House hunting fun….. pass me the bleach!

So some choice parts of the houses we saw today…..

A rental…… FILTHY…. One bedroom, on one of the shelves, was a pair of off-white yfronts just hanging out there in the open – with a butter knife on top…. !?!?! ….. as you do…… In the ensuite, on the step of the spa was a handtowel as a bathmat – with 2 dumbbells on it…. !?!?!?!?! The bathroom was so horrific I’m scarred for life, so I won’t even go there!….. Kitchen bench had an old empty milk carton next to a bottle of radiator coolant – with some old machinery bits — and no visible food or food making implements……with a bag of toilet paper in the open shelf above the hole where the fridge should go (no fridge)……. Yard had more boats than land vehicles 😀 (It was very clearly a house lacking a female presence!) LOL

Another we thought was a rental – judging by the complete lack of care taken with an open home….. but someone asked and no it was owners living there…. Everything was filthy… food splatters on walls, filthy carpet…. it kinda had a horror movie everything covered in cobwebs vibe happening…. basically the house needed hosing out with bleach 😛 Everyone else walking around was horrified and trying not to touch anything. They have kids too! (and not baby kids, I’d estimate teens by the bedrooms) Poor kids, my god!

Another house, looked lovely and clean – spotless! …… but then in the ensuite …… *shudder* – floor was covered in either black pubes or beard hairs….. like, HEAPS of them….. *shudder*

WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!

Makes my think my pre-cleaned house would have been ok

I don’t have people over often…

I have friends coming around for lunch today – first people who have been allowed to come around to my house in a very long time….

….. as in, I know we held Xmas here the year we moved in (15 years ago) – which was the biggest lot of people we’ve had.   Mini had their 11th birthday party here (5 years ago), a few years ago I had some people over for a crafting day, and at the same time I had friends over for a Cards night (since the lounge was clean enough lol)…. then about 10 years ago for a little while I had 2 friends come over semi regularly for a gaming night…. I might have once had my parents and inlaws over for dinner? … and I think that’s about it!

I even opened up the box of wineglasses that has been sitting on top of the fridge after we used them that first Xmas then boxed them back up again (the ones we got for our wedding and have used twice – as they are for “special occasions” 😀) — It was a bit like when you see in movies people blow the dust off an ancient tome 😀 (Don’t worry, the box was sealed, and I washed them! 😀 😀)

Don’t ask me… I’m dumb :P

Mini: I wish dad would get out of the shower, I need help with my maths…. I’d ask you but you won’t be able to help…. or maybe you can…. I don’t need to know what to do, just the numbers….

Me: yeah, you’re on your own with that one

Mini: Maybe you might be able to help?

Me: (laughs) I very much doubt it

Mini: (laughs) You never know….. so what I need to do is factorize…..

Me: I’m gonna stop you right there…

(silence for a moment)

Mini: So, “factorize” means….

(we both laugh)
(I still didn’t understand)

Needless to say, Mini is now waiting for more skilled help 😛

Hey, I’m famous ;) :P

I’m going to be very very very very slightly famous soon 😀

About a year ago someone emailed me asking permission to use information from my menstrual cups blog for a paper they were writing for The Lancet (a medical journal). So I’d said go ahead, use whatever was helpful.

She wanted my full name to use in acknowledgements in the paper, but I didn’t want to give it, and I didn’t care about being acknowledged when all I’d done is say they could use my blog content in their research… So I’d said if they can call me just “Obsidian” then acknowledge me, if not then just don’t mention me at all. (since my blog would be in the references anyway and I don’t consider I did anything worthy of acknowledgement in their paper).

Today she’s emailed me a copy of the paper (it’s still being tweaked so not the final version), and it’s quite interesting (Basically a study on the viability of using menstrual cups in developing countries), and I’m acknowledged! 😀

I mean, it’s only one line: “We are grateful to Obsidian for her set-up and maintenance of the Menstrual Cup Master List. ” But hey, only me and the person who reviewed the paper were given this prestigious acknowledgment (well in the copy I have anyway lol)… and my name will therefore be published in The Lancet!, which makes me feel important 😀 So that’s pretty cool!!!

Geeez… you’re a bit keen there Bob!

Jeez, you know your house is a piece of garbage when Bob The Builder, complete with tractor!!, parks outside to check out your for sale board!

You have to buy it before you can bulldoze it, dude! calm down!!!

I look pretty good for 97!

Just watching Arj Barker talking about age… and he made a very good point about lying about your age.

(I don’t care, but I know others don’t like admitting how old they are)

He was saying that if you tell people you’re younger than you are, then you’re effectively saying you’ve not aged very well… since your face still looks as old as it is.

But if you tell people you’re older than you actually are – then people will compliment you on looking so young! 😀

So… from now on, I’m officially 97….

Pro-tip – Pin your socks together!

Pro-Tip for the day ……

(as I go through my “odd sock” bag, which is a reusable shopping bag FULL [and I mean FULL] of unpaired and partnerless socks that had been sitting in my room ignored for probably over a year now…. yes I have a lot of socks, which is why there was no great hurry to reunite all these socks with their mates! 😛 )

Get yourself some of these things! They make life so much easier!

Keep them in a container beside the bed, and when you take your socks off, pin them together. They are coilless so your socks won’t get caught in the loop bit like a normal safety pin – that’s the most important thing (hate having safety pins rip holes in stuff!)… the pin keeps them together through the wash, so you won’t lose one (you might lose both, but that’s probably better than losing just one!)

… no prize for guessing which colour I use 😉

… and as a bonus for all you non-environmental-vandals who still line dry 😛 If you pin the socks end to end, you can just sling the socks over the line (unless it’s windy) still pinned together no need for pegs! Woo!

And you don’t need to bother pairing them when you bring in the washing, they are already paired!

And hey, if you’re lazy, just leave the pin somewhere in your sock as you’re wearing it, then you’ll never even have to search for the pin to pin them together for the wash! 😀

It’s not lazy, it’s a “decorative feature”!

Who are we again?

Well that was surreal…..

So the stupid 8 month long ABS survey we have to do but don’t want to…. (we’re moving house FFS – and the survey is based on address, so once we move the survey transfers who whoever buys our house  – survey someone who is actually going to be there for the 8 months!) they called up the other day to fill out some paperwork because I’d “forgotten” (ahem) to do it online before the cutoff date, but I had someone over so I told them to call back tonight…

Then the next day I came home to find a “you missed us” note in the letterbox… so someone had come to the house while I was gone. Which I wasn’t pleased about, since I’d made the appointment to do it it over the phone.

So they call tonight as scheduled, and Hubs starts talking to them – finds out they think we’re in Bruny Island (Tasmania). So hubs is arguing on the phone with her for ages, while he’s saying no we’re in Victoria, and she’s saying no you’re on Bruny Island… and he’s saying no we’re in another state… and she’s adamant we’re not….

So we were trying to get some sort of proof from her that she was in fact from the ABS… because it was sounding dodgy as!

Then there’s a knock on the door, so I answer it – it’s someone from the ABS!!! I told him we had them on the phone already!!!… (he at least had ABS lanyard and ID stuff). He thought that was hilarious. Me not so much 😛

So I call hubs to the door – tell him we have ABS at the door and on the phone.!.. so guy is waiting outside while we’re trying to work out with the lady on the phone what the hell is going on. She’s then saying that since we’re not in Bruny Island we don’t have to do the survey (so we were thinking YAY)

We end up handing the phone to the guy and he talks to her. In the end apparently when the women called up the other day she put us down as being part of the Bruny Island survey by mistake, but our house is still selected in the survey so we do still have to do it (poo 😛).

Yeah – our data is perfectly safe with these idiots! FFS.

So then the guy is all “ok, so I’ll come in and we can get started” . Nooooooo…. we agreed to do it over the phone, not to have someone come to the house…. and certainly not to have some chick call and tell us we live on an island and argue with us when we tell her we don’t, and then some dude come around unnanounced and expect to be let inside. I made an appointment for a phone call, so I’m doing it over the phone….

I know it’s petty but I don’t want to do the survey! it’s stupid that they know we’re moving and they still insist we do it while we’re here…. and I’m not making it easier for them by having a stranger in my house – they can call up and do it over the phone like we agreed.

Part 1 – Only in Australia. Part 2 – OMG forget I said anything!!!!!!

Part 1 ….

Ahh, Australia…. 🙂

Mini has gone on a school camp today, and the bus driver …. (I assume that’s who he was since he was loading luggage into the bus and did not look like a teacher, parent or student – But he was quite fine, so given the unusual attire, he could also have been a stripper – I certainly know a few ladies who would gladly have thrown all the kids off the bus and gone on the trip instead!!!! 😉 😀) …..

… anyway…… luggage-loading-fine-dude was wearing a red polo shirt, blue flannel shirt, sleeveless (?!?) driza-bone (keep the core dry but bugger the arms?), workboots with those boot protector things and an akubra (of course)………. With canterbury sports shorts! (one white leg, one black leg) LOL

Not sure if he forgot to put pants on this morning and one of the kids gave him a spare pair of shorts?…. or if that’s his normal getup…. Very different from the normal shirt and pants bus drivers who normally take the kids on excursions!

His calf muscles were ENORMOUS though, so hey – if you’ve got it, flaunt it I suppose!

But someone should tell him that some sort of beige explorer shorts would complete the ensemble better than the sports shorts (albeit less comfy)

They are going on an art camp to sketch things like the Bendigo silos…. Not sure when wrangling cattle or wrestling crocs comes into it….. nor sport that necessitates the shorts….. but I’m sure Mr Busdriver and his enormous calves will be prepared for whatever our great dry land throws at them!

 

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Part 2………

 

Mini has returned from camp…. starts telling a story… without of course having seen anything I’d said in part 1…

“So, Moke…. the bushranger guy…..”

— I laughed! I’d not said anything about MrBusdriver’s attire…. Mini decided he’s a bushranger 😀

and his name is “Moke” Ok LOL

… Mini goes on to tell me that he brought bacon, eggs, potatoes and such to make breakfast for the grade 12 boys….

… I of course ask why the bus driver was supplying the boys with bacon and eggs…

… that’s because is is not a bus driver….

….. He is in fact a grade 12 boy….   OMG!

So not the bus driver…. just being helpful loading the luggage into the bus…..

…. and I take back everything I said about him being fine!!!!

… please let me vomit a little…. and wash my eyes out with bleach!

(Mini found it HILARIOUS, but assures me that since he’s 18, I’m not a pedo….. I am still HORRIFIED since I’m old enough to be his mother!)