On Moving and Pirates
Much has happened since my last entry.
I found a new place nad have moved in on 23 & 24 May. Unforutnately, it's only half the size of my former unit, so I had to do a lot of culling. There were many tears and heartaches, especially about having to get rid of my beautiful walnut dining suite. However, I sold it to a friend, so I know it's going to a good home. He and his good Lady are already making plans to re-polish it completely and refurbish the chairs to bring it back to new condition.
My new place is only 1 bedroom, and the living area is so small that there is no room for a dining table. That does hurt. Even if I don't use it often, to have one means that you can have people over for dinner. I've cut things back to a minimum, but is still very crowded in the living area.
I did manage to keep my bookcases, though only 2 are in the unit, the other 2 are in the lockup garage. I had to be ruthless and cull my books - about half of them went, and I still have about 10 or 15 boxes of books!!! I haven't even started to unpack these yet.
Ahhh.... Packing. To be honest, the thought of packing sent me into hysterics. As in complete and utter. And I've pretty remained that way for much of this month. Thank the gods for my wonderful cousin, the unflappable minki_moira. Without her, I would never have gotten moved. She gave up about 5 days to help me. In 3 days, we got 90% of things packed up, and the others were spent moving and cleaning.
I have to admit to being just about useless during all this. Between being ill with the thought of it all (physically ill) and my lack of ability with puzzles (which made fitting things in boxes very hard for me), she bore the brunt of the physical putting things in boxes. We did a sort of production line thing, with me pulling things out and sorting into piles (keep, charity & rubbish) and she packing various boxes. Added to all this, I turned sharply and twisted my knee, so lots of physical work was muchly out of the question.
I was surprised at the amount of stuff I had accumulated. I am a hoarder, and even now as I unpack, I am looking at the contents of some boxes and deciding not to unpack them.
The bottom line is my new place has a lot less space and storage is really at a premium. I had planned on being here a year only, but will probably stay as long as I can. Moving is far too bad for my stress levels to be doing too often.
It's not really that bad - the kitchen and bathroom have real terracotta tiles in them! And it's incredibly conveniernt for the bus (outside the front door) and is also a ground floor unit - no stairs!!! We shall see.
Yesterday I unpacked 11 boxes, and have only 8 left inside to unpack (on the other hand,there are another 20 or so in the garage to do - mostly books). I am anticipating getting the 8 inside unpacked today. That means all my kitchen will be sorted, and all my china in the china cabinet. All I will then have to unpack is books and the mysterious "miscellaneous" boxes.
And the big problem with moving was the cost. All in all, it's cost me over $2,000 (including bond and 2 weeks rent on the new place). This was heaps more than I was budgeting for - the move itself has cost about $1,300. The actual removal cost about $300 more than I had budgeted, and I ended up having to pay $300 for a professional cleaner to clean the old apartment & steam clean the carpets.
Get this: I was told the property was being sold as a renovator and that was why I had to get out as it was to be immediately gutted. The Sales Manager who told me this said not to worry about a full end of lease clean in that case. On Friday, I discovered that the new owners have changed their minds and want vacant possession and a full clean as if for a new tenant. My bastard real estate agency (who has been so much less than helpful over the years) took great glee in telling me this. So, after getting qotes for steam cleaning, I found these guys, Bond Clean, who specialise in end of lease cleaning and do cleaning for a number of local Real Estate Agencies. They did it all for me, and are willing to stand up in court (if it comes to it, which I have a horrible feeling it will) and state that the condition of the unit, the lack of maintenance done by the owners over the years, has meant that they have got it as clean as they can. He did compliment me on how clean I had left it myself though. That made me feel a lot better.
So, I had the keys back on Monday morning (grump - it means that I;ll be about 2 hours late for work and have to work back to make up the time) and then fight to get my full bond back. I've taken photos of the state of the place - including the paint-falling down celing, the damaged wall from water damage and the carpets, so that I can present it as evidence of what I lived with for 12 years.
In the middle of this, of course, work was involved in a mini expo and I had to oranise all that. I think it was a success - we certainly had a lot of people talk to us and have got some promising leads out of it.
Our little team is now settling down well. We are spending just as much time talking as working, but the work is getting done, and we've got more jobs on at the moemnt than we can really handle. Both B & A (the consultants) are very confident that June will be an absolutely outstanding month for placements for us.
I've got 2 coming off in early June myself, which is good. After spending all my commissions on moving, I am skint. And still have to pay my rego by the end of June.
I have had one great thing - I won 2 tickets to the Preview of the new Pirates of the Carribbean movie which was held on Wednesday 23 May.
I took Natalie and we had a great time. The movie was fantastic! Much better than the second one, and easily as good, or better, than the first. It was one huge adrenaline rush from start to finish, with incredible effects and lots of humour. The final battle, however, has to be seen to be believed. It was just incredible.
The cast in these movies is just so good, and it really does carry it off well. Keith Richards was the real surprise - he carried his very small part off so well. And of course, you also get drool-worthy Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom into the bargain.
All I can say is go and see it!
This has been such a hectic month, that I'm glad that I go on holidays for 2 weeks to Mackay. I need the rest!!
In other news, Ste and I have been together a year. I think it seems shorter, he says it seems longer. No matter, we're both still happy and I seem to be addicted to him. He truly is the rock that I can rely on to be there with loving words and thoughts.
I found a new place nad have moved in on 23 & 24 May. Unforutnately, it's only half the size of my former unit, so I had to do a lot of culling. There were many tears and heartaches, especially about having to get rid of my beautiful walnut dining suite. However, I sold it to a friend, so I know it's going to a good home. He and his good Lady are already making plans to re-polish it completely and refurbish the chairs to bring it back to new condition.
My new place is only 1 bedroom, and the living area is so small that there is no room for a dining table. That does hurt. Even if I don't use it often, to have one means that you can have people over for dinner. I've cut things back to a minimum, but is still very crowded in the living area.
I did manage to keep my bookcases, though only 2 are in the unit, the other 2 are in the lockup garage. I had to be ruthless and cull my books - about half of them went, and I still have about 10 or 15 boxes of books!!! I haven't even started to unpack these yet.
Ahhh.... Packing. To be honest, the thought of packing sent me into hysterics. As in complete and utter. And I've pretty remained that way for much of this month. Thank the gods for my wonderful cousin, the unflappable minki_moira. Without her, I would never have gotten moved. She gave up about 5 days to help me. In 3 days, we got 90% of things packed up, and the others were spent moving and cleaning.
I have to admit to being just about useless during all this. Between being ill with the thought of it all (physically ill) and my lack of ability with puzzles (which made fitting things in boxes very hard for me), she bore the brunt of the physical putting things in boxes. We did a sort of production line thing, with me pulling things out and sorting into piles (keep, charity & rubbish) and she packing various boxes. Added to all this, I turned sharply and twisted my knee, so lots of physical work was muchly out of the question.
I was surprised at the amount of stuff I had accumulated. I am a hoarder, and even now as I unpack, I am looking at the contents of some boxes and deciding not to unpack them.
The bottom line is my new place has a lot less space and storage is really at a premium. I had planned on being here a year only, but will probably stay as long as I can. Moving is far too bad for my stress levels to be doing too often.
It's not really that bad - the kitchen and bathroom have real terracotta tiles in them! And it's incredibly conveniernt for the bus (outside the front door) and is also a ground floor unit - no stairs!!! We shall see.
Yesterday I unpacked 11 boxes, and have only 8 left inside to unpack (on the other hand,there are another 20 or so in the garage to do - mostly books). I am anticipating getting the 8 inside unpacked today. That means all my kitchen will be sorted, and all my china in the china cabinet. All I will then have to unpack is books and the mysterious "miscellaneous" boxes.
And the big problem with moving was the cost. All in all, it's cost me over $2,000 (including bond and 2 weeks rent on the new place). This was heaps more than I was budgeting for - the move itself has cost about $1,300. The actual removal cost about $300 more than I had budgeted, and I ended up having to pay $300 for a professional cleaner to clean the old apartment & steam clean the carpets.
Get this: I was told the property was being sold as a renovator and that was why I had to get out as it was to be immediately gutted. The Sales Manager who told me this said not to worry about a full end of lease clean in that case. On Friday, I discovered that the new owners have changed their minds and want vacant possession and a full clean as if for a new tenant. My bastard real estate agency (who has been so much less than helpful over the years) took great glee in telling me this. So, after getting qotes for steam cleaning, I found these guys, Bond Clean, who specialise in end of lease cleaning and do cleaning for a number of local Real Estate Agencies. They did it all for me, and are willing to stand up in court (if it comes to it, which I have a horrible feeling it will) and state that the condition of the unit, the lack of maintenance done by the owners over the years, has meant that they have got it as clean as they can. He did compliment me on how clean I had left it myself though. That made me feel a lot better.
So, I had the keys back on Monday morning (grump - it means that I;ll be about 2 hours late for work and have to work back to make up the time) and then fight to get my full bond back. I've taken photos of the state of the place - including the paint-falling down celing, the damaged wall from water damage and the carpets, so that I can present it as evidence of what I lived with for 12 years.
In the middle of this, of course, work was involved in a mini expo and I had to oranise all that. I think it was a success - we certainly had a lot of people talk to us and have got some promising leads out of it.
Our little team is now settling down well. We are spending just as much time talking as working, but the work is getting done, and we've got more jobs on at the moemnt than we can really handle. Both B & A (the consultants) are very confident that June will be an absolutely outstanding month for placements for us.
I've got 2 coming off in early June myself, which is good. After spending all my commissions on moving, I am skint. And still have to pay my rego by the end of June.
I have had one great thing - I won 2 tickets to the Preview of the new Pirates of the Carribbean movie which was held on Wednesday 23 May.
I took Natalie and we had a great time. The movie was fantastic! Much better than the second one, and easily as good, or better, than the first. It was one huge adrenaline rush from start to finish, with incredible effects and lots of humour. The final battle, however, has to be seen to be believed. It was just incredible.
The cast in these movies is just so good, and it really does carry it off well. Keith Richards was the real surprise - he carried his very small part off so well. And of course, you also get drool-worthy Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom into the bargain.
All I can say is go and see it!
This has been such a hectic month, that I'm glad that I go on holidays for 2 weeks to Mackay. I need the rest!!
In other news, Ste and I have been together a year. I think it seems shorter, he says it seems longer. No matter, we're both still happy and I seem to be addicted to him. He truly is the rock that I can rely on to be there with loving words and thoughts.