Friday, 8 December 2006
Look out Christmas - here comes Mel !!!!
Yes I am organised! I am ready! I can take on this holiday and win !!!!
{ahem}
What a day ......
* I have a list of everyone I'm buying gifts for.
* All items to be purchased via the net have been ordered.
* All international gifts and cards are selected bought wrapped boxed addressed with appropriate customs information and waiting to go to the post office in the morning ()except for one and I'm still waiting on someone here to supply me with her address HINT HINT)
* ALL Christmas cards to family and friends have been written, enveloped, addressed and stamped. Half have been posted, the rest will go out int he morning.
* All the soaps for both soap swaps have been tidied up, edged cleaned up, packaged, labelled wrapped and name carded (for the Christmas swap) boxed up and all forms correct to go in the post tomorrow.
* Half of the BAPXS card exchanges went int he mail today - the rest will posted out tomorrow morning.
Well all of that - including a trip to the post office to purchase appropriate packing materials and customs forms and a trip to the supermarket for last minute package additions and other Christmas gifts .... I guess I had a productive day :)
All I have left is to purchase the gifts that I need to walk into a local shop for. And these are for people I will be seeing either Xmas Day or Boxing Day. Oh and I still need to purchase some decorations and a tree and some food and do all the attendant bits like decorating cooking etc.
What else happened today?
The telecommunications technician came out this morning as I've still been having intermittent problems with my phone line. He ended up replacing the whole cable from the street to the house - quite a feat considering I live half way up a hill. He reckons that the cable most probably was broken in a few places - not snapped all the way through but one of the lines might have had a few tiny breaks in the wire - causing the intermittent drop out of the line I was experiencing. He also believes this may contribute to why I haven't been able to get broadband ... so I spoke to my telecommunications company and they said to call again in a week (long story involving the myriad of telelcommmunications companies that have monopolies on certain parts of our network) and they would retest the line for me.
So I'm being cautiously optimistic.
Oh and last night?
Last night I was soooooo peeved! Because its non-ratings time, the television networks in their infinite wisdom decided to cancel airing both Bones and Stargate Atlantis. Bones only had two more episodes until he end of the season !!! And Atlantis had only just begun - they've only shown three episodes !!!!!
SO in retaliation, I finally did it last night - I finally joined the unwashed masses and bought pay TV. We *just* started getting the sci-fi channel here in Australia on 1 Dec. Mum has it and she's been ringing me up and telling me all about these shows she's been watching - and sooo many of them I've been saying "Ooooh I always wanted to see that" or "I've heard so much about that from my overseas friends" but the clincher is that they also have a station called UK TV which shows Dr Who and Torchwood (early next year) and from July 2007 they will be airing them at the same time they are in the UK.
UKTV and the Scifi channel are on the same plan (so no extra cost) and they have a deal going at the moment in my area for free installation as long as you sign up before Xmas.
Well I signed up - but I wont be getting it installed until 28 Dec. Apparently a few other people earlier in the day decided it was too good an offer to pass up too!
Mind you, I did better than other people, another couple in the same shop signing up at the same time I was (with a different sales assistant) got told they couldn't be connected before 5 January. At least I get mine on *before* Dad comes to visit. Oh and for the first month you get *all* of the channels free - so Dad can channel surf to his hearts content for sport and other items I don't tend to be interested in (and wont be paying for).
Sooo tired - its a little after 9:30pm here - might go stitch for a while and thence to bed.
27 comments:
Well seeing as none else is going to reply or comment - I may as well follow up to my own post .....
I APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE ro all who receive Christmas cards from me this year. I wished you all a good 2008.....
Don't ask!
Well seeing as no-one else is going to reply or comment - I may as well follow up to my own post ..... {grin}
I APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE to all who receive Christmas cards from me this year. I wished you all a good 2008.....
Don't ask!
ROFL........Talk about get ahead of yourself!
Interesting,,,,,,Imagine if the problem for b/band really IS that!!! Fingers crossed that it will work for you in a week or so.
Hah! Well done you. As for being unwashed masses, well I haven't had a bath yet today but I will be.
Sky (pay tv) is a huge luxury for us but so worth it. It's extortion each month but there's no way we'd go back to being without it.
Wow - you made me tired just seeing how organized you are. Although I should be jsut about finished by the end of this weekend, too :).
I'm hoping that you'll be able to get broadband now - dial up is just horrible!
Last but not least, I work for a pay tv company (but here in the States) so I should say thank you for supporting the industry [VBG]. We get absolutely NADA for service with any sort of antenna at the house, so our choices are cable, satellite tv or no tv. Since we get a bundle deal from the cable company (a different one from the one I work for!) for having broadband and video, and it works out to be cheaper than the satellite combination, there wasn't much of a choice to be made :).
I really really hope that it is - it would be the *best* Christmas present :) However I its not likely ... so I'm not altering my habit "because next week it will be different" .....
Thanks Paula and Claire for your comments on pay-tv. The type I can get here is actually a satellite service - too backwoods for cable - but I still get the same programs and time slots as the cable people - its just that they need to install a dish on the roof for me. Dec 28th its being installed.
I've never bothered with it because I watch TV for perhaps an hour or two each night that's it. Even when I'm home during the day the TV stays off - so I didn't think it was value for money. But if I can get shows that I would otherwise have to ummm take over 24 hours to {cough} each episode .... well the pay TV will be worth it.
Wow! I was exhausted from only reading that, Mel!
I know what you mean about cable companies... We have one that is practically monopolising the business here. Well, they have started to take more and more channels into a digital package (with now offerings on the analogue ones), but if you want that digitalised package (which also consists of all your regular analogue programs! plus admittedly quite a number of others) you still have to pay for the analogue bit!!! Now they've taken one of the few channels I got in English (and the only one that's NOT a news channel!) and took it into the digitalised group. I'm SOOOO mad! I hardly watch TV, but if I do then this one, a sports channel, another cultural channel without commercials and some German programs without commercials and that's it... I'm aware that I'm a rare kind of client who doesn't want those screaming, noisy, common and boring programs...
Oops... finish ranting here...
You have been extremely busy! I'm glad I am in a family that has unanonimously decided to stop giving Christmas gifts. The only gift we make these days is the gift of our time and being together is often more important (because we don't see each other often) than bringing gifts. Unless they're edibles or drinkables, LOL. So I don't have to do anything in that regard. I do send some Christmas cards though.
SO funny, Mel!!!
I was just thinking the other day how much I'm looking forward to 2007, because the 7 is so much easier to reach on my split keyboard than the 6! I was taught to type on oldfashioned typewriters and learned to type the 6 with the left hand and while I absolutely love split keyboards they've pushed the 6 over to the left half for some very obscure reason (probably because it looks better).
Never mind and I'm sure people will still take it for 2008 as well... you did crack me up though :-))))
*eeeep* that much organization makes my head hurt! Here am I thinking I am being good by having all my cards written and sent and having dug out an UFO to finish off!
Hey guys, don't think too many admiring thoughts - most of that stuff was done that day because it *had* to be.
The soap swap was already overdue so I needed my first day off work to get it done. Similarly all international parcels and cards - as it is you may not get them in time they say currently 14-20 working days to USA and Europe (usually 10-14 days).
And ditto with my domestic parcels. The ones for my sister and her family I'm sending to mum - Mum will take them up with her and spend the week before Christmas with them, then they get christmas with Dad and I get Christmas with mum and then we swap for New Years.
Also factor in that I'm now working 8-5pm Sun-Sat inclusive then Mon-Tue, then mum arrives the next day - Wed. So these were the *only* two working days I had to myself to get things done. The branch I work at currently is out int he middle of nowhere without any supermarkets or post office or anything along that line - so I can;t do any shopping posting etc in my lunch breaks.
So to sum up, I got *all* that work done in the last couple of days because I had no choice!
Now I'm going back to bed for another couple of hours, then finish off Meowy Christmas and then off to work. I highly doubt that I'll get any more stitching done after Meowy Christmas until after mum arrives.
Well actually we only have one pay TV company here - they are split into metro and rural (Foxtel and Austar) but they are the same company and everyone gets to choose between the same channels its just that the price differs. During the year the rural version is cheaper - during Xmas season the Metro one is cheaper. Oh and they group the channels differently. Foxtel lists sci Fi and UKTV in the same extras package - but Austar puts them in two different packages (Sci Fi is in with the kiddies Nickelodeon etc package). So mum is only buying the sci fi channel package, not the package containing UKTV.
Similarly I think only metro Melbourne is on actual cable - everyone else has to make do with a satellite dish on the roof. However same service and choice of channels for all.
The Australian government started an initiative a few years ago to move all Australian free-to-air TV to digital format in the next few years - so people are encouraged to get a device to allow the digital signal to their current TV sets - and companies are not allowed to charge more for the digital versions. I know when my service starts up it will have a range of digital and analogue channels.
That would be nice - my family is the opposite - you can;t have all of us int he same place without world war three erupting - in fact I don't think you could have more than two of us - in fact sometimes just two of us is all that it takes to create thermonuclear war ... so we make up for it by having something to unwrap under the tree on day.
That's just like us...Christmas Day is usually a nightmare with me and both parents in the same room.
If it's me and Mum or me and Dad, peace reigns...I'm sure that somehow I'm the catalyst as it's only when the three of us are together that it erupts. But if you add in Steve too, peace seems to return, phew.
Can I borrow Steve for New Years? While my dad is here?
Oh and I'll just sit her alone shall I?? I don't think so LOL.
We'll be watching the Sydney fireworks at midday as we always do....fabulous stuff.
Well if you can make it you are both invited here for Boxing Day! I'm having a few friends over :) And I guess if you are coming all this way, we could do New Years in Sydney .....
Y'know.... I just realized what my "hook" to get J on a plane for the length of time it would take us to fly to Australia is - it's warm when we have winter! Woo Hoo! [VBG]. The poor man is much better about flying than he used to be, but it's still not his favorite mode of transportation.
You were well behaved when I was there! Or at least I thought you were.... It's Steve's mellow personality that does it. I swear you'd have to work really hard to get him wound up. I know it can be done, but takes a lot to do it...
You were well behaved when I was there! Or at least I thought you were.... It's Steve's mellow personality that does it. I swear you'd have to work really hard to get him wound up. I know it can be done, but takes a lot to do it...
Gads, girl! You wore me out just reading it! I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that they may get their cards and/or gifties from me after the fact. I haven't even bought cards yet. I thought I'd have a day after the concert to recooperate and then the work week would start, but it didn't happen that way. So I suppose I'll be out later today getting everything done... egads...
Paula, Hey I can understand J's concerns - I worked for CASA (the Aussie equivalent of the FAA). You don't get me up in a domestic plane unless I know what type it is, which airline it is and if I remember the pilot's names from when I was running the exams.
Basically I drive everywhere, wherever possible - not feasible, possible!
LOL Mel, the two of you have an identical outlook on travel, then! :) I, on the other hand, have gotten to the point that I'd much rather fly than spend two full 8 or 12 hour days just sitting in the car. I'd probably not mind so much if I could *do* something while sitting there, but stitching or reading or anything gives me such a horrible case of motion sickness!
You are a machine, Mel! Wow. I wish I had accomplished any one of your single feats. I need to get into gear now, as we have decided to go off to visit relatives over the holidays. That seriously cuts into my procrastination and last minute shopping LOL.
BTW, I loved the Sci Fi channel. We nixed our cable a few years back. You are so right about there not being anything worth watching on regular tv. And I missed Comedy Central. And the Cartoon Network. Boy, if i keep thinking about the goodies on pay tv, I might convince myself to re-up!
PS. I plan to have a wonderful 2008 (following a wonderful 2007)
Tracey, This machine was running on pure adrenalin - as it will again this weekend finishing off all the domestic purchases, making last minute domestic gifts, buying food planning a menu (yes probably in that order) and finishing decorating the house ....
ARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
And yes you *do* need cable - hey if I can sucked into it - then I'll make sure everyone else can too :)
Oh good !!! {LOL}
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