shapeofthings: (Default)
Hello.

It has been a while, hasn't it? How are you all?

I thought I'd come back to blogging once I quit Facebook, but it's taken a year for me to reappear here. To feel the value of putting words out here to help quieten down the noise in here.

I'm moving house tomorrow. I've been in my place here for three years, and it has been kind to me. Three years: the longest I've lived anywhere since I left the flat in Auchenflower, Brisbane, around late 2006/early 2007. I have feelings about moving again after finally gaining the sense of stability and community I'd so needed.

So why move? Because my lovely housemate stayed with her partner in the country during covid lockdown #1, and managed to convert her job to remote working, moving out just before we went into Lockdown #2 - Isolate Harder. For various reasons I decided against trying to find a new housemate while the entire city was confined to home for 23 hours a day. I figured I could ride it out financially for a few months until life went back to "normal" and I got to go back to working in the office, at which point I'd get someone in again, or hopefully be able to buy a place of my own.

Lockdown #2 dragged on and I rattled around in my own head for so long that something went askew in my brain chemistry. I had to change my situation. Work still can't say when we'll be back in the office full time, paying all the rent was sending me broke and I desperately needed company. So I weighed up the options and uncertainties and found myself a room in a share house, the next suburb over. My new housemates are Ben, Steph and Steph's dog Ninja.

It's all been rather fast, and after 9 months living alone, sharing again is a big change that's a challenge with the heightened anxiety the lockdown has left me with.

That leaves me here, in a mostly-packed little townhouse, culling the kitchen things and working out what to put in storage and which plants will make it to the new house (oh, I went mad with the garden through the 9 months of restrictions and although everything is in pots and boxes it really can't all come), where I'll bunk down until the future looks a little more certain and I can make informed decisions about the next step.

In February I'll tick over 6 years in Melbourne, a city I only ever intended to stay in for one. I still don't love it, though I'm here for the job and in a global recession that becomes more important. The promised remote-working revolution may open new opportunities yet. We'll see.

Onwards.

shapeofthings: (Default)
Right, I have:

* Re-scheduled moving day to this Sunday and recruited new helpers after my originals became unavailable.
* Finalised rent payments for the old place and set them up for the new place (and am seriously disgruntled at having to use RentPay and pay an extra $3 a month for the privilege).
* Sold enough stuff to cover about half the expected insurance bill for last Friday's little reversing fail - go Gumtree and DMF!
* Bought a ticket to go see freaking KODO (and TaikOz) play in Melbourne in September with my taiko group (I don't know if I'll have a job or where I'll be living, but damn it I'm not missing Kodo!).
* A bubbling pot of home-grown tomatoes reducing on the stove, to be bottled as tomato puree and taken to the new house.
* Packed most everything except the kitchen things.
* Taken on way too many things to get done before moving!

Bleh, still very tired* and rather snotty, but no rest for the over-committed.

Graf1
Somewhere in Melbourne, February.


Meanwhile, the comedy of fails continues. Australia Post sent through my confirmation of mail redirection today, except they've mis-spelt my name when they've entered my details. Only way to fix it is to go into a post office in person and fill out yet another form.

Also: no internet at the new house for at least a month, most likely longer. Guess I'm getting a cheapy pre-paid mobile modem for the foreseeable future. *le sigh*

Edit: Makin' preserves, over at the Shape of Things to Come.

Can I sleep now please?

*Housemate's comings and goings are still doing horrible things to my sleep, and while earplugs do reduce the disturbance I end up waking up later to take the damn things out, so there's really no net gain. Last night he came in at 12:30 am, then left again at 4:30 this morning, so neither of us got much sleep. I cannot wait to get out of here - so bummed moving had to be delayed a week!
shapeofthings: (Hobart)
Erk. The last few days haven't been exactly friendly.

After taking 3 days leave last week to get everything packed so I could move on the weekend I'm still in the old place, only half packed, with everything in chaos. What happened? I got sick. I started feeling rotten on Thursday morning, but I just put it down to (completely plausible) fatigue and burn-out. By Friday morning I was clearly sick but thought it was just a cold and I'd push through to get the move done. Yeah, not my best decision...

Friday (the 13th!) was the day my lease began on the cottage and I was due to go to the Real Estate Agents to sign the paperwork and collect the keys. I went via the chemist where I bought some cold and flu tablets, ate one, then drove across Hobart. Once at the Agents I found out there'd been some mis-communication with the landlords and my little cottage was still full of their furniture (it was an optionally-furnished property). Hasty arrangements were made to get everything I didn't need removed before my scheduled move on Sunday.

Tired, frazzled and full of snot I made my way back across to the other side of the city, stopping one suburb from home to duck into the post office to send off some of the things I'd sold in preparation for moving. By now I really wasn't feeling well and all I was thinking about was getting home and collapsing, well aware that I really shouldn't have been driving and grateful that I was almost there with only easy roads ahead.

*kathump*

Reversing out of my car park I was so out of it that I'd failed to notice a pale-coloured car behind me and had backed straight into it. A quick inspection showed some damage to the bumper and perhaps the headlight, and that no-one had witnessed the incident. I hesitated for about 5 seconds, re-parked my car, wrote down all the relevant details then went into the nearby offices to find the owner of the car and fess up. Choosing to drive whilst sick: that's going to cost me about $500.

Still, it would be a lot worse if I didn't have insurance, and the lady I hit could see how sick I was and was very apologetic that she'd have to make a claim (she had the damage checked first to see if repairs could be avoided or provided for less than my excess - how nice is that?). Perhaps my honesty has gained a few karma points as well. Who knows?

Details sorted, I got back in my (completely undamaged) car and very slowly made my way home to collapse into bed and stay there for most of the next 36 hours. Yeah, it wasn't just a cold. I was properly sick.

The rest of my weekend was largely spent sleeping, interspersed with a little TV watching. I didn't pack, I re-scheduled moving and I didn't write that job application I'd intended to.

Today, Monday; I had emergency warden training scheduled, a course I'd already missed my first booking for due to illness. I knew I still wasn't well but was determined to make it. I gave myself extra time to drive to the training centre, took the back roads and stayed well under the speed limit. Thankfully I made it there and home again just fine, though I really wasn't safe to drive yet. The course finished at 1 pm (I passed!) and I had to decide what to do with the rest of my day.

I came home and called work to report in sick, logging in remotely to check for any important emails or meetings (none - I'm not sure that's a good or bad thing...). I've been sick a lot lately: repercussions of my shitty sleep situation and letting myself get too stressed out. Was calling in sick yet again the right call to make when my employment future is shaky? I really don't know. Part of me feels guilty: even though I am still sick I didn't come home and go to bed.

There were a few useful business hours left in the day and I was reasonably functional. What should I do? I could have a go at getting that job application done in time (it'd be a stretch) or try to get a few more things sorted for the move. I decided to make a quick call to my ISP to sort out getting my internet connection transferred, then have a go at the job app. An hour later I finally got off the phone to the ISP with no connection yet sorted for the new place and the sneaking suspicion that I got talked into a plan that's of less value for the same price. And that's if a naked DSL port becomes available at the exchange. For now the Cottage will have no internet at all and I'm going to have to look at a pay-as-you-go wireless account just to get me by while I wait for a port that might never eventuate as they can't put me in a queue. Apparently I have to call back every month to re-apply until such time as a port becomes available or I get desperate enough to pay the exorbitant fee to have a phone line connected to the cottage.

*headdesk*

The poor service and high cost of data in this country is criminal, and I'm in a capital city. I truly feel for our country brethren, who find themselves utterly shafted by the telcos. I'm not quite sure how much sorting out a decent internet connection is going to cost me, but it's going to cost either a lot of time and frustration or far more money than it should. Possibly it'll be both. Still, I was nice to the call centre people and they've waived the last month of my bill for my troubles. More credits in the karma account for everyone!

By the time I finally got off the phone the last thing I wanted to do was write a job application, especially as the job would be a significant ($15 to $20k) pay cut and, if offered, I'd have to take it before I find out what's happening with my current position. So I chose not to write the damn thing. This may turn out to be a very expensive decision if I do lose my job! But then when I rang the would-be-new-boss on Friday to ask about the job I didn't get the greatest vibe...

Strangely enough after all the faff and frustration of calling the ISP I was actually feeling a lot better. I thought about packing a few more boxes but quickly accepted that what I really wanted to do was head over to the Cottage to check the place over, see if the power had been connected and that the landlord had finally removed the unwanted furnishings. I grabbed a few things I'd already packed, threw them in the car and drove over to the western shore (finally feeling actually safe to drive!). I'm glad I did.

It turns out my new neighbour, Oliver, is the landlord's son and is responsible for maintenance on the property. He came over to introduce myself and helped me to unstick the latch to the electricity meter so I could switch on the power. Once inside I discovered a few items that still needed to be removed so was able to hand them on to Oliver for storage. We also picked up a few small repairs that needed doing and I discovered that he's really keen to keep the place nice and fix up anything I need. Win!

I know living next-door to your own landlord might not be ideal, but I got a really good feel from Oliver, and since my partying days are well behind me and I'm pretty much a dream tenant, I can really only see the benefits. Also, I found out that the Cottage is over 100 years old!

It was also the first time I'd been able to view the property without it being full of someone else's furniture and really get an idea of what it's going to look like with my things in place. Oh it's going to be lovely! The whole place just feels welcoming and very me. I think it's going to be a wonderfully happy home. I can't wait to be out of here, away from my increasingly inconsiderate housemate and the shitty sleep situation and into my very own cottage. Yes, it's going to cost me a lot more for rent and bills, but at a significant saving to my mental and physical health and well-being. That's the kind of expense I really don't mind paying.

On the way home I stopped off to pick up a few things for dinner and a bunch of bright yellow flowers. The flowers, along with a thank you note, were dropped at the door of my friend Kat's house to say thank you for dropping around some emergency supplies to very sick me on Saturday. I hope they made her evening.

Daisy
shapeofthings: (Sizer-fish)
Musings about sustainability and travel over at the Shape of Things to Come: clicky!

Meanwhile, packing proceeds slowly. I'm tired, run down and over it, despite knowing I really need to get on with things. There's a job I wouldn't mind applying for, here in Hobart, but it requires a lengthy application completed by Monday and I'm struggling to find the motivation to bother. I suspect, after months of scraping by on anxiety and adrenaline, that I've finally hit burn-out. I just don't have the energy to care. All I want to do is sleep and then sleep some more.

Still, the packing is progressing, I've made 2 trips to drop things off to the charity shop and to post stuff worthwhile to others. I've got another post office run to make tomorrow, and hopefully the people who've promised to buy things on Gumtree actually come through, else I've got a pile of stuff I don't know what to do with. I pick up the keys tomorrow, and my lovely colleagues are turning up disgustingly early Sunday morning to help me shift the heavy stuff.

By Sunday night I'll be sleeping in my new place. I just wish I had the energy to get excited about that!

Beach1
I went to visit my parents over Easter. I suspect the associated fuss and drama finally tipped me over the edge into burn-out. Still, at least it was warm and pretty!
shapeofthings: (Default)
Right, how are we doing?


  • Electricity connection request submitted

  • Internet services transfer enquiry submitted

  • Free labour & haulage arranged for moving day (hooray for awesome colleagues with trailers)

  • Stuff to sell/throw out/give away sorted out

  • Half of items to sell listed on Gumtree. Still need to sort out selling clothes and a few other things

  • Finances managed to cover extra costs

  • Real estate notified of exit date and plans



I still need to:

  • Finish sorting out the gardens here

  • Patch walls & paint (after taking all pictures down & removing sticky-hooks)

  • Get rid of pile of stuff to sell/re-home

  • Organise electricity disconnection & carpet cleaning (need Housemate's leaving date)

  • Pay car rego

  • Pack!



Somewhere in there I also need to get some sleep and start doing a much better job of looking after myself than I have been.
shapeofthings: (bloop!)
ChokePetals


Hard at work tidying the gardens here in preparation for moving out. My little productive patch is in good nick but the rest of the garden is in something of a sorry state. Gravel paths full of sawdust and weeds, an out-of-control poor excuse for a lawn (Housemate somehow broke my strimmer. $@#*!), garden beds that grew nothing when the gumtrees shaded them now full of weeds and weedy things my landlord planted.

I dislike spending so much energy working on a garden I'm leaving. I'd much rather be preparing the soil in my new patch for the winter crops I should be planting now.

Soon...

Moovink!

Nov. 21st, 2009 01:31 pm
shapeofthings: (bloop!)
Well, it's finally here, the big moving weekend, and i have gastro. Awesome timing there body... =o(

Loungeroom
Fridge of enormous does not fit in kitchen

Balcony
The view out over the neighbours of noisy and psychotic


Anyway, we won't have the 'net on at the new place for a week or so (still don't even know if we can get ADSL there - 10 km from the centre of a capital city), but at least we'll have some peace and quiet at long last.

So here are some photos of the place that's never really been home, all taken with the wide angle lens, which makes the place look twice the size it actually is.

The very orange kitchen
Because orange is such a natural choice for kitchens... Note ancient oven with burn marks around the grill, Turns out tannour (a type of gluten-free flat bread) is really flammable.

Kitchen store
The solution to a lack of storage space. No, I don't have a spice problem, honest!


Take care of yourselves, I'll be back soon!

Bathroom
New bath, new panelling and new toilet installed after we moved in, but bathroom still smells of rotting timber

Bedrooom
Carpet! Also, note addition of tassels to light fitting :)

Study/spare room
And this is where I am right now, although my desk is the only thing still standing in here

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