Friday, October 28, 2011

Melbourne to Qld

This is in response, largely, to Bern Morley's blog of a few days ago. She's done the opposite to me. She's moved to Melbourne from the Gold Coast. In the mid 90s I moved from Melbourne to Ipswich. The move was the desperate measure of a recent graduate. Nursing jobs were a bit thin on the ground then, what with Kennett and his severe cost cutting measures. I'd started applying all over the joint. I even fired off an application to Kalgoorlie. In the end, Ipswich hospital got there first. The month after that was filled with a lot of lists, as well as packing. My hubbie (then boyfriend) was to come up later. Things were a bit rocky, so I was a bit doubtful, but he did.
I noticed the change in weather in NSW as we approached the border. A highlight of the trip up was when my son held a toy microphone plus stand out the car window and lost the stand. As my daughter looked at me (it was hers), I said, "I'm not going back". It was early September. Melbourne was still cold, with a cold, changeable wind, still kinda winter weather, occasionally warmer. This wasn't. The wind wasn't even cold, for crying out loud.
We moved into one of those "charming" high set houses that were built a lot in the 70s and 80s. It had no insulation, crappy carpet, no real curtains and the "laundry" (and I use the term loosely) was downstairs. Oddly enough, the bathroom was huge. Go figure. To go with the no insulation, Ipswich has a slightly different climate to Brisbane, hotter in summer, colder in winter. Best of both worlds so to speak, so that house was real comfortable at times. We did shift into an outer suburb of Brisbane after a few years. The humidity still sucks sometimes. Thanks to airconditioning. The evaporative cooling system is pointless up here, unless you like the climate of say Darwin or Cairns.
I found that a lot more people up here went to church than they did in Melbourne. Maybe all my acquaintances were a bunch of Godless wretches, but I don't think so.
Shops didn't open on Sundays at all and only until 12 on Saturdays. You could've fired a cannon down the main drag in Ipswich Saturday 2pm.
I got handed a white dress (several actually) when I picked up my uniforms at the hospital and got told to  buy brown shoes and my own red cape. WTF??? I'm not the flying nun here. I was used to the white shirt with navy pants/skirt, which now we actually have.
I did get truly sick of being called a Mexican, with varying degrees of contempt. Usually the most contemptuous were by men that I'd turned down. Interesting that. I really don't recall Qlders have the piss taken out of them like that.
Driving......people up here couldn't use roundabouts, merge and disliked being overtaken. The worst offenders for this would sit in the right lane, next to a car in the left lane with long lines of cars behind both cars. Again, WTF??? If I catch my hubby doing that, I tell him that he's driving like a Qlder, that gets a bit of movement.
I think, eventually we might move back to Melbourne, or at least the Mornington Peninsula. Of course our 2 oldest have grown up here and will, no doubt, make their lives here and our younger 2 were born here, but we're keeping an open mind.
Do I like Qld? Of course, but I do understand those that yearn just a bit for home.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Hoarding

I've been watching hoarders on pay tv lately. Car crash tv at its best. To start with it's either on the crime channel (crime against self/family) or bio (the sad story of someone's life). Watching an episode of hoarders makes me feel like cleaning and throwing out stuff, much in the same way that my ex morbidly obese neighbour used to inspire me to continue going to gym.
I've been going through my own and family member's papers/toys/stuff lately. It's depressing that there's still more, even when you're done!!! I went through the filing cabinet a while ago (both mine and hubby's drawers). He had septic tank maintenance bills from back in '98, as well as old concert tickets and a few handwritten referees from the 80s, saying what a hard worker and all round lovely guy he was when he worked in a supermarket as a kid. Mmm hmm. Generously I let him keep them. I had group certificates from the early 90s. Yep.
Mr 21 just has a load of shitty tshirts. I don't even touch them really. He also has a lot of CDs and DVDs. I do hope 2 of my DVDs eventually turn up in his room.
Miss 24 is hoarding quite differently than the usual. She is collecting stuff to put in her house when she eventually moves out for good (oh blessed day). Her boyfriend just shakes his head. I usually laugh.
Miss 10 used to be a shocker, but after a number of silent wars (you know the type, one throws something out, the other gets it back, nothing is said, at all) she is getting better. I'm still not really game to go in the bed box at the end of her bed.
Miss 7 is interesting..... I went through her room today and some of the shit I saw blew my mind. Particularly when I went behind her chest of drawers and saw empty packet upon packet of biscuits etc. Needless to say I filled a bag with "stuff" and she will probably hate me when she gets home from school. Now, to get to the old cards I've kept.....

October

New month peoples, so new post. We're very busy this month. From now on in, it's a slippery slope to Christmas. Normally at this time of year I'm starting to feel some sense of panic.  It's getting close to Christmas and we have 4 birthdays between now and Christmas.
My husband has a birthday in May. Mr 20 turned into Mr 21 (man child) in August, but so far that's it.
Now we are expecting Miss 23 to turn into Miss 24 next week. Miss 7 will become Miss 8 at the end of the month. Early next month, Miss 10 will become Miss 11. I will simply not get older at all on my birthday in early December, oh and I'm not going to mention my exact age. God knows my body lets me know that anyway. I now need bifocals. Bifocals FFS! Oh and I went to primary school in the 70s and wore ghastly hairstyles and puffy, bright clothing at various stages in the 80s.
Normally I would be in a moderate state of panic about the sheer volume of presents I have to buy. Mr 21 seemed surprised that his older sister has a birthday next week. He's only known her 21 years after all. Mind you hubby still struggles to remember anyones birthday. This year, I'm in only a mild state of panic. Thanks to my wily plan of slogging my guts out in August with the Census. I have had the cash to buy most of the Christmas/birthday pressies.....and a hexagonal fishtank and this lovely iMac that I'm currently typing on. I'm fairly sick of the empty fishtank box though. Miss 7 insists on dragging it about as variously a cubby/cat box/ hidey box. One day it will just disappear.
Guess who's going to be buying their own Christmas/birthday present though, as usual. Then I will be presenting it to my hubby to wrap and maybe getting it the present in the bag it came in with a card. Hmmm.
Anywho, I'm looking at the Gillette jewellers website. I love them, they layby.