What the?????

When I was in Sydney for my Nanna’s funeral in early October I drove through a tollway without paying. The rental car didn’t have an electronic tag, and there were no cash booths. I had three days to phone up and pay the toll and I didn’t get to do that until a week later. I was told that it was too late, I’d have to wait for the notice to go to the car rental company, come back to Roam (the owner of the Tollway) and I’d have an extra $10 administration fee to pay. Ok, I should have rung up earlier. I can live with that…

Last week I received the notice, and paid the fee of $16.29 over the internet. The due date on it was 4 December. So being that I paid it on 22 November, no problem right????

Today (30 November) I received a Final Notice to pay! “As you have not yet paid yada yada yada…” What?????? Note above, the due date on the original notice was 4 December!

So I ring them up. They can’t find my payment, and the girl I’m talking to says “The due dates really aren’t important, we need to find your payment.” Well hello!!!! It’s important to me!!! Ok, they both are. They’re going to investigate and get back to me about the payment. And then I’ll figure out how I intend to complain about the overlapping notices. Grrrrrrr……

New house take two.

It looks like we have a house to move into next year! We did get this house last week, released it because it is about 750 metres from where Dian’s biological dad lives…. but the house appeared again this weekend on Defence Housing’s website and we reconsidered and took it. The Crescent the house is on runs off the street that the ex lives on, but it’s a fair way up, around a corner and through a roundabout. Since we don’t know the neighbours on either side of us here, it’s pretty certain that we won’t run into him being a fair way away.

Such a relief to know we have a house!

Crazy hormones, infertility, stress and depression

Yeah, I’ve got it all…. I’m finally able to write this after a horrendous month… For the girls reading this, think of PMS, added to depression, a heap of stress and you have my last several weeks. Oh what fun!!! Eddie has survived it, and the only reason I’ve survived is because Eddie has picked up all the slack around the house while I was non-functioning. That man’s a hero!! My hero… The good news is that my Naturopath thinks she can fix it, all except the stress which will last until after we move next January.

She thinks the infertility (we have had Unexplainable Infertility since we got married 2 1/2 years ago) is caused by very low levels of progesterone, which causes PMS, adds to stress and prevents any fertilised eggs being able to implant. So I’m on several tablets, have to exercise regularly, make sure I have time out and relax (me? relax? what a novel concept!) and thinks it should all right itself in the next few months/cycles. That’s really good news, except that I’m at the point of not really believing it until I see it. I pretty much don’t ever expect to see two lines on a pg test, I’ve seen so many negatives in the last few years that it’s going to be a huge shock when it happens!

When we did fertility investigations late last year I mentioned a few symptoms of low progesterone to the specialist, and was pretty much just brushed off and told it was all fine. I knew it wasn’t, but he really treated me like an ignoramus when I asked about it! So after $3,800 out of our pocket to be told we have nothing wrong with either of us, and our only options are either AI or IVF, we’ve come full circle with the Naturopath telling me that I was right all along, and it looks like it may be easily and relatively cheaply fixed!

A reflection on our society

Dian came home from school today and told me that “We did a practise drill today for when a bad person comes into the school” Huh???? They are practising drills for “when a robber comes in, and lots of kids have been shot at school.” Sad isn’t it. I remember fire drills, and now our kids are practising for gunmen in their schools.

Just FYI, if the alarm goes off the teacher locks the door and the kids all get under the desks. If it’s really bad, they all go into the (tiny) back storeroom and lock themselves in there.

30 days of Handmade gifts

Found this great blog that is posting links and tutorials for handmade gifts every day in November. Sew! Mama! Sew! Brilliant!!! I want to make one of the rag rugs, just need a lot more hours in my day….

No job and no house…

Sigh…. we had to release the house we had reserved for next year as there was nowhere to park our trailer. What looked like a gate into the backyard was just a fence, and the extra carport that was supposed to be there didn’t exist. So it’s back to the drawing board and keep looking…

I also found out today that a job I applied for recently, I didn’t even get short-listed for an interview. I’m a bit sad about that, I really thought I had a good chance of getting it! I guess God has something better in mind, but I’m still a bit blah about not even making it to the interview!!!

I have a bike!!!!!

We bought me a second hand bike yesterday from Cash Converters. It’s purple and grey and has twelve gears!!! I’ve never had a bike with gears before, the only other bike I owned didn’t have any I don’t think… This is actually my birthday present from May, which we put off buying because of Eddie being away and moving house in July etc. Then yesterday we saw it there and ended up buying it! I went for a short ride yesterday, and a longer ride today, and my backside and leg muscles are sooooooo sore! It was great fun though!

Christmas pressie preview!

Here’s an early preview of one of the Christmas presents I’m making… I won’t be posting any other pics until after Christmas, although I may do some previews of other gifts along the way… Nothing that will give away what the final gift will look like or who it’s for!

We have a house next year!

Yay!!!! Finally!!!! It’s such a relief to know that we have a house to move into next year, and it works with our removal dates and all. We only have about six more weeks here until we leave, and I was starting to worry. We were hoping (and now can) to move into the new house in Canberra on 11 January, so we can have Dian’s birthday party on the 17th. We’ve only seen the house online, that’s how Defence allocate them, so hopefully it will be suitable for the animals and parking.

New job…

I started a part time job on thursday. Two days a week in the office at Dian’s school. I’m just filling in until the end of the year. It was great to be back in an office, the kids are great and Dian LOVES having me at school. Although she didn’t think it was too great when she had to come and give me her second detention slip in a week…

I was absolutely exhausted by the time I was finished, it’s been about two years since I’ve worked away from home! It’s a good introduction though, as I’m looking for full time work next year when we’re back in Canberra.