Life update (feel free to ignore)

In a nutshell:

Job: Still unemployed.

• Any jobs I apply for outside a library seems to be totally ignored.  Often not even sending me a "thanks for the application."
• Any job I apply for that I am overqualified for, I get a "thanks for the application" and then it falls into a black hole.
• The only good response I've been receiving is from jobs at the same level I was on.  This is good, but there are fewer jobs in this smaller area.  Also I have found out that my reputations from both UNSW (good) and RMIT (bad) have preceded me.  I am slowly learning which organisations will treat an application from me fairly, and which ones have already made up their minds :(
• I'm waiting back on a really good interview I attended last week from a really good University and I'm on tenterhooks.  I emailed them an hour ago and am watching the inbox desperately to find out one way or another.

Home: Tomorrow!
We sign the forms and take possession of a new rental house tomorrow.  Will take piccies and post soon.  We will be spending some time over there tomorrow working out where to put the varying pieces of furniture when they arrive .....

Moving IN

• Requires furniture.  Clothes.  Kitchen ware - you know - stuff.  The stuff that is in storage in Melbourne and we can't seem to get it from there to here.
• Originally Mr NTB planned to do a lot of te move on trade/barter but time after time, that fell through or the invoiced cost ended up being TEN TIMES the original quoted price.
• The last one had a cash component of $5000 which a very good friend so very kindly insisted on lending me at very short notice.  Which was fine until the final invoice came in at $20,000.
• This was yesterday!  They were supposed to collect our goods today!  We gave up on the barter/trade thing and  finally hired a Removals Broker yesterday.  He got cash only quotes for us averaging between $13K and $15K. We don't have that kind of cash .....
• We saw the bank this morning for a joint personal loan.  They appear unwillingly to lend us the money because of existing debts and I'm unemployed.  We'll find out tomorrow.

Other Things:

• I can't stitch well at the moment and I'm stressing because I can't get my two "obligation" pieces done.
• I have nothing to read because I don't know how to load new ebooks onto my reader using Mr NTB's equipment.
• I'm living on soup, bananas and chocolate because the kitchen in this apartment is useless and I can't afford to go out to a proper restaurant and I get sick eating junk food.  There are no GF convenience foods over here.  I have to eat suspect food whenever we eat out.  I'm so tired of mini gluten attacks that leave me feeling tired and washed out.
• My period is due and I'm feeling very hormonal.
• I miss Trubs sooooo much but I can't visit her.  When I visit it upsets her so much when I leave without her.  It takes her the better part of a day to calm down and it takes me nearly as long.
• The smallest two fingers on my right hand have been numb for a fortnight.  I have no feeling in them whatsoever and it extends part way into my forearm.  Sleeping badly on a bad bed.  I often wake up with my hands clenched and my whole body rigid with tension.  I'm not sleeping well because of the stress.

So no job.  We have a house but we can't afford to move into it. And Trubs is still in the cattery and I can't visit her and I feel so very miserable and I'm hinging all of my hopes on one phone call from Curtin University telling me I got the job and we can then get the loan and then get our stuff moved, and then Trubs out of the cattery and and and ......

So in the meantime its back to snacking on some chocolate, putting the washing in the dryer and seeing what other jobs I can put applications in for, while keeping an eye on the clock for my doctor's appointment at 3:30pm for my hand.

PS Mr NTB knows all of the above and he's stressing out over:

• Not being able to fix it all
• His work
• Money
• Seeing me like this
• Coping with someone else in his life/space

He's trying his best.  And none of this is his fault.

Dark Side of the Moon Designs

Been seeing this designer pop up on a few sites on the last few days. 

As most of you know I like this kind of stuff, so I thought I'd pop up a quick blog entry. 

I do not know the designer but she seems to be Australian ...

Both charts have been added to my lust lists for now.

Dark Side of the Moon Designs

Unhappy stitching news

The lighting at Mr NTB's place is not good enough for me to reliably stitch on black or stitch to a great enough degree of accuracy and uniformity on any other colour.

So Black Bloomers and Claire's Round Robin will be put to one side until we move and I can set up my usual stitching spot.

I hope this doesn't upset too many people - I just really feel embarrassed if I do a shoddy job on either of those projects.

I'll stitch on some of my own projects where uniformity and quality of work is not great :)

I'll hopefully get back to these in a couple of weeks .....

Inkheart

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

Fantastic! Must see!

Mr NTB and I saw Inkheart last night.

Brendan Frasier (slurp!)
Jim Broadbent (one of my favourite character actors)
Helen Mirren (who we didn't recognise!)
and many slurpworthy others! (Dustfinger's fire eating scene!)

Great ensemble cast! Although some characters really stole some scenes (the ferret!) you couldn't really say that one actor outshone the rest.

It WAS a children's movie so many of the twists and the ending are highly predictable, but it was a very fun movie. A children's Princess Bride.

This will definitely be added the DVD Collection as soon as it is released!

Off to read the book series it was based on now.
http://www.corneliafunke.net/en/index.html

Resounding success?

A friend recently asked if I considered the move to the other side of the country to be with my fiance Mr NTB a resounding success?

Well yes.  We haven't killed each other yet or verbally expressed a desire to end the relationship.

Taking two people who live very different lifestyles, used to living on their own ...

• Put them in a tiny apartment where there is just no space for privacy.
• Make them live out of suitcases without their "stuff" around them.
• Remove the constant feline companion.
• Make these two people share one TV and one computer.
• Without a functioning kitchen.
• With only one of them earning an income.
• Oh and ratchet up the heat to over 30 degrees every day (90F)
• With no air conditioning.

Two weeks later we don't want to kill each other, and we don't want to end the relationship.  Indeed there are still obvious signs of affection.

Yes I'd call this a resounding success :)

Today's pic is of the new comforter (doona) and pillowcase set we bought while house hunting my first weekend here.  We also bought me an octopus.  A girl needs more than one octopus.

Stitching Update

Well I think I've finally managed to get my camera connected to Mr NTB's computer.  I can't edit or "clean up" the pics in any way so these are just raw photos.  Sorry.

First up is an update to Black Bloomers. 
Apologies for the amount of cat hair.  I don't have my lint brushes with me.  I'm loving the way this one is turning out.

Also update to Vienna Ball.
Yes I have the whole border finished. Finally.  Apparently the amount of teeth gritting and golem like behaviour has been increasing as this part of the project seemed never-ending :yes I will finish my precioussssss".

So - now do I go back to Black Bloomers, start on part 2 of Vienna Ball or start something else I have with me?  Or read a book?

Today's picture is one of the last ones I took of Trubs in the old house.  As you can see there are a number of strategically placed baskets around the room and she sleeps directly on the floor right in the middle of them all.  She's a cat.

Moscow WIP

Received an envelope from Vervaco today.  They sent the replacement threads for Moscow.

Pretty fast timing for a request sent to Belgium and then had to follow me all over Australia :)  But they have sent sufficient thread for me to finish the design.

As soon as I get it out of storage again .....