It's been a while since I've been here, and a fair bit has happened so far. Some good, some bad.
Lately I've been feeling a fair bit down. Comes from not being quite so happy with work (not that it was bad, just didn't seem "right" I guess), and not getting out quite as much as I'd like to. Well, that's changed. As of today it's been a week since I've been out of work. It's been good. I've bene able to de-stress a bit, and I'm feeling a whole lot more like getting up in the morning then I have been before. Now I just have to deal with Centrelink, and that is nothing but hassles. Every time I go there it gets worse and worse.
To make a "claim' for the Newstart allowance now, I have to go down there to register, then they give me the number of the call centre, and I have to go through all of the details there. That's a pretty big waste of time as they could do it in the office there just as easily, but... From there they send you out the paperwork that you need. of course, in record efficiency time... I contacted them on Monday, and I finally got the initial forms that I need to get back to them today (Friday)... And to top it off, the updated details that I sepnt 20 minutes on the phone updating seem to have magically dissapeared from the system, as they are not on the document that I need to sign and take back to them. This means that I can't sign that document. It's a legal document for them, and they didn't get it right. The worst thing is that I know that there will be an issue with that, and they won't be able to just print out another one while I'm there, so I'm bracing myself for a fight on that front.
Now that things have settled down a little bit more, i'll be trying to pdate here a bit more often. I know I should, but... life gets in the way most times.
Well, it's been almost two weeks since the internet has crapped out at home. My ISP told me to do some tests last week to make sure that it wasn't my equipment that was causing the problem. I did those tests, and everything that I've got is working fine. I tried to call back this week, but they couldn't work out how to return a phone call... actually three phone calls...
The worst thing is that it is falling over during peak times, which is bad because that's when I need to use it too. When you can't get online between 6pm and 10pm, it doesn't leave much time to actually do anything that I need to. Story of my life really.
I have finally had someone get back to me today, and after I told him what was going on and that I'd already done all the tests here, he looked at the logs from their side and saw just what I thought they would. There was a huge amount of problems with the system getting 0 time and 0 data connections in the times that I couldn't connect. What does that mean? It means that something stuffed up at the exchange most likely, and they'll have to get someone to look at it. So, that means that just maybe I will get some sort of answer tomorrow. Maybe... I'll wait and see. Considering they can't even get a 'contact us' form working on their website I don't have that much faith just now.
It's been a strange couple of months here. Things have settled down a bit after Dante's left us, and although we are all still feeling the effects of him being gone, we are now looking back with a bit of happiness that he was here, rather then the sadness that we had before.
It was my birthday yesterday, and I had a decent enough day I guess. It seemed to not be anything special though. I didn't actually go anywhere or do anything special, so it was almost like "just another Sunday" really.
My parents are away at the moment too, so that was a little bit strange. They are down in Adelaide and Melbourne. They picked the wrong time to go. Although, the timing was really dictated from the wedding that they were going down to attend, so I can't blame them entirely. They've got everything hitting them so far... In Adelaide for the wedding, temperatures have been the highest in 70 years. The hottest day there was 47 degrees (that's Celsius...) so they pretty much melted. Thankfully the place that they were at was air conditioned, and so are the cars and the pubs, so it wasn't quite so bad. Stil, it could easily have killed them. There was a few people that did die from the heat, so it was a worry.
Now they are in Melbourne, and in Melbourne now are some of the biggest and most devastating bush fires in a very long time. As of this morning, 108 people have been declared dead from them. It is a huge tragedy, with all the lives lost and whole towns being destroyed. The part that worries me is that with my Mum's breathing problems if she's stuck even 1-200km's away from something like that, even that small amount of smoke in the air is enough to set her off badly. If she gets closer, she won't be able to breath at all. I'm not to worried about having them getting trapped there as the friends that they are with are not quite so close to be a big problem just yet, but there's always the other issues that could cause some major problmes there.
As I've said to them... "That's what you get for going away for my birthday!"
R.I.P. Dante - 3/1/2009
This is one of the hardest posts that I've had to make in a while.
Our beloved puppy Dante, my best mate (and that of our entire family) passed away early Saturday morning. Myself and my sister were there with him. It was quick, and was as peaceful as we could hope for.
Now, he's not suffering from his problems any more, and his pain is over.
You'll be sorely missed by us all. I know that you're in a better place now. Goodbye my little mate.
Dante (back) and Cleo enjoy a rest by the fireplace.
I'm not quite sure why, but it seems that since I have a week of work left before my holidays everything seems ot come now, when it wasn't a big deal before. Got to love clients for that. The main one wants me to go to Sydney again... just for a day this time. The boss wants me to get a 5.30 or so flight out, and leave their office around 4.30 in the afternoon. So, overall that means that I'll be away from home more then four hours longer then normal, out of bed around two hours earlier then normal, and I'll be using my own equipment again as well as having to buy my own lunch and probably breakfast as well when I'd normally be having that from home... and what do I get as thanks for that? A big fat load of nothing, that's what. If it's anything like last time I won't even get a "thanks" for agreeing to go. As I've said before, I don't mind putting in a bit extra, but when it's all one way and nothing is ever returned, it gets very tiring very quickly.
On top of that I'm still officially guessing that I'm on holidays next week... I still haven't been told when the holidays are officially on. Even though everyone else knows, and all of the customers are being told that. Got to love a place with that sort of great communication.
I know what I'll be doing on my holidays... work. I've got just so much to do that I don't have any idea of when I'll actually get to relax. Overall, it's going to be a bit of a nightmare. Nowhere to go, to much to do, and nothing else to get me away from it all.
Oh well. At least I'll have the chance to get horribly drunk for a few weeks.
