Lisa's Ramblings

It will pass

2009-07-06T18:16:00.004+10:00

I'm sick of paying out money!!

My rent went up $45 a week and I'm now paying a mortgage so together that's a minimum of $2200 a month which is increasing as my payments to the builder increase. I've also had to pay car rego $600, car insurance $900 and my car needs its 40,000km major service which will be $400-$500 :( I'm also heading to the dentist tomorrow which could be gawd knows how much (hopefully only $100 or so after insurance). This is in conjunction with all my normal bills that need paying - ARGH!!

I'm trying to save money and I am, but not at the rate I want it to be happening, I hate having to dig into my savings for all these expenses. I spose the good news though is that I at least have the savings to pay for them but I want the money for when I'm in my house!

-sigh- I think it's just the combination of car expenses and rent increasing and mortgage starting all happening in the same 2 month period that is just really annoying me.

Need to focus more on spending less to save more!

That's not going to work

2009-07-06T14:45:00.002+10:00

Who am I kidding? My last post isn't going to work, far from it! I will do my normal hours and just watch the cycling the next day from what I've recorded... ahh well I still get 2 weeks of it all :D

Le tour is here

2009-07-05T21:05:00.003+10:00

It's started, Le Tour de France! Yes that means a week of trying to manage watching as much of the cycling as I can combined with trying to work before I take the final two weeks off work on annual leave to facilitate watching the cycling! Ahh staying up late and sleeping in late - love it!

Anyway, so this week I think I will set myself a deadline of midnight and then get up at 7:30am for work instead of 5:45am. I will also not do my exercise in the morning so I can get as much sleep as possible which means trying to get it done in the evening's and possibly not visiting my house. Being school holidays also helps a lot, I should be able to get to work by 8:30am still.

I wish I could function on little sleep but I just can't!

GO CADEL!!

Almost there

2009-07-02T08:59:00.005+10:00

I am having two weeks of holidays starting at the end of next week, that's only 7 days of work left woohoo!! I'm not going away anywhere, instead I am staying home to watch The Tour or should that be le Tour!?! It starts on Saturday night and I'm getting excited!! It goes for 3 weeks and it's going to be awesome! Next week however will be quite painful and I am thinking I will need to change my working hours to accommodate getting enough sleep.

I hadn't planned to go anywhere during my time off for fear of where ever I go not having SBS 2, but I'm thinking that on one of the rest days (nights) I might do a overnight trip somewhere, not sure yet. I'm also going to allow my self some extra money from my budget for the two weeks as well, heck I'm on holidays so I should be able to live it up a bit :)

So any suggestions of day/night trips for a Monday day/night?

Trying to fix it

2009-06-24T09:08:00.003+10:00

I made the decision yesterday to get an early nights sleep. The plan was to go to bed at 9pm but Grand Designs was on so it ended up being 9:30pm and I would have been asleep by 9:45pm. My alarm went off at 5:45am to go for my walk and I reset it to to 6:30am and even then I wanted to sleep longer! So I got about 8.5hrs sleep and I feel better for it, not great, but better than yesterday.

I also finally got the time to make my quiche which has sweet potato, zucchini, carrot, tomato, spring onion, cheese, egg and milk so it's got some good vegies in it so having that for lunch will certainly help. I figure if I add a few more vegies into what I am eating at lunch times, then combine that with vegies at dinner I should be getting a lot more nutrients etc. I've also bought some fruit to work to try to eat during the day... I don't know when I last ate a banana or an apple. I've also finally remembered to bringt in some more berocca from home to have as well.

Tonight I will try to be in bed by 9pm again as I will be getting up for my walk again tomorrow and I will try to go for my walk tonight too before cooking a nice healthy dinner of probably meat with lots of vegies.

Needed: more sleep!

2009-06-23T07:54:00.004+10:00

I feel tired and run down for no real reason. I don't feel sick but just really tired and as if no matter how much sleep I get I am exhausted. I know I can still improve my fruit and vegetable intake even though it is heaps better, so I know I can focus on that, but I had about 7hrs sleep last night and I did my walk this morning and I feel like I could go back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours. I sure hope I am not fighting off a bug of some kind.

I'm wondering if I need more sleep now that it's the middle of winter? I mean the days are shorter for a reason aren't they? Maybe I need to increase the sleeping hours at this time of year. I'm considering not heading down to the track tonight so I can try to get to bed at about 9pm.

I was feeling so good a few weeks ago, maybe it's hormonal? I dunno, but what I do know is that today is going to be a struggle if I don't start feeling like I have more energy soon.

Shopping

2009-06-21T14:41:00.003+10:00

Today I did a rare thing and I went shopping! My first purchase was from the market at La Trobe Uni and it was a pair of pure lambswool Ugg boots!! Sooooo comfy and warm and not artificial mmmm noice! I knew that the stall was there and went there just to buy them.

My second purchase was a new home phone system! I say system as it has 3 handsets, which I have naturally setup around the house even though I really only need 1 or 2, but I figure seeing as I have 3 I shall use 3 :D It's the Uniden 8955 which is 5.8Ghz digital so it wont interfere with my wifi and has an answering machine inbuilt and has lots of features I may never use, but the main one I am excited about is that when I go to make a phone call it will work and when I answer the phone it will work and not die! Noice!

Car is all fixed

2009-06-09T17:18:00.005+10:00

I dropped my car off at the panel beaters this morning to get the rear bumper fixed under insurance and I was going to pay for the stone chip in the bonnet to be fixed along with the damage from where someone parked into me and drove off.
I was meant to get a courtesy vehicle so I could go straight to work but after waiting 45 minutes (8:30am) I was told that the car wasn't on site and that someone would drive me to work and they would deliver the courtesy vehicle later in the day... umm ok, after another 40 or so minutes to get from Fitzroy to Richmond in peak hour in the rain I finally get to work about 2 hrs later than normal grrr.

By 2pm I hadn't had a call from them about it so I called them and after being on hold for almost 10 minutes they tell me that my car will be delivered to me - oooh it's already done? Yeah they only needed to re-spray it all and it's nice n quick to do - sweeeet!

A bit more stuffing around with getting them to pick me up and needing to stop at an ATM to get cash as they don't have eftpos or do CC's (wtf is with that!) I had my car back by about 4:30pm! The extra work cost me $450 and the insurance work was about $700.

I was however hoping that they would wash my car, but the place they normally take them to was closed today, I'm guessing there is no point them being open in this weather, so this weekend I will take to a place that cleans inside and out for under $30 :D

What weekend?

2009-06-08T20:00:00.003+10:00

What a Queens Birthday Weekend! I spent it volunteering for the Northern Combine 3 day cycling tour and it was freeeeeeeeezing! I was Chief First Aid Officer and there were also people out on the course that were qualified so for the first two days (3 stages) I spent time helping out on a corner and also at the finish line helping with the judging while waiting for any calls if needed to go help people. Thankfully for the first 2 days I didn't need to patch anyone up, but 1 other person did.

Today I was lucky enough to get in the car with B grades chief commisaire to learn some commisairing stuffs and be a kind of roving first aid if needed and unfortunately it was needed and for B grade. Helped patch up a person there and then another one at the finish line who I suggested go to his local hospital to get his shoulder and ribs x-rayed

I got back to the finish to hear that C grade also had a crash and this one was quite a bit worse. One guy had a great black eye coming up and a big and messy gash on his chin, so I covered that up and cleaned him up a bit and recommended that he go to a local hospital to get his chin cleaned up under pain killers and most likely get some stitches. My next patient had lost a fair bit of bark off his upper left leg and left elbow and in order to patch his leg, he had a shower and just had a towel around him - the other males in the men's changeroom all had to comment about me being in there lol, but it was the best thing to do really.

There is going to be quite a few sore bodies tomorrow.

I'm so glad I bought my Man Jacket during the week! If I didn't have that it would have been a miserable weekend. Saturday morning was REALLY cold and standing outdoors for 6+ hours was tolerable as I was dressed properly. Sunday was almost as cold but it was also raining! With my waterproof Man Jacket with a hood, all I really had to worry about was my face/glasses getting wet and that also was OK if I turned around when possible so the rain didn't hit me in the face.

All up I am glad I did volunteer, w/out volunteer's an event like this couldn't even happen.

Back to work to recover/rest ;)

I feel good

2009-05-29T09:53:00.003+10:00

Two people have said to me today that I look a lot happier and more cheerful, which is great cos I feel it :)
I don't think it's one specific thing, but a combination of the eating better, exercising more and also that my house build is going to be starting on Monday!

I feel good this past week and I'm loving it. I don't feel fantastic or sensational but nor do I feel moody, grumpy and have a case of the CBF'ed. Feeling good is where it's at and I'm glad to be there again.

I normally don't get up early for a walk on a Friday, I have a 30 minute sleep in, but due to the rain yesterday morning I didn't walk, so today I needed to. When my alarm went off this morning I tried to talk myself out of it, but I then told myself that if I don't exercise I wont continue to feel good so I had to get up and get my arse moving, so I did :D

3 sleeps until my house starts to get built, how awesome!! :D

Car accident

2009-05-27T19:37:00.001+10:00

This evening I was involved in a car accident... The car in front of me stopped to keep the intersection clear, I stopped in time but could tell the vehicle behind me might not, so I edge further forward but nope, they ran up my arse and guess what kind of vehicle it was.... a scooter! Yup, a stupid bloody small buzz box scooter!

Thankfully the rider didn't bin it and they are OK but I have paint scrapes on my bumper so we exchanged details and I will get it fixed but what a real PITA - I will probably be w/out my car for a week while they fix it and because of a scooter that I could probably fit in my bloody car.

GRRR

Interesting timing though with the whole car insurance renewal happening.

Oh and they say things come in threes, I witnessed a car accident last week, this week I was involved in one I hope next week I don't cause one or the fault of one

Water usage

2009-05-25T16:31:00.003+10:00

this year I have been trying to do my bit and save water. I changed the shower head to a water saving one, I put a bag thingy in the toilet's big old cistern and as it still uses a lot of water I don't always flush when I only pee - hey lots of people are doing it these days, trust me! It also helps that I live alone.

Anyway, this time last year my usage was a whopping 213 litres a day! Gawd! Just by changing the shower head I had a decrease down to 150 litres per day and now I'm down to 125 litres a day YaY!!

My water bill is only $22.83 :) Best I not get used to that as once I'm in my own house I then have to pay water rates or parks n gardens fees or something

Bugger!

2009-05-21T18:32:00.002+10:00

I just got a phone call from Consumer Affairs about my rental increase enquiry... I have to pay the increased amount :(

He asked me about the place and I said it was a very small 3 bedroom unit... and then there was a chuckle on the other end of the line, bugger! Basically no matter the condition, falling paint, tiny rooms etc etc they wont have a problem getting that rent on the rental market if the place was empty, bugger!

He did however say that I can issue a notice to fix within 14 days for the bathroom and then if they don't I can take it to Consumer Affairs and VCAT will laugh at them if it gets that far, especially if I be very co-operative and say I can shower at work during the time they take to fix etc etc so I will be sending that off to them tomorrow! If I am going to pay more rent, I want better conditions!

Hrmmm what else needs fixing?!?

From zero to full bore

2009-05-18T19:33:00.003+10:00

Ok so last week I started exercising a lot more on Monday and Tuesday and started well on Wednesday but got sick... so back to it today.
30 minute walk this morning then when I get home I get changed and jump on my bike on the indoor trainer for 15-20 minutes and then go for a 20 minute walk! I feel great!

Also, tonight I decided to cook potato and leek soup for the first time ever (YUM!!!) and then decided I wanted to cook vanilla bean rice pudding, so did and I also cooked a chicken fillet for part of dinner and basted it in nandos peri peri.

I'm now stuffed both physically and stomach wise - all is good with the world!

I hate insurance

2009-05-11T08:44:00.004+10:00

I have been even lazier than normal these past few weeks, but time to stop doing that! I went for a 30 minute walk this morning and walked the other direction so I finish with walking up an incline instead of finishing on the flat - makes me feel better and pushes me a bit more towards the end! Tonight I might also do a 20 minute walk.

I got my car insurance renewal this week, it's gone up again, this time by about $160! I hate it how my car insurance always seems to go up each year, it's really annoying! Looks like I will be doing the ring around for some quotes. I've also decided that since I have the cash in the bank I may as well pay the whole thing instead of doing monthly payments.... broke month for me car rego and insurance, ouch!

Change of mind?

2009-05-09T20:53:00.001+10:00

I hear France is lovely in July

My train?

2009-05-01T19:44:00.003+10:00

My mum called me today to congratulate me... ermm what for? Well, it was for the announcement of the start of the construction of the train line out to South Morang being started in a few months... yeah, she wanted to congratulate me on that...

Sure, it was officially announced about 6 months ago that it was going to happen, but ya know she needed to do it evidently. Ummm ok! I don't even catch the train where I currently am and I am only about 1km from the train...

Weird, especially considering this is the second time I've spoken to her since the end of August!

What stairs?!?

2009-04-28T17:46:00.001+10:00

I actually managed to get up and go for my walk this morning! Sure, I had a beanie and gloves on but I did it!

Although I had a bit of a problem... I walked out my front door and saw that it had been raining, so I went a bit further out to see if it was still raining and totally forgot that I had to go down 3 steps... I went down them REALLY quickly in the end and skinned my right knee :( I got up and was OK so still went for my walk (it wasn't raining!) Now though, my left calf muscle is really quite sore and aching a bit even while sitting and walking is kinda painful. This afternoon while driving it also hurt quite a bit pushing the clutch in, not good.

What a stupid brain fart!

Getting moving

2009-04-27T08:01:00.003+10:00

With all the stress I've had in the past few weeks with my bank loan application I haven't really had many other thoughts and so have been neglecting updating in here. Although to be honest, there isn't all that much happening other than house stuff anyway. Good news though is that my loan was unconditionally approved on Thursday and for the full amount!

I'm starting riding again! Yes, its true, just need to work out a way to keep my chest a bit warmer in the mornings though as my lungs really don't like 8 degrees all that much :( I also still need to re-arrange my lounge room for my hybrid bike, but I will try to get that organised tonight. Apart from the fitness thing and wanting to ride, I have another incentive to ride to work - Where I stop for coffee on the way to work, there is this old guy that likes to say good morning and talk to me and he talks soooo slowly it's painful and I really don't want to say anything other than 'morning' so, if I ride then I don't need to talk to him :) I wonder if my ayups will fit on my hybrid? ;)

I'm also going to try to focus a bit more on eating more fruit and vegies, my diet is somewhat lacking in this area, so if I try to focus on that then I should have more energy

Shiny and new

2009-04-21T13:47:00.001+10:00

So I was talking to a friend about my stereo situation at home and how I wanted to upgrade the pissy little speaker thingy I have that I plug my iPod/iPhone into as it just isn't loud or good enough... I've just bought an air port express which I will plug into my stereo and I can then use my wifi at home to play my music from my laptop through the stereo and I can then control that from my iPhone!! HOW COOL!!

:D

Oh and I bought an iTrip for the car too as my previous ones wouldn't work my iPhone

I also really love how easy it is to buy music through iTunes on my iPhone... maybe a little bit too easy ;)

Over due

2009-04-20T22:33:00.005+10:00

I think that I am in need of a holiday in a big way. I need time away where I can just relax unfortunately I don't know what to do to achieve this :( I do however hope that if I start riding again then it will help. Gawd I need to do something that's for sure or I may self destruct. Heck even a night where I don't have to worry about what to cook for dinner would be nice...

Gee I hope not

2009-04-20T10:50:00.003+10:00

Today I have been getting increased pain in my left elbow and it's now at a point where it hurts a lot even to reach out to my water bottle, let alone try to lift it and drink from it with that arm :( Thankfully typing doesn't hurt, but anything that involves an extension of my arm does. It's a rather random thing to start hurting and I just really hope it's not the start of arthritis. When I was 2 years old I broke the end off one of the bones that forms my left elbow. To fix it the doctors had to surgically insert a metal pin to re-connect the bones and then about 8 weeks later they then removed the pin. The scar I have on my elbow is quite impressive (read: large and ugly) and the doctors told me that I would eventually get arthritis in my elbow as a result of the trauma suffered... I just hope that this is a freak thing and isn't at all connected to it and it goes away quickly!

New haircut

2009-04-15T19:14:00.003+10:00

I finally got around to getting my hair cut. It's been annoying me for a few weeks now and I finally organised to get it cut

Before:
This is how long my hair was, it was getting annoying

It was quite a bit below my shoulders

After:

New hair cut with layers - much shorter!

My hair is now just sitting on my shoulders - much better

I love 4 day weekends

2009-04-13T21:02:00.003+10:00

It's been a while, not much to report on really. I got the notice that my rent is increasing to $320 p/w and I have lodged a thing (technical term ;) ) with consumer affairs for it to be independently assessed. They send someone out to independently value the property so hopefully the fact that I shower with paint falling on my head, the fan in there no longer working and the basically zero backyard and smallness of the unit goes in my favour.
I'm still not sure what I will do, but I'm thinking of staying just because it's a lot of effort to move twice in 6 months.

I'm also considering stopping my volunteer work at the weight watchers meeting. I've been going to the same meeting for 3.5 years and it's clearly no longer working. Sure I had my back injury set me back but I think I just need a break from the whole thing as right now it just can't inspire me - I just need time away from it all.

I'm also considering re-arranging my lounge room by removing one of my arm chairs to a spare room and therefore making room for my hybrid bike in the lounge room which will make getting my hybrid bike in and out of the unit a LOT easier. The front door/hallway space is just so narrow that it makes it a real PITA.

The past week or two I've also been working pretty long hours at work - anywhere between 10-12 hrs most days which is never a lot of fun and really isn't conducive to exercise although I have been trying to get up at 5:30am most days for a 30 minute walk.

I've had a pretty lazy Easter 4 day weekend and I have loved it, but to be honest I was just glad for the sleep in's and the space away from work after the silly hours I'd been working.

My tomato plants are still growing fruit and I'm just waiting for it all to ripen and go from green to red so it can be eaten. They shouldn't take too long hopefully and as such I've just planted some Basil plants so that once the tomatoes are ready the basil will also be there to eat together :) I also have quite a number of strawberries growing and ripening and they are yummy!

Bugger!

2009-04-01T17:27:00.003+11:00

I currently live in the rear unit of a block of 3 units which are all owned by the same people. My unit is a VERY small 3 bedroom unit which was freshly painted when I moved in and a brand new kitchen and split system airconditioner. My rent is currently $285 p/w.
Unit 2 is an even smaller unit which is only 2 bedrooms, old original kitchen and old aircon. Unit 2 is currently up for rent at the whopping price of $320 p/w - yes, a massive $35 a week MORE for a crappier smaller unit! I seriously can't see how anyone would pay that amount for that unit!

FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!

I would say that there are very good odds of my rent going up soon by the looks which really sucks when soon I am also going to be paying off a mortgage and paying rent :( If my rent went up to $320 p/w that would increase my rent by $250 a month which is almost a 25% increase - can they even do that?

And again, FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!