Classic Stress Dream

Life has been interesting lately.  Yesterday the packers and removalists pulled out on us claiming miscommunication on timings and payments - which was bollocks. A stressful few hours later Stephen had found replacements, but now the packers and coming today so the move wont happen until after lunch.

Last night after a break from packing at 10:30pm we drove out for a bite to eat and I discovered one of my car's wheels is making a strange noise - I need to get that looked at this morning before anything else happens.

After wanting us out with two weeks notice in January, the owners are now playing hardball with us breaking the lease so I will be paying double rent now for at least the next four weeks.  We've held two open houses and not a single application has been put in yet.  How the hell I can afford to pay rent on both places when the reason I am moving is I cannot afford the rent on this place alone is frankly beyond me.

I'm working my guts out at work, taken on higher duties, put myself back into a supervisory role and of course management want to use me to sort out a branch with a poisonous culture. I've spent at least five hours of personal time this week counselling staff.  I was up at 6am yesterday morning writing confidential reports to management.  This is over and above the normal stresses of meeting the deadlines of two different jobs simultaneously and all for a lousy $200 over my normal pay packet.

I haven't slept more than 4 hours a night this week. I've been getting weepy at the drop of a hat here at home.  Is it any wonder this morning after being awake for hours I dropped off into a small stress dream.

I was four years old and at a huge family picnic. I was holding a plate of food and looking around. All the adults were doing a multitude of tasks at the same time, one aunt had a baby on her hip and was serving lunch to another child; an uncle was getting drinks while keeping an eye on some kids swimming etc etc. And the noise was deafening. Kids screaming with laughter and playing chaseys the adults all yelling to be heard above the din.

One aunt looked down at me and asked of I would like pepper on my lunch. I looked at my plate and most of the food (including all of the really good bits) were gone.  I looked up and wailed: Where's My Lunch ?????

I woke up crying.  Tears streaming down my face, huge sobs wracking my body, my cheeks and mouth quivering like chipmunks .... even now I have tears rolling down my face just writing about it, it affected me so much.

If I had the time and energy I'm sure I could analyse the dream into the losses in my life, feeling overwhelmed etc etc.

But to be honest, I have neither the energy nor the time.  Its now time to turn the PC off, pack it away, and start sorting out the kitchen before the packers come to do the fragile bits. At 8:30am I can ring the garage and take the car down and hope its nothing major.

Catch you all when I have internet again.  My phone is still working so I can txt and twitter.

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.

House - we haz one!

Not sure how long the link will work, but we were accepted on this property an hour ago.

Unfortunately we can't move in for another four weeks.

That means Trubs in the cattery for another four weeks.
Being without my cross stitch or any other stuff for four weeks.

Oh well.

At least we have one - and it is a house that both Stephen and I loved the feel of as we walked through it.  It has everything we wanted (except a dishwasher) and we know we will love it there.

First REAL Day in Perth

Thursday Trubs and I arrived very tired and I kinda zombied my way through the day.  Friday however, was a whole nother day!

Friday I lined up house viewings - 3 today, 2 on Monday and at least one more next Wednesday.

I finalised outstanding matters on the old place so I should be placing documents on Tuesday to get my bond returned.

I also found out I have a job interview for a very good job next Thursday!  I applied for this job a couple of weeks ago.

So things are looking very positive this Saturday morning :) :) :)

Hello Perth

Morning all,

Well we made it.  My stuff is in storage and Trubs and I are now in Perth.  Trubs is settled into a very nice looking cattery and I have caught up on sleep, food and some cuddles.

Stephen is off to work today and I'm putting in at least on expression of interest for a job and then spending the day house hunting.

Life is much better with food, sleep and waking up to someone else's arm draped over you.

Dropping off the radar

Looks like the removalists are coming Wednesday and Trubs and I will be flying out Thursday this week.

So goodbye Melbourne {sniff, sob}

My stuff will be packed and going into storage so it will be me, Trubs and a suitcase on the plane.

Needless to say I will busier than a {insert crude metaphor of choice here} and will be mostly offline for the next while.

Have fun all without me and don't get up to too much mischief, especially not anything that will make me jealous :) :)

Its a Willie Nelson moment ....

"just can't wait to get on the road again ....."

Yep I'm moving to Perth :)  Two interstate moves in six months! Hopefully this will be the last for a while.

There are a variety of reasons:

1. Stephen and I need to be in the same place to make this relationship work.  The distance is not helping anything.
2. All recruiters and research say I am more likely to get a good job in Perth than Melbourne.  Perth hasn't been hit so hard in the GFC,
   
3. Until we get two incomes again, it is going to much easier to fund one household without all the duplicate payments of rent, electricity, telephone, ISP etc.
4. Stephen's in IT - his workload ebbs and flows and at the moment its freaking insane.  The sooner I can over there and support him, (emotionally and domestically) the easier it will be on both of us.

We're still yet to sort out the details and timings. I'll keep you guys up to date as things progress but there are practical timing issues, and financial issues, I'm breaking lease, when can we line up removalists, affording bond and rent on a larger place over there, moving both of us, him finding time to view houses and of course making sure this move is easy on Trubs :)

Mel's Sunday Update

Eben and Snooch?  Garfield and Nermal?  No just Trouble and Hemingway sitting in front of mum's fireplace :)

Well this is my first Sunday update in a while - and might be my last for a couple of weeks :)

I'm driving to Melbourne tomorrow and it could be another two weeks after that before my Internet is connected at the new place.

Stitching Update:

Corn and Beans by Inkcircles designs
This is the last of the stitching I did on the train commute.  There isn't much progress, but it is the very last of the "stitched on a train" production, so I wanted to commemorate it with an update.

Sisu's RR - Friendship Tea Sampler 
A difficult project - I hate blending thread and metallic filaments :) :)  But I did a good 10 hours and got this little bit done after mucking around with a previous bit that had a a few problems.

Garden Cat by Cross Stitch Art
This one was in mum's stash.  A recent acquisition she showed me.  I loved it so we looked through her stash and mine and we kitted it up.  I started it Tuesday evening and finished it Saturday evening.

As well as the pics in its own album - I also have a pic on my 2008 Finishes folder.

Finally I've also got another section of BoInk finished - but pics for that will have to wait until this part is released.

Mel's Sunday Update

Oh what a week - a week of irritations with a couple of good endings.

No major news this week, no deaths, no births, no major upheavals .... just a few small panic attacks...

As can be seen my computer is working again !!!!  Yay !!!!!!  My mum, Denise, my own personal Help Desk Support Department, walked me through some diagnostics over the phone and we cleaned out the Registry and did a defrag and all those other housekeeping things you are supposed to do on a regular basis and the computer now seems to be working fine again.  Took me three days but it all seems OK.  So no need to panic over lost data or buy a new PC.  This is good because ....

I spent the week panicking about my car - yearly registration is due next Wednesday and I couldn't find all the paperwork.  By yesterday I filled in all the paperwork, paid for the compulsory insurance and took the car in to be inspected.

Two tyres, two sets of wiper blades, 4 hours and hundreds of dollars later the car is deemed roadworthy for another twelve months and is all re-registered.  I also paid my Roadside Service annual membership so although I know the car is roadworthy I can still get assistance if anything goes wrong on the drive to Melbourne in a few weeks time.

I know for certain what relocation assistance RMIT University are offering (none - my new job is not fancy enough to qualify) but the Library is scraping together $2000 and the equivalent of an economy plane fare for me.  So that was really nice!

I still don't have a place to move to, but Stephen has arranged a friend to turn up to an inspection for my tomorrow afternoon.  (At least I hope he has - better ring and check).  Please cross fingers for me!  This is the place I really want - even though it is more expensive than I was hoping to pay.  I admit it, I've fallen in love with the pictures of the bathroom and the dishwasher :)

Other news, the removalist company is turning up next Friday to give me a quote and an ETA on when they can do it.  Hopefully by then, I might have been approved for the new place?  Otherwise I'll keep looking and keep pestering friends to attend inspections for me.  If I don't get this place, I'll probably look further North which is cheaper but will definitely require transport to work again .... still 20 mins on a tram or bus is nothing to worry about - especially compared to what I'm doing now.

Work was really really stressful this week - I had to write a ton of statistical reports on staff productivity - did you know Excel spreadsheets can make your brains leak out your ears ....  I also mentally psyched myself up for a round of staff performance and appraisal meetings.  I wrote up all the paperwork and presented it to Library Management last Friday.  They've now decided I don't need to hold these meetings with staff next week.  Its all been put off until after I leave.  I'm as confused as Hell!  Obviously politics at play somewhere above my head.  But hey, its 13 horrible meetings I no longer have to run!

So work wise I'm pretty much done now, just the usual day to day stuff and a few tweaks tot he statistical reports (pie charts instead of bar charts etc) and I'm on the downward run now.

So that's my week - got more little things organised.  Still waiting on big things like removalists quotes and  applications for new homes but got lots of small stresses out of the way.

Yesterday afternoon after I got home with car, I really wanted to de-stress and my eyes weren't hurting for the first time since Monday, so I did some stitching on Wizard's Inkwell while the Olympics were on in the background.  I got a bit done and I kinda understand more of the instructions on this now.  I will definitely come undone at the actual hardanger sections but I will do what I can and then scream for help from there.

I did the dark green diamond late last night and actually misplaced it, so I frogged and redid it before crawling off to bed.  Hope you can't see the unpicking too badly.

Mariann - the green one is supposed to be "Kloster blocks".  Just looks like blocks of satin stitch to me.  Did I do this right?  Please let me know!

I spent the morning out with a group of friends that are current and ex Gosford Library staff so that was a long and leisurely brunch.  Now I think I might just ignore the world and stitch some more for the afternoon.  I know I need to pack and declutter and clean the house but frankly I think I just need some time out.  My sanity got a little bit frazzled this week.  So I'm off to stitch with the Olympics in the background again - hopefully there will be Men's Gymnastics on today

Back online sort-of - and rant

Well the week has come and gone and I'm back on-line sort of.

Just before moving last week I had a horrible health scare! A truly frightening experience. We still don;t know the cause - I've taken sooo many tests ... anyway the doctor sidelined me from lifting bending or carrying anything heavy. So my friends all pitched in and moved all of my stuff for me.

According to my schedule, I was going to collect the keys to the new place on Wednesday, move as much stuff as I could over the next few days by myself in my car and then have the friends move all the large bulky furniture for me on Saturday. I had also re-jigged my finances and planned on buying some new furniture so there would probably only be one load of the fridge, two metal futon frames and my dining room set to be moved.

Life doesn't work that way! After I was sidelined my mum came up and basically finished the packing for me. The real estate for the new house didn't give me the keys to the new place until Friday and even then I couldn't move a thing in until Saturday because the carpet cleaners were there late Friday afternoon.

The previous tenants moved out on the 11th. Why had the real estate agents not gotten the place properly cleaned within the intervening two weeks? Why did they have to get so-called professional cleaners in the Thursday and Friday *after* I was supposed to have started moving in? And yes their so-called professional cleaning company was worse than useless. They mopped the floors and wiped down the outsides of the cupboards drawers etc, by did not touch the insides. Even after all of my stuff turned up, it could not be unpacked until each drawer had been cleaned first!

Anyway my fiends turned up early on Saturday and worked like troopers all day and got *all* of my stuff moved on that one day! All my friends except Paul. He turned up half way through, hungover and in a really ugly mood. Why go on a bender on the Friday night? He knew the hassles I was having getting moved and that I needed him. He spent the rest of the afternoon trying to pick fights with everybody there, getting very jealous of the the two teenagers who were doing most of the muscle work and basically running me down to each of my friends. It was a relief to all when he finally went home!

On Sunday I woke in a great deal of pain. I hadn't done much at all on Saturday but feel useless and direct people as to what furniture to put in what room. On Sunday I was supposed to clean the old place. Paul was coming over and helping mum move the rest of my old furniture out to the front kerb for the garbage collectors and mow my lawns. He rang me on Saturday morning, five minutes before he was due at my place saying that he wouldn't be coming over. He had pulled a muscle and didn't feel like doing anything. He would come over and do it in a few days.

I didn't have a few days. I asked if I could borrow his lawnmower so I could do it myself. I went over to collect it and received a rant about how bad my selection of houses was. How I had abused my friendship and used my friends. How yesterday was a debacle and he wouldn;t be putting up with my attention-seeking antics anymore. I took the mower and left.

A few seconds later a work colleague rang and asked how everything was. I blurted the whole conversation out to her. She came straight over. She and mum sent me off to work where I sat in a chair for five hours and loaned books out to people and popped pain killers.

When I got back to the old place mum and my friend had moved out all of the furniture, mowed the lawns and got most of the house cleaned for me. I took mum home, fed her dinner and put her to bed. She was exhausted!

Monday morning we finished off the house together, got the carpet cleaners in and went home to move some of the boxes around so we could start assembling my new furniture. It was all flat-pack Ikea style self-assemble units.

Tuesday I had the final inspection at the old place, handed back the keys and said goodbye to the neighbourhood forever. Went to the docs and had more tests done. Mum helped me assemble more furniture that afternoon and Wednesday and she went home Thursday morning. Thursday night the phone company finally got around to connecting my line (it was supposed to have been done Wednesday!) and I still don't have my broadband up and running - that will take another week or two yet.

I'm still unpacking and assembling furniture. Very carefully. I went to work yesterday for the morning then did some retail therapy with a hair appointment and buying some shoes and a DVD afterwards. Spent last night curled up on my couch doing some stitching on Mystery IX.

Still have more to unpack and assemble - its very slow working on your own and not being able to lift much at a time. Paul has rung a couple of time to tell me how busy his is and how his pulled muscle was self-inflicted. A few weeks ago he helped me by packing some of my non-fiction books and he started packing some in a box that was about 3 feel long, 1 foot wide and 1 foot high. I told him not to.

The phone conversation went along the lines of: You remember that box you told me not to pack with books and I still did. Remember how you told me not to move it by myself - well I did. That;s how I hurt myself.

He hasn't asked to visit, he hasn't apologised for the unkind words. He hasn't asked after my health except to say "it was probably stress and you;ll get over it".

And this morning, Sunday morning, the teenager next door had a fight with his parents at the top of his lungs, slammed the door and took off. So now I'm awake and typing :)

Its a gorgeously cold and raining day here today. I might go back to bed with a nice cup of tea and a good book. I finally got around to picking up book 1 of the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series yesterday from the library. I've never read it, but I notice most people either love or hate it - there are no ambivalent feelings - so I thought I'd see what I thought.

Happy stitching all.

Going offline

Hi guys, You know Murphy (whatever can go wrong, will go wrong) - well he's moved in for the duration of the house moving I think. Lots of delays - nothing too horrendous, just lots and lots of delays. I'm turning the computer off shortly and packing it into the car to be taken to the new place. The phone still isn't connected over there - it was supposed to have been connect three days ago! - and they cannot even look at my broadband until the phone line is connected first - and then the broadband can take another two weeks from then ....

So I'm going no mail on most groups and will catch up when everything is settled again!

Sunday update

Oooh what an interesting 36 hours since my last update.

Yesterday morning I signed off and headed to work. Had an OK day - worked 9:00am until 4:00pm. One of the main friends coming to dinner ended up working with me all day so that was fun. She also sympathised about my neighbours and bought me lots of coffee :) A fun day. Then at 4:00pm we herded the last of the customers out and started to lock up. The front main sliding doors would not lock.

Long story short version, our boss could not be contacted via mobile phone so we rang the locksmith directly and I hung around by myself until they turned up. Paul got worried about me being on my own, as it was not the best part of town and the less-desirables come out after dark (5pm as we are in winter here). The locksmith arrived at 5:30pm and took 5 mins to fix it.

Got home at 6pm - when the party was due to start. I hadn't cleaned, vacuumed or got dinner started !!!! Neither had Paul as he stayed near the library waiting for me.

Everyone else was late too - so we got a very frantic tidy and vacuum done. The others turned up at 6:45pm so we popped the DVD of the first episode on. That finished 5 minutes after episode 2 had started on the TV so we caught the friends up, then they all settled in to watch it while I went out to our favourite Indian restaurant and bought some take-away.

Good food, good wine (supplied by the guests) and great desserts (also supplied by the guests). Lots of discussion on the new series. Had a ball, the party finished around 11:30pm.

Needless to say I went to bed a few minutes later. Paul stayed up. The neighbours were having a quiet night thankfully. Then I was rudely awoken around 3:30am when the Police turned up and spoke to the neighbours. They didn;t turn up the night they were being rowdy and having their domestics, no they turned up the night after!

I woke up with a screaming headache! I took a couple of paracetamol with water, which made me very nauseous. Paul came to bed at that point and cuddled me until I slept.

i awoke at 7:30 and Paul again cuddled me and stroked my face and hair until I slept again. I awoke finally at 10:30am feeling well rested. I've been so tired this last week.

Went to work at midday, home by 5pm. Paul and I have packed the rest of the contents of my filing cabinet, my DVDs and my music - and more boxes of my non-fiction books. Paul also very kindly took lots of the packed boxes out to the garage. Oh and I washed up from the dinner party.

Paul is currently making dinner and I've been ordered to sit down and rest - hence the blogging :) I think I might go stitch for a while now.

Hugs
Mel

Sooo tired .....

Its Friday night. Late. I am moving in 13 days and I have 3 days only that I am not working. That is next Friday and then the following Monday and Tuesday.

Since I last posted an update, I have finished organising my xstitch stash. All the charts are together and in folders. All the kits and partial kits (where I have bought the chart and fabric and maybe threads separately) are all in their own little plastic pouches, so anytime I want to work on a new project, I can now see at a glance, which ones are fully kitted up and ready to start working on ;)

All are now packed. all charts, all kits, all extra threads and fabric. All my mountains of magazines. All organised and packed. I've also organised and packed my entire 3000 plus comics collection. I've also packed my sewing fabric stash.

Just the rest of the books and the soaping supplies to go and then all the hobbies will be packed. And then onto the rest of the house:)

Monday night I crashed out. Tuesday was packing. Wednesday night I returned some furniture back to some friends (who live 2 hours drive away each way). Thursday night I rested and stitched. Friday morning was the usual Friday cleaning, washing etc. Friday afternoon was out all afternoon dealing with a financial adviser. Friday night I finished sorting and packing the cross stitch stash, moved on and packed all magazines and then all comics.

Tired and going to bed now .... am working all day tomorrow - 9am until 4pm and then friends are coming over to watch last week's and this weeks Dr Who episodes. So no packing tomorrow .....

Mel.

To do list - Sunday 09 July

Today's to do list:

* Get the boxes down from the ceiling of the garage
* pack the SCA stuff up
* box up the non-fiction
* sort my cross stitch stash more
* unpack and sort through more boxes of books still in the garage

Mel.

To do list - Friday 07 July

Well I suppose I should write this down somewhere just for my own records and making sure I remember everything I have to do. Feel free to ignore (or let me know if you think of something I've forgotten to do). Remember this is just TODAY'S to do list.

Out:
* Lease a Post Box at Post office near my work and then arrange a forwarding of all mail to that box - the mail box in front of the new house is quite a way away and cannot be seen from the house. I've decided I don;t want the postie dropping off parcels of scrummy fabric and threads where I can;t see them!

* Buy more Trubby food.

* Put Mozart in for framing. I finished him back in February and was going to frame him myself, but then visited early and I couldn;t get time to myself to block and mount, yada yada yada. I'm taking the frame and mount in to the framers and they can do it for me.

* Buy some storage boxes.

Back home:
* Ring the telephone, electricity and internet companies regarding disconnecting and reconnecting, and advising my new postal address.
* Ring car and home insurance agencies and arrange the change in cover and advise new postal address.
* arrange rest of Dad's care parcel so can be sent as soon as Mozart is ready.
* pack rest of SCA stuff to be sent interstate. Some friends of mine are starting a new shire and I've decided they can have my clothing and feasting gear etc etc on permanent loan as part of their new hospitality.
* start de-cluttering and packing the room of death. Start with the filing cabinet.

* relax and stitch.