t.
I have a lot in my head atm so I might just blah them out in dot points and maybe expand them later or maybe not.
* This seems to be a good semester.
* I'm loving one unit, IT Management, and I think I want to be an IT Manager of a medium sized private company by the time I'm 45.
* I constantly struggle with nicotine addiction; trying again for the fifth time this year. It's the only thing in my life that controls me and that sucks.
* Sometimes I find it easier to avoid people than tell them how I really feel.
* If I'm talking to you then I'm probably pretty content with how we're going.
* I had a fight with a lecturer today and some wanker in the class started arguing with me. Silly boy. No concept. In the interests of student safety I have changed tutorial classes.
* What Logan?
* I think an acquaintance of mine is developing anorexia. I don't know the name or number of her boyfriend or her mother or anyone else that knows her. Should I do something? Should I say something? It's so much easier to let someone else notice; let someone else deal with it. Maybe if I just avoid her, the problem will go away on it's own?
* I think my Mother has some sort of shopping for comfort disorder or a problem with hoarding personal possessions. One part of me wants to fly in there and solve the problem and make her face her demons. The other side says let her be.
* I'm supposed to see D tomorrow but *shrug* who knows? I'm kinda over it. Not enough to say no, just enough to feel bad about it.
t.
Of course i rang the emergency line on my mobile straight away and then ran up the stairs of the house yelling to everyone to get out. People started coming out of all the rooms - four adults and two animals - all running and grabbing things on their way out. One guy grabbed his CD collection on the way out - others grabbed nothing.
A passing motorist stopped his car in the middle of the street and ran inside the house telling me to go next door and yelling "get down". I went outside and saw the next door neighbour carrying his kid out of the house. I took the child from his arms and watched as he ran back inside his place to grab his wife and laptop. (Both the same value obviously?) The poor child was so dazed and confused, in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts and shivering in the cool morning air.
Neighbours started coming out of their houses - my hairdresser was one of them - and she says .. "Good morning! Gee your hair looks good at this time of the morning!" :) It amazed me that neighbours who had lived near each other for years were introducing themselves there on the footpath in their pyjamas. Why does it take a tragedy to take us out of our safe lives to meet people?
The fire brigade took at least 15 minutes to get there. The house was gutted internally; just a blackened frame remained and everything inside was burnt or flooded. In a matter of minutes these four people have had everything they own destroyed.
So, two questions.
Have you got contents insurance?
What would you take out of your house if it suddenly started burning down?
I asked my son. He replied "My teddy bear and my photo of my dad".
t.
The two families even journeyed up and down Malawi (a very small country in Africa) piled in a ute with a canopy, yes all eight of us. We saw so much African game, stayed in mountainous cabins, rowed boats on lakes and jumped out of said boats onto little islands only to find out they were sinking sand! At one game reserve I was chased by a zebra after an essential night toilet break. On a dare from CJ I snuck a sip of his mother's scotch and coke at the dinner table and spent the rest of the night in a fit of giggles. At another mountain lodge on Valentine's Day I told him he should got me a card, he asked why, I blushed and ran out of the room. I realised then that men are clueless when it comes to important dates.
CJ was the first boy to notice when I wore my first bra and snapped my straps for initiation. I guess he was my first crush and I think, given that he spent the first 15 years of his life going between a huge tobacco farm and an all boys English boarding school I would suggest that I was probably his first crush too.
After many (about 10?) years of no contact we discovered the power of email and rebooted our lifelong friendship electronically. He was living in London, I was living with Wayne in Brisbane. As happens when one is unhappy with their life it didn't take much for my to divulge how sad I was and how disappointed with my choices I was. CJ was my wake up call. He yelled at me, he cried for me and he expressed his surprise and horror that the tough, opinionated only-girl-kid from his childhood had succumbed to such submission. He kickstarted my resolve to leave my marriage and although it took another 7 months I did it and he rejoiced with me.
I received an email from CJ tonight. Below is an excerpt from it.
You may know that A.A.Milne (of Winnie-the-Pooh fame) based his stories around his farm near Hartfield in the South of England. Yes, the places that he writes about are real places close to the farm. So I took Fay to Galleons Leap (or in the real world Gills Lap) which is called "The Enchanted Place", this is the place where Pooh is knighted and Christopher Robin explains that he is going to School "Will you still love me, even when I'm a hundred" and as AA Milne wrote at the end of In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place and We Leave Them There � "wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on top of the Forest, a little boy and his bear will always be playing." So that was the proposal on 30 December 04. A muddy knee and more than a few pennies lighter in the pocket but a smiling Fay with a ring (that she doesn't stop looking at!)
So the summary is that I am getting married on 17 September 05 in Stonefield Castle on Loch Fyne (you probably know the song "Mull of Kintyre") which we have booked all the rooms for the whole weekend to ensure that we can get everyone along (and have a few beers etc).
Obviously, I would love you to come. I mean, I would really love you (and David) to come. I know that financially this is probably an impossibility. I know that if it were possible it would take a lot of planning so I thought I would make sure you knew well in advance of any of the invites going out, in case this was a remote possibility. You know we are going to meet at some point and I have committed to do this before I'm 100 ! So failing you coming to the Wedding, I may have to come to Oz on honeymoon !
Hopefully this doesn't feel like pressure, so feel free to write back and say "Studen, Broke, Can't do" rather than a huge explanation. I just wanted to make sure that if there was a possibility that I was maximising the opportunity.
Don't be a stranger, Drive Fast, Take Risks,
CJ
To CJ .. I wish you every happiness. I hope that Fay realises the diamond that she has. Thank you for contributing to my amazing childhood and thank you for motivating and supporting me to have a life that I am proud of. * hugs *
t.
Received another superannuation finalisation today. They propose to give David 50% and the other two boys half each of the remaining 50%. This gives David an amount around about $1,300. Not a fortune but will be nice for him to see some tangible evidence after all these months of fighting for "the money". They will pay this one out in cheque because it is under $5,000.
This leaves two super funds left to settle. One is $122 and they are undecided how it should be split and want to hand it over to unclaimed super fund. WTF? It's a hundred bucks! Buy some fucking supermarket vouchers with it and give $40 worth to each kid. Hardly enough money to warrant sending it to another red-tape-tied-up government dept.
The last super fund to be settled is $57,000. It is the biggest one and they are SO avoiding me. The woman in charge refuses to take my phone calls and I never get any correspondence from them. If she doesn't return my call from today I will have to consider getting some legal authority involved because it's a lot of money and if it's distributed unfairly I will be fighting for it.
I've prepared my first claim on David's trust fund. It includes reimbursements to me for expenses for David plus school uniform/book accounts and a request to buy him a 17" flat screen computer monitor. I don't know that it will be approved but I figured I may as well ask for it.
Through my temp agency i put in a proposal to do some IT training for a company that I trained one of their staff members through TAFE. I think I was the obligatory third quote so we figured we'll quote them $50 an hour, minimum three hours and they emailed today saying they love the quote and will get back to us shortly! Certainly not a confirmation yet but it sounds promising. That would make it my highest hourly rate (on the books) which confirms that I am heading in the right direction with my career. I feel more confident that I will find work when I finish my degree.
I met GG for lunch today. We have been talking online for quite a few months - he lives in another state and came to Brisbane today to visit family. Few comments about the visit atm. Not terribly mind-blowing but, you know, maybe that's as good as it gets?
Going to visit my parents this weekend .. yay. They were only expecting me Sunday but as I said to David .. they have yummy food and disposable income so we're going on Saturday to .. as David puts it .. mooch off them. He then said "Don't worry Mum. I'll mooch off you until you're too old and then I'll put you in a retirement home."
t.