Day 147 in a Year of my Life

♪♫•♥ Happy birthday to you! ♪♫•♥

♪♫•♥ Happy birthday to you! ♪♫•♥

♪♫•♥ Happy birthday dear Vegan Chickie ♪♫•♥

♪♫•♥ Happy birthday to you!!! ♪♫•♥

I wish I could have visited you for your birthday, but I hope that you've had a great day with your lovely family and your BFF.

I love you xxx

Today I'm grateful for family.

Nite all

Day 146 in a Year of my Life

Sorry Darling ... but surely you knew you would be mentioned in my post tonight ...

Unfortunately, we drove over a damaging piece of tin on the way to the club.

We drove to the club because AH can't drink alcohol while on some special medication.

Squirt heard the unusual sound when we ran over the tin and then she and I listened to the tyre hissing loudly when we parked the car.

We couldn't see the tin and Adoring Husband couldn't hear the hissing.  He suffers from Tinnitus so there are certain levels of sound that he simply can't hear... like hissing.

Try as we might to convince him that there was a problem .. he couldn't see or hear any evidence of a problem, so it went ignored.

Three hours later, when we were ready to go home ... guess what?

Yes ... a flat tyre.  A very very flat tyre.

Poor AH copped a mouthful and a half from Squirt, who, after quite a few stubbies of beer, was in fine form ... loud, obnoxious and using language that could easily have had her removed from the club.

Of course, I added my two cents worth as well.

She, Maid Marian and I headed back inside for another drink while Maid Marian's husband helped AH change the tyre.

We arrived home almost two hours after we would have normally, so it was well past AH's bed time.

He went to bed and Squirt and I cooked a nosh up for dinner.

Meanwhile, I am traumatised by yet another tornado that has hit the southern state of Victoria.  Thousands of kilometres away, but my goodness it hit a tender spot for me and I struggled to hold it together while watching the footage at the club.

Meanwhile (number two) the preview for the next Star Trek movie is out and it looks pretty damned good!  AH is going to LOVE that one!

Nite all.

Day 145 in a Year of my Life

My sis and I shopped.

We got some bargains!

I also bought Breaking Dawn Part II, but I can't watch it til the house is fixed because the dvd player is packed away while we have limited power.

I can hear my pillows calling my name, so the best I can offer is some more quotes ... I think I'll try for some funnier ones tonight.

Big Brother anyone????

Today, I am grateful for 3 things ... 1.  Delicious roast lamb dinners made by Adoring Husband on the barbecue.  2.   A second round of mulberries on the tree that actually ripen and don't get eaten by the birds before I get to them.  3.  50% off the already discounted price sales.

Nite all.

Day 144 in a Year of my Life

So the trusses arrived!

... and so did the rain!

We are at a stand still until the rain stops because nothing more can be done to our house until there is a guarantee of 4 fine days in a row.  That's how long we will be without a roof over the front half of our house while they replace and repair trusses.

Ah well.

Yesterday really was a joy to behold and I know there will be other days just like it in our future.  We just need to be patient!

On a happier note, Squirt (my lil sis) arrived today, so I guess the good thing is that we can have a conversation without having to yell over the noise of builders!

The boys at the Seat of Knowledge are looking forward to seeing her again, but I think she will be shocked at the state of our town, post tornado.  She was a little emotional when she arrived, having driven through some of the worst hit streets.

The rain made it impossible to use my camera today, so no photos to share.  Instead, a couple of quotes ...

Today I am grateful for my sister's safe arrival at my door!

Nite all.

Day 143 in a Year of my Life

Well!  What a turn around!

Today has been a hive of activity around our house.

Hammers, drills, saws and various other tools and pieces of machinery making all sorts of loud noises all day.

We've had the solar hot water guys fixing our solar panels.

We've had a builder repair the shed in the back yard.

We've had the electrician doing enough work to give us a couple of power points and some working lights.

We've had another builder in the garage all day stripping everything ready for the big rebuild.

We've had the roller door man measuring up for the new and improved roller door for the garage.

This afternoon, we got a call to say that the trusses will be delivered tomorrow - a week earlier than expected.

Our builder even gave Adoring Husband a lift into The Bay to pick up the car from the panel beaters.  It's all shiny and sparkly and new again - except for one window that will be fixed some time in the very near future.

So things are looking pretty good in our household and everything is moving along nicely.

Today I am grateful for the obvious ... we are a little bit closer to having our lives back to normal!

Nite all.

Day 142 in a Year of my Life

The title should read 'Day 143 in a Year of Adoring Husband's Life'.

It all started in the middle of the night when the strong winds and driving rains woke him from his deep sleep.

He got out of bed to check that everything was ok around the house and then the psychotic dog barked in the laundry and when AH opened the laundry door to check on her, as he bent down, she almost jumped right into his arms.

So she came to bed with us for a while.

Her bark may have been the exact moment that our next dilemma occurred.

This morning when AH went outside to mow our lawns, he noticed that one of the panels on our solar hot water system on the roof had shattered (it's possible that psychotic dog heard that shatter).

Luckily, a guy from Solar Hart came out today to check it and he said that he could see where the initial impact (from the tornado) had partially damaged the panels.  It was the extreme heat of yesterday and then the sudden drop in temp when the weather changed during the night, that caused it to shatter.

It will be repaired tomorrow.

Then ... AH  received a phone call from the nursing home where his mother resides, to advise that she'd had another fall and that her dementia had deteriorated quite a lot in the last couple of months.  She is 96 years old tomorrow!

She is fine (ie no damage from the fall).

Then ... a phone call from our insurance company concerned by some nasty comments that my brother had left on their facebook page over the weekend.

Little Brother had read an old post from 2 weeks ago about how upset I was over the Insurance Company's inaction, and thought it was a 'new' post, so began to send some angry messages to them.

He was very embarrassed when I pointed out that he had made a mistake, however, the damage had already been done.

So poor AH had to apologise profusely to the insurance company and I had to write an apology on their page explaining that we were happy with their current level of service and how the claim was progressing.

Then ... confirmation that my sister, Squirt, arrives this week for a holiday with us .. two days earlier than we thought (our mistake, not hers), so we spent the afternoon in a panic clearing out one of the bedrooms for her to use and packing more 'stuff' into the big yellow container in the back yard.

Then ... the panel beater who is repairing our Outlander was supposed to phone today to confirm that the car would be ready to pick up tomorrow.  He hadn't called by 4.45pm, so AH tried to phone them but there was no answer.  AH has to catch the one and only bus into town tomorrow morning, so hopefully the car will be ready.

Then ... we drove to the pub tonight to watch AH's team, Cronulla Sharks, play their second round match against South Sydney Rabbitohs.  We would normally watch it at home, but we have no Foxtel to watch the games until the house is repaired.

Poor AH's team lost the game by 2 points.

So  today hasn't been the most joyful for AH, which, like a domino effect, makes my day less than joyful also!

Tomorrow is another day and apparently, our builder is arriving bright and early,  to hopefully commence work on the house two days earlier than planned - depending on the weather of course.

That's two positive things to start tomorrow off with a smile!!

Today, I'm grateful that the day is over and that tomorrow is looking to be a much happier time.

Our luck is changing!  I can feel it in my bones!

Nite all.

Day 141 in a Year of my Life

Who loves Bangers n Mash?  Everybody!

Bangers n Mash, Adoring Husband style, is better than any other!

Two things that I really loved on facebook today.  The first one brought joy to my heart.

The second one gave me a giggle.

Tonight, we are waiting for some strong winds heading in this direction from the south.

Redcliffe had winds up to 65kmh this afternoon and those winds should reach here early tomorrow morning.  They will only last for half a day, but still, we are nervous.

Not much longer til our house is repaired.  We'll feel safer and more secure then.

Nite all.

Day 140 in a Year of my Life

A lazy Saturday night watching an old Indiana Jones movie while keeping an eye on the football scores online.

Now that the footy season has started, we are missing our Foxtel.  We like to watch all the NRL matches over the weekend.

It's going to be at least 6 weeks before we get to spend our Saturdays eating home made pizzas while enjoying 'Super Saturday' on the sports channel, which has become our treasured tradition.

Today, I've played with a couple of photos ...

Another thing that I'm looking forward to, is having a usable work area so that I can learn how to use Photoshop and the graphics tablet together.

It's going to be a tough 6+ weeks while the work is happening on the house.  There will be noise and dust and stress and the dogs will be more psychotic than usual.  I think we will be stretched to our limits with so many visitors coming to spend some time amid the chaos.

I also think the Lions Park will be enjoying my company quite often - it will be my place of 'calm' when it all gets too much.

However, it will be over before we know it and our house will be as good as new.

Life will get back to normal and all will be right with our world.

We will be stronger and wiser, with one more major life experience behind us.

Nite all.

Day 139 in a Year of my Life

Tonight was 'shave for a cure' night at the pub.

Our neighbour (the one whose house landed on ours during the tornado) decided to participate and had his very long white/grey hair and beard shaved off.

We headed to the pub after our regular Friday night at the Bowls Club and this is what we witnessed ...

I'm not sure how much money was raised, but the cup was packed with notes and coins.  I'll find out tomorrow.

Today, I'm grateful for Community Spirit.  It's alive and well in our little town.

Nite all.

Day 138 in a Year of my Life

Adoring Husband has been interviewed by the local Channel 7 News, twice in the space of 4 weeks.

A split second of the footage from his story, is now a permanent fixture on the ad for our local news.  His fifteen minutes of fame has become epic!

Since the tornado, he has also joined the local SES, so he's had lots of paperwork to complete and is now doing something constructive and community based with some of his free time.

I feel proud of him for making that decision and taking the necessary steps to get to this point.  I think it's a good way for him to meet new people and to do something positive and fresh after such a horrible start to the year with his Parkinsons diagnosis and then the tornado.

Today, we awoke to a completely cloud free sky, for the first time since mid January.

It was a glorious day with blue sky and sunshine, a slight breeze (instead of the gale force winds we've experienced for the last 2 months) and the local wildlife were out in force.

Unfortunately, I wasn't quite on the ball and missed a fabulous opportunity this morning.

I was on the beach with my camera for about 20 minutes or more, trying to capture the sunlight dancing on the waves that were crashing on the shore (crashing waves is an unusual phenomenon for our area any time!), and when I was satisfied, I rode further along the path to the southern end.

I surveyed the area and looked back toward where I had just come from and saw, to my dismay, the huge White Breasted Sea Eagle, fighting with the Whistling Kite, above the water where a Shag was attempting to eat a shiny silvery fish.

All three birds wanted the fish and the Whistling Kite was bombing the White Breasted Eagle to keep him from getting it.

I jumped back on my trike and pedalled for all my worth back to other beach, but the White Eagle had left the area.

The Whistling Kite took a couple of unsuccessful swoops on the Shag while I was watching, but the photos aren't worth sharing.

Very disappointing.

I did find a Pale-headed Rosella in the park.

There were all types of ducks and birdlife on the lagoon early this morning, but I was too heavy footed and scared them all to the other end of the lagoon, so all I can offer, is a lily.

And that's the story of my day.

Today, I am grateful for blue skies and sunshine.  Everybody's spirits are lifted as we soak up the sun's rays and all that healthy vitamin D.

Nite all.    

 

Day 137 in a Year of my Life

If I can sit here for 90 minutes and not come up with anything of value to write, then I should probably give up and post a couple of photos.

So here goes.

Kookaburra relaxing

A Dollar Bird

Today I am grateful for the change of seasons and that time of year moving from Summer to Autumn, when the weather cools down so that you can actually sleep under a cover, soundly, and in comfort.

Have a lovely Thursday!

Nite all.

Day 136 in a Year of my Life

So, Adoring Husband has been very busy, and has been conscientiously emptying all of the cupboards that line the walls of the garage, and clearing the area in preparation for the repairs on the house.

You know what it's like when you go through cupboards and drawers that you haven't been near for a couple of years?  (I often question why we need to keep half of the things in the cupboard if we haven't used them for a couple of years!)

Well, Adoring Husband found these photos.  They were taken 9 years ago when we went on our first holiday together.  A road trip to Rockhampton to visit my mother for her birthday.  On the way home, we stopped at Australia Zoo and shouted ourselves a cuddle with some tiger cubs.

We've all changed so much in nine years!

Today, I am grateful for cupboards that haven't been opened in a couple of years.  The cupboards that hold treasures and that make you feel like it's Christmas when you find them.  The cupboards whose treasures bring back such fantastic memories and plant a smile on your dial.

We have quite a few of them!

Nite all.

Day 135 in a Year of my Life

I learnt how to play Gin Rummy tonight.

Adoring Husband and I were invited to dinner at a friend's home across town.

Adoring Husband helped them out with their computer last year and we were supposed to go to dinner back then as their gesture of thanks, but circumstances prevented it.

Then they went on holidays, then we went on holidays, then Christmas came and went and then the tornado hit and then they went on holidays again.

Which brings us to tonight!

Baked dinner and GF tofu cheesecake.

Gin Rummy.

I won twice!  My brain hurt!

Lovely couple.

Before I go ... photo opportunity ... a touch of photoshop in this one.

Today I am grateful for friends with electricity, who can cook delicious meals for us without using their barbecue :)  (Don't get me wrong!  I am grateful for Adoring Husbands wonderful barbecue cooking!) but ... I miss a good oven baked meal lol.

Nite all.

Day 134 in a Year of my Life

Tomorrow, Adoring Husband and I will begin packing everything and moving it into a crate that will be delivered here some time during the day.

It'll be just like spring cleaning and will be a perfect opportunity to de-clutter and downsize.

Are you listening Adoring Husband?

Today I am grateful for the opportunity to spring clean and also write a short blog post tonight.

:D

Nite all.

Day 133 in a Year of my Life

Trivia night at the local club tonight.

We had eight at our table and there were eight other teams.

We came second!  By one point!

I think we had a good team and everybody contributed really well - although some a little loud at times.  I'm sure we gave a couple of answers away.

The person who made up the questions, interestingly enough, asked the same question twice - not just on one round, but on two rounds! She blamed storm damage for her errors lol.

The cost of the night was supposed to include a light supper, but that fell through, and we ended up with a couple of small bowls of chips and a bowl of nuts.

Luckily I took my own GF nuts and also a light salad, which I left in my bag when the light supper didn't eventuate.

As the night wore on and the drunkenness took over, it became very loud and disorderly!  Our table was one of the more subdued and orderly tables.

This afternoon, as the time drew closer to get ready for this evening, I began to regret organising it and I really didn't feel very motivated or keen to go.  But I'm so glad that we did because I ended up having a really nice time.  We had some good laughs and combined, we made a good trivia team.

Yay for us!

Today, I am grateful for delicious, lazy, uninterrupted afternoon naps that have no time limit and can be enjoyed at leisure.  Especially enjoyable after a gourmet lunch made by Adoring Husband.

Nite all

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.