Thursday, July 20, 2006

There was movement at the station

Well we finally heard some news and it seems we will be able to move this weekend. Nothing like a bit of notice. So I don't know how things will go with re-connecting broadband etc and when I will have internet, it could be a week or more I don't really know.

We still haven't had final inspection yet so if there are still things 'not right' with the place then we won't be actually living there until everything is 100%. I'm really hoping that won't be the case!!

Until next time,

- Jen

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Why walk when you can run?

So not long before I left Albury I stopped going to the gym. It was boring and I got sick of having to leave work earlier to just snaffle myself a treadmill. I started running outside. Before I went to the gym and worked up the small amount of fitness I now have, I couldn't run outside to save myself.

Er, thats a stupid expression, if I were being chased by an axe-wielding maniac I like to think I'd put in the effort and have a crack at running. ANYWAY being a little bit fitter helped with the running outside thing and now I love it. Since moving to Melbourne I' ve had a hard time finding the energy at the end of the day to go for a run, especially with it being dark and cold outside but this week I discovered a new approach....you can run in the MORNINGs! So Monday and Tuesday I got up at 5:30am and went for a run only for about 30 mins, very local just around the block. It was great, I felt a little bit worn out at the end of the day but it was great to go home and not have to nag myself to get outside and do some exercise! As soon as I'm out the door I'm fine, I walk outside and go 'aw this is fantastic'. In shorts and a t-shirt too!!

Its gotten to the point where I jog to work, run home (it IS mostly downhill). I start to walk and think....geez I could be home in half the time if I ran. The other day I missed the ascot vale train by seconds and then ran to kensington to hop on the next train along. I was pretty happy with that effort!

So since starting this blog I now have three hobbies: guitar, blogging and now running! I have yet to convince the man to join me in a run. I think Mr Cheezels and Chocolate for breakfast is against any form of exercise unless it is a sport played on a tv with a controller. In a couple of weeks I will be doing the lake attack run with some grads from work which should be fun. The most I have run so far in one session is 11kms usually its about 3 but I'm not sure which event we are in, the 5km walk or the 10km run. I'm looking forward to it anyway!

- Jen

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Hi this is Jennifer...

How may I help you?

Sigh. I knew working in a call centre (sorry 'client contact centre') would be bad. But this bad? Never! It's mentally and emotionally draining. You don't know what call is coming next, what the question is going to be and what the person on the end of the line is going to be like.

Sometimes you get lucky and its a really simple question with a really nice person who is eternally grateful to you for being able to help. The next call you might get sworn at and hung up on. Which is always fun. The days don't fly by but you don't really clock watch while you are taking calls so the time does pass fairly easily.

Its getting easier as I learn more and more and my confidence builds. Even so these three months are going to be really really tough. Home life is great but when you have a crap day at work, its hard not to bring that feeling home with you. The freedom I had in my old job is also noticeably lacking. I enjoy the six minutes I get off every hour though, oh how I value that time.

Today was 'grad day' where we have a study day. I had two exams this morning which I have been studying REALLY hard for so I was stoked when I passed. They were pretty tough and I was glad I'd worked so hard. After the exams I left and came home early (yay a break!) and the man (who is home sick) and I went and registered my car in Victoria and got me a pretty Victorian license. So now YUC is no more and I'm stuck with UGT something something 29. I think its UGT. If you ask me its not much better than YUC but I guess I'm just unlucky when it comes to numberplates. I did get to pick the number part of it though so I feel extremely privileged. I also kept one of the YUC plates to remind me that my car is still a New South Welsh car at heart.

- Jen

Monday, July 10, 2006

Rat-a-tat-tat

I'd planned to get to bed early tonight. That was before I walked out of the bathroom and froze. Not because it's cold in Melbourne but because there was a rat in the oven.

No, I'm not making up things to blog about this stuff really DOES HAPPEN! It's pretty disgusting and I hope that it doesn't reflect on my housekeeping abilities but there was a rat IN the OVEN!!

So I froze and gestured wildly at the man who looked confused but did some really stealthy manoeuvres and managed to turn the gas on. We eventually decided that the gas idea wasn't working and the man frantically tore apart the bottom of the oven. Of course Mr Rat had by then made his escape from the Ascot Vale concentration camp oven and we were left peering into the neat little hole (aka his escape route) that leads to the back of all our cupboards.

Scarily enough this is not the first rat to be seen in this house. Just last week the man (quite brutally I'm told) 'took care of' this guys not so little friend. I didn't see the first rat but the one in the oven was HUGE. I've seen dogs smaller than this thing! When I first saw it I thought the man was cooking something! Something furry...and rat-like.

So anyway, I'm grateful to the rat in a small way for giving me something (even if it's something disgusting) to blog about. I will update later (hopefully tomorrow) on the rat situation. At the moment there are three traps in the oven eagerly awaiting Mr Rats arrival.

- Jen

Saturday, July 01, 2006

It's not so funny meow is it?

I often look back on my posts and laugh, usually because I'm such a dork but right now I'm laughing about the ending of my last post. "Am waiting for something exciting to happen so I can post something people will be interested to read".

WELL! Friday night and the man and I are both exhausted after working hard all week. Sorry I should rephrase that, the man went to work all week. Anyway we'd ordered in chinese had a beer (or a Johnny Walker in the man's case) and were just sitting and chatting on the couch whilst 'Big Brother' was on tv.

Then came a knock on the door. The man peered through the keyhole (being safety concious of course) and a mildly exasperated police officer said "its the police". They told us there was a 'small disturbance' in the street and to stay in the house. So of course we got settled in our bedroom at the front of the house and peered out the windows like the busy-bodies that we are. The street was blocked off at one end by about three police cars but nothing much else was happening. The man got bored and wandered off back up to the loungeroom and then I nearly had a heart attack.

About 15 SWAT guys were walking up one side of the street (complete with the black outfits with helmets, firepower and door busting in thingamajig), the man got back in position pretty quick after that. We probably watched for an hour or more, heard the bang of the door going in and then we're pretty sure we heard gunshots. An ambulance appeared out the front of our house and then they brought a guy out, got him on his knees (with SWAT guys on either side) and eventually put him in the back of a divvy van and the excitement was over.

Just another quiet night in Ascot Vale really!

- Jen
p.s. read this in the herald sun this morning but it doesn't mention Ascot Vale. It's such a quiet street too!