Home & Family TO BE FIXED – Page 4

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, John Travolta, Sydney

Star-struck (picture heavy!!)

7 November, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Yesterday it was the 90th Birthday celebration for my employers – and staff and family were able to get free tickets to an Open Day at the Sydney Jet Base. Unfortunately the weather was dreadful and the rain affected a lot of the offering on the day such as food stalls etc, but we had the opportunity to climb onboard a number of different aircraft and enjoy some live music throughout the day … and of course the SPECIAL highlight was when John Travolta flew his Boeing 707 to join us for the day. It was a real treat to see his plane taxi up to the crowds and watch him climb out of the plane in his pilot’s uniform.

Our CEO did the official opening speech, but John Travolta stole his thunder pretty quickly … JT gave a wee speech which was lovely, then he cut the 90th birthday cake and we all sang along to the Happy Birthday song with JT leading the group. Quite frankly it was a really special day, and one that will always remain as a true highlight for me … even the pouring rain didn’t hinder our enjoyment that much, and thankfully the main pelt-down waited until seconds after JT was whisked away after signing autographs and having photos taken with some lucky staff members.

Here are a few token photos from the day – if you want to see more, you can check out my Webshots album (yeah, there is a bit of overkill with JT LOL).

Then last night we had an early Christmas drinks party in Newtown – it was an entertaining end to a wonderful day, especially as my absolutely favourite person from work (or ex-colleague to be exact) was there, and it’s always a treat to catch up with him. All-in-all a blissful day … and today I intend to put a couple of stitches into ‘something’ while I catch up on some TV, I just can’t decide what to put stitches into! 😛

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Halloween, Heartstrings, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Wishlist, Works in Progress

Humble apologies

3 November, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

The humble apologies in the subject line is for Clare, who sent me an absolutely exceptional package in the mail an entire year ago, and it seems it was never acknowledged. I feel absolutely mortified about this, as I’m usually really good about sending an email of thanks and posting piccies immediately on the blog. I do remember around that time that we were having computer problems at home, and I’d been really sick, but somehow I’d managed to convince myself that I’d sent the email etc and all I had to do now was to sit back and look lovingly at my gifts for the next 12 months (the gorgeous little Loon sits pride of place in my bedroom so I can see it every day, and the exquisitely stitched and finished hedgehog ornie sits on top of my basket of smalls in the lounge). So my sincerest apologies again to Clare, and I can now share the wonderful goodies that she sent me.

Well, it appears Halloween has been and gone, and alas, even with good intentions of lots of Halloween stitching being done this year, my Halloween table display has been pitiful. Thrown together really quickly late on Saturday night, this is the sum total of my Halloween decorations this year. One whole pinkeep completed, and what is destined to become a flat-fold on display with just it’s laced section propped up {sigh} (the backing sections all have their spooky cobweb fabric coverings, I just didn’t get as far as gluing or stitching the various sections together!). Alas I’ve been too tired after work the last week and a half to do much of anything – much less stitching, and even less finishing. I think I need to take a week off work just to focus on some finishing!!

Do you see my little Halloween tree that is just all bare branches above? It lights up with teeny tiny dark purple twinkly lights, it’s really cute! Of course the plan was to have it covered with teeny tiny stitched ornies, but that also didn’t happen! But hey, there’s another 12 months before Halloween 2011 so I’ve got time to change all that 😛

Even though Halloween is now technically over, I still have the urge to stitch Halloween designs … I don’t have the urge to stitch much at all these days, so I figure I should just stitch what interests me. Of course, even when I haven’t been stitching, I have been tempted big-time with some new designs out this year, so I’ve been filling my wishlist even higher even though the needles haven’t been flying … here are the latest trifles that are taking my interest and causing a little bit of drool here and there (as you can see Halloween is definitely still high in my sights!) 😛

Blackberry Lane Designs – Rest Ye Pins-The Pinkeeper

Just Nan – Hagatha’s Purple Hat

Just Nan – Hagatha’s Orange Hat

Just Nan – Spooky Spirits of Tombstone Hill

Just Nan – Tricky Tweets

The Victoria Sampler – Bargello Biscornu

The Victoria Sampler – Winter Box Finishing

I have some more stash coming through the mail, thanks to Ann having a de-stash sale containing some to-die-for items, so I’ll be fondling some more stash soon (I know, as if I NEED any more stash!).

I was also exceptionally lucky enough to win Marnie’s prize draw for a little halloween coffin (Vampire stitching case), which should be arriving shortly. Even if I don’t manage to get any of my own stitching finished next year, this already shows that my Halloween display is already greatly improved with Marnie’s stitching and finishing, and I just adore it already without even receiving it! If you haven’t seen it yet, pop over here and check it out – while you’re there make sure you take the time to admire her wonderfully exquisite stumpwork blog header, it’s superb!

And on that note I’d better sign off and get my A into G to get ready for work, then tonight I need to force myself to watch a bit more of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo … loved the book, but I hate subtitled movies so it’s been a real drag for me focusing on it (in all honesty if I’d known it was subtitled I wouldn’t have bothered hiring it from Quickflix) – even though I don’t have any particularly big desire to stitch, the biggest drag with subtitled movies is that you can’t stitch to them!

Actually, I forgot, I do have one final thing to share … the sum total of my stitching endeavours for the last two weeks … I started stitching this only to find straightaway that yet again I’m missing two of the key threads (GAST Forest Glade and Kreinik #4 braid in 027) … pfffft 😦 Probably not helping my urge to stitch this week, as I had my heart set on finishing this one quickly … which obviously now isn’t actually going to happen – see ya stitching mojo, please come back soon!

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Halloween, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, The Trilogy

Final (?) Halloween finish

24 October, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

I really do think this will be the last Halloween stitching that will get completed, as I’d really like to finish up two of my previous stitched pieces into flat-folds in time for Halloween this year – I managed to cut up one set of matboards yesterday, but that’s as far as I got … this afternoon I’ll go ahead and glue the batting on and the backing fabrics, and with any luck by next weekend I’ll at least have one flat-fold finish-finished ready for display.

Rightio, on to my next finish – I started this when we were on holiday in Cairns last week, and put the final stitches into it on Friday night while Katie and I caught up on a couple of TV shows (the only thing that is missing is the little silver pumpkin charm, which I don’t have, and not sure I have anything suitable to sub for it just yet):

“Halloween Spots” by The Trilogy
stitched on 32ct Pipi hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch
with recommended WDW threads, except Mascara (subbed DMC 310)

Mum flew home on Friday afternoon, but before she left she managed to stitch the backing fabrics and ribbon hangers onto the 12 Days of Christmas ornaments for me, which means I just have to trim the seam allowances, turn inside-out and stuff with polyfil. Thanks for your help Mum, it’s really appreciated!

We also frantically got 3 lengths of cording completed for Mum to take home with her … which she unfortunately left sitting on the chair arm when she left, along with her DMC. A quick trip to the Post Office just before they closed saw them winging their way home again to Mum in the post 😉

We did manage to get one more length of white cord completed for my ornaments – which means I can now get at least one ornie finish-finished very quickly … but the only problem is that a new start is diverting my attention from my finishing duties … a Halloweeny stitch that I’m finding really really hard to resist – hence the reason for the title of this post! The tempting design is “The Bittersweet Season” by Heartstrings. I’m soooo tempted to start stitching this one, as I don’t think it’d take that long to stitch being only 2″ wide (although in saying that, it would probably take a full weekend at least as it’s 11″ tall … hmmm). But I really would like to get at least one flat-fold finished this week … oh decisions, decisions, LOL.

One thing I did manage to do yesterday was to mend my beautiful Greek mug. I bought this little treasure on a trip to Greece about 11 years ago – due to a mix-up at airport check-in after being rebooked from a cancelled flight (after 7 hours waiting) I was told I had to pack some of my hand luggage into my suitcase (then got told oops I’ve made a mistake, you’re fine, you can go through now but you’d better hurry the flight is boarding) – this poor thing had its handle smashed into 3 pieces during the flight (it had to be put into the suitcase). I never did get around to fixing it, and it’s been languishing in a box in the Mum and Dad’s garage ever since – I rescued it on my recent trip home, and glued the handle together again yesterday with superglue. Unfortunately I’ll never be comfortable using it as an actual mug with hot liquids, but it is now happily holding pens and scissors on my computer desk so I can sit and appreciate its beauty every day! 😀

The other thing I haven’t done over the last month is to complete the Photo Hunt posts, so I’ll rectify that shortly and do a mammoth catch-up with those soon!

In the meantime I have some TV viewing I need to catch up on, and a million other things I should be doing rather than sitting on the PC, so I’ll leave it at that for the time being …

Ooh, before I forget, I had a number of questions about the designer for the 12 Days of Christmas ornies that Mum stitched – I’ve updated the previous post with the details in case you’re interested. If there are any others that you want to know about, don’t hesitate to drop me a comment/email and I’ll give you the details.

Friends & Family, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

50th Wedding Anniversary Celebrations

2 October, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Last night we had a lovely dinner out at The Old Flame restaurant to celebrate Mum and Dad’s 50th wedding anniversary. It was a dinner with our nearest and dearest, and it was wonderful to share the evening with all the generations together in one place. Not a single one of the people there are blood relatives, but closer to us than our own family in many cases, as we have all grown up together. Anyway, it was the most wonderful time – dinner was good, the company was even better, and we finished the night by going back to Heather and John’s for another coffee and many rounds of good-hearted laughter … which is always a guaranteed thing when we all get together. I love this group of people more than I can possibly put into words – life is so much richer having them in it!

Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Stash

Quick post of goodies…

1 October, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Just a really quick post, as my laptop appears to still be temperamental and it still keeps shutting itself down – it definitely hates Photoshop Elements, so I’ve just used the Microsoft editing software to crop these piccies and adjust the lighting slightly. Anyway, fingers crossed that they upload OK …

Just before I left Sydney, I checked my PO Box one final time and lo and behold it contained the most exquisite parcel full of stitchy goodness. Michelle really outdid herself this time for our Autumn Exchange (a private exchange hosted by BeckySC) – inside the parcel was the most gorgeous needlebook and flosstag … seriously, the stitching and finishing leave mine for dead! The needlebook is stitched entirely over-one (that’s awe-inspiring in itself in my eyes!), and both the flosstag and needlebook are finished absolutely perfectly. I love, love, love my exchange gifts and will treasure them always! I managed to quickly snap a picture or two before I flew out so I could try and share when I arrived here:

2264222590047689748SNUNMs_fs

2384153400047689748JlxWtP_fs

I had a 3am wake-up call so I could get up and ready to be at the airport at 4am … then kicked myself when I remembered that the staff travel counter doesn’t actually get manned until 5pm (mutter mutter) … but at 6am I was safely ensconced in my business class seat with a glass of champagne in hand … my holidays were officially christened and underway 😀

I arrived into Auckland at lunchtime yesterday to miserable rainy weather … but after talking Mum and Dad to death for an hour Mum and I took over Dad’s car (my old car that I used to have) and we went shopping. First up was a trip to The Ribbon Rose, my new favourite stitching store in Auckland – it has the BEST selection of threads of any store I’ve seen. I was organised and brought with me a list of threads I need for upcoming pumpkin stitching, and managed to get all threads barring one which they’d sold out of … don’t you just love these autumny colours?

Then we headed back home to Manukau Shopping Centre and straight into Farmers store – I love their ‘plus size’ range by Wild Child, which are a funkier style of clothing to the normal fuddy-duddy styles you can find in plus size stores – and they usually have a great fit for me with their jeans range etc. They’re usually my first port of call when I arrive home, and yesterday I managed to find a new pair of black pants for work (which I’ve just decided to go back and buy another two pairs so I can throw out my old ones that have been worn pretty much for 6 years now!!), and three different tops. I most definitely helped to boost the economy in Auckland yesterday … and manaaged to do the bulk of my shopping before the GST (Goods & Services Tax) went up overnight 😀

Today is my parents 50th wedding anniversary – Dad’s already grumbling about going out, and that he won’t be drinking because he doesn’t like to drink and eat (don’t ask!! – sigh) … but regardless, I’ve offered to drive so they can both relax and enjoy themselves, plus then I can drive an old family friend home again afterwards. Whether or not Dad’s looking forward to it, Mum and I definitely are … we’re going to a high-end smorgasbord restaurant, with our closest family friends (who are actually family as far as we’re concerned, just not with the same blood lines) – it should be a nice night out 😀

Tomorrow we’re thinking of heading out to The Embroiderer if they’ve got the JCS Christmas ornie magazine in stock, otherwise it will be a day spent cutting out fabrics to make some clothes for moi, and going through my fabric stash here for some more fabric to take home with me … then I will no doubt have to do my annual penance of throwing out items from my old stuff in storage, then perhaps I may just get some time to sit and stitch, ‘cos so far I haven’t put a single stitch into fabric!

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt

Photo Hunt – School

18 September, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

This week’s theme is ”School” … here is my final High School photo from way, way back in time … way back to 1982 in fact 😛 (I’m 2nd in from the left in the front row – the photo is ‘borrowed’ from an old school chum on Facebook, as my old school photos are still back at home in NZ).

Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Still around

16 September, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I have some big deadlines coming at work that have just been dropped on me that I now need to do before I go on leave … along with the fact that our team has been told we need to help out the other half of the team with their day-to-day duties because they’re swamped and not coping … this is really funny seeing as I’d just walked out of a meeting with my own boss and she’d just raised concerns that I wouldn’t be able to get through my own workload before I go on leave! Oh well, I see some massive working days coming over the next two weeks, so not much stitching is going to get done I guess, except for the weekends when I’ll just be sat on my bottom and stitching like mad.

Oh well, 2 weeks from today and I’ll be on 3 weeks holiday … with absolutely nothing planned yet (apart from my ticket home to NZ) … yippee. Not sure how many days we’ll stay in NZ, but then we’ll probably come back to Oz (Mum and I) and have a wee holiday somewhere nice. Mum was keen to go to Adelaide for a quick visit, and we also wouldn’t mind either going back up to Cairns/Port Douglas once again, or drive down the coast and stay at a place which right now the name escapes me! I’d rather not stay at home in our flat much during the visit, hence the idea of tripping away somewhere nice, which also gives me a true break before going back to work again 😀

A GP visit this week to get a whole raft of blood tests done – mind you my 3 weeks leave will probably do a whole lot more for my mental and physical health than anything else 😛 I’ve already started thinking about what stitching to take with me, and so far have the list narrowed down to about 6 months worth of stitching time hahaha.

Then the other day at Spotlight I came home with these:

I’ve always wanted to learn how to crochet, so I figured with all the tutorials available these days with online videos I should finally give it a go and cross one thing off my bucket list. So into my shopping basket went an el cheapo set of crochet hooks to try out, along with a ball of 8 ply wool and 8 ply cotton blend … when I bought them I had no idea what to make, so I just grabbed wool/cotton that I like the colour of and was relatively cheap!

Add to that something even more strange, that I’m hankering to knit a washcloth/dishcloth! Yeah, Mum, don’t faint over THAT one!!! Mum will attest to the fact that I get really bored really quickly with knitting – I can do basic knitting stitches, and can generally follow a pattern (and even finished a jersey/jumper once!), but I get halfway through the first ball of wool to knit a scarf and I’m bored to death … and Mum ends up pulling it all out and starting from scratch and knitting it for me (bless you Mum for all the knitting you’ve done for me over the years!). Anyway, this in itself was enough to send me to the GP – because obviously my mental health really is suffering … I mean, ME, with an urge for KNITTING … I mean, COME ON! 😛

Of course when I DO eventually get keen and try to knit my first washcloth, I have a whole heap of potential patterns on the wishlist to look at and decide from … God bless the internet! The only thing is I gave all my knitting needles away to Mum so I might have to borrow some back again! Mum would be horrified, but I do use the washcloth that Missy sent me years ago, and just love it – and it does feel nice to use things that have been made 🙂

Hopefully in a few days time I will be able to share my latest finishes – but I can’t show them until they’re received, as they’re from my Autumn Exchange. It won’t be long before they’ve arrived, though, so I should be able to post piccies in a few days I hope … in the meantime I’ll leave a little teaser …

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Quaker, Sampler Cove

A finish!

6 September, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

It’s been a while since I’ve had a decent sized finish, but on Saturday night I put the final stitches into Quaker Huswif – yippee!! 😀

“Quaker Huswif” by Sampler Cove
stitched on 36ct hand-dyed Edinburgh linen –
Moon Shadows ~ Dove Grey by Stitches and Spice
with Vikki Clayton’s Hand-Dyed Fibers Premium Silk Floss in Midnight

I’m sure whether to get this one framed, or to turn it into the Huswif it was designed for … seeing as I don’t have any wall space free, that’ll probably end up being the decider 😛

The only other news is that I had some great mail arrive, but I need to send a quick email of thanks before I post the piccie 🙂

And right now I have to run, because I need to pick up my laptop from the ‘doctors’ … it’s costing me a brand new hard drive, but it’s only $130 plus labour (total of $213, which is relatively reasonable, considering they also transferred ALL my old files AND programs to the new hard drive!!) … and I now have a 500GB had drive, compared to my old 120GB one! Can’t grumble … and it means I can go back to blogging from the comfort of the lounge chair or my bed … which also means the likelihood that I can get back into the habit of regularly blogging and blog reading … add to that I have a trip back home to Auckland coming up in 3 weeks time for Mum & Dad’s 50th wedding anniversary (of which a company travel bonus of $250 pretty much pays for my ticket!) … life is kinda good right now 🙂

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Busy and productive morning

28 August, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Today I was up bright and early getting my paperwork ready for a trip to the RTA (Road Transport Authority) … armed with a screwdriver (for my licence plates) and my various bits and pieces I trundled off to arrange the transfer of my car registration. $300 later and I am the ‘proud owner’ (perhaps “relieved” would be a better choice of words!) of some ugly yellow NSW number plates, and a 12-month car registration. Hopefully now there will be no further stress (car-wise anyway) for the next 12 months!

Next up was a trip to the ‘PC doctor’ for my laptop. I have finally bitten the bullet to get a quote on how much it will cost to get it fixed – if it means an entire new hard drive etc, then I won’t bother paying to get it fixed, and I need to start saving up for another one … but I guess I need to know what’s wrong with it before I start making judgements. I’m currently not reading many blogs (and haven’t truthfully for months now) because I spend most of the evenings in the lounge with Katie, and my PC is in my bedroom – by the time I come back into my room it’s too late to start blog surfing. Oh well, fingers crossed it’s only something minor, ‘cos I’d dearly love to have it with me in NZ in October.

The next thing I did was to finally replace my laundry hamper which died a horrible death two months ago … gone now are the days of shoving my dirty laundry into bags, or leaving it piled up all over the floor … thanks to the local Bunnings store, I now have a relatively cheap sturdy hamper once again – yippee!!

The final thing I managed to tick off my list today was to finally phone up the TiVo service man. I bought a 2nd TiVo a few months ago at a price that just couldn’t be turned down (a special direct from TiVo for existing owners) – well, but the darned thing hasn’t worked ever since I bought it … I’ve been trying to get it fixed via the Support emails, but have had no luck whatsoever. Today I finally got on the phone and spoke to a real live person and he agrees with me what the problem is, and he’s escalated the issue so hopefully now I can get the unit replaced and have a fully functioning TiVo, which would be awesome ‘cos at the moment it’s a glorified ornament sitting by the TV!!!

And that’s all that my exciting day has unfolded today … this afternoon I intend to be semi-slothful after I’ve done my laundry for the week – the plan is to brew a coffee, and polish off the rest of the leftover cake that my boss bought me yesterday for my 10 year anniversary at work (the one in the picture – an Orange Poppyseed cake from Christopher’s Cakes yummo), then I’m going to settle into my bedroom with my fabric stash and kit up a few Christmas ornaments that I want to stitch for family this year. Tonight I need to get cracking on my autumn exchange piece that is due for posting in 2 weeks time – it’s almost kitted up, and ready to be started tonight, although I found that I’m missing a few threads so I think a Spotlight trip will have to be in order next week if they don’t turn up before then!

I forgot the exciting news too – missing threads and (finally!!!) my border packs for Summer and Winter Snapperlands are on their way in the post (at least they will be very very shortly). I haven’t had a chance to get to the PO Box this week, so that’ll be an awesome treat arriving in another week or two … it’ll be really great to get some of those WIPs that have been pushed to one side because they’re waiting for missing threads and/or embellishments. That means there should be some more finishes coming ‘shortly’ aftwerwards – Halloween Fairy, Sapphire Star and Summer Snapperland … woohoo! 😀

Tonight I’ll be stitching on either my Quaker Huswif or a little bit more of my Gracie stumpwork … depending whether I end up stitching in my room or the lounge … ah decisions, decisions 😛

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

My life is a Mastercard advert

26 August, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

>>> Blue Slip (roadworthy test) – $150

>>> CTP Green Slip – $500

>>> Panelbeating repair quote for my car – $2000

>>> The heart attack I got when I found I’ve been driving around uninsured for 12 months … PRICELESS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yessirree, today has so NOT been the best day of my life!!! As I mentioned in a previous post my car registration is due for renewal in 2 whole days time. This week I’ve had my car booked in for a Blue Slip check – which it passed, thankfully – the blue slip itself is apparently approx $53 … the mechanic just had to replace one headlight globe and sand back the engine number so it is “highlighted clearly” … and my bill came to $153, which he kindly (choke) knocked back to $150. Seriously, $100 to change a bloody lightbulb and some some light sanding I could’ve done myself. But hey, at least I don’t have tyres etc that need to be replaced, so I guess it could have been worse!!

Anyway, I had a small mishap in our staff car park last year, and just kept forgetting to arrange to get the panelbeating done … just putting off doing anything to that stupid car, because I’d only recently spent a thousand dollars getting tyres etc at my last service, and quite frankly I just couldn’t be bothered dealing with it … well, it serves me right, really … I figured this morning I’m going to all the trouble getting all this car stuff sorted out with swapping over interstate licence plates etc, I really should get the car body sorted out, so I called up my insurance company, and that’s when the entire day went pear-shaped …

It turns out not only had the stupid company not updated my address details with my Sydney information that I requested 2 1/2 years ago (!!), but they’d also not even got my previous street address correct in Melbourne either! The company I was with was bought out by Allianz and a letter was sent out to policy holders last September that they had by “x” date to let them know they wanted to continue with their policies. Of course I never received anything, so I wasn’t aware, and my policy has always been on an automatic renewal and direct-debited from my bank monthly, and I hadn’t noticed that the payments were no longer coming out of the account … Apparently they were sitting waiting for me to contact them when they got a “return to sender” advice … they couldn’t actually get on the phone and call my mobile number … oh no … not the mobile number that hasn’t changed for 7 whole years!!!! Oh no, they couldn’t do that (and I soooo wish I had thought about that when I was talking to the patronising sod on the phone this morning, when she kept demanding to know who I spoke to, and at what time/date did I call 2 1/2 years ago … seriously!!!!). If I ever EVER need an insurance policy ever again, C…G…U… will NOT be getting a red cent of mine ever again, that’s for sure!!

So, not only do I all of a sudden find out that I am driving an uninsured vehicle, Allianz can’t start up a new policy for me because I have now been uninsured for 12 months and they can’t touch me with a bargepole. I then called yet another insurance company who told me the same thing, and especially because I have some body damage they wouldn’t insure me either. Let’s just say it’s been a tad stressful … especially after getting a panelbeating quote of $2000 to fix up the side of my car – but hey, if I pay him $2000 CASH he’ll actually spruce up the roof paint job as well (which is dreadful) … and I was told by the Financial Ombudsman that I was referred to for advice, that I would have to pay for this before I can get insured.

One suggestion the panelbeaters gave me was to check out third party insurance to see if I could at least get that for the timebeing until I got my repairs done … so just before I left the office for the night I jumped online and I tried a different insurance provider, and the workflow actually let me continue through to issuing a policy – it’s $950 for the year, but at least I can pay monthly instalments and I know I’m insured with a full comprehensive insurance which is great for my peace of mind, ‘cos I was freaking out about having to drive home uninsured (even though I’ve been doing it unawares for 12 months now anyway!).

I actually changed my mind about how to pay for it during the workflow, and the online system didn’t let me go back to change it, so I gave them a quick phone call. The lady on the phone was really helpful, and I ended up paying for my CTP Green Slip (mandatory in NSW for car registrations) at the same time, so there went another $500 – at least it saved me doing it online when I got home tonight. I just have to make a trip out to Eastgardens shopping centre tomorrow to pick up a hard copy of the CTP Green Slip, then on Saturday morning I have to take all my various bits of paperwork to the RTA, along with my VIC licence plates, and my wallet for the next round of bills (actual car registration costs plus licence plates) …

Thank goodness I don’t have to go through all this again for another 12 months … and all that cost and grief for a car that now has a market value of $3100-$3500 {{{sigh}}}. In some ways it’s almost not worth paying the $2000 repair costs, and just buying a new smaller cheap car! 😦

And on that note I think I’m going to head off and make a stiff drink ‘cos my brain now hurts!!!