Holidays, Money, Wedding, Car stuff.
Friday, June 18th, 2010 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverai
Right, well it's been a while. I think many of you identify with the feeling of having things to say but never getting around to typing them up, I know I certainly do!
So, I went to Melbourne as per my last post. That was awesome and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I made myself a list of everything I particularly wanted to do (of which there was a lot), then noted it in a table of the days I was there and when the place was open, along with the address and phone number on the side. I noted which particular things I'd be doing which particular days, and then used the table to keep track of it all and work out what I could do and how it fit in as I went along, crossing things off as they got done. I got quite a lot of things done that way, and had many fabulous experiences. I wore sneakers for most of my trip, and walked a lot! My legs ached quite a bit and stopped me sleeping properly to begin with, but my Dad was awesome and reminded me that tonic water was good for that sort of thing (something to do with the quinine in it) and that helped me a lot. I discovered a magnificent cocktail bar called Polly when I was there, I loved it so much that I ended up there three nights out of the week I had available. You felt decadent just walking in, here's what it looks like: http://pollybar.com.au/
I've completely cut ties with the big band I was in, there's a lot to THAT story but I won't go into it, and I'm feeling a lot more free and less stressed because of it. Meanwhile, I hurt my shoulder somehow coming up to maybe two months ago, which has meant I haven't been going to my other band either since moving the slide in and out would exacerbate the issue. I shudder to think of what my lips are going to feel like when I do pick that trombone back up! This shoulder is annoying, it both stops me from doing stuff, and is costing me money at the physio every week. Along with my chiro and massage every week lately instead of fortnightly, due to my spine not playing nice, a significant amount of money is being sucked out of my budget lately, causing things to be quite a lot tighter than normal. Plus I finally found a magnesium supplement that suits me, but it's $40 every two or so weeks, yet more money. I do not feel good about myself when I'm forced into a position of watching my finances closely and seeing them dwindle so quickly, but that's life and there's not a shit load that one can do about it.
So, it's now less than a year until Zig and I have our wedding, which is pretty awesome. We used vistaprint.com.au to create fridge magnet save the dates. They say "Who can remember a date when it's so long away? It's closer than you think! 11th June 2011 Z & H". Cos they are fridge magnets, people can easily just stick them on the fridge, so they won't get lost and people can glance at it whenever they forget since it's been so long *heh*. The guest list issues are still kicking my butt, so I'm only giving the magnets to family and very close friends. Things are very likely to change in a year anyway, so the final guest list can wait until actual invitation time comes around, maybe 2-3 months before the date. But the magnets are way cool.
Zig and I went to Margaret River FarmStay in May. It was my christmas present last xmas, he knows I like the holiday getaways with him :) It's become a tradition that when we go away I create a gourmet platter style dinner, which we then snack on for several days. You can see the yummy food if you click this sentence. At the far end, there's also choc honeycomb, choc truffles, and that big bowl is fruit salad (Zig LOVES fruit salad, so I made it especially for him). We went and somehow crammed a huge amount of activities into three days (two nights) while we were down there. One of my favourites was the shearing demonstration at the Yallingup Shearing Shed, it held a lot of nostalgia for me and you also got to feed the sheep, and bottle feed lambs too! I skippered Zig for two breweries on the way to the farmstay, and two the next day, and then he skippered me for the Happs winery on the way back. I thoroughly recommend the Happs Pale Gold, which is a tasty white port for $20 a bottle.
I had a meeting with the boss before I went to Melbourne, hadn't had one for a long time and it was due. Since I never get lunch breaks in Myaree (it was supposed to be temporary and somehow never changed, for 1 1/2 years) we've arranged that I get a day off a fortnight instead. As I mentioned to him, I've sort of gotten used to no lunch break, but I've never figured out the issue of not having any days off. Y'know, since I work 5 1/2 days a week, there isn't much time to get things done while places are open. I've now had three or four days off in total since I got back from Melbourne, and it's been luxury. Still feeling the squeeze of not enough downtime to a certain extent, but nowhere near what it used to be before I trimmed a lot out and got these days off.
I've been feeling like I want hugs a lot lately this last week. The trouble with this is that I don't feel comfortable hugging people really (except Zig). What a sad state of affairs *heh*. I got reminded today that "...Exercising gratitude for what you have instead of focusing on the negative side of your circumstances can greatly influence...." which was a "oh, yeah, duh" moment for me and has helped a lot already. So, we'll see how it goes. I reckon I've probably just been feeling down and woeful mainly because of tight budgeting, but remembering that damn I'm pretty lucky cos there lots of cool awesome things about my life really helps negate that feeling. So, yeah. Something.
On Saturday morning, I dropped something to a friend on my way to work, and was running very short of time. So I backed out of their driveway pretty quickly, glancing left and right as one should. Unfortunately, I didn't look behind me, and some very annoying person had parked on the opposite curb directly across from the driveway. So, I was completely at fault, but it was very irritating. I got out and looked at the damage, and it was kinda nasty, so I grabbed a pen and paper and quickly wrote a note and stuck it under their windscreen wiper before dashing off to work. "I hurt your car, I'm sorry! Running late for work, can't stop" and my name, suburb, and mobile number. They finally called me on Wednesday - said they'd been in the field, so only noticed my note when they drove that car again that morning. Luckily, many years ago Zig insisted I get third party insurance. Not the compulsory third party, that covers different things, but the actual third party that you purchase that covers other people's cars. So it only cost me $300 as the insurance excess. I woulda driven off if it was a light scratch, but I couldn't do that with that much damage.
A police officer knocked on my car window while I was stopped at traffic lights on Wednesday morning. It's a funny story, you should ask me about it next time you see me :)
So, I went to Melbourne as per my last post. That was awesome and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I made myself a list of everything I particularly wanted to do (of which there was a lot), then noted it in a table of the days I was there and when the place was open, along with the address and phone number on the side. I noted which particular things I'd be doing which particular days, and then used the table to keep track of it all and work out what I could do and how it fit in as I went along, crossing things off as they got done. I got quite a lot of things done that way, and had many fabulous experiences. I wore sneakers for most of my trip, and walked a lot! My legs ached quite a bit and stopped me sleeping properly to begin with, but my Dad was awesome and reminded me that tonic water was good for that sort of thing (something to do with the quinine in it) and that helped me a lot. I discovered a magnificent cocktail bar called Polly when I was there, I loved it so much that I ended up there three nights out of the week I had available. You felt decadent just walking in, here's what it looks like: http://pollybar.com.au/
I've completely cut ties with the big band I was in, there's a lot to THAT story but I won't go into it, and I'm feeling a lot more free and less stressed because of it. Meanwhile, I hurt my shoulder somehow coming up to maybe two months ago, which has meant I haven't been going to my other band either since moving the slide in and out would exacerbate the issue. I shudder to think of what my lips are going to feel like when I do pick that trombone back up! This shoulder is annoying, it both stops me from doing stuff, and is costing me money at the physio every week. Along with my chiro and massage every week lately instead of fortnightly, due to my spine not playing nice, a significant amount of money is being sucked out of my budget lately, causing things to be quite a lot tighter than normal. Plus I finally found a magnesium supplement that suits me, but it's $40 every two or so weeks, yet more money. I do not feel good about myself when I'm forced into a position of watching my finances closely and seeing them dwindle so quickly, but that's life and there's not a shit load that one can do about it.
So, it's now less than a year until Zig and I have our wedding, which is pretty awesome. We used vistaprint.com.au to create fridge magnet save the dates. They say "Who can remember a date when it's so long away? It's closer than you think! 11th June 2011 Z & H". Cos they are fridge magnets, people can easily just stick them on the fridge, so they won't get lost and people can glance at it whenever they forget since it's been so long *heh*. The guest list issues are still kicking my butt, so I'm only giving the magnets to family and very close friends. Things are very likely to change in a year anyway, so the final guest list can wait until actual invitation time comes around, maybe 2-3 months before the date. But the magnets are way cool.
Zig and I went to Margaret River FarmStay in May. It was my christmas present last xmas, he knows I like the holiday getaways with him :) It's become a tradition that when we go away I create a gourmet platter style dinner, which we then snack on for several days. You can see the yummy food if you click this sentence. At the far end, there's also choc honeycomb, choc truffles, and that big bowl is fruit salad (Zig LOVES fruit salad, so I made it especially for him). We went and somehow crammed a huge amount of activities into three days (two nights) while we were down there. One of my favourites was the shearing demonstration at the Yallingup Shearing Shed, it held a lot of nostalgia for me and you also got to feed the sheep, and bottle feed lambs too! I skippered Zig for two breweries on the way to the farmstay, and two the next day, and then he skippered me for the Happs winery on the way back. I thoroughly recommend the Happs Pale Gold, which is a tasty white port for $20 a bottle.
I had a meeting with the boss before I went to Melbourne, hadn't had one for a long time and it was due. Since I never get lunch breaks in Myaree (it was supposed to be temporary and somehow never changed, for 1 1/2 years) we've arranged that I get a day off a fortnight instead. As I mentioned to him, I've sort of gotten used to no lunch break, but I've never figured out the issue of not having any days off. Y'know, since I work 5 1/2 days a week, there isn't much time to get things done while places are open. I've now had three or four days off in total since I got back from Melbourne, and it's been luxury. Still feeling the squeeze of not enough downtime to a certain extent, but nowhere near what it used to be before I trimmed a lot out and got these days off.
I've been feeling like I want hugs a lot lately this last week. The trouble with this is that I don't feel comfortable hugging people really (except Zig). What a sad state of affairs *heh*. I got reminded today that "...Exercising gratitude for what you have instead of focusing on the negative side of your circumstances can greatly influence...." which was a "oh, yeah, duh" moment for me and has helped a lot already. So, we'll see how it goes. I reckon I've probably just been feeling down and woeful mainly because of tight budgeting, but remembering that damn I'm pretty lucky cos there lots of cool awesome things about my life really helps negate that feeling. So, yeah. Something.
On Saturday morning, I dropped something to a friend on my way to work, and was running very short of time. So I backed out of their driveway pretty quickly, glancing left and right as one should. Unfortunately, I didn't look behind me, and some very annoying person had parked on the opposite curb directly across from the driveway. So, I was completely at fault, but it was very irritating. I got out and looked at the damage, and it was kinda nasty, so I grabbed a pen and paper and quickly wrote a note and stuck it under their windscreen wiper before dashing off to work. "I hurt your car, I'm sorry! Running late for work, can't stop" and my name, suburb, and mobile number. They finally called me on Wednesday - said they'd been in the field, so only noticed my note when they drove that car again that morning. Luckily, many years ago Zig insisted I get third party insurance. Not the compulsory third party, that covers different things, but the actual third party that you purchase that covers other people's cars. So it only cost me $300 as the insurance excess. I woulda driven off if it was a light scratch, but I couldn't do that with that much damage.
A police officer knocked on my car window while I was stopped at traffic lights on Wednesday morning. It's a funny story, you should ask me about it next time you see me :)
