Wednesday, May 31, 2006

I'm coping very well!

Exciting news in the The man-Unsworth household. Exciting, because such a thing now exists! Thats right we (with a little help) have bought an apartment. Well, subject to finance. But the deposit is down!

Of course getting organised to obtain a life-time of debt can be quite stressful. As you readers know I love stress in fact as my profile says, I thrive on it (better than being bored). So this week has been interesting. Things like getting bank statements, payslips, paying off loans, changing bank accounts around and ordinary work pressures have had me on the run. Not to mention I've started house sitting / looking after best friends little brother sitting.

Monday night I was pretty flustered with a massive list of things to get done on Tuesday but as I had all day to do work-work and all day to do organisational stuff I just did things one-step-at-a-time and everything was great. Its very satisfying to have an a4 sheet of paper filled with things to do and put a line through every one of them by the end of the day.

Well...for me anyway.

Here's to being a happy home-owner.

- Jen

Saturday, May 27, 2006

It's very hard to yell at this


Pip the Photo Eater
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse.
I had been sitting here reading blogs for 2 hours wishing I had something to blog about when Mum runs in holding lots of torn up pieces of paper and goes 'the dogs ate your grad photos'.

I know that if I was a postman (person) and I had a big envelope marked "photos do not bend" I might not balance them precariously on a round letter box where they can be exposed to the elements. Elements being not only wind and rain, but two labradors.

The photos cost me $100 and I was spewing after the ceremony (after I'd already had them taken) when my parents said that I didn't have to get them done and they were happy taking photos outside, but now not only do I not have $100 I also don't have any photos!

Mum says she is going to re-order them because the dogs only ate 3/4 of the re-order form.

You try yelling at a dog that looks like this. I'm sure it was her and not Tammy that ate them, even if it was Tam that put her up to it.

- Jen

Thursday, May 25, 2006

It's only natural that I should be leaving home.

After going for a run tonight I made myself dinner, ate it and then my night came to a screeching halt. I felt too tired to play the guitar, there is nothing on tv, all my dvd's are in Melbourne and I felt a-little-bit-sad.

After talking to jase (who as well as my friend often doubles as my online psychiatrist), he came out with a question that made everything click.

"are you stressin because moving is becoming so real and its going to take you out of your comfort zone?"

The answer I decided is a resounding yes. As much as I do love the man, I'm also a bit nervous and apprehensive about moving down there. Understandably I guess. Also for some completely unknown reason to me I'm a little bit sad about moving away from home. Realise of course that I have moved out of home before and both my parents are rarely home when I am anyway.

I'm trying to think of sides of me the man might not have seen yet. I can't actually come up with anything which is good. I guess its a bit like:

"you've seen me at my worst and it won't be the last time I'm down there"

So apart the wriggly worms of excitement and anxiousness in my stomach about moving in with the man there is also the butterflies of nervousness about having to start a new job flying about too. I'm still at the ATO but working a new office, in a new job, with new grads, new co-workers etc etc. Essentially I'm going to be the new kid at school. I love the grads here in Albury. We were all thrown in together, all in the same boat and we're all good friends. In Melbourne, who KNOWS what they are like!!

I think Jebediah says it perfectly with:

"Hope I like the life I find when I leave everything behind I hope I'm sure
I've made my mind, to go and leave home".

Having said that I do think that the wriggly worms of excitement have the upper hand against the anxious worms. They're wrigglier!

As usual blogging and a chat to jase has cheered me up no end and I think I could give the guitar a go, ph-ew!

- Jen

Monday, May 22, 2006

Only 5? Weird things about me

Well I saw this over at Tired Tunia's and I thought I'd give it a go. Here is 5 weird things about me.

1. I really hate loud noises like people yelling suddenly, vacumn cleaners, drills and the crashing of oven trays especially. They really upset me and put me on edge. I know, weird.

2. I prefer to drink hot or very warm water. I find I drink it a lot faster and that I can usually fit my 2L of water a day in a lot easier if it's warm.

3. As mentioned a couple of posts ago I really am getting to the point where I can't stand white bread. Even muffins are pretty much out (the toast ones not choc chip). I know its mostly psychological and best friend might have something here but I just hate the stuff. Even multigrain if I can see 'too much white' I don't like it. Cake is okay in any colour.

4. I eat things I shouldn't. I don't mean this in the sense that I eat junk food I mean like I eat things like whole apples. The core and all.

5. I cannot stand the smell of parmesan cheese. I really can't. Taste is fine but if I smell enough of it there is a good chance I will throw up.

Share your weird things!

- Jen

Sunday, May 21, 2006

The petrol heist that wasn't

Driving home from Melbourne today (last time!!) and I stopped at the Mobil just before Seymour for some petrol. After I had filled up my car I moved it to the front of the shop (it was pretty busy and I didn't want to hold up other people). The queue was a mile long so I had plenty of time to get out my EFTPOS card ready to pay.

Except it wasn't there.

I took out every single card in my purse, went right through them, emptied my handbag out, went right through that and then blind panic overtook me.

This isn't something that happens to me, I'm ORGANISED!! This is something that happens to Jason!! I'm going to get ARRESTED!! No-one will believe this with petrol prices the way they are!!! .

I had about $10 cash to pay for $45 of fuel. I also had an expired EFTPOS card so I stepped out of the massive queue and went over to the ATM to pray that I could withdraw the money and avoid being arrested.

Thankfully it worked. Why I don't know its been expired a month now but phew!!
Definitely got the heart rate up though. So I figured I didn't have to go the gym tonight.

- Jen

Saturday, May 20, 2006

To eat or not to eat, that is the question.

On Thursday night I went around to best friend's house for dinner. I'm actually house sitting there in a week so I had to get the low down on things such as when to lock James in his room, if I should feed him etc etc.

After the usual and not so upsetting comments about how I'm thin (I know I'm thin but apparently everyone thinks I don't have access to a mirror or something), Best Friend's mum decides to tell me that everyone especially best friend are very worried about me.

Worried about me because I don't eat properly. It has been frustrating me for years now this thing best friend has about me not eating properly. Common sense would tell you that just because someone is not fat doesn't mean they don't eat. All this frustration about trying to prove I eat properly finally caught up with me and I got very upset. After I finished getting very upset I started to build up feelings of quite intense anger and a little bit more frustration.

The list of people who will tell you that I eat is quite long. After all eating is something one does quite regularly. There are people at work who can tell you that I eat morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea every day. There is my family that I live with who see me eat meals such as dinner and breakfast (my favourite meal of the day). The other girls in the grad program can tell you I quite often eat naughty things like chocolate, cookies, lollies and did I mention chocolate.
Jason can tell you that often on a Tuesday night we will eat steak sometimes followed by ice cream. Just the other night we went out for Thai and ice cream.
The list goes on.

So having proven that I do eat and there is a large amount of people that can vouch for me on this point, there is something else. While I do enjoy a mocha and cookies as much as the next person, it is only something I do once or twice a week. I do this strange thing where I eat healthily and do exercise (its this new craze I'm trying out). Funnily enough I don't really put on weight.

A day of food I ate last week included:

Breakfast

Large bowl of porridge with low fat milk

Morning tea

3 biscuits with cup of instant coffee (yay for nescafe mild roast with milk and 1 sugar)

Lunch

Tuna and salad sandwich on wholemeal bread with a pear

Afternoon Tea

Apple

Snack before gym

Apple

Dinner

Chili con carne with brown rice

Dessert

Tub of yogurt and apple.

Apart from my crippling apple addiction (yay for jonogolds!) I think that is a fair assessment of an average weekday's food for me. Throw in 2.5L of water and a 3-5 km run on the tready and thats me done. Thursdays are an entirely different matter where everything goes out the window because it's grad day which involves eating lollies for two hours, going to get mocha's and cookies then going back for an hour and a bit and then going out for lunch.

I think there is a healthy balance in there. The only thing that causes me concern about my diet is my love of apples and the fact that I detest white bread. Love bread but it's got to be brown. Even on that point I win because at least I eat bread. Unlike someone I know.

It upsets me that I have to write something as stupid as this (I'm in Melbourne in a room with no heater and my fingers are frozen), but hey if my friends don't think I eat properly then I think it was worth it.

Thoughts/comments?

- Jen

Sunday, May 14, 2006

You are the..


the_man
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse.
Tunes in my head, the fire in my ribs, you are the voice in my heart that whispers compassion.

Today is a big day on jentopia. Not only is it jentopia's one year
blog-irthday it's the man and I's two year anniversary.

I woke this morning to the rustle of flowers and chocolate (rustling chocolates??) which was very sweet.

As I drove back to Albury tonight it was with the knowledge that it will be one of the last times I will have to do it. Very nice.

To the man, I love you. These past two years have been fantastic. I never ever thought I could be this happy. Thankyou.

- Jen

Nintendo: Wii like to shoot ourselves in the foot.

As we all know (including the most avid nintendo fan), Nintendo aren't exactly at the peak of the video game/console industry. I'm not knocking the gamecube by any means but it wasn't exactly a roaring success for nintendo (at least not in Australia). The DS has done okay but hand held gaming isn't as big as consoles etc.

So the next generation of consoles is coming out with the Xbox 360 already out there, PS3 on its way and Nintendo annouces to the world it is bringing out the 'Wii' (pronounced, w-e-e).

From the Nintendo site:

'Wii sounds like 'we' which emphasizes this console is for everyone'.

Oh dear. I would love to hear how the marketing geniuses over at Nintendo thought up that one. It's a bit like when you think about baby names, you think about what kids in the playground are going to turn in into. But the 'Wii'. I mean really, they won't even have to try.

Having said that it does look like fun. I'm pretty sure that even on the tight budget we will be on, the wii will be part of our loungeroom when it comes out.


- Jen

Jentopia - One year on

Well today marks the one year anniversary of Jentopia! I can't believe I actually kept up with posting and I also can't believe how much I enjoy blogging. As I've said I whinge less to real people, and it appears that there are a few people out there who do want to hear what I have to whinge about.

To all those people that read Jentopia (especially those that comment on my posts) thankyou for reading!!!


- Jen

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

This is how it's supposed to be

It's been awhile since I had a good laugh at myself. You know the kind of thing that happens because its funny in itself. Not something one of your friends says. Or something you quote from a tv show twenty times a day ("computer says no"). This had me giggling for awhile.

Now I'm not the kind of person who likes a fight or 'conflict' as it's called in the workplace. But if something happens and it really annoys me I will usually complain. So tonight when I walked into the toilet at the gym to get changed I saw something a little odd. There was someone in there, a lady (wearing a club uniform) who looked shocked to see me who then threw something in the bin and then stuck her head under the tap and had a drink (little odd). I went into a cubicle to get changed and then the smell hit me.

Cigarette smoke. At first it was just a bit smoky but because it was such a confined area I started coughing, a lot.

So I got annoyed and went out to reception to complain (I know, I'm terrible but hey I was just about to exercise on a lungful of smoke). The guy got upset when I told him ("really? because employees aren't allowed to smoke anywhere on the premises") and he called the head manager.

There I was standing there feeling like THE biggest idiot. Who complains?? I'm worried this person is going to ask me what the employee looked like and I can only remember sketchy details (Miss Plum in the lounge with the candlestick). Then the manager comes out.



It's the same lady.

In between my confused look and babbling she managed to get me outside (presumably so the guy on reception wouldn't catch on) where she apologised for smoking etc etc I wasn't really listening because I was still in a state of shock.

When she left I laughed and laughed for about 5 minutes and then kept having random giggles the whole time I was running. Definitely tickled my sense of humour.

Now what was I complaining about?

- Jen

Just wait a minute, just sitting waiting.

Thankyou National Bank. Thankyou for raising the interest rate on my loan to 10.10% from 9.10%. They are obviously maths genius' over there if they that think that a 0.25% interest rate rise actually means 1%. I know that once this loan is paid off I will be happy to say farewell to the National Bank.

I can't wait for July when it goes through the roof (its a deferred loan and thats when I have to start paying it back).

There is nothing like thinking about spending a lot of money to have something like this happen.

- Jen

Sunday, May 07, 2006

This is fantastic, I'm in heaven

After studying this morning I went to the gym, came home and had lunch, finished my study for the weekend and pondered what to do next.

As it was around afternoon tea time I made myself a nice cup of coffee and got stuck into my dark chocolate lindt bunny while sitting down and reading blogs.

This is fantastic.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Always look on the bright side of life


ridiculous
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse.
See this distance? 1.91kms. By insuring my car 1.91kms away in Moonee Ponds I can save $250 on insurance.

As Tony pointed out though these costs are worth it considering I'm getting to Melbourne.

I'll stop griping. After all when I register my car in VIC I might be able to rid myself of my number plate beginning YUC. Imagine the pride of going to pick up your first 'real' car all shiny and relatively new and they bring out something with a numberplate YUC.

Always look on the bright side of life (de do de do de do de do).

Visiting is pretty, visiting is good

It seems the gods of money are out to make my life miserable. Moving to melbourne was supposed to be fantastic and exciting but the financial aspect is just making me stressed out and unhappy. I'm trying to look past all that to how great it will be when the bills are out of the way but cost after cost keeps coming up to beat that out of me.

I thought Victorian rego was supposed to be cheaper? After all in Albury people pretend they live in Wodonga because of it. Yet while rego in nsw costs me $216 and full comprehensive insurance costs me $450, to register my car in VIC (with new numberplates etc) is $925 and $546 a year after that while insurance is a whopping $1100. How does that work? So what if I don't have to get a greenslip or get my car roadworthied. Even with all that its still cheaper in NSW, and I'm not driving an unsafe car.

It appears Melbourne might be a great place to visit but living there is a right pain.



- Jen

p.s. if anyone who is living in Melb can give me approx rego costs for their car so I can see if I've made a mistake that would be great. I drive a Ford Laser '99. I wonder if seeing it's an 'old persons car' I could try and get some kind of senior citizens discount.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

We're clever but we're clueless.

People (who have money and three houses) will tell you that paying rent is a waste of money. 'Why be paying money off a property you don't own when you can be paying it off a mortgage on your own house'. These people (who have money and three or even four houses) are wrong. There is no interest rate (particularly now) or house that isn't something on the edge of a swamp hundreds of miles from civilisation that would make this statement even remotely true.

Last night the man and I worked out a budget together. There was the sacrifices (like getting a cat or at least a cat that eats), the tears (we have how much left over after expenses??), there was the pessimism (me but I like to refer to it as being realistic), there was the boundless enthusiam that is unfortuantely infectious (the man).

The man has found a place. It's in Moonee Ponds and apparently it's perfect. I would love to buy an apartment. Unfortuantely I have a car loan and other expenses that come with a car. I also lived at Woodstock Crt for a year and have a feeling that I might not have the most blemish free credit report. There were a couple of phone bills that were paid late and I'm pretty sure that counts against me for 5 years or so. I mean I'm no Pixie Skase but it probably won't look good.

I have a feeling that a bank would laugh at me. The man is also looking at Aussie home loans so if anyone has any experience with them let me know. The big guy on the ad seems alright so I hope we get him.

It is very exciting times in my world at the moment. I just wish I knew an eentsy weensty little bit more about the property market, or even just property.

Stay tuned.

- Jen