I’m so far behind in my blog!!

Christmas this year was spent in Sydney. When we were working out what to do this year, we had no idea how I’d be feeling at 8 months pregnant, so we decided it was safer to stay in Sydney. Mum and dad decided to come up and celebrate with us, so we collected them from the airport bright and early on Christmas morning.

Aurelie and Nico were also invited to have Christmas with us, and their treat was to come and cook us a roast venison! We also had cold ham and cold BBQ chicken, but the venison was fantastic! Mum had made a pudding and had brought it along, and we made custard and brandy cream to go with it. YUMMMMM!!!

After lunch we opened our presents. I don’t know how baby did it, but it had apparently gone shopping and bought both Andrew and I some gifts…apparently it thought we needed some bath toys and finger puppets!

The rest of the day was spent watching a DVD we gave mum for Christmas, having a bit of a snooze, and finally eating some left overs for dinner.

I think we all had a lovely day.

Yes, the saga continues.  I thought it was all sorted out after I went into the bank to identify myself and get the password changed.  But I was wrong….

Last Friday afternoon I got a phone call from the fraud area of the bank.  They asked me if I was expecting a deposit by cheque into my account, of close to $10,000.  No, I wasn’t (I wish!!).  The cheque that was being deposited in my account was a stolen cheque, and the result was that the fraud group put a stop on all my transactions.  The lady I spoke to was nice enough to let me go to an ATM, call her so she could take the stop off my accounts, let me get some money out for the weekend, and then put the stop back on.  Otherwise I think we would have been in a bit of trouble, having no access to money!  I rang Andrew and told him what was going on, and he was about to try to buy something at a shop with his card, so he put the item back on the shelf and left the shop!!

The lady from the fraud group told me I had to change all my account numbers, so Andrew picked me up from work and we went to a bank to start the process.  Yesterday both Andrew and I had to talk to our respective Human Resources groups to see if they could fast track putting the new bank account onto the system so that we could close down the old accounts asap, and today I spent 2 hours at the bank changing money across accounts, changing our credit card number, changing our banking identification number, and trying to ensure that everything was set up as it was before all this happened.  Hopefully we’re well on the track of having this all sorted out even though there is still a fair bit to do.  Hopefully we will have access to our money now so we can pay some bills, and in about a week our new credit/ATM cards will arrive so we’ll be able to access cash again.

This really isn’t my idea of fun!

A topic I never thought I’d have to worry much about….until tonight.

Andrew and I checked the mail tonight when we got home from work and there was a letter from my bank.  In it I was informed that on Wednesday last week I had changed my telephone banking password.  But I definately didn’t change any telephone banking password, and infact I very rarely have any occasion to even use telephone banking.  So I rang the bank to try to find out what was going on, and they told me that the password was changed on Wednesday and got me to try my password and naturally it didn’t work.  They then informed me that I had requested a new ATM card, stating that mine was damaged.  This got me quite worried, and I was then told that it was being sent by mail to a PO Box in Regent Park.  I don’t know anyone who lives in Regent Park, nor do I have a PO Box.  After lots of discussion with the person from the bank, a block was put on the card but they were unable to change the telephone banking password since there was no way of telling whether or not I was the rightful owner of the accounts over the phone.  So I have to go to a branch tomorrow to identify myself and get this all sorted out.  We informed the police as well…went to the police station and a constable took some details.  I had checked my account over the internet, and there was the incorrect PO box number and a mobile phone number (Andrew says it would be a prepaid number) so we took all that to the police.  I don’t know if any of this will be useful to anyone, but it’s better than doing nothing.

Andrew just reminded me that a couple of weeks ago we suspected that our mail had been tampered with, since one of our letters from a local politician had been ripped open.  There have been other reports of mail going missing in the residential complex….ranging from months ago to relatively recently.  This means that my other task for tomorrow is to organise a PO Box which should be more secure.

I’m glad that it doesn’t appear that our bank accounts have been touched, so the situation could have been worse, but it’s still pretty horrible.

Apparently bogong moths make an annual migration from Queensland to the alps in NSW and Victoria to beat the heat of Queensland for the summer, that’s over 1000 km! Aborigines would visit the mountains in the summer months to collect the moths to eat….they are said to taste like roasted peanuts when cooked. I remember being on an outcrop of rock one evening as the moths left their crevices at Mt. Buffalo in Victoria. There were thousands of them, and some got caught up in my hair as they flew past.

We’ve had a moth infestation over the last few days. Hundreds of moths have been flying around our flat, and creeping into the crevices of the sliding door frame so that when you open the outside door in the morning, loads of moths fly out (they seek dark cool places to spend the day). Because they creep into these sorts of places, some have also managed to get inside. We found out yesterday that the moths were, indeed, bogong moths. We have had some very strong westerly winds over the last few days, and apparently these poor moths have been blown off course on the way down south and have ended up in Sydney! So we finally got our explanation of why so many moths have been fluttering around lately.

Andrew said that last night he woke up when the guy who lives in a flat opposite us (in another building on the same complex) spent about 10 minutes spraying the moths. While I felt sorry for the moths, who didn’t do him any harm and didn’t mean to be here anyway, I had to laugh at how ineffective his actions would have been. With every 100 moths he killed, there would have been another 100 to move on in!

Yesterday we bought a new car. And when I say new, I mean brand spanking new. Well, pretty much, it’s the show room demo (which means we didn’t have a choice of colour) so it’s had a load of bums on the seats, but otherwise it’s new.

We decided a while ago that it was time for us to think about getting rid of the WRX. It’s a great car, but it has quite a few disadvantages, and to keep it we were going to have to spend quite a bit of money on it. Andrew set it up for track racing, so it’s very low to the ground. This means that we have to go over speed bumps very slowly, and still they often scrape the bottom of the car. It also means that we can’t really go on rough dirt roads, and so often we wouldn’t be able to go into a National Park that we might have otherwise gone into. It also has very stiff suspension, again because of the track racing, and so we feel every bump on the road. Andrew’s been worried that once I’m heavily pregnant that it would be very uncomfortable for me, and also for the baby once it’s born. Another problem with it is that it only uses high octane fuel, and sometimes when we’re travelling it’s very hard to find, and it can get stressful trying to find fuel (or some octane booster) that we can use. So even though we both love the power of the car and really enjoy driving it, we’ve decided to trade it in for a new car.

We’ve bought a Subaru Outback. It’s a huge wagon, which is a bit of a concern for me because I like small cars and trying to reverse park the new car worries me. But Andrew says I’ll be fine, and that the problems I have reverse parking the WRX is because it has low visibility behind it, but the Outback will be fine. I just hope he’s right. Otherwise, it’s the perfect car for us. It’s high off the ground, it has lots of space for camping gear, there is enough space across the back seat for a baby seat and two adults (gives us the flexibility of being able to go out for the day if Andrew’s parents or my parents come to visit), has high and low range for slightly more difficult terrain though you wouldn’t take it up the side of a mountain or anything, and it’s not too bad on the fuel consumption (about the same as the WRX). We got leather seats and a sunroof too, which just makes it that bit more comfortable and nice for us. We’re also getting a tow bar put on, the front windows tinted (the rear ones have dark privacy glass), an alarm system and carpet mats. The only real disadvantage of this car (besides it’s length but that’s what makes it so comfy really) is that it doesn’t have good acceleration. But then, pretty much anything after the WRX will feel slow. It just means we’ll need a bit more time for overtaking.

So, on Saturday we pick up the new car and will be as poor as poor can be, but we will have a nice car, we also have a nice (though small) place to live, and we both have decent jobs. So we’re pretty well set up, we just need to start saving for some baby stuff now. 🙂

Noisy miners are well named!  They are such noisy little birds.  It is also the main bird we find in the trees outside our flat.  We occasionally get other birds as well, but most of the time there will be noisy miners.  So I guess I’ve become used to their squarking, but this morning there was one little bird that was making quite a racket.  Andrew went to check out what was bothering it, and it appeared to be a single bat who had settled in for the day.  The little bird kept hopping around the tree, some 2 – 3 feet from the bat and complaining about it’s presence.  After a while a second little bird came along and also started complaining, but the only result was making the little bat’s ears twitch.  It’s always nice to see something new in the trees. 🙂

I live in an apartment complex of some 300 units spread over 6 buildings. In one of the buildings there is a small gym, 25 metre pool about 3 lanes wide, a spa and a sauna. Each building has a BBQ area on the rooftop which can be accessed by the people who live in each particular building, and the grounds are landscaped with a small playground for kids located near the front of the complex. There are bylaws that the residents must obey, a company employed to manage the strata, and an owners’ corporation. Pretty typical stuff for a residential complex.

Much as I like our flat, I have issues with bylaws. Yes, I know that it’s against the bylaw for residents to install clothes lines or even dry clothes on the balconies, but I think it’s a good way to use the free energy of the sun instead of wasting energy in clothes dryers. Yes, I know it’s against the bylaw for residents to park in the visitors carparks, but when you bring a car home from work (that you don’t own) because you need it for work that night or the next day, then surely that’s grounds for using a visitor space (there is close to no street parking around our complex). And is it really necessary to discuss whether or not it’s allowed for residents to put Christmas lights on their balcony?

If you want to own an animal, do anything to the external part of your property, or basically do anything, you have to ask permission from the Owners Corporation so that the select few on the committee can feel like gods and approve or not allow people to live their lives. Andrew and I went to a meeting several months ago, and it seemed that one of the residents wanted to install a 60 cm dish on their balcony, but the consensus was “oh no, we don’t want to look like NASA”. The people in question were from the Russian embassy and wanted to receive Russian TV programmes. But noooo, that wasn’t allowed. I’m allowed to put a BBQ on my balcony (at least I put one there without asking permission), which is bigger than a satelite dish, so why is one allowed and not the other.

The latest one came in a newsletter yesterday. Someone wanted to have a child’s birthday party somewhere on the complex. I don’t know any more details than that, but it was rejected. Not only rejected, but there was a statement in the newsletter that parties of this kind are not allowed. Hmmm, can someone tell me what kind that is? Is that any sort of party, just a birthday party, just a party for kids? I am well aware that I don’t have the details of the party in question, but surely the resident was asking permission to use a roof top, or maybe even a grassed area (where, by the way, the Owners Corporation have organised gatherings for the entire complex before). Neither of these areas get much use, infact the roof top has a BBQ, sink, table and is an ideal location for a party! Not only that, but noise-wise these places would be good locations to gather at since the noise wouldn’t rebound off the buildings and echo like it can between the buildings. Roof top New Years Eve parties haven’t caused any problems in the past, as far as I know, so why should a kids party?

Yes, living in high density living means that we have to be aware of our neighbours, respectful of them and consider them at all times. But surely there should be some reason in the decision making of the Owners Corporation. And no, I don’t want to be on the committee to try to put some balance back into the decision making, from what I’ve seen of it it’s petty and I would be immensely irritated the entire time.

Just let people live their lives!

A victim of the spray can

Flywire screens seem to be an optional extra in Sydney.  Surprisingly enough I didn’t have any problems with flywireless windows until we moved to Mascot.  Just a couple of weeks after we moved we were getting eaten alive by mozzies, and what I found almost more disturbing was that buzzing that you hear around your head when you’re trying to get to sleep.  About the only good thing that our landlord did while we lived in that flat was that he paid to have flywire screens put in.  We were so thankful.

So when we bought our flat, the very first thing we organised was flywire screens on the windows and doors.  It was a wise move, we didn’t have any problems with mosquitos all summer so it was money well spent!  So we were a little confused a couple of mornings ago when we noticed a lot of mosquitos in the bathroom.  We killed at least 20 and there were some still flying around.  And once we started looking around we saw many in the kitchen/dining/lounge area as well.  No matter how many we killed, there were at least as many again the next morning.  And again thismorning.  We couldn’t work out where they were coming from, until tonight Andrew wondered aloud whether they could be coming from the water that some old flowers were sitting in.  I knew I should have thrown them out a while ago, I guess I just never got around to it.  Neither had Andrew. 

As I picked up the vase a heap of mozzies flew off.  I pulled out the old flowers and looked in at the water.  It was literally wriggling, there were loads and loads of wrigglers in the stagnant couple of litres of water.  So the mystery of where the mozzies were coming from was solved.  And a can of fly and mozzie spray purchased from the shop at the front of the complex fixed the rest (I’d already given up swatting them with paper because I kept leaving coloured marks from the newsprint on the wall and ceiling!). 

So the moral of the story is….flywire screens aren’t useful when the mozzies are found in the flower water!