forward to my next package with no trepidation!

All the images in this post have been used without the authority or knowledge of the sites they came from. Seeing as I'm saying nice things - I'm hoping its ok.

sigh..

I'm feeling a bit sad and a bit tired today.

Yesterday, I had a lovely lunch out at North Sydney's Prasit Restaurant. Which does lovely thai food. There were prawns in coconut and scallops on the shell. Then we had a devine deep fried whole barramundi in tamarind sauce YUM! It was very very relaxing. The lunch was a mini goodbye from one of my boss' who will be away when i finish work next week. It was really sweet that they took the time to talk with me and treat me to such a lovely lunch out.

Seeing as that all went so well, I ended up over at a good friends place for dinner. I'm a god parent to their twin daughters - and it was great to spend some time fussing over the little toddlers. They are just so cute now! Both kids walk around and talk a little - mainly following their older sister - she's 5 and they're almost 2. It was also great to spend some time having grown up conversations - that was until Mirryn discovered I can be easily tickled. I don't think its a good thing that i can be seriously chased by a 5 year old who has found my weakness!

So now I'm back at work today - only 5 more days to go!!! Given that I can't count Saturday - as it will hopefully be terribly dull and non-eventful.

I'm tired because last night felt late and well with World Cup winding up now - its a lethargic kind of day. I think I'll go sigh..

Ubuntu yourself!

Ubuntu seems to be a really easy way to install a good linux os.

However it seems to have made the non-geeky amoung us, suddenly believe that they are now card carrying geeks. And yes, I am talking about someone inparticular - lets call him Redfern Princess.

I'm sorry to be harsh but installing Ubuntu does not make you any more computer saavy than you were before. It also does not bequeath you with technical know-how; RP word isn't hard!

Come back to me when you actually know something about your install or your computer or where it all fits in, in the scheme of things. Or if that's too hard - get yourself a podcast that isn't some techno dance dude pumping doof-doof-dooof down the internet. Or put in some effort and watch an all nighter of orignal Star Trek followed up by some Walker Texas Ranger. I think that should mess with your mind appropiately.

In the mean time stop with the Bloody UBUNTU!!!!!!