memorial service

Sam’s memorial service will be held at the Altona Memorial Park on the 30th of July 2007 at 1:30pm.  Notices and details are in the Herald Sun (25th).

All who knew her as a friend are welcome.

Glen.

my lovely Sams

From Sam’s husband…

Sam unfortunately passed the early morning of the 19th July 2007.  It was sudden and unexpected and she will be sorely missed by all.

She brightened up every room and made us see thing in ways we did not think possible…

my lovely sams, please rest in peace.

Glen.

Chinese Notes

Chinese Notes

Originally uploaded by Sams76.

I wanted to post this on Friday, but I was too tired. Saturday, I was too tired, too busy and too disorganised. Sunday, I couldn’t find the cable and then when I took the photos, the batteries on my camera died!

I found other batteries. They died. I found others. They died. I eventually got the originals charged and managed to upload all 251 photos to my laptop. And after about an hour, the photos finally finished loading.

Anyway. What’s this photo about?

On Friday, I went out to lunch with Glen. I bought some jumpers. They were nice jumpers. They were cheap jumpers. They were $8 each! Bargain!

I walked back to work and decided to dump my purchased into the back of the bike. As I approached, something wasn’t quite right and as I got closer, I realised that there was something sitting on my dashboard.

They looked like fake notes. I guess everyone’s first reaction is to think that, I am told. Anyway, I took the notes upstairs to my floor and asked a colleague whether they were real.

Turns out they were!

I did the only thing a normal person would do.

I checked out the currency conversion from Chinese notes to Australian! haha. Yes, I confess. But the search was partly to check whether these notes were real. As you can see, they have names, like Wu Jiao.

Anyway, after we determined they were real, I took them to the police station behind our building. I waited patiently in line, only to be told that they could not help and I was basically wasting their time.

The police woman actually said to me that if it was a wad of Australian dollars, then they’d want to talk to me! Pathetic really. She thanked me for being so honest and actually said, “Merry Christmas”.

So, i took it back to the office and showed a few people. One sadly informed me that because of the laws in China, the notes could not be converted back to Australian because China typically does not allow their currency out of the country.

I would say that whoever dumped them on my bike had gone to the Ameri*can Ex*press currency exchange and was told they couldn’t exchange them.

The upshot of this story? If I was able to exchange this money, it would be worth about $10 Australian.

Merry Christmas, indeed!

Hello, is it me you’re looking for?

OMG.

OMG.

O.M.G!

I just bought tickets to the Lionel Richie concert in Melbourne for December! Woo!

I thought I had missed out, but by being a member of a certain ticket outlet, I was given the opportunity to buy presale tickets.

I’m stunned!

Woo!

Poor Glen. He has to come with me.

…yes, I am a dag.

Amusements…

I’ve seen this before, but given that I am living in devastation and disaster (see flickr photos), I needed a bit of a laugh.

The week (and a bit) in review…

You know how you leave something so long that you put it off too long to do it justice? This is one of those times. I’ve got about 10 days to catch up on; 10 days where lots happened, and yet, I can’t capture it, do it justice. Grrr.

Animals
Glen dropped the animals off to the boarding kennels. This was such a sad affair and we spent the week missing them, wishing the week would pass quickly. The boarding kennels were a bit disappointing, after such a promising song and dance they performed. When I phoned, they were emotionless, wouldn’t tell me how the animals were and were very unhelpful. So, I expect we may not bother with them again. Honestly, who tells you your animals are ‘fine’ when you ask how they are etc. And who tells you ‘Oh, we haven’t bothered’ when you asked whether they had paired your dog up with another (one of their big selling speils upon inspecting the kennels). Stupid fucks.

Work
This did not go well. Because we were staying with a friend who began work at an earlier time, I asked my manager if I could also start early and finish early. My theory was reasonable - who’s going to really be a shit about my hours when I was leaving and therefore not really expected to do heaps of work? My manager would be that shit. She gave me such a hard time, to the point where every morning, she would call me dead on 8am and call at 4.00pm to make sure I hadn’t left early. Such a bitch. By mid last week, I decided I’d had enough and stopped answering her calls and stopped giving a shit about what she said. I documented everything and at the end of my tenure, I submitted a rather lenghty exit interview document, explaining my anger.

Right up until my last day, she was demanding I complete work and was shocked when my colleague told her I had not done things - as if I was doing any work after my farewell lunch? Yeh right. I’ve never known a manager like that, though the previous manager was god-awful in many other ways. I feel sure neither would have liked each other.

House
We moved back into the house on Friday night. The house looks terrific and shortly (when I can locate my cable) I shall upload some photos We are slowly unpacking and living in shit until then. The new kitchen (in it’s natural flattened form) arrived this morning and is currently stacked up in the garage. We have managed to pull the wall tiles off in the kitchen, the wall cupboards are now gone and the exhaust fan is gone. Glen has patched the holes in the walls and tomorrow, god knows what we’ll do. Glen’s hoping that by the time he goes away in mid July, the kitchen will be ready - har har!

New Job
I am currently gainfully unemployed. I begin work on like the 14th June, so I have a few days left. I am feeling pretty good about it. It’s like getting the band back together working for my old manager. It feels familiar, like I never left. I am under no delusions about what to expect. I know it will be hard work and that I won’t be getting any favours. Looking forward to working in the CBD again. yay for life! Just have to organise my scooter again and make sure it’s all kosher.

Family
We learned late last week that Glen’s uncle Ron passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. This sort of thing makes you appreciate the things you have and puts perspective on the things you have. I think it was his last uncle alive on his dad’s side, which is very sad and another piece of ‘history’ is lost.

Anyway, that’s it. I had a whinge, I’ve recounted and I’ve recorded. Sorry it took me so long, it’s just hard to get into the rhythm again.

Don’t get too excited…

This is a short update, to let everyone know that I am alive, I am with internet and we are back in the house.

Having said that, I am knackered and wish to go to bed!

I shall update as soon as I can. Although, it’s been one of those weeks, so I’m going to struggle to recall everything.

Vitamin C

You know, no one told me that with a wisdom tooth operation, or anything to do with gums, you must dose yourself up with vitamin C, as your body craves it to heal. Funny that! I’ve been suffering a bit recently with fatigue and a very sore back (apparently a big sign). For something so common sense, it was beyond me.

Anyway, close to finishing up at my current job. I have to say, I’m please as my manager is really pressing my buttons. Maybe this is just because I’m starting to lose my ability to suffer fools. Today she was in town and apparently I was ignoring her? Although she did not approach me about it, I discovered through my colleague that this was her feeling. Now, you see, it’s kinda hard to sit and chat whilst you are doing all the friggin’ jobs she lined up for me from her blackberry on her way from the airport! Honestly, someone’s a bit paranoid. This is beside the fact that I’ve been nursing a migraine and sore back, so I was a bit fatigued and not interested in making small talk with someone, who I admit, I have come to not like too much. Perhaps lack of respect has something to do with it.

Only a couple of days until we move out of the house and let the floor sander in to do his thing. Will be back online probably Friday - if I can be stuffed. I’ll upload some photos incase anyone cares.

Have uploaded some more photos to my flickr page, just retarded renovation pics. Nothing special.

I’ll leave you with that, because I’m a boring snot and I have nothing interesting to say.

Weekend in Review…

This will be brief, so shall bullet point things for easy reading:

• We pulled the kitchen out. Or, should I say, Glen pulled it on and I smashed the shit out of everything - it was faster!
• We found a geriatric tap underneath the kitchen bench island section - just sitting there, minding its own business except for one very crucial details - it was still connected to our main water service! Yay for us! Off to Bunnings to tie it off and ‘dig a hole’ through the lovely pine boards to push it underneath the house.
• Ripped out the pantry. Lots of nails and icky bits. Glen got up in the roof to have another look at where things landed etc. Joys.
• Now we have a very large hole in our roof covered over with a very large flattened carboard packing box! Ingenius.
• The loungeroom, hallways and our bedroom are now devoid of carpet. It’s very minimalist indeed!
• The garage, very full of furniture, carpet and building materials!
• The dog very tired after two days in a row of ‘friends’ over, as our friend came over to nail three rooms full of floorboard nails into the floor! Hrm!
• Two very stressed out cats - Zeus is more stressed. Hopefully he’s week-retreat will help. I dunno.

Left to do:

• One said computer room! Argh!
• Removal of furniture from the house
• Lifting the lovely brown linoleum from the kitchen and then remove the nails
• Pulling the carpet up and removing staples and hammering more nails!
• Sweeping and vaccuuming the entire house! Argh!
• Sleep
• Eat
• Relax
• Relax
• Don’t panic
• Don’t stress
• And oh yeh, take the dog and two cats to thei animal retreat for the week. Grr. Am hoping Zeus doesn’t have another attack. Poor little man. The change is too much for him, so I’m panicking about him being in a foreign environment with different smells and potentially other cats.

Anyway, time to hit the road so I can get to work. Haven’t been to work in almost a week - it was such a bloody struggle to get out of bed this morning.

Aella Bella

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Aella Bella, originally uploaded by Sams76.

I met this little girl tonight.

SO. IN. LOVE!

I also met her litter sister, who is the runt of the litter and is struggling to live. She’s so tiny and has enlarged kidneys. So tiny and sweet. The breeder is hoping she pulls through, but won’t be letting go of her, keeping her until August to make sure she lives. Poor little mite.

Little Aella snuggled and cuddled all over me tonight. She was so content and gooey! I can’t believe how tiny she was!

Anyway, enough gooey stuff. Off to bed with me!