Waiting To Arise

Still a bit down.
Ever had those times when everything just seems to go wrong – not in any way that’s easily fixable, just…not right?
We’ve had different things in different spheres go a bit awry in some way or another lately. You end up questioning if you’ve turned the wrong corner somewhere and are somehow lost on the wrong road out of town…
Turned up to look at a place today. Seems we got the wrong day, which would explain why nobody else was there. 😆 Two more viewings tomorrow. We talked to a neighbour who has just moved from this complex. She was saying that they paid the money on the app the agents use to apply for places. It says that the fee is not compulsory (and technically it isn’t), but you seem to have to pay it to get anywhere – we have four stars out of a possible five star rating as tenants. Paying the fee (for some sort of “verification”?) would get us the last star. It’s for each adult on the application, though, which means at least $80 all up for us, probably $120 to be sure.
Still, I’ve been packing a bit more. Looking at listings each day. Listening to YouTube to cheer me up 🙂
Here’s a couple of songs I’ve been enjoying lately.
The first one is from an album I’ve just bought, although it’s coming to me from the U.S. so I’m not sure when it’ll get here.

…and this one is an a capella version of one of my favourite Beatles songs.

I’m going to listen to some more music before reading a bit, then bed.
After all…tomorrow is another day, and another chance to arise. And shine.
❤

Published in: on November 14, 2022 at 8:44 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Boxes, Little Boxes

…and medium size boxes, and even some bigger ones!

Yes, still packing.
We seem to have missed out on some places that we really wanted, and we are feeling the time slip by now. It won’t be too long until we have to sign another lease here, and the rent has just gone up.
Still, we do have some viewings coming up.
My Babe has rearranged the furniture a bit so that he has more room for his computers and instruments.

There’s a lot more room now, which is useful for when I need to put the washing on hangers inside.
We could still do with an extra room so he can set up a permanent business space.

I don’t know where we’re going, and when. I just want to get there.
I’m tired, and a bit down about it all.
We might not be moving yet…but I suppose I can keep moving on!

Published in: on November 10, 2022 at 10:15 pm  Leave a Comment  

Playing The Game

Another round of house viewings…
Yesterday my Babe missed one of his classes to view a place, only to find when we got there that it would have to be rescheduled. Not the agent’s fault – the tenant wasn’t contactable, and there was a dog shut in the house.
I quite enjoy looking at other people’s houses – not because I’m nosy (you never look in cupboards etc if there’s someone living there), but because I find it interesting to see how other houses are put together. Some can be quite puzzling, especially the older ones where it looks like rooms have been randomly stuck on at intervals. Most of the places we’ve looked at have been newer builds and often quite small, even if there are technically four bedrooms/two bathrooms.
I think we’re getting past the thrill of looking around. We just want to be home.

Coming back from the viewing-that-wasn’t yesterday was a bit dispiriting, but I cheered up when I got my mail. I’d ordered a DVD of John Farnham’s Live Tour with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and it arrived yesterday. Watched it while eating dinner, and felt proudly Australian.

We’re starting to see some of the same faces at different viewings. One of the boys jokingly called them our “rivals”, but of course we’re all just trying to find somewhere we belong…
The two places we looked at today were different. The second place we saw was no better than where we are now, at a higher rent. The first place, though, was beautiful! We’ve put in our application, prayed over it, and are just waiting to see what the answer is.

😆

There are more viewings next week…time to rest for a bit now.

Also, to have a final listen to The Voice!

Because everyone’s just having so much fun!
😀

Published in: on October 29, 2022 at 10:26 pm  Leave a Comment  
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A Taxing Time

I have finally got around to putting my tax return in! It’s one of those things that kept crossing my mind…except when I was online, where I could fill out the form and lodge it. In the end, it was easy, and I have avoided the fine I would have got if it was after October 31st.
Sometimes the easy things are harder than they seem…

Well, we’re still looking for a house – we get to the final stage, but then go no further. From what we can find out, it’s nothing to do with us personally, it’s just that there are too many people for too few places.
Still, I’m enjoying dreaming of how we would fit into each house we look at.

What with this, that, and the other (houses, taxes, Centrelink…) it’s sometimes hard to keep calm and carry on. Sometimes it’s a bit more like this –

Ok, maybe not quite like that.

My inner screaming is not that melodic.

We’ll get there, wherever there is meant to be.
In the meantime…

Published in: on October 25, 2022 at 10:14 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Stilling…

Unfortunately, we didn’t get the house we liked, even though our application got through some of the stages. We’ve heard that there are apparently too many applications of a high standard for each rental, so someone has to miss out 😦
I was quite disappointed when we heard yesterday, but at least we can look at more listings – we’re going to see a place on Saturday. I’m just at the stage where I want to be moved and done, certainly before it starts getting too hot. We’re sort of partially packed, with boxes in odd places.
When I’m feeling a bit blah, good music helps to calm me.
Today was a bit more like this…

🙂
I’d still like to be settling into a new place, though.

The rain today has made me think of this song – I’ll have to get the album!

Published in: on October 19, 2022 at 9:20 pm  Leave a Comment  
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My Life, In Coffee

The last few days, at least!
I had a busy Thursday/Friday – those are the days my Babe is away at uni until late. They were also the days we were given to inspect a couple of houses…
I don’t travel well these days. In my youth 🙂 I could walk wherever I needed to, carrying whatever was necessary for the day. At the moment it’s too much to walk to the bus stop from here, so I get a lift in when my Babe goes in to catch the train. This usually means sitting in a cafe with my coffee, waiting for the time of the appointment I’m supposed to be going to that day.

There are worse things to do with my time.

Thursday was an 8am drop off, with a viewing time of 1.30pm. That meant whiling away some time at breakfast, a bit of shopping, sitting in the library…unfortunately that viewing (the only reason I was in town) was cancelled at the last minute. I got the message just as I was gathering up my things to get the bus to the house.
Friday started off even earlier – 7am drop off at the other end of town. I found a cafe open at that time –

This was my view.
This was also my view!

It was still a bit chilly at that time of the morning, so I did move to the indoor section fairly soon after this.

The first house viewing was at 10am, which left a few hours to sit around or wander in. The boys came down to look with me – that house wasn’t as small as it looked from outside, but I’m unsure about it. We put in an application for both places though.
I was reminded of a verse earlier that morning, so I looked up the psalm it came from. Do you think Someone’s trying to tell me something? 😀

Went to my regular cafe with my boys after, then library for a bit, then the viewing that was cancelled the day before.
Why do houses never look, in reality, the way they do in the real estate ads? We know to compensate for the photo stretching that seems to infect all the listings, but it still can be hard to work out what you’re really looking at. This house was the one we were most interested in. It is probably still the one, but there were differences to the photos. For one thing, the people living there at the moment have “stuff” lying about everywhere, and there were quite a lot of other people also looking at the place, which made it hard to gauge sizes of rooms or overall space. They also have pets (dogs, I think), so there was some sort of pet fur pretty much everywhere, piled up in the window/door runners. The screens in the outside doors were full of claw marks, or almost torn out in some places. We were assured it would be cleaned before the next tenants came in.

It’s been a long few days, but I’m feeling optimistic.
I was glad to have been able to get to where I needed to, but I hurt today…for some reason, overdoing things seems to also make me feel a bit flu-ey.
Today, and probably tomorrow, was/will be taking it easy days. There’s still packing to do, as well as the regular stuff. For me, most days are doing things bit by bit.

Hopefully, by next week we’ll have more of an idea of where we are.
Or where we’re going!
Until then –

❤

Published in: on October 16, 2022 at 12:27 am  Comments (2)  
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And The Earth Smiles Again

…even though it seems a bit unsure what the season is! 😆
It’s nice to have a bit of a slight chill from time to time, but I can feel the summer lurking behind, waiting for its turn.
Last week I was in town for most of the day. My Babe was out to uni early, so I hitched a lift in for a very early (for me) breakfast.

A composition of contentment. 🙂

The cafe I go to has a lot of greenery, both inside and out. There’s lots of little “still life” areas – wherever you choose to sit is welcoming.

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There are flowers bursting out everywhere!

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I had to get the bus to my appointment, then had planned to get a bus back to town, so I could get another bus home. I don’t know what was happening with delays, but I eventually decided to walk back in to where I needed to catch the bus home.
Guess what?
More flowers! 😀

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Everywhere, signs of new growth in amongst the old.

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It was a very long day for me, but I managed it – almost pre-covid energy levels! I’ve had to take it easy this week. Fatigue has whacked me over the head again, and I’ve got similar journeys that I need to do in the next few days. We’ve got a couple of house inspections, and have already filled out as much of the application for tomorrow’s property as we can (you have to go to the inspection and get a code to proceed with finalising the application). We’ve got a good feeling about tomorrow!

I got home mid-afternoon last week.
There was another pigface smiling at me as I got through the gate to the complex. This is from the gardens further down from us. They don’t have as many flowers as us, but the ones they do have are very big.

We’re about ready to really get in to packing and moving…
Roll on tomorrow!

Published in: on October 12, 2022 at 5:07 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Grab The Popcorn

…although I don’t really know where we are in this “movie”! 😆

We’ve had a look at three places so far – the first is still being decided, the second we were quickly told our “application has not been successful”…don’t know why. The third, we saw today. It looked promising online (4 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, separate living areas), but reality was disappointing. Sometimes I “feel” a place when I enter it – this one felt unsettling to me, and even faintly distressing. I felt locked in, like a prison. I’m not sure why. It was a weird sort of place – the downstairs had been built in to create “bedrooms”, but one of those had no powerpoints at all – just an extension cord dangling from the ceiling, through the hole in the floor above. There was a “kitchen” and a “kitchenette”, which included a sink and worktop in each. Apart from that, the “kitchen” had a stovetop, and some sort of toaster oven. It all felt quite industrial and institutional. There was no air conditioning at all, which is not uncommon in a lot of places I’ve seen online – some only have air conditioning in the living room and/or the main bedroom. This place didn’t even have fans, in any room or living space. The doors to the outside required a key, so we couldn’t just go out to see what was out there… we didn’t put in an application, and the estate agent didn’t seem to expect us to.

We’ll wait and see what happens with the place we saw yesterday. It’s got the number of rooms and bathrooms we wanted, but it’s overall a bit smaller than it looked online (I wish they wouldn’t stretch the photos out so much!). I liked the feel of it, though. 🙂

We’ve been taking photos and scans of a multitude of documents for applications, which all seem to take hours, so here are some photos I took of the flowers in my garden.
A little bit of sweetness and colour amongst all the paperwork!

These little pigfaces again – they’re putting on quite a show for me this year!

My sage is flowering 🙂

I don’t know what these are called, but they turn up bright and cheerful each year, whether I remember to water them or not.

As for the popcorn… I needed a giggle this evening.

Published in: on October 5, 2022 at 9:40 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Shedding The Weight

The barber down the road has had to take some time off, so the boys were not able to get their hair cut when they wanted to… thankfully my hairdresser was able to fit me in, so I’m a lot lighter than I was!
We’re still looking for a house to move to. The boys went to have a look at a two bedroom place the other day (they didn’t get it), so they wanted to look their best – hence the haircut dilemma 🙂
Biggest boy can still get away with brushing and pulling back his hair with an elastic band. Sweetest Bean’s hair is much thicker, and tends to corkscrew out into increasingly wilder shapes.
My Babe to the rescue! 😀
He was planning on a trim any way – we have a set of clippers – so he did Sweet Bean’s hair. It needed a basic cut first, then the clippers – it was too thick for the clippers to get through. Here’s what our sink looked like –

It’s like a full head of hair sticking up through the plughole!

We were supposed to look at a one bedroom place (just for us) the other day. We turned up on time, and one other lady was there. Unfortunately, no-one else came. After phoning to try to find out what was going on we were told that the viewing had been cancelled as someone had already signed a lease. Annoying enough for us, but the other woman had just driven an hour to get there, with her poor little dog in the car as well. It felt as though the estate agents were not too worried about it. The other 13 people who were supposed to look had been sent the cancellation info, and the person on the phone seemed to think it was no big deal for us to be waiting… At the moment there are more people than there are places available, so they’re not falling over themselves to be accommodating.We do have three places to look at next week, so that should be fun! We’re concentrating on four bedroom places, where the boys can live more or less separately to us, and we can all share the bills.
I packed some more things today, mostly from the top cupboards in the kitchen. It feels like taking weight off – not just by getting rid of some things, but also not having to worry about tidying/packing after it’s done, and the feeling of lightness when looking through old, happy memories.
Not to mention the approaching summer, and the days getting lighter and brighter.
Look at these little beauties!

They bloom and grow with no help from me…

The world is still turning.
The sun is still shining.
And sooner or later, we will find our new home!

Published in: on September 30, 2022 at 8:01 pm  Leave a Comment  

Coffee In The Spring

…and a chocolate blueberry muffin.

Yum!
🙂

It’s been a good week – out for coffee and muffin, home to sort through boxes and other assorted packing… We managed to get through the cupboard under the stairs, which had been my main worry. It wasn’t as hard as I was expecting, and it was fun rediscovering things I’d forgotten or thought I’d lost.
I’ve been more energetic this last week – I had a change in medication a few weeks ago, so perhaps it’s kicking in…
I also got my new glasses, so I can see clearly now (although the rain hasn’t really gone!).
Here I am in my new (pink) reading glasses.

Now I just need a haircut!

The rental market is frustrating at the moment. We tried to arrange to have a look at one place, but it seems we would have to apply for it first, including supplying all relevant documents to see if we were eligible for the shortlist, before we could even have a look. All the other places apparently don’t have viewings at the moment, even though they’re still advertised on the real estate sites. It’s a different world from the last time we were looking.
We’d been looking for places we could move to with the boys, or just on our own, if they find their own place. Now there’s the possibility that one might be able to rent a room…but not the other. We’ve had to try to get our heads around that, as it changes the number of rooms and the amount of rent we could be looking at. Hopefully we’ll have more of an idea on Monday.

Nevertheless, it’s been good to have a clearout. We are in a kind of limbo at the moment, but we are also aware that we’re in a better position than a lot of others right now. It seems like almost every day I’m hearing stories of people sleeping in cars or on couches, often with kids.

Home, sweet home.
A cliche, but true.
It is sweet to be able to have a place to call your own. I pray that everyone between homes tonight finds that one place where they are safe and welcome.
❤

Published in: on September 24, 2022 at 11:25 pm  Comments (2)  
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