Category Archives: General Ramblings

Why I’m Grumpy Today

Posted on September 5, 2005 | 3 comments

This is pretty much just a cut-n-paste from a post I made on The Wagon, so I’m sorry if you’ve already read it. But I’m pretty shaken by this, so forgive me if I seem preoccupied with todays events.

You remember the accident? The uninsured driver? Well…

…it now transpires that the girl who hit me is claiming she was not at fault, and requesting I PAY FOR HER REPAIRS!!!! I am speechless and in shock. What is more, she is blatantly lying with regards to the existence of an independent witness. I saw her leave the scene at the same time as I did, and travel quite some distance along the same road I did (in fact, I thought she was going to hit me again at one point). She didn’t get a witness at the time we were at the scene (I now wish I had thought to do so, or call the police, but she seemed to admit she was at fault at the time, so I trusted she would do the same later – like, say, I would, because I’m an honest kinda person). I really find it difficult to believe she could have found anybody who witnessed the collision still in the car park if she went back later. So I think she’s lying, or someone has agreed to lie for her. And I feel like it’s my word against hers/theirs. I’m really upset about this.

My insurers, after being a bit of a pain over some missed damage, are now being somewhat helpful again, and saying they still believe me. What’s more, they will have their investigators check out the damage to her car, see how it relates to my story, and interview her ‘witness’. They say that I have done all the right things so far. But I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight anyway. She looks like the kind of person who might have big scary male relatives to send around my way, and she knows where I live! ๐Ÿ˜ฅ

I just want this all to go away. Gonna go and have a big cry now.

3 Comments

Posted in General Ramblings

Tagged ,

My Precioussss!

Posted on September 4, 2005 | 3 comments

It would seem that I am a hoarder. Well, OK, I actually knew that. But what I didn’t know is how extraordinarily difficult it is for me to throw anything away. Our impending move is making this problem abundantly clear to me. Books are the worst, it is just agonizing for me to try culling our collection. I am slightly better at throwing OtherHalf’s books into the ‘must-go’ pile, but books I’ve amassed myself are a whole different story :giggle: We did manage to donate half a box of ancient cookbooks to the Op-shop – mostly lovely 1970’s offerings, full of that peculiarly orange style of photography, and wholly unappetizing recipes. Practically everything else has been boxed up to take with us (including the books OtherHalf rescued from my must-go pile!)

But hey… books are understandable, right? Lots of people cling dearly to their book collections. I’m totally sane. Well. Except for the next bit…

Today, it was the bathroom cupboard’s turn to be trimmed down. Our new house (hee… those words still give me a little thrill) has no storage in the bathroom. Well, it has a very narrow little medicine cabinet thingy behind the mirror. But nothing else. So until we manage to scrape some cash together for renovation (that may be quiiiiiite a while), we have to pare down what we keep in the bathroom. Hmmmm. Seems we have about a million bottles of sunscreen lotion, and the same again of moisturiser. And hair product, and fragrance… where the heck did it all come from? And why am I physically incapable of throwing it out?! This is crazy stuff. For goodness sake, Finn was weaned 18 months ago. Why do I need to keep nursing pads? I honestly can’t explain my behaviour – I did manage eventually to bag and bin about a third of what was there (nursing pads included), but there is still more that should go… and I just can’t seem to do it! I have adopted the plan that instead of throwing it out, we should use it up. So for the next 6 weeks, expect me to be frightfully moist, sun-protected, hair-styled and smelly aromatic, in a bid to get rid of the bottles in our cupboard. Or, you know, you could come over and throw them out while my back is turned!

I think I’ll cry when I get to my mountains of crafty-stuff ๐Ÿ™

3 Comments

Posted in General Ramblings

Tagged , , ,

Of Zen, and Frogs, and Dingoes

Posted on September 2, 2005 | Comments Off on Of Zen, and Frogs, and Dingoes

The washing machine picked itself up off the floor and behaved like a perfect angel when TheGuy came. I gritted my teeth, and of course after he had left, it blew me a raspberry and resumed its former position on the matter. Grrr. There’s a laundromat around the corner where I expect to be spending some time studying over the next week or however long.

After last night’s post, I decided I needed more Zen in my life. Went looking for something I just knew would be on the www. Yes, you too can play with your very own Zen garden. I taught Finn how to do it, he had a ball :giggle:

So I stitched a bit more while he had fun on that this morning. Sadly, while stitching in monochrome is somewhat easier, and almost meditative itself, it is not exempt from the froggies. Three separate frogs visited me in a short space of time, so I put it down for the rest of today. I think I’m about 25% done in these few days though, so it shouldn’t be too long before another happy dance.

That covers the Zen and Frogs of my title, but what about the Dingoes, you may ask? Well, since TheGuy got in and out before our regularly scheduled story time at the library, we were able to make it there after all. And… who knew… it’s the 21st birthday of Wombat Stew today: Happy Birthday WS! Total coincidence that we were at the library for the 11am National Simultaneous Storytime. I love this book, we have it at home, and Finn thinks my singing voice is hilarious as I emulate the dopey dingo and his “Wombat Stew, Wombat Stew – Gooey, Chewy, Crunchy, Munchy, Wombat Stew”. And of course, I’m not one to give away endings, but let me tell you that the Wombat comes to no harm in the end!

So that was my Friday. Sadly, tomorrow is Saturday. While for some (OtherHalf, Finn) that means sleeping in, indulgent breakfast at home, and pottering about the house and garden, for me it means 4, maybe more, hours at uni. Blech! Looking forward to Sunday.

Comments Off on Of Zen, and Frogs, and Dingoes

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, General Ramblings, In Progress

Tagged , ,

A Spring Shower

Posted on September 1, 2005 | Comments Off on A Spring Shower

Well, the stitching drought may not have completely broken, but there has been the equivalent of a light shower’s worth of stitching in this house over the last three days. There was linen, and there was silk (red), and for a little while, all the NotGood things in my life receded into the background. Stitching is Good, and I should never not do it again!

The NotGood things in my life at the moment are mostly some variation on crap customer service. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s me. In the last week, or thereabouts, I’ve had NotGood interactions with our bank, our insurance company, one of my tutors, and the girl at the copy centre. Oh, and our washing machine decided to die a horrible (and stinky) death. What’s going on? It must be me. I must be giving off “piss-me-off-today-coz-I’ve-got-nothing-better-to-do” vibes! Or perhaps it’s a full moon*. Whatever it is, I wish it would just go away :grr:

So I will continue putting a few stitches into my new (top secret) project each day, keeping the NotGood things at bay. And hopefully sometime soon I’ll be able to make an entirely GoodThings post ๐Ÿ™‚ Meanwhile, think good washing machine thoughts, coz TheGuy comes tomorrow, and I’m really hoping this death thing is just temporary!

*Nope, nuh-uh, not a full moon. Therefore it’s the vibes. QED.

Comments Off on A Spring Shower

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, General Ramblings, In Progress

Tagged , ,

Sulking

Posted on August 23, 2005 | Comments Off on Sulking

One hundred and thirty one days until I can buy stash again, announces my sidebar cheerfully. And I pout, and grumble some more ๐Ÿ˜ฅ Everyone who is anyone on the stitching BBs has just returned from Nashville CATS (= big stitching show in the US) bearing mountains of new stash. And I want some.

This always happens when I’m not stitching. Pre-Wagon, I would indulge my slump-induced desire for new stash and shop all my favourite ONSs until my credit card begged for mercy. Well, perhaps I exaggerate just a wee bit, but that’s the general idea. Nowadays, however, my blog tells me I cannot, and the serious size of the mortgage we are about to become intimate with tells me I cannot. So my clicky-finger is itching, and I just can’t take reading about the Nashville stash-orgy any more, dagnammit!

I really need to be stitching again, and I’ll get over the yearning to shop. But I’m not stitching, because if I do, I’ll get the guilts because I should be studying. But I’m not studying either, because… well, there is no because. Simply that I am the World’s Best Procrastinator. Aaargh!

I’m also very antsy and impatient to settle on our house, so that it all starts feeling a little more tangible and a lot less like a dream. I want to paint walls… and tear down a different wall… and plant vegetables… and hang out in my own backyard watching Finn ride his trike…

Off to put our settlement date into my sidebar countdown, to distract myself from the not-allowed-to-shop situation. I so deserve to win the Queen of the Wagon challenge, with all the pain this is causing me!

Comments Off on Sulking

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, General Ramblings

Tagged ,

Addendum to the Previous Post

Posted on August 16, 2005 | 8 comments

I’m not the only person celebrating a big b’day in October. I know someone who will be turning 21 a few days after my big bash. I won’t be sending a gift though – she’s the driver who collided with my car not ten minutes after I found out the good news about our house :ouch:

I didn’t write about this the other day, I was trying not to let this annoyance spoil my day. Now though, it’s not such a “little annoyance”. I do have some sympathy for her – I’ve caused my share of accidents (3, for the record, none of them recent), and it’s a horrible thing to happen, especially when you’re young and inexperienced. I do not, however, have any sympathy for drivers who choose to risk driving when they don’t have any insurance ๐Ÿ˜กย  ๐Ÿ˜กย  ๐Ÿ˜ก Are you kidding me?! If you aren’t prepared to pay for third party property insurance at the very least, you damn well shouldn’t be on the road! I personally believe third party property insurance should be mandatory. Without it, you’re taking a huge gamble every time you drive. Frankly, she’s lucky she hit me, in my 10-year-old Camry, and not a brand new Mercedes Benz or Porsche.

I wasn’t hurt, and nor was she, and I’m so glad Finn wasn’t in the car. I, being a responsible driver, do have insurance, and my lovely wonderful insurance company is taking care of the entire repairs process. Unfortunately for me, that process is going to take 10 days (yes, the damage is substantial), and my insurance only provides for a discount on hiring a car, it’s not free. With the impending house purchase, I really don’t have the $$$ to hire, so I’m taking Finn on a train trip to Mum’s place tomorrow to borrow her extra car.

I think one 20-year-old is about to learn a scary lesson about insurance. She is under the misguided impression that she will only be asked to pay my excess. Um… no! She’ll shortly be receiving a bill for over $2000 ๐Ÿ˜ฎ And good luck to my insurers getting that money – she has already informed me she doesn’t have any. Thankfully I don’t have to do the debt-collection duties!

8 Comments

Posted in General Ramblings

Tagged

No Grey Hairs Yet!

Posted on August 12, 2005 | 3 comments

At the beginning of this year, I decided I wanted two things on my 30th birthday. To not have any grey hairs, and to have purchased our first house. The big Three-Oh is now two months away.

I’m holding strong on achieving #1 – none to be spied :giggle: And #2 was fulfilled today, hooray! In fact we will settle on the house 6 days after my birthday. I’m so happy that hunting is over. I plan never to look in a real estate agent’s window or website again… until the next time ๐Ÿ˜†

October is going to be quite the month for me in fact. The 11th is Happy Birthday Mel, the 13th is the deadline for my major assignment in Usability Eng, the 15th is the rollout for our major assignment in Web Database Applications, and the 17th is the settlement. I am scared… very scared. We will probably have an extra week or so tenancy in our current place, so moving can be stretched out a bit, but still…

Our house (our house…. teehee!) is nothing super-special. It will need sprucing up over time, but is perfectly liveable as is. It’s 3-bedrooms, has heating and cooling (big bonus!), and good sized front and back yards (better bonus!) I can’t wait ๐Ÿ˜Ž

3 Comments

Posted in Family, General Ramblings, Postgrad Study

Tagged ,

Good Things, Bad Things

Posted on August 6, 2005 | 2 comments

Good Thing: Lending Manager has approved our request to borrow more $$$ ๐Ÿ™‚
Bad Thing: Bit scary, that! :blank:

Good Thing: There are 4 or 5 houses on the market in our desired area which may be in our price range ๐Ÿ™‚
Bad Thing: One of which sold at auction today for more than we expected ๐Ÿ™

Good Thing: Played in my stash the other day, found a design to stitch for the Red Exchange ๐Ÿ™‚
Bad Thing: Still no actual desire to stitch, no time either ๐Ÿ™

Good Thing: Have formed a group with 3 other apparently competent people for major assignment in Web Database Applications ๐Ÿ™‚
Bad Thing: We all got stuck in an elevator at uni together ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

Good Thing: Got to see the wee babe again today, and a cuddle too ๐Ÿ™‚
Bad Thing: Fatherinlaw is in hospital awaiting eye surgery after a construction incident ๐Ÿ˜ฅ

It’s been quite the few days. Not feeling particularly chatty right now.

2 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Family, General Ramblings

Tagged , ,

Who Me, Obsessed?

Posted on July 22, 2005 | 2 comments

This could be one of those “You know you’re addicted to stitching when…” kind of funny blogthings*. It isn’t. Firstly because I can only think of 3 things, and secondly because they’re not actually terribly funny (not that the blogthings are, mind you). But I just wanted to mention how stitching-distracted I seem to have become. Observe:

Item 1 – Occasionally I drive to pick OtherHalf up from work (or take him there). On the way is a house with a lovely set of black ironwork gates. Whenever I see them I am immediately taken with how lovely they would look done in blackwork (I don’t even do blackwork btw), or perhaps worked into one of Martina’s large Mandala Garden designs.

Item 2 – A few streets away from our home is a large warehouse with “Truswell Imports”. I have no idea what they import, but I am always immediately reminded of Summer Truswell, of Truswell Needlework Design.

Item 3 – On one of my many different routes home from uni, there is a tennis shop. The logo for this particular store kind of looks like a tennis ball cropped to be a square. Can’t envisage what I mean? Well, it looks exactly like the negative space between the knots in the border of TWs The Storyteller :giggle:

So… are there totally unrelated objects you come across in your day-to-day life that make you think of stitching? Or is it really just me?!

*As a total aside, this “You Know You’re From Australia When…” is 90% completely irrelevant to me and at least 50% seriously offensive. I do, however, say “no worries” quite a bit… enough in fact for Finn to have picked it up!

2 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, General Ramblings

Tagged

I’m here, honest

Posted on July 11, 2005 | 1 comment

I’ve just been taking a bit of a break from the web for a little bit, induced mainly by the fact that we’ve been all over the state in the last week (didn’t quite make it into South Australia as planned, more on that later). I have had web access on most nights, and have been checking in occasionally with my regular haunts, but I’ve felt no inclination/no time to blog or post to groups. I think it was long overdue for me to take a web-break, really.

But I got some brilliant news yesterday that I just have to share. The semester from hell is not only over, but it seems I came through with the goods despite the horror. Marks were out Friday, I finally logged on and got them yesterday – 92 for Secure E-Commerce, and 90 for Intelligent Web Systems (which means I must have aced the exam, since I was on about 82 average for the assignments). Go me!

Will be back tomorrow with an updated pic of WFS. She’s gorgeous – all stitching (except a little bit of braid and backstitching that I might do tonight) is finished, only the beads after that. I can almost taste a HD!

1 Comment

Posted in General Ramblings, Postgrad Study

Tagged ,