That is all I’m ecstatic!

She has taken them all under her wing, and is trying to get them all back to good health. These cats are beautiful, purebred cats. I cannot understand how anyone could just leave them behind. I believe three of them are desexed, so the other three need to also be desexed, and all will need vaccinations, microchipping and possibly further tests.

I have put my hand up to adopt one. I know we shouldn’t, we already have a cat, blah blah blah. But as soon as I heard that Jess had rescued these beautiful cats, I couldn’t say no.

We have one on hold for us – her name is Thorn (all the cats were named after tree species – Apple, Cherry, Willow and Ash – Luna is the only one who isn’t named after a tree!) and she’s magnificent. She’s a bit of a runt, which I love, and we won’t be bringing her home for a while, but when Jess gets them all back up to good health, we’ll be adopting her. We’re thinking about giving her a different name – all our pets have been named after musicians or songs (Layla, Hendrix), so we’re thinking Lennox (maybe too close to Hendrix?) or Quattro. We’ll see what happens when her personality starts shining though.

Here’s a picture of the beauty that is Thorn:

We’ve been dealing with a lot of shit lately, namely our neighbours. Now I’ll preface this by saying I’m not a boring ol’ sod who hates parties and thinks that no-one should be allowed to have a good time; but when you’re constantly partying, making noise, and threatening your neighbours, the situation becomes a little different. It started at the beginning of January, when we had a day off for our local ‘Cup Day’ (horse race).

The rest is hidden, because this could take a while… I might end up having to password protect this entry too…

So let me set up the basic situation – we live in one of two small units on a corner block – we share a driveway with the other unit, and we are in the one at the front of the block. A single mother and her son live in the second unit, and since we’ve been here (since May 2009), we never had any issues with them until recently, when the son (we’ll call him M) started hanging around with unsavoury people. I should add, too, that all of these instances were reported to our Landlord as well.

We were at home, waiting for the Austar (satellite TV) guy to come around and install our new setup. While we were waiting, about seven kids, including M, four other boys and two girls, were hanging out in the driveway. That’s fine – it was a warm day, and they have every right to be outside. However, the two girls had some sort of altercation in the driveway, yelling abuse at each other at the top of their lungs and calling each other every name under the sun. The boys appeared to intervene, but at least two of them were holding wooden posts (presumably from a nearby fence). Just prior to this, we’d caught a couple of the boys laying down in and jumping in the bushes just outside our front door. Michael yelled at them to get out, which they did.
Following the girls’ screaming match, a group of 4-5 of them went walking out along the road, and Michael witnessed one or two of them walk up the steps of our neighbour’s house (whom we know quite well, and we’ll call him ‘S’), and proceeded to try to kick his front door in. We called the Police and reported the incident, but didn’t see them arrive until later, when S was home. Michael told me later that the kids had come back, and stated that “he [S] is ‘too chicken’ to come out and front a 14-year-old”. We knew at the time that S wasn’t home, and we know that if he was home, he definitely would have fronted them about it!
In this same timeframe, one of the boys casually walked out in front of a car coming up the road from the highway, causing it to slow down quickly and almost hitting him. The boy was lucky this time, as normally vehicles coming from that direction speed up around that corner.

The Austar technician came by after midday, and we had opened the garage door to allow him access to the manhole (which is in the garage) with his ladder. Michael saw two or three of the kids come up the driveway, and remembered the garage door was open, so he went out there (as we have quite a few belongings out there) to make sure no-one came in. One boy veered off and walked, without even noticing Mike, straight into the garage. Mike asked him, “What do you think you’re doing?”, and he said, “I’ve just come to say hello to you”. Mike didn’t even know the kid! Then another kid came storming into the garage, trying to look all tough, but when he saw Mike (who is 6′4″ and around 120kg, or 260lbs), he changed his tune quickly, asked Mike not to call the Police, and said he would keep all the kids under control. Mike ushered them out of the garage where two of them proceeded to tell him that if the cops came around, they’d be arrested and go to jail.

So that was only the first day!

On Australia Day, the people at the unit had a party, which was fine with us, because everyone has a right to have some fun. We went to my parents’ house, but on the way down we spoke to S, who stated to us that his doorframe was damaged, they’d pulled off his sensor light at the front, and had hit his dog with one of the wooden posts. M had apparently gone over and apologised.
The music from the party continued well after we got home, keeping in mind that both Mike and I had to work the next day. The tenants (M, and his mother, D) and their friends proceeded to stay up all night, and I had noticed that there were at least two children no older than 4 years old, who were still up with them when we went to bed (around 10:30pm).
We managed to get to sleep after 11pm, when they turned the music down, but found they were still awake and still drinking when we got up. Even D, the mother, was allowing these kids (all under 18) to drink. The driveway was a mess, littered with popped balloons, streamers, cigarette packs, food and plastic bags, as well as junk mail from their mailbox. All this was up and down the driveway, as well as in the bushes outside our door.
I called the Police later that morning, just to let them know what was happening and that they were still going. I was concerned that if they were willing to try to kick down the door of S’s house, they’d have no trouble getting ours down.

Another party was held on the 6th February. It appeared to be a birthday party, which was fine until 11pm . The music volume picked up, drunk teenagers were all up and down the driveway and their garage door was open. At about 12:30, there was screaming, calling names, hurling abuse at each other, etc. We were concerned, but I gave them some lee-way, as it was a Saturday night.
At about 3am, I awoke to squealing tyres. I didn’t get to the window in time to see the vehicle or get the licence plate number, but I knew it was them because it was right next to our bedroom window (which fronts onto the driveway). The next morning, there were huge burnout marks up the driveway.
At this point, I’d had enough – I called the Police, and stated to them and I honestly didn’t know the vehicle or number plate, but they were making a lot of noise and being a disruption. It took me a good hour to get back to sleep, and during this time the music was turned off and back on a couple of times. I assumed that they saw the Police coming, turned the music off, then turned it back on when the car was out of sight.

On the 12th February, there were more burnouts up and down the driveway, and the music was on again until at least 12:30am. More screaming and yelling.

On the 13th, there was yet another burnout up the driveway, and music still going. I called the Police, and they called me back stating they’d told them to keep the music down and would be issued with an infringment notice if they had to attend again.

On the 14th, my birthday, we had just got home at about 4pm. We hadn’t been home for 15 minutes before we heard rocks landing on our roof. We immediately called the Police, and two officers attended. Later, I was taking some photos of some stuff in our garage we’d been thinking of selling, and M & his friend, N (a known troublemaker about town) came to our door and said, “We saw a flash in your window and wanted to know what was going on” (obvious paranoia). We stated what I was doing, and then Mike changed the subject quickly about throwing the rocks on our roof. N claimed it was candy he was throwing, and he wasn’t aiming for our roof, he was just trying to “make it go everywhere”. Mike said to them, “That wasn’t very smart now, was it?” and then said to M, “Look, we don’t bother you, so don’t bother us.”.
Between the 14th and 17th, we didn’t hear any more out of them.

On the 17th (a Wednesday), we were at the RSL Club for dinner when Mike received a call from S stating that there were 5 kids surrounding our unit, throwing rocks. My mum (a Police officer) immediately called the Police and asked them to attend as we didn’t have a car at that point to get there in a hurry. We walked (fast) to Mum & Dad’s, got in their car and went home, arriving before the Police. My mum went straight up to one of the boys, and asked them in no polite terms what was going on. One of them, who we’ll call ‘K’ (who is the son of a known criminal currently in prison, and a criminal in his own right) started giving her lip, so she pulled out her Police badge. He stopped yelling, but continued to deny everything. The Police arrived, and everything from that point on is a blur. There was a lot of yelling, a lot of ’sit the fuck down’s, etc. We put in our thoughts as the moments arose, stating to M that all we want is a little respect and the ability to have a decent night’s sleep. I looked him right in the eye and told him that as a tenant of that unit, he and D are responsible for any visitors they have, and it’s up to him to ensure they behave. All the kids denied throwing rocks, but it was obvious they had been as there were smashed rocks everywhere.
S told us that they were also throwing rocks at a person passing by who has Down Syndrome, and hit him, then cheered.
The Police questioned the kids, particularly N and K, who were obviously the main perpetrators. One by one, they were sent on their way. D arrived home with a carful of girls, and started screaming at M, stating she was ’sick of it’ and was banning K & N from her house. She was very ‘apologetic’ towards us.
Later that night, we saw K back at the unit drinking with them. We were unable to identify who else was there, but we assume M was, and didn’t believe D was home at the time. My mum called the station, an officer attended and asked them to keep the noise down. D was there, and stated to him that they were leaving anyway. Once he had left, we saw eight people (including D, M, K & N) leave the house, and SEVEN of them piled into a car made for 5 passengers – N was on the lap of a girl in the back seat, and M was in the trunk of the car). How a mother allows her son to travel in the boot of a car, I’ll never know. K walked off by himself, obviously making his own way to wherever they were going. We saw him heading towards S’s house, so we called him and let him know so he could keep an eye on him. S looked out the window, and told us that K was carrying a knife.

Almost every other day, we’ve had similar situations – general mess being make, no consideration or respect for others or their property, and we’ve had two instances where our outside lightbulb has been smashed or stolen.

Finally, on the 20th February, there was another party at the until. I gave them the benefit of the doubt because they had let us know that they’d be having a party and would have loud music playing. I called the Police at 11:50, thinking it was about time they turned it down, and the Police arrived at about 12:15am. The music was turned down, and turned down long enough for us to be able to get to sleep, but we woke up on Sunday morning to loud music again, at about 7am. D was yelling at K about something (which I couldn’t make out, thanks to the loud music), so we called the Police again and they issued an infringement notice to D because they’d been called out twice in 24 hours. She proceeded to scream and make a nuisance of herself, being quite obviously still drunk. The Senior Police officer stated to her that he’d be back later in the day to speak to her when she’d sobered up a little.

I put in my list of events to the Police on Saturday afternoon (20th), and we found out Thursday that she’d been charged with having a disorderly household.

So yeah. All this, plus my mum was in hospital for four days after she’d put her back out on Thursday 18th February, we’ve been pretty stressed out. Last night was bliss, because they’re not at home for a week, so we finally got a good night’s sleep on a Saturday night.

/End Rant.

We have looked at quite a few, and two of them have stood out for us. The first is a 1930s house with three large bedrooms, a built-on kitchen and bathroom, and a reasonably large backyard. It is on the market for $210,000.

The second is a property that was a house, again built in the 30s, converted to a dentist’s surgery. The house is completely empty, has a reception area and a waiting room (which would be the living room), and has potential to have three bedrooms (two of them previously being the rooms in which dental surgeries were carried out). It needs a bathroom and a kitchen put in (which, to have a functional kitchen and bathroom, would realistically take no more than a week), BUT it’s on the market for $190,000.

After weighing up the pros and cons of each, and talking to our bank, we put an offer on the second one. Our reasons were, that it would be less money spent on the actual property, leaving us with money to play with to put the kitchen and bathroom in. Additionally, it’s about 5 minutes walk to Mike’s work (along with shops), and probably less than 10 minutes to mine. The first house would have been 15 or so minutes to my work.

So, we are just going to get a builder (my uncle) in to have a look at it, to ensure it’s structurally sound and that kind of thing, then we’ll sign our contract and forward it to the owner who’ll then tell us if our offer is high enough or not. We’ve deliberately started low ($155,000) so that we have room to negotiate. Thankfully, when I said the offer to the Agent, he didn’t flinch, so it’s obviously about what he thinks it’s worth (!).

I’ll keep you updated on the progress of the process of us buying our house – it may fall through at this point, who knows – but it’s a learning experience for both of us.

So tomorrow is Australia Day, and I’m super pumped – I don’t think we did much last year, so this year is going to be lots of fun. My parents are having a BBQ at their place with all the family. I’ve made a zucchini slice/quiche thing to take with me; I’ll be interested to see how it tastes. But most of all, I’m looking forward to a day off work.

I think there’s something about Australians that is so unique – and I’m probably just saying that because I am an Aussie and that’s all I know; I’m sure that every other person from the world’s nationalities feels the same way about their own country’s people – but we’re just so chilled about everything. We’re the world’s lazybums. Today, being the day between the weekend and Australia Day, around half a million Australians took the day off work, with the damage to the economy being estimated at $250 MILLION. And Australia’s population is only 21 million, so what’s that – 2.5% of the population, roughly? But that doesn’t take into account how many of the population are actually employed, so it probably brings it up to around 5%.
Anyway, complete tangent. I was not one of the slackers today – I worked, but there wasn’t really a whole lot to do. I was bored out of my brain, to be completely honest, and really looking forward to coming home.

This is a complete ramble blog entry. I only just realised. I think I’m getting tired. Yup, I am.

I might try vlogging soon – it seems to be the way for a lot of people nowadays, and part of the reason for not blogging so much here now is because I’m typing all day at work, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is type a whole heap.

Anywho – AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!! OI OI OI!

Happy Australia Day, folks

*pst – less than 3 weeks till my birthday!*

This has happened to me a couple of times just in the last week. Firstly, my mum wanted to go and see Avatar, which I have already seen, but I said I’d go see it with her again because I really did love the film. We were going to see it last Friday while Michael was working, but then on Friday morning, Mum called me and said that Dad also wants to see it, so we’re putting it off till next Wednesday. I said that’s fine, no big deal – and it was really a better time for me because that was my payday.
Wednesday comes around, and now Mum is in too much pain (back pain) to sit in the cinema for 3 hours. Again, fine, but I was kind of looking forward to it. We said maybe Thursday, possibly Friday.

It’s now Thursday night and I think we’ll be lucky if we get to see it tomorrow night. There just seems to be something else that gets in the way, or something just disrupts plans, when I’m really looking forward to doing something. I’m not a very social person, so for me to make the effort to go out outside of work hours is an achievement in itself, but it really peeves me when it’s something I really want to do, and then it gets screwed up.

I’m REALLY looking forward to sleeping in the extra half-hour that I get to every day next week. Please, Universe – don’t ruin that for me too.

So, I went back to work today. Joy, oh joy. As much as I enjoy my job, I dislike routine (hey, I’m an Aquarian), and getting stuck in a routine of getting up, showering, going to work, coming home, eating, sleeping, and doing it all again is just not my cup of tea. My ideal situation would be to work from home, but I know that’s a goal of a lot of people and it’s not easily attainable.

Maybe it’s because it’s only my first day back, but I guess I’m sick of being exhausted all the time. This might be another reason to lose some weight – maybe I’ll get back some of that energy that I’m lacking. But I’m really not that motivated to lose the weight. I need to lose about 23kg before I’m even at a slightly healthy weight.

Fuck it. I need to do it. I need to lose weight. I need lots of healthy, easy recipes though. I want to eat salads, but I’m not a fan of lettuce (I’ve had too many salads with heaps of lettuce that all tastes like dirt). Any ideas? I guess my problem is where do I start?!

You know when time sometimes seems to fly by in some aspects, but the same amount of time seems to have been going for a long time? That’s kind of how I feel right now.

In other news, it’s like a month till my birthday. Woohoo!!! I’ve already asked my Mum if they can buy me a 1TB external harddrive, because I am running out of room on my computer, fast, and I don’t have any additional SATA slots left. Actually, I think I have one… but I’ll just get the external HDD. I can share it with Michael, then.

Also, I thought of my Dad’s 60th birthday present already – and his birthday is September. I received an email fwd from him – some ‘things you’ve done in your life’, and one of the questions was ‘Got a tattoo?’. His answer was ‘No, but there is one I have considered’. I asked him what it was, and he said ‘The Eureka Flag‘. So, I think I’m gonna organise for him to get his first tattoo on his birthday. I won’t tell him at all until the day – I mean, why not when he’s 60?! He’s semi-retired, so doesn’t need to worry about it for his job or anything, and it’ll only be small. I thought it was a neat idea and Mum agreed! So we’ll see what happens, but I reckon it’d be an awesome present.

I asked our waitress if I could take the leftovers home, but was refused due to ‘health regulations’. That’s fine, and I wouldn’t have worried about it, IF the very same restaurant didn’t offer takeaway as well.

I understand the reason for not allowing ‘doggy bags’ – taking food home, having it in the fridge for a few days and reheating it, only to potentially come down with food poisoning or similar – but what is the difference in me taking home some leftovers from my meal and reheating them, or getting some takeaway food from the same place, not eating it all, and reheating it at home a few days later? Aren’t the potential dangers identical?

The world we live in is full of, in my father’s words, “bureaucratic bullshit”.

So for reference, here are the posts about the bigger events that happened in 2009.

The New Place – moving back into our own space was excellent, after living for something like 9-10 months at my parents’ place. We’d lived together on our own before, so it wasn’t a particularly outstanding achievement or event in itself, but it was a regaining of our freedom and independence.

New Beginnings – moving to Terri.nu was a big change – I still use the name ‘Inspirata’ for my website design stuff, but I felt it was time to move to something bigger and better. Terri.nu was a domain name I’d wanted for a while – it’s me, of course, and my name isn’t changing any time soon! Again, not much to this event, but it was something I did that stood out this year.

The Wedding Post – and of course, the biggest thing that happened in 2009 was our wedding. What can I say but it’s the start of the next phase of our relationship, true commitment to each other. The happiest day of my life.

And that’s about it. I did get a job in 2009, as well, which I am grateful for. I didn’t listen to the radio at all, unless I was in the car with my parents. I watched far too much TV and spent too much time playing The Sims 2 & 3. I lost 8kg in 12 months without even trying.

We lost Layla in February, whom we miss dearly (RIP Mama-Puss), which was a real breaking point for me, since I loved her so much.

Thankfully, though, Layla was our only loss this year – I wish it could have gone without any losses, but I suppose when a person’s or animal’s time has come, there’s not much you can really do about it.

In general, 2009 wasn’t bad. But, bring on 2010!