29 June 2006

RANDOM SQUEE

so, look at THESE!

i may be currently obsessed. HOW CUTE ARE THEY?

in other news, otters are also cute, and there was a frost ont he grass and the fence today. i hope my plants are ok.

28 June 2006

FLAMING GALAHS!

We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties.

Just come from rallying against the IR laws. Fun. Big! People gathered at parliament and at both ends of Swanston (Esther J and I hooked up with the teachers at Feddo) and marched to the corner of Bourke and Swanston, making a giant Eureka flag. Songs were sung, chants were chanted, and we all said the Eureka Oath, fists in the air. (Kim Beasley and Steve Bracks were there buying votes too...)

*

At the end of our street, there is a tree with pointy red and gold leaves (now mostly fallen) and prickly seedpods. Yesterday and today the tree was also adorned with galahs! Yay for their pinkness! And their uncoordinated attmpts at holding onto the seedpods!

*

Last night Dan and I had our first of (most probably, and hopefully) many Indian take-away nights. We were all out of red wine, however (ALARM!)... Luckily, in this time of dire need, a CAN OF WINE (yes, you heard) - bequeathed by Erin and Julia when they were Erin-and-Julia - made an appearance. At first we were afraid, we were petrified... but the thought of dining sans wine was too hard to bear and so we cracked it open. It was suprisingly nice. Thanks guys!

15 June 2006

NOW IT REALLY IS OURS

so, at 2:30 on tuesday we got the call...

... saying that settlement couldn't go through.

because we gave them TOO MUCH MONEY. that's right. too much.

so i was pretty annoyed. because we'd done EVERYTHING right, but someone somewhere hadn't calculated the first homeowners grant into/out of the amount we owed. so we'd given them $10k too much, and they wouldn't give us the keys.

then our lawyer did a lot of phone-calling around to the vendor's conveyancer etc, and eventually they came up with the idea of getting us to sign a contract saying that we could only have the keys to the house that day if (among other things) we used the property only for residential purposes. so, there went our plan for an opium den, brothel etc. never mind. another day.

so we signed things and faxed them (the grumpy post office man was even nice to us! whacko!) and taxied to the estate agent for the keys. picture this: us on one side of the desk, agent on the other side of the desk, keys in envelope on top of desk... we considered doing the proverbial runner with the envelope, but decided we should try to make it all legal. eventually, at 5:10, the agent gets the call from the vendor's lawyer saying it's all good.

WE HAD THE KEYS! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?!

actually, surprisingly, nothing!

we went to the apartment (OUR apartment) did the rounds with candles and incense, opened and closed the cupboards, laughed at the heater (it is attached to the wall, and the cord is about 15cm too short to plug into the power point!), peeled an enormous sheet of wallpaper off the wall (whoops!)... erin, rachel and esther came over for pizza and cheese and wine (thanks ej!) and champagne (thanks erin!). managed to spill champagne on the carpet, and IT DOESN'T MATTER because the carpet is OURS!

dan and i slept over on the floor on tuesday night. cold, uncomfortable, etc. but an adventure!

yesterday may and sara-jane helped us move a heap of boxes (thanks guys!), drink tea, eat huge luncheons at sugardough on lygon st, etc. we all went for a constitutional walk along the creek (so close!), and at about 2:50 we got the call...

... saying IT'S OURS!!!

it felt different after that!

the agents gave us a hamper with wine and chocolates. free stuff! we should buy a house more often!

yay! house! ours!

13 June 2006

SETTLEMENT DAY

so here it is. the big day has arrived - settlement goes through at 2.30 this afternoon, we get our keys and take possesion of our NEW HOME!!! we shall be spending our first night there tonight, camping it up in sleeping bags. yay!

as you can imagine, there is lots to do and we are sort of running around like headless chooks. so this is the end of this post.

8 June 2006

MOVING

settlement is in FIVE DAYS! woohoo!!!

we are wondering if anyone would like to spend a part of wednesday or thursday next week driving boxes from one place to another... i know, i know, a pretty fun sounding day!!! we can go out for lunch or dinner to make up for it!

(seriously, if you can, please text, call or email!)

5 June 2006

Uncles

This weekend, we became uncles! Orly and Adam have given us a nephew - nice work, guys! We shall duly play our appointed roles as the hip and cool uncles who live in Australia.

So, as of Saturday morning (Australian time - Sunday night UK time) we am an Uncle!
My parents are GRANDPARENTS!
My baby brother is a FATHER!!!
Aaaargh! What is the world coming to?

So congratulations and mazel tovs to Orly and Adam on the birth of their first born.

1 June 2006

RUCKSACKS, SACKS OF RUCK. WHAT?

we gots hiking packs from kathmandu. yay summit club with 25% off full price packs!

mine can is the conquest rucksack v2. it is red. that makes me go fast.

dan's is a slightly older version, and 5 or 10L bigger (mine's 40L) and less than half price. the two for $350, which i think is good, since we got pretty much exactly what we wanted!

also looked at expensive hiking boots. mmm, leather.