Life between coffees.
I’ve had two days off work and spent it with Rae and the little ones. We even managed to wangle a coffee together this afternoon at The Coat, a rare treat at the moment. Rae’s gone out to dinner with some friends, the kids are all in bed, the cats are asleep on the couch, there’s (silent) cricket on the telly, I’ve ironed my three shirts for this week and a bonus for next Wednesday, the dishes are done and I’m exercising my inner Bolshie listening to Billy Bragg.
Who could ask for more?
My little sister, who lives about 200kms away, has had a rough week so we thought we’d do something to let her know we were thinking of her. Rae thought of sending her some chocolates, but being Friday and knowing what a pain Friday dinners can be I suggested we buy her pizza for dinner and have it delivered.
We tried a couple of the local pizza places but none would accept credit card payment over the phone so we ended up ordering online with Pizza Hut. I know, I know, but it was the only way Helly was going to get the promised pizza (and garlic bread) from us. We placed the order online for delivery in Shepp and that was done.
Apparently the following conversation ensued when it was delivered.
PizzaHutGuy : “I need someone to sign for the credit card.”
Helen : “Oh, it’s my brothers, he is shouting us dinner.”
PizzaHutGuy : “Is he in there?”
Helen : “No. He’s In Melbourne.”
PizzaHutGuy – puzzled look.
Helen : “He ordered it for us on the internet.”
PizzaHutGuy : “But how can he order something on the internet for here from Melbourne?”
Helen : “How about I just sign for it?”
PizzaHut Guy : “Ah, okay.”
St Michael’s Grammar School, I can not thank you enough. You have saved Melbourne’s last single screen cinema, the wonderful Astor Theatre. Hopefully my kids will still be able to struggle to find a park, try to figure out which of the doors are open, walk up the stair case, grab one of the last over stuffed chairs, have a chat with friends before the screening, enjoy a couple of wonderful films in the most uncomfortable seats you could wish for and then try to beat the traffic lights as they run up Chapel St in search of something to eat while they talk about the movies they have just watched.
The Astor is an amazing place, a tiny piece of Melbourne’s soul, and is hopefully now safe for many years to come. From me, and every cinema loving Melbournian, thank you St Michael’s, we (and Marzipan) will be forever in your debt.
Today is my last mortgage free day, from tomorrow it’s all about paying off that debt so today, while I can, I went and spent all my savings on lots of toys .
What? Huh? What do you mean that’s not how it works?
Anyone living in Melbourne couldn’t have escaped the mountain of stories on the rental crisis. From what I’ve read it’s similar in Sydney too – massive rental demand, no rental properties and sky rocketing costs. Of course no one can afford to buy or build which makes the situation even more stressful. Even though our rent went up six months ago we’ve been okay but that certainly changed today.
We received a letter from our landlord telling us our rent is going up 9.5%. Crap, that’s a lot. We’d thought another rise was on the way but had a figure closer t0 5% in mind. He listed every reason under the sun as to why he’s putting the price up but it all boils down to ‘because I can’. Which is fair enough for him, it’s his house and investment, but it sucks for us. The one good thing is he is resisting his wife’s overtures to sell and sell quickly; to find a place now would be a nightmare so we are just going to have to grin and bear it.
We’re incredibly pleased we’ve progressed as far as we have to securing our own place – it’s good to know this should be the last time we have to take a hit like this for someone else’s benefit. If we hadn’t have already taken the steps we have we’d probably be rushing out the door right now to start looking and even though we’ll be paying more with this rise we’re taking steps to ensure we spend a lot less – we want our own place and we want it quick.
Way back in November 2003 (that’s three houses and three children ago) I decided to keep a bit of fuzz I grew on my face. It stayed there for four years until one day I was standing in a computer shop and noticed that every other mail customer seemed to be in their mid 30s and every one of them had exactly the same goatee.
That weekend it came off and my chin(s) looked like this.
I only lasted without my security stubble for two weeks and now it’s back (it seemed to grow a lot quicker this time). I was really happy with it until I saw this Dilbert cartoon last week.
When Dilbert tells you enough is enough you have to listen, especially when you’re a geek.
1) Our taxi driver.
A mate from work and I had a meeting in the city today so we caught a cab in. On the way back we had a chatty driver, which was cool, until her proved he was a really chatty driver. As we were cruising along Dandenong Rd the taxi was filled with music.
“Bugger” he said and then picked up his mobile phone and started talking on it. While driving. A professional driver. On the phone. Driving…
But not just once. Ten seconds after he hung up (can you hang up a mobile?) his wife called back and he picked it up and started talking again.
2) Us
We just watched a full episode of Home and Away.
It must be 18 years since I watched an episode of Home and Away but we sat and watched every second. One question – what happened to Alf?
I’ve taken a leaf from Daniel’s book and started Twittering. I’ve been looking at it for a while but have only just got around to setting up the account, integrating it with my Facebook and upgrading my blogging software so I could easily add it to my blog.
For those who don’t know Twitter is a web based piece of social software that allows you to let people know what you are doing and to keep track of what others are up to. Posts on Twitter are called tweets and are limited to 140 characters, similar in length to SMS messages. You can use it to let friends know where you are or what you are up doing (you can get messages on your phone via SMS, via IM or on the web) or use it as a micro-blog, which is how I intend to use it. Every now and then I’ll just write what I’m doing, what I’m thinking of or links to things I find interesting.
There’s an RSS feed to keep track of this mini-blog, or my username on Twitter is awmalloy if anyone wants to follow me. For those of you who don’t use RSS and still make the journey to my site each time you can see the last 3 tweets on the side bar.
Every now and then an accident can be a good thing. It looks like a truck coming out of a tight alley has sheered off the side of an awning to reveal an old sign of sorts.
This one is on Wattletree Rd but a couple of weeks ago I noticed the same company name on another awning that was being renovated. It seems that Dorman Long & Co. Must have been quite busy as Malvern grew.
Well, six weeks of election over. I had rolling headaches all Friday/Saturday, ebbing and flowing so sometimes I was out taking photos of sky writing and sometimes I was curled up under the doona cursing the sun for being so bright.
By a coincidence the headaches seemed to disappear around the time it became clear Kevin Rudd was going to be our next PM. Such dignified speeches from both he and Howard. I was impressed by Rudd’s speech (currently on the front page Kevin 07), a real call to arms for the country to make a change, make a difference. I truly hope he succeeds.
I woke up this morning without a pounding behind my eyes, which was great but meant I couldn’t put it off any longer. Saturday there were mower sounds coming from all over the neighbourhood and this morning next door started as I was hanging out the washing. There’s only so much peer pressure one can take, even at 37. Out came the mower and our yards no longer look like a tropical jungle. Throw in a visit from Rob, a family outing and steak and chips for dinner and today looks pretty good.