amie's endless and absurd ranting

New leaf

2009-09-03T09:12:01Z

So, I live in Canberra now. I got a job at a jeweller last week and worked there this week. Then yesterday I got another job at Lincraft. I start there on Monday and tomorrow I have to see if the jeweller wants to keep me on for the days I don't work at Lincraft. I really like living in Canberra and everything seems to be going really well. I'm loving spending time with Mum and Louie too. And I'm slowly getting used to the weather here.

Get on up.. Like a meme machine!

2009-07-19T09:35:35Z

* Post ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.

* No captions. It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.

* They must ALREADY be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you've saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.

* You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like.

Twitter?

2009-05-24T04:40:20Z

Did I mention I use Twitter? Probably not. If you too use Twitter you could follow me if you want to. I guess.

Slack

2009-03-24T03:12:06Z

Looks like I'm pretty crap at updating blogs and journals. Who knew? Anyway, all I've really been doing lately is work and playing house. I unpacked some more boxes that have been sitting around since we moved in (no, we didn't move again - they've been sitting there for 6 months+). The bedroom is nearly completely organised, the kitchen just needs the cupboards sorted out and then it's on to the mammoth task of the spare room (such a big mess for such a small room).

I've also been working on fixing my boots and they're nearly done. Just have to get some ultra fine sandpaper and make the patching all smooth and then give them a few coats of sealant. I'm pretty happy with them so far too. I managed to match the colour almost perfectly. Before and after photos when they're done. Oh, and the before and after photos will be taken with my brand new camera! Mum and Matt got it for me for my birthday. It's pretty ace. Here's a photo I took with it. I haven't taken many photos yet, but the so far I'm really impressed with the camera.

Anyway, I'm off to unpack another box and put the washing away. Ciao.

Frost/Nixon: a review of sorts

2009-01-31T12:43:26Z

Today Matt and I saw Frost/Nixon. We were kind of disappointed that it went soft and tried not to offend anyone, but still thought it was quite good. The cast was absolutely outstanding. I now have a major crush on Michael Sheen as David Frost. That hair! Those sideburns! Add to that the fabulous wardrobe and I'm sold! And the eyebrow raising and smiles are just delicious. Anyway, if you're in any way interested in the Nixon/Watergate thing I'd totally recommend seeing it.

I've been making things

2009-01-20T08:41:13Z

I made a dress from an old peasant skirt. I styled it after American Apparel's Le Sac Dress.

I started fixing my boots. They're 'pleather' and I scuffed the top layer of the stuff off when I went on a flying fox. So, I'm painting over the scuffed but with a similar colour and then I'm gonna spray some sealant over that.

I also bought a linen handbag with brown pleather trim on eBay. It sucked. It was described as "Excellent condition - no damage", but when I got it there was a hole, a bunch of brown stains and the inside smelt of stale orange juice. So I complained and got my money back (less postage). The seller said she didn't think the stains were that noticeable. So, she knew there was damage, but listed it as no damage anyway. Anyway, I washed it to see if I could get the stains out and the 'brown' it was listed as came off and showed the original pink underneath. It had been painted. Wtf?! Oh and the linen parts disintegrated. That seller will be getting negative feedback from me. So, seeing as I payed $5.50 to have the stupid thing posted to me I'm going to use the lining to line a bag I've decided to make from an old pair of cordoroy pants.

Oh and I repainted some ugly wooden photo frames.

I'm gonna post it all on my site eventually (like by next week) with photos and shit.

Feeling good

2009-01-13T10:01:34Z

Today I ate breakfast, worked an eight hour shift, walked home from work and then did some yoga when I got home.

And just now I won an auction on eBay for a nice big handbag. Yay!

yummies

2009-01-10T09:39:35Z

a.o. choc, fruit & nut brownie bars = awesome

Time for a new calendar

2008-12-31T14:32:02Z

Oh, look, a new calendar year. Most people were probably out celebrating by way of ingesting as much alcohol (and/or other substances) as possible. I stayed home. I fell asleep in the evening, woke up and watched some telly and then sat in bed on the internet for a while. Eventually I heard a rumble and thought 'oh, thunder - i hope the storm comes this way, it will get rid of this stifling heat' and then i looked at the time and realised it was fireworks. I'm not a fan of fireworks. I was when I was a kid, but they've been so done to death these days that I don't care anymore. Anyway, now I'm lying in bed on the internet and I'm still hot, there's nothing good on telly and Matt's gone to a family party and is staying overnight. Happy New Calendar Year.

Slow day at work

2008-11-17T12:08:32Z

Sneak peek

2008-10-27T10:06:54Z

Last year I made fabric covered ball ornaments for Christmas. This year I'm making peg people.

Kickin' it 18th Century style, yeah!

I still need to find little screw eyes or something so I can put hanging loops from their heads. I'll be making 24 of these little guys and keeping six for our tree. The rest I'll be giving away.

Once again I am employed

2008-10-24T09:13:35Z

Today I got a job at Colorado. I had walked past the Christmas casuals sign a few times and not bothered, but today I thought 'why not?'. I ended up having an interview on the spot and the manager called me about ten minutes later and offered me the job. I start on Wednesday. It will be good to have some money coming in over Christmas and if it goes well there's opportunity for a permanent position. Sweet.

Mum and Louie were here

2008-10-22T13:01:56Z

Mum and Louie came to visit. It was ace.

Why I quit my job

2008-10-09T05:43:31Z

On Sunday last week I handed in my two weeks notice. I now realise that it's something I should have done long ago. Better late than never.

On the Friday beforehand I went to have an MRI scan. Inside the machine I found there wasn't much to do other than think about stuff. That is sort of how I decided to quit my job. They injected some stuff into my hand while I was in there. The guy told me it would feel cold, but it actually felt like my hand was on fire. I tried to ignore it and told myself it would be over soon and it was for my own good anyway. I suddenly realised that that is exactly the same line I used on myself when I was in pain at work. Except that at work it wasn't 'for my own good', it was 'earning money'. And there was the downside of slowly destroying my body.

I'm not sure what I've said about my health already, but I have patellofemeral arthralgia, ligament laxity in my upper limbs and problems with my back (the MRI was to look for inflammation of the spine). The arthralgia is almost certainly a result of work. Basically, the muscle in the front of my thigh is a lot bigger than the one on the inside of the thigh and it's pulling my knee cap and lifting it up. I do physio exercises to correct it, but unless I stop doing what caused it it's a case of one step forward two steps back. The thought of knee surgery really freaks me out and that's what I'm facing if it doesn't improve. The ligament laxity is a genetic thing, but combined with work is causing damage to my joints. Both my GP and my rheumatologist told me to stop working on checkouts a while ago and warned that if I kept working there I could be risking serious joint injuries and arthritis in later life.

I also have a ganglion cyst in my left hand which is probably from work. I think it looks disgusting, but I doubt if it's that noticeable, and it hurts a lot if I accidentally hit it against something. Apparently it used to be treated by hitting really hard with a heavy book and then bandaging really tight. Fuck that.

So, anyway, that's why I quit. That and the roast chickens make me nauseous.

not good drawings by Amie

2008-09-12T02:52:28Z

Captain Hash Brown

For Steve.

I can has internets back

2008-09-05T08:04:18Z

Huzzah for ADSL! Dial up was so painful that I didn't bother. But I'm back now. The new flat is going swimmingly. And apparently came with free kitty! There's a kitty that lives in one of the downstairs flats that likes to sleep on our balcony. We put a pot plant where it usually sleeps and it just sleeps in our pot plant now. I love it. I'll probably post photos once we're finished unpacking.

So, what have I missed?

Still not moved yet

2008-08-30T03:29:04Z

In spite of some top notch packing on my part, we're still not completely moved yet. We got all the major things (bed, shelving, large-ish appliances) moved today with the help of Matt's friend Tom and his ute. Unfortunately, there are still a heap of bags full of stuff and few appliances to move. I would estimate that there's about a carload of stuff still here. Which would be great if we had a car. Or even access to a car. I think I might suggest that we do a trip on the buses this afternoon with whatever we can carry and then get a taxi for the rest and tip the driver really well (our new flat is only about 2km from our old one). Matt seems to think we should be able to carry most of the stuff and just walk to the new flat, but it's a little bit hilly and we're both pretty tired so I think he might be being slightly optimistic. We have until Tuesday afternoon to get it all moved, but I was hoping to get it done today so I don't have to come back to this shitty flat again. I still need to mop the floors and give the kitchen and bathroom another wipe down too. I'm leaving the marks on the walls for Matt because I'm pretty sure they're from him. Ah, the joys of moving!

EDIT: I was just cleaning and noticed that Matt managed to not take the single mattress to the new flat. God knows how we're going to get it there now.

Cool

2008-08-29T08:22:47Z

Our new fridge was designed to fit a whole watermelon in the drawer at the bottom.

Moving slowly

2008-08-26T07:54:28Z

You know when you get on a train and another train beside it starts moving in the opposite direction and you sort of get a sensation that it's your train that's moving? That's how I feel right now. Everything is pretty much packed and ready to go and it feels like we're moving now, but we haven't actually moved anything yet. I'm going to be at work during most of the moving, which I think is going to weird me out a little. The new fridge is being delivered on Thursday and we're not sure if Matt will be able to fit our mattress in the car, so we won't actually be living in the new flat until Friday or Saturday.

We sorted out the phone, electricity and gas today. I was going to sort out the internet too, but then I read that it's going to cost $99 to move the service even though we'll be on the same exchange with the same phone number. We're currently with Internode, but on absolutely the wrong plan - it's 25GB and our monthly usage is usually less than 5GB. Matt was pretty keen to change to iiNet a little while ago, so I'm thinking maybe now might be a good time. I looked into prices and it will only cost $5 more to cancel our Internode account and set up an iiNet account than it will to transfer our Internode account. And iiNet's plans don't look too bad either. Anyone have any suggestions?

Someone draw me a fish

2008-08-24T11:59:57Z

I want a tattoo of a goldfish or a koi or something.

Clean

2008-08-23T03:20:48Z

Matt and I have been cleaning the flat for about four hours. There is an inspection (prospective tenants) in an hour. The place actually looks pretty good. We just have to do the dishes and mop the kitchen floor and it will be ready. We decided we don't want to be here when people come through. I think I'd feel awkward if they asked any questions about the flat or the neighbours or something. As lame as it is, I also packed away any photos that were around and put my work clothes away. I really hope there are a few applications after this. I just want it all to be over.

UPDATE: Apparently there were multiple applications at the inspection. Yay!

One thing led to another

2008-08-19T11:43:17Z

Since our washing machine was stolen, Matt and I have been highly suspicious of our neighbours and have felt generally uncomfortable living here. So, on a whim, Matt had a look on realestate.com.au. He ended up finding a place not far from here that looked kind of cool for about the same rent and out of curiosity we ended up at the inspection later that day. It was a big old Queenslander that had been converted into flats and it was charming, in a quiet area and walking distance to the ferry, the bus and the Saturday markets.

Long story short, today we broke our lease on our current flat and signed a lease on the other one. We move next week. It all happened pretty fast, I'm not sure if it's really sunk in yet, but Matt and I both feel really good about it.

It just doesn't stop

2008-08-17T02:56:01Z

The police have nothing to go on. All we know is that whoever stole our washing machine was organised. They used a trolley to get it out of the laundry (there are tyre marks on the vinyl). Oh, and it turns out we haven't had insurance since April. I've been paying Matt my half of the insurance payment and we don't even have a policy! Apparently we missed payments and they sent out letters, but I certainly didn't see any letters. So, we spent $850 on a washing machine with an extended warranty and we got to use it for less than two months. What a fucking bargain!

I guess I won't be using my tax return to go back to uni and finish my degree after all.

amiemoo @ 2008-08-16T15:30:00

2008-08-16T05:32:54Z

Some pathetic excuse for a human being just stole our washing machine. They dumped our wet washing on the floor and fucked off with the machine. That's right, we were doing our washing and they dumped the wet load on the floor. The machine is only two months old. I finished paying Matt back for my half on Wednesday. I hope whoever took it gets some kind of aggressive and highly painful terminal illness.

amiemoo @ 2008-08-14T16:08:00

2008-08-14T06:15:50Z

I didn't get the job.

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My bloodwork came back. I tested positive for mycoplasma. I'm still not sure what exactly it is. I'm on my second course of antibiotics for it. I have to go back to the doctor on Tuesday. Apparently there were other results she wanted to discuss with me.

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My back is almost better. Still twingey, but much improved. Dan, I will still be able to enjoy theme parks - just not yet.

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I have no money. Actually, I have $7 something. Rent is due tomorrow. Fuck.