Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Ce qui est chaud, ce qui n'est pas

Playing along with Loobylu

N'est pas:
  • Internet being shaped to dial-up speed for nearly 2 weeks. I was of course blaming the children for overdoing it on Club Penguin but turns out when I looked at my usage stats my blowout day is Monday when the blameless children are safely at school. And the activity eating most of my bytes? Catch-up blog reading after the weekends. So it's your fault, bloggers. You and your fancy pictures.
  • Rent going up, due to "market forces". I think "market forces" is a mean reason to up the rent. Especially when the real estate market in Melbourne is so massively inflated anyway. There's this unstated power-play thing going on which is that people NEED somewhere to live so we keep letting it be inflated. And, renters in Australia are treated like second-class citizens and can't get long leases like you do in Europe so landlords are allowed to put the rent up every 6 months if they want, by as much as they feel like. We aren't even supposed to put blue-tack on the walls. I know I'm acting like a baby about this in many regards because I chose not to be a wage slave and our rent is actually very cheap comparatively but I don't care. Market Forces my arse. Our rent is not cheap to us.
  • The Corolla's alternator dying, causing 2 flat batteries in 2 days and then making us carless over the weekend. What was even more NOT-HOT was that when we had the flat battery at the pool after swimming lessons, the 2 young boofheads in the shmancy yellow convertible initially refused to give me a jump-start because they were in a massive hurry to get to A HAIRCUT APPOINTMENT. I tell this to people and they say youth of today I'm not surprised but I WAS surprised. I seriously thought they'd be glad to help. In the end, they thought better of it and came over and gave me the jump and I quietly put up with the high levels of patronising that accompanied it and said thanks, have a nice haircut as I left.
  • Getting myself an internet filter thingo to make sure the kids don't stumble onto anything nasty and then finding I couldn't upload anything to Flickr or weigh in on Facebook. I've fixed the facebook side of things, but the only solution to the photo problem is turning it off while I upload. Apparently it's a known Mac /K9 problem.

Well, that was quite a lot of whinging wasn't it? Now for...


Chaud.

  • Being unfazeable in the face of mini-crisis. The first flat battery was at 8am in the morning just as were leaving for Climber's dental check-up (no cavities!) and it takes 2 months to get a new appointment. So I ran next door and asked my neighbours if I could use their car for a jumpstart, and as he was baby-wrangling at that moment, I took his keys, drove the car down our skinny driveway, squeezed out the 2 inch gap between cardoor and house, rang Fixit and he talked me through doing the whole palaver on my own. Backed the neighbour's car back out the driveway without incident (have I mentioned I hate reversing?) thanked them profusely (we have lovely neighbours, both sides) and got to the dentist on time. Left the car unlocked and running the whole time (Fixit couldn't believe I did that but it had to recharge for 30 minutes, it was on a quiet street off a noisy main street and I could see it from the waiting room) and then got the kids to school at 5 minutes after the bell which meant we didn't even have to sign the late book. And my battery was fully charged again. Let me tell you that I swaggered into coffee with Elda feeling pretty impressed with myself.
  • Having a Mister Fixit for a boyfriend. He took the day off Monday, took the busted alternator out of the car, dropped it into an auto-electrician's, picked up a working alternator at 3.30 and had the car ready for me to drive to tap that night. Which was a good thing, because I wasn't really keen on coming home in the dark on the tram with my stereo equipment and my takings, call me crazy.
  • Fixit getting through to the last round of the Epic Never-Ending Job Application. They rang him today. His final step is the face to face interview (out comes that suit again) which will be next Wednesday. Last week I was completely confident that he'd make it through, but when the phone stayed silent so long we both (separately and tacitly) gave up hope. When he texted me this morning I was Christmas shopping at ToysRUs and I was so relieved I all but burst into tears. Fortunately I was able to pull myself together, because otherwise it would have been me and the thwarted 2 year olds carrying on like pork chops, and that just would have been embarrassing.

17 comments:

  1. I can't help but hope he went home with a dreadful haircut (I know I'm nasty but it will grow out eventually)....

    But the last one is the very best one indeed !

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  2. This never-ending-job-interview saga is rather nail biting stuff. Anything that can be crossed will be crossed for Mr Fixit and that final interview. x

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  3. Ooh you're becoming a Ms Fixit, what with the car rejuvenation etc.

    Go Fixit on Wednesday!!!

    Esky racing is pretty hot too

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  4. Crossing everything for Fixit here too, and quite sure that he needs no psychic help from us because he'll get through it no problems, he's a total catch! They can't help but see it in the interview!

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  5. You go, you mechanically fantastic, car-reversing, got-it-all-together girl, YOU!!!

    (Yeah, and I hope the haircut was overpriced and uninspired.)

    Carolyn x

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  6. A good week for Fixit on multiple fronts then. Best of luck for the interview.

    Your alternator trouble takes me back to the days of my old Corolla which suffered from a couple of bouts of alternator trouble back in the day, usually in the most inconvenient of places. I am very impressed with your level of calm and organisation in dealing with that. I seem to recall I kicked the car a lot when in happened to me.

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  7. All the best for Fixit on Wednesday!

    And a big boo for feudal landlords. I was going to say something worse but I'll try and keep it nice. You're right, it isn't fair and I remember well how crap it is. As a society we really needing to be building more housing (social housing especially) so there is a bit of a surplus at the cheaper end... that would take the pressure off I think. And I agree, we should be able to take out long leases like you can for a commercial property. /end rant.

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  8. I'm not going to keep reading you.

    You are making me feel inadequate.

    When you learned to knit, I remember the first photos, and I thought, ohh, how cute, look at that, I can do that.

    Then you started cracking out all sorts of well knitted, well formed items.

    Then you got caught up in some rainbow thingy, and made all of these beautiful items, not destined for me, but that is not the point, well, maybe it is. I digress...

    NOW you are jump starting cars and staying calm in the face of crisis and holding back tears when all I would do would howl like a wolf at the full moon.

    Good luck to Fixit on Wednesday, I MIGHT come back...MIGHT...just to see how he did. But after that....!

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  9. Good for everyone! Great news. Does Fixit need a nice new Italian tie with tasteful, elegant formal blokey floral sprigs of red and blue against a goldy- yellow background? For the final round, that is.
    My word verification is refull -slightly original but apt!

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  10. God I hate cars. Lucky you having the talented fixit close to hand.

    Yay for getting to the final round. I think I would have burst into tears too.

    Oh and I'm with you on the rent thing. We're not renting at the moment but it feels so frustrating when you are and you're at the mercy of the landlord's whim in regards to rent etc. Not fair.

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  11. what a bummer of a week, hope it's all sorted and fingers crossed for a super result ... sounds like you deserve it ;)

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  12. I have been wondering what is happening with Fixit and the never ending job interview. Thanks for the update! My fingers will be crossed for the actual, real face to face number.
    Surely the suit will seal the deal.

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  13. Ugh, totally hate the landlord thing. We're leaving ours soon, a panicky, my home is always perfect despite dodgy wiring, dodgy decking and failing to do repairs on time.

    And Mr Fixit getting to the final round is exactly right and fitting. Extremities crossed over here.

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  14. Best of luck to Mr. Fixit! Just today I was reading that Australia now leads the world in the size of their McMansions! And here I was, thinking you all lived in wooden huts with kangaroo skins for roofs.....

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  15. Good Luck Mr Fixit - you will be in my thoughts..

    No way could I fix a flat battery, even with a Mr Fixit to help me through.

    Just not built that way.

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  16. And Stomper ? Your French was very cultured like!

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  17. Any man who can fix a car one day then whip into a suit for a high-powered interview is undeniably hot!

    Good job Mr Fixit.

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