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...a lifetime
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So, we had a rep from Pure Water Systems come out on Saturday to show us just how horrible our tap water was. Not that he needed to, we already knew, which was why we never EVER drank it. Well as it turns out, we didn't know just how bad it was.
We ended buying a counter-top water filter that connects into the faucet. We also bought a showerhead filter for our bathroom. Buddy didn't have that in stock, so he said he'd be out today at 10am. It's now 11am. He hasn't even had the decency to call and let me know he was going to be late -- or not come at all.
He said on Saturday he was only repping for this company so that he could better his OWN company. Said he needed to work on his people skills so that when he did board meetings, he would have confidence and not act like a social retard. (My explanation, not his) In my opinion, since he hasn't bothered calling me today, he's failing miserably at his people skills.
I was talking to mil the other day, and she asked me if I'd seen The Chronicles of Narnia. I said no I hadn't; I'd seen part of the original one before I got bored and turned it off, didn't like it. She then promptly informs me that I remind both her and fil of the Queen.
I watched it last night, and the whole time the White Witch was on scene, I kept remembering what she'd said. After it was over, I sat on the couch for a few minutes digesting the movie, and I wasn't sure if I should be offended...or flattered.
Today is my very first Mother's Day. I'm not sure what's being planned for today (if anything), so I thought I would take the time now to do a quick post, and wish ALL our Moms and Moms-to-Be a very happy Mother's Day!
Seriously. I called Centerlink today, and they're sending me out another form to fill out and mail back to them. Hopefully that will clear this whole thing up.
I think I might possibly try and avoid jumping to conclusions. :\
So I got a letter in the mail the other day, from the ever illustrious Centerlink. For those of you unfamiliar with this division of Australian government, they are basically our "welfare" system. They issue all the dole bludgers their fortnightly pay (which means people who are unemployed get paid by the government to go "look" for work, but who [mostly] really don't and just sit around collecting money) as well as pensions for the elderly, single parent pension etc. I was a dole bludger for awhile after coming back here, and while I did look for work, of course I wasn't going to get hired based on two major factors: 1) I was over 16, and (2) I was pregnant.
Okay, so, I was still allowed to collect while pregnant because even though I wouldn't get employed, I still looked for work and thus still got the not-so-sweet-cash; my constant "looking" for work had to continue until my 32nd week of pregnancy, when I would no longer have to in order to keep getting paid. (I know it's abit confusing, but bear with me)
So now, cut to me being 34 weeks pregnant, and I get a letter in the mail from Centerlink, stating that I did not have to hand in my Claim for Payment form until somewhere in March, instead of the previous date of January something. I called Centerlink and verified this, plus also having verified it with TWO REAL people, face to face, in two separate branches. The lady I spoke with on the phone assured me that this was the case, and that I no longer had to hand in my form every fortnight in order to keep getting paid (which both humans I spoke with face to face, also said).
Okay, now, BOTH humans I physically spoke with told me that after I'd had the baby, I would be eligible for the Family Allowance pension, which is still a fornightly payment but the amount varies, solely dependant upon how much income the family currently has. They BOTH told me that if I no longer wanted to receive ANY type of payments from them, I DID NOT HAVE TO LODGE MY FORM, and my payments would immediately stop.
This was true. This happened. I did not lodge my form in March, because I no longer wanted the fortnightly payments.
Now it is May. I get a letter from them in the mail only a few days ago, and the letter tells me that because I did not lodge my Claim for Payment form in March, that I now owed them $2500 in backpayment from December through until March, and I have until May 31st to pay it back.
WTF?
So now this means I have to call them, and no doubt get the run around before they tell me I will have to make an appointment with my nearest office to go in and speak to yet another person. Should this happen, I might purposely just not feed Kira prior to going in, so not only do they get an insanely angry woman to speak with, they will also get the joys of hearing an insanely angry baby.
D: (while looking at the newest photos of Kira) Our Kira is going to grow up to be another Angelina Jolie.
me: Shh.
D: What?
me: I'm writing.
D: Oh, sorry. (pause) I was only trying to be a loving partner.
me: You're still talking.
This will be a fun game, I promise.
First, let's pretend you're me. You're a 30 year old fiancee of a very wonderful and enigmatic man, and you have a three month old daughter. You frequently send out monthly emails to your friends and family updating them of your daughter's progress, because over half of these people don't have access to your blog, and you don't really blog too much about your daughter anyway because you want to keep some things private.
Having said that, you always put in the email how old your daughter is, and when her birthday is. This isn't so people lavish presents upon her (yet), this is so people will KNOW how old she is, and on what date.
With me? Okay.
Now...Let's pretend that yesterday the MiL rings. The conversation is going very well, (which you know is a fairly rare occurance) and you're discussing your daughter; her granddaughter. You talk about her progress and how she's fussing at the moment because at the same time you're on the phone with the MiL, your daughter is squirming and bellowing in your arms because she's overtired from her visit with her Neena and her Nanna, and you're trying to get her off to sleep.
Then your MiL asks how old she is. You take a quick look through one of the many mental folders you have, and recollect that she asked you this question not five days previous when she called. And, not only did she ask you, she also asked her son the very same question. And she was met with the same answer every single time: "She'll be 3 months on May 7th."
So, let's just say all of that happened, and you hand off the phone to your fiance because MiL wants to talk with her son, and you sit down on the couch with the fussing child, and you think for a moment. You know without a doubt that people have been told time and again about the date of your daughters birth. You know with every fibre of your being, if you were to ask any member of your family, when your daughter's birthday was, they would be able to tell you and some of them may even be advanced enough to tell you the exact time, even though that's not what you were getting at.
Okay so we've pretended all of that happened. Now, let's switch places again, and you're a grandmother. Do YOU remember your grandchild's birthday? How should I be feeling?
Our internet is out again. It was gone all day yesterday and I have no idea when it came up, but I was awake at 6am and apparently it was on then. Last week we suffered with the internet being down until around 830am every morning, and then for no reason whatsoever, it went down on Monday until around noon before it came back up. Yesterday, it just didn't come back up.
We called our ISP, only to find out there's nothing wrong on their end (even though they were experiencing a wicked high volume of calls, so much so that my brother was on hold for about 7 minutes), but they submitted a "line problem" ticket with the phone company, who incidentally, were supposed to get back to us yesterday by 4pm. If you guessed they didn't call us back, you'd be quite correct.
Telstra, you can lick my ass. I hate you. Get your act together.
Okay, you all know how I felt about Katie and the Tyrant's whole birthing thing, right? Well what the flock is up with their marriage plans?! And why for the love of god, does she let him control her so much? Case in point:
But it's not just Katie setting the pace. Hubby-to-be Tom Cruise has signed her up to a company called Buff Brides, in preparation for their wedding later this year.
Buff Brides' Sue Fleming told the Daily Mirror: "Katie can and will do it... She has great motivation. She loves her fiance and was proud that Tom oversaw this programme."
She was proud?! I don't understand that! First he tells her what she should be wearing when she's pregnant. THEN he goes and designs her wedding dress without her knowledge or input. THEN he tells her NOT to make noise during the birth of their child and posts signs on his front gate about using hand slow hand motions because obviously his woman is pregnant and therefore stupid. And NOW ... he's enrolled her in this programme because she's got some weight to lose, and she's proud!?
I totally get your man standing behind you, and supporting you through whatever decisions you make in life, but to actually make them for you and then stand by him, is just mind boggling. How is this different from the woman whose husband beats the shit out of her, and then smiles and says she loves him and that's the reason she won't leave him?
This whole Holmes-Cruise "engagement/marriage" thing is just as bad as the folks who get up on Jerry Springer and sing the praises that is their destructive relationship. I just can't wrap my head around it.
Tornados invaded Australia. I was checking out a map that was on one of those digital boards like they have at NASA, and I saw a small mass of land (slightly bigger than Tasmania) off the east coast of far North Queensland. On this small mass of land was some whirlwind activity, and the projected path for this activity, was straight across the pacific, and right into Australian soil.
I glanced out the window and saw two tornados off in the distance. I started to quietly panic. I don't want tornados, I thought to myself as I got up, and climbed up through a hole in the roof (a man hole, if you will). There, before my eyes, was a delightful twisted knot of tornados, all spinning entwined together, probably 7 or 8 of them in total. And they spun there together, not moving from their solitary spot, all black and dark beige and incredibly menacing.
In the time it took me to spot these tornados, and the new small island off the coast of Northern Queensland, D was struggling with 2 pairs of pants and a key. Apparently he pulled on his jeans, and the key was in the pocket. So he reached into his pocket to grab the key, but then pulled on his track pants to find the same key. Evidently he was getting frustrated at trying to get the key from both pairs of his pants, but at least he didn't have the looming death and destruction hovering over him, entwined lovingly in a mass of wind, dust and debris.
Usually Avon has some kind of stigma attached to it. When people hear you use it, you're almost always greeted with some kind of furtive grin, and a look that implies something along the lines of, That's only because it's cheap, so don't try and sell me on it.
I remember as a kid, I think I may have been around 12 or 13, but not much older than that, and we used to have an Avon rep come around every so often. I used to love pouring through her catalogues and looking at all those mini lipsticks and eyeshadows and thinking how wonderful it must be to have all of that stuff! I didn't realize back then, that those were mostly just samples, and the product you bought was actually much larger. I just remember everything being so pretty and feminine and smelling so lush. But I never really owned any of it, except for the Night Magic Perfumed Body Powder, although back then it was the Night Magic TALCUM powder. And I just loved the way it smelled. It was the only powder I'd use, but I used it quite sparingly as my allowance didn't provide me with enough cash to be able to buy it every month.
And then when I came back from America, I met up with one of my cousins, who is now an Avon rep. I didn't buy too much from her, but I did sop up as many sample items as humanly possible (I now have an extensive collection of perfumes and facial products, half of which I will probably never use). In doing this, I've found a couple of really wonderful fragrances, and skincare products. Which brings me to my entire point: facial products. Specifically, stuff designed for those of us with acne that won't go away, even if we beat it with a stick.
I'd tried everything store bought, and none of it really worked. I even tried Proactiv which did not work either. (While it did not work for me, friends of mine use it and their skin looks absolutely flawless so clearly my genetic makeup was tampered with ... somehow) After perusing through the catalogue of such pretty, pretty things, I decided what the hell, and bought some items.
I have to tell you how much I love the Clearskin Double Action Cleanser. While I still have my blemishes, they are not nearly as horrible as they once looked (I understand all things take time, much as I wish they'd disappear overnight) and not only that, my skin is so much softer and cleaner! Oh, and younger looking. Ontop of that, I also own a facial scrub by Planet Spa (not listed on the website) and another Avon branded mask. After only using each of these once, (on separate days), my skin is again softer, more supple and nourished, and pores? Tightened, firmed and NO LONGER VISIBLE! This shit is truly amazing, and I'm just astounded that my skin looks so much better after only using these products for a week or so now.
So of course, I went on a rampage and decided to buy an assload more stuff, some makeup and perfume and body washes, things of that nature.
So give me that funky little look and that sly little smile when I tell you, YES I BUY AVON - I don't care. I've found a nifty set of products that work for me. I might just start an Avon cheerleading squad.
