Day 132 in a Year of my Life

Had the Youi assessor here again today, going through our list of contents that need to be replaced.

Then we got a phone call from the builder to say that a 'container' will be dropped at our house on Monday for us to store our furniture and belongings in, while the house is repaired.

It's all happening!

In the mail this morning, was my new Photoshop CS6 (a photo editing program).

Without reading any instructions, I loaded it onto my computer and began to play with an old photo.

It's much more difficult than I thought and it's very different to Photoshop Elements, which I was using sometimes.

Here is my first, very amateurish, very poor attempt at creating something different with photoshop.

Now that I have that out of my system, I will wade through the Photoshop Guidebook tomorrow and learn how to use it properly.

The next time I post a photo here, I hope that it will be something more impressive, that makes you go 'Oooh  Aaah  Wow'.

Today, I am grateful for the 2013 NRL football season, which started this week.  We love our football!  Even though Adoring Husband's team is having some major problems right now, I'm sure things will calm down and it will all work out in the end.  Chin up darling.

Nite all.

Day 131 in a Year of my Life

Trevor said 'sorry' today.

Trevor is from Youi (the insurance company).

Trevor said that he had been monitoring facebook and Twitter for the last couple of days and that he had read all of the comments from our friends and families and watched as each of them shared our story.

Trevor said that he, and Youi felt very embarrassed.

Trevor acknowledged that the gift of an umbrella, though well intended, taking our circumstances into consideration, it was a poor choice and he offered his sincerest apologies for upsetting us.

Trevor promised to phone our builder to make sure he contacted us as quickly as possible and so that our repairs could commence as soon as possible.

Trevor did exactly that and about fifteen minutes later, we received a call from our builder.  Not long after that, our contract was was faxed to us, Adoring Husband read it, we added some variations, signed it and faxed it back.

They begin our repairs on 21st March (I wish it was sooner) and they will take 45 - 65 days to complete depending on weather delays.

So, for this point, it's a win for us, but I will not rest on my laurels - there is still a long way to go!

I found another sunflower and will take photos as it opens.

Also, this morning, I was pretty chuffed when one of my boys brought a medal to the temporary Seat of Knowledge.  A medal that he received for running the Olympic torch for one mile in Cairns back in 1956 in the lead up to the Melbourne Olympics.

What a great memory to have, and this man is not one to talk too much about himself.  He is quite a private man, so for him to share this, is pretty special.

Today, I am grateful for modern technology and the social media.  Used the in right way, positive outcomes can be much quicker than any other means available to us in the past, except maybe the television and those horrid current affairs shows if they thought there was a good story in it.

We, the little people, stand half a chance now :D

Nite all.  

Day 130 in a Year of my Life

The power of social media!

After I posted my photo of Youi's gift to us onto my facebook wall, as well as onto Youi's, the following happened;

Vegan Chickie posted the umbrella debacle onto her personal facebook page, and her business page and also onto her Twitter streams and created a domino effect as friends and family of friends and family continued to 'share', 'like' and 'comment' throughout the rest of the day and night.

Many of my friends and family shared the photo with their friends and family too.

She and many others voiced their disgust and disappointment at Youi's disregard and slow action on our insurance claim after the tornado damage almost 6 weeks ago.

She tweeted them approximately 30 times and often used their own slogan ('We Get You') to get their attention eg

Youi.  We get you - to pay your premiums and then we leave you in a broken house without power for 5 weeks.

Youi.  We get you - an umbrella, to make up for the giant hole in your house that we haven't approved repairs on.

Lots of other people tweeted too.

Today we have SUCCESS!

Youi phoned us late this afternoon to advise that they had approved (our preferred) builder to commence the repairs.

Now we wait for the contract to be delivered so that we can sign off and hopefully the repairs will commence SOON.

Today is a good day!

Thank you to Vegan Chickie for her persistence and for keeping the momentum going for as long (or as short) as it took.

Thank you to everybody who took the photo and shared it on their page and made appropriate (and sometimes inappropriate) comments that helped put the pressure on.

I believe that it was this pressure that made Youi put a priority on our claim.

Another win for me today ... was Adoring Husband's follow up to yesterday's delicious lunch!

I could get used to this!

Today, I am grateful for a day full of positives!  It was so nice to see a happy, genuine smile on Adoring Husband's face when he received the good news from Youi.  It was a nice feeling inside for me too.

Nite all.

Day 129 in a Year of my Life

Well, we are still no closer to a start on our house, however, Youi (the insurance company) are showing a bit more of an interest and we actually had two phone calls from them today.

They apologised for the umbrella debacle and have passed our concerns on to their marketing team.

Apparently, they are waiting on a couple of tenders - from people who haven't actually seen our house or the damage, but who have looked at the Scope of Works online.

They did say "things should be moving along soon".

We will see.

I have a pretty good team behind me now and Youi should be very vigilant about this case, because we are not going away!

Adoring Husband and I made a decision recently, that we would start having our main meal at lunch time, because it's too difficult to cook and clean up by lamp light at night.

This is the result of Adoring Husbands first attempt at a cooked lunch (remembering that we only have one gas hotplate and the barbecue) ...

Let me state that the Pea Puree was pure heaven!  The whole meal was delicious and I am now a bit excited about what will be on offer in the coming weeks :D

Lastly for today, The Nikonian posted this on my facebook wall a couple of days ago and I love it sooooo much.  I feel emotional every time I look at it.

I'd love it poster sized and framed on my wall in my work area, when it's rebuilt.  Sounds like a plan :)

Today I am grateful for cooked lunches as main meals lol ... especially when they are cooked and presented with love by Adoring Husband!

Nite all.

Day 128 in a Year of my Life

In summary ...

A Youi (our insurance company) approved builder came to inspect our house 4 days after the tornado hit us.  He also sent in a painter, a plasterer, an electrician, a roofer etc to calculate their costs.

He told us that he could commence work within a week if the insurance company approved the repairs.

Five weeks later, there is still no approval for him to commence work.  They have, apparently, asked for other quotes and they also sent the Structural Engineer in late, to do the scope of works, which the builders are supposed to work out their quote from.

Just to rub salt into the wound, today we received this in the mail from Youi ...

So I posted this photo, along with a brief history, firstly onto my facebook page, then onto Youi's facebook page.

My friends and family then began to share this photo with their friends and families on facebook. Then my family posted it onto Twitter and the plan is to make it go viral so that something gets done faster.

We still have no connected power - just two extension leads running from the power box outside which runs our fridge and freezer, the tv, a fan, a lamp and my computer.

We switch things around when we need to do washing, or vacuum the floor, or run the portable camp shower that provides warm water (our solar hot water system doesn't heat water after endless days of cloud and rain).

It's kind of like 5 star camping - but I'm so sick of food cooked on the barbecue.

As lucky as we are, that we can still live in our house, at minimum standards - the insurance company really should have moved things along by now.

I know that there are hundreds, if not thousands of people out there who require repairs after cyclones, tornadoes, floods etc., BUT our builder was available to start a month ago - why hasn't it been approved???

Wouldn't it be nice if the 'viral' plan worked and we got a phone call tomorrow telling us to go ahead with the repairs?

Today I am grateful for friends and family who care enough to spread the word and who hope to make a difference.

In particular, I am grateful to Vegan Chickie who got the ball rolling along a number of different Social Media networks, and I'm also grateful that Number One Son and Bubbles were quick to add their comments on the Youi facebook page and also shared the photo on their own pages.

Fingers crossed that something comes of it!

Nite all.

Day 127 in a Year of my Life

Well, I have finally bitten the bullet and ordered Photoshop CS6 Software.

When I first took up photography, I was very ANTI Photoshop.  I was very opinionated and let everybody know how I felt about it.

I believed that photography was about taking great photos and that it was more important to know how to use your camera and take the perfect photo.  It was not about taking average photos and then fixing them with photoshop.

Then I learned that it's impossible to capture in camera, what you actually see.  The colour is rarely as vibrant, the exposure can rarely be perfect for everything that you want to fit in your photo, there needs to be a little sharpening, a little contrast.

You can use many different editing programs to do these things.

I have discovered that in the old days with film cameras, there were processes used in the dark room that could tweak the exposure, add or reduce contrast,  sharpen images, dodge and burn among many other things to manipulate photos.

With the new digital era, editing programs and software, do the same thing, just faster and easier.

So I've spent two years learning how to use my camera in manual mode, and learning how to take a compositionally sound photo, plus some basic editing skills (there is still SO much more to learn regarding everything that I've just mentioned).

I look at photographers who I know personally and the work that they produce using photoshop as an aid.  I also look at professional photographers and how creative and artistic they are with their photos, also using photoshop.

Then there are the more famous photographers like Annie Leibowitz, Simon Powell, Steve McCurry, Anne Geddes to name a few (that you may know), who use photoshop to create art.

So this brings me to my current situation.  To take my photography a step further and see what I can produce using a professional editing tool like Photoshop.  To see just how creative I can get and how artistic my work can become ... beyond a clean, sharp photo.

This is my new challenge and something that I hope will take me out of my current trauma induced funk and into a magical new world of inspiration and imagination.

Watch this space and hopefully, some time in the near future, when I've mastered a few photoshop skills, you can see a change and a difference in my work.

I feel a little bit excited about this new development.

Today, it stopped raining long enough for me to spend a bit of time out on my trike with camera in hand.

The lorikeets were out in full force.

Today, I am grateful for friends who encourage and nudge me onto new pathways, helping me see some light through the dimness.  I feel a new spark of energy, like a tiny ember, glowing within and it feels good.

Nite all.