Money makes the world go around right?

One thing that alot of people (including myself) stress about is money. 

It also breaks up alot of relationships including my Uncle and his Partner who were together for 14 years until recently.

Although i stress about this i will not let it get in the way of my relationships with my man, friends or family.

The one thing i have written a fair bit about in my blogs lately is that my Partner and i will be moving back to my home Melbourne. We have set ourselves a goal of February to do this. I think it is equally as important to have a goal aswell as the initial idea because then you have that special sense of achievment.

Out dollar value goal to do the move is $6,000. It will cost roughly $2,500 just for the bond and 1st months rent. We will also need to buy whitegoods as it costs too much to ship them over rather than buy from a second hand dealer. The other thing we have allowed for is D to be out of work for around 2 weeks. Although he will be searching before we leave most companies won't hire you until they have met you. I am luckily getting a transfer with work so will be taking paid annual leave whilst the move is happening.

The shipping container will be no more than $1,000 but you do not have to pay this until 2 weeks after you move when you get you things which helps.

I felt this goal was realistic and was pleased knowing we have saved almost $4,000 in 3 months when i have never really saved like this before ever!

I know someone who is from Melbourne, moved here and recently has moved back with her man who is also from here. I didn't want to be rude but i asked her roughly how much they saved (to get a better idea for ourselves) to move, i was ASTOUNDED when she told me her man had saved up $11,000 and she had saved $7,000! They were not paying $500 fortnightly rent like us though and would not of had the bills we unfortunately do but still, that seems like a wicked amount.

I did put into consideration they did not have any jobs at all between them when they did the move which made it harder to find a property because no company would take them seriously.

That night i did not sleep, SO SO worried, will we have enough etc. I still think we will, i said to my man if we get to $6,000 by Christmas we will just keep saving because any extra all counts.

I might result to selling some belongings to add into the kitty aswell.

Do you think my budget will be enough?....

Good Driver

Well i have taken a big step recently to get my driving lisence and i have been for some driving lessons.

My first lesson was with a professional instructor and she told me i over-steer.

Well this evening after work my Partner took me driving in a quiet area. I was scared at first of this ute named Red Peril but after a while i got used to him, i will never be able to reverse park in him because i can't even see over the head rest!

I have another 2 hours of professional lessons tomorrow in a much smaller car, a Toyota Yaris, which is the type of car i want to buy anyways.

I am aiming to get my P plates before we move back to Melbourne, because in Melbourne you need 120 hours of experience in your log book and here it is only 50 hours. Also it is easier for my Partner to teach me here as he knows the roads.

Not long now and i will be all independant with my own car :)

Is it me or is it here..

Since moving to this state 1 year ago i have been sick for almost the entire time.

This has ranged from The Flu to being quarantined at home for Swine Flu to having a kankle.

Unfortunately it frustrates me very often because there always seems to be something wrong!

When i lived in my home state i was not sick very often.

The environment here is alot different to home though, word has it all around the world that the air is the cleanest in Tasmania. I would like the blanket of pollution that i had in Victoria to come over here to blanket me in from the sickness.

For the past 5 days i have been ill, yet again. It started Sunday morning when i had pretty much lost my voice and sounded retarded each time i wanted to speak. I put it down to the events of the night before, (although i can't recall any screaming or using my voice louder than normal) the Monday i woke up and felt like a train had run over me! Day off work to recover, at that stage it was still just my throat and my voice.

Worked Tuesday, really struggled but got through.

On the bus to work the next day (Wednesday) i used a whole box of tissues for my runnly nose and had everyone staring at me.Arrived at work Wednesday and got sent home.

One thing i have learned is it costs alot of Dollars to have time off. Hopefully this round of sickness is the last.

I, however now have a much more major health issue to cover over the next week or so, hopefully all will be.

To put it straightforward i am sick of being sick!

Anniversary

Today my Partner D and I are very happy to celebrate our 1 year Anniversary.

Before i met this beautiful man i did not think 1 year could pass by so quickly!

I won't lie in this year together we have been through just as much pain as well as joy. Not on our own accord but pain caused to me by his family who have been far too quick to form a very in-correct opinion on me.

In March he was questioning the realationship and was going to leave for overseas, he then quickly realized someone else had made that decision for him and stood by me. Since then we could not of become any stronger as one.

We then moved into our home here together (this is the first time he has moved out of home and he is 25!, sound italian? He is actually not) and things are great. He is doing very well and often is all too happy to tell me he could'nt live at the parents place again.

We have both taken 4 much deserved days off work to be together. Initially we were planning on getting away but time crept up so fast and we had 'nt arranged anything. So we stayed at our little abode here but i tell you it has been just as wonderful.

D told me a few weeks ago he was making me a gift for the Anniversary. He is a Cabinetmaker by trade. I was stuck for ideas on what it may be ( i asked him some time ago now for a jewellery box), to be honest i really thought it may of been a blanket box. Although i'd be just as happy with a gift of it's size i don't feel it would be the most practical thing as we are moving on interstate at the start of the year.

A week ago we had to go to Spotlight for fabric for my present but i still was thinking "blanket box" i chose some indigo velvet.

Sure enough, on Saturday night after Collingwood lost and going fishing for the first time in my life and not catching a fish, i needed cheering up and he whipped out the most beautiful jewellery box anyone could ever hope for, because it was made with his own two hands i love it sooo much more than anything :) He is going to put a gold latch on it when he finds one though. Look at picture and see what im oogling and googling over :)

I had NO idea what to buy him still and it was too late to shop on-line for something.

Then Yesterday morning i had the most beaut brainwave. Before i tell you the idea i will tell you something i did for him around 8 months ago because what i did last Saturday the idea came from what i had done previously.

He was at work at the start of this year and it was my RDO, i wanted to remind him he is the most precious person on earth so i walked with his little sister to the local Newsagent and bought some nice red envelopes and a nice writing pad with red poppies on it. I then wrote around on 15 different pieces of paper all of the thing i love about him in great detail, wrote a small quote on the front of the envelope and laid them neatly on the bed. When he got home from work to find the envelopes i was in the shower, i came back into the room to find the biggest mushy man ever, he was soo astounded and godsmacked he said i was the sweetest lady anyone would ever know.

So last Saturday i was thinking of putting pen to paper and jotting down all of the new reasons i love him, then i was thinking 1 year together = 365 days, so i set myself the big challenge of writing 365 reasons i love him, well this was a big brain exersize, but if you love someone you do these things i thought. I then set out to the shops to purchase 365 balloons, i then wrote down every reason, cut it out and putthem into balloons, 1 reason in 1 balloon. When you look at 365 balloons each resmebling 1 day together it seems so many yet it still feels like the day we met. I often have to get my Partner to pinch me so i can believe it. I have to tell you i have never blown so many balloons up and i even got a blister on my finger from tying them up! He kept wondering why he was not allowed to come into the room for 4+ hrs!

While i was out i bought some nice Sav Blanc, and we had a nice dinner together with the wine, i waited till he had a glass in him (he gets more mushy, sooky, romantic after a glass) and i gave him a safety pin (he was obviously thinking i was a freak by this stage), i then explained to him we had been together 365 days, everyday my love grows for him more therefore the least i could do was note these down for him to keep, i then opened the door with the love songs playing and the candles lit and i simply said "you had better get popping"! He was even more astounded at the balloons than at the red envelopes earlier in the year and he stood there for 3 minutes and looked at me funny (i was hoping he didn't think i was strange), then Whitney Houston came on the music player and we held each other in our arms and bawled love tears. He told me it felt better than as though it was his Birthday and this was the best day of his life (what a big call!) but the best reaction i could of asked for. Look at picture and see what he was so astounded by :)

So... Today is "The actual Anniversary" although it has been more like Anniversary weekend :)

We went simple today, we made our lunch and went hiking down a mountain to Snug Falls, it was so beautiful, i think it had been donkey years since D saw a waterfall. When i met him he told me his favourite places were the mountain and the beach, i think this fella has a new favourite place. It had recently rained on the track so was very muddy and we are not really advanced in this hobby so we wore runners as we are not technical enough to own hiking shoes which would of been much easier. Once we reached the Falls i slipped on a rock trying to go over the stream to a rock to. I have also attached a few pics of us in a hollow tree, we couldn't get one together because there was no-one to take it.

Well my wonderful Partner and i are now into the second glorious year of our realationship. Hopefully this time next year i have or am in plans to have a new surname, the best surname that starts with an O.

Fishing and log cabins.

This coming Monday my Partner and I celebrate our 1 Yr anniversary.

We are both having 4 days off work to celebrate.

Today we did not celebrate much because i had to get a booby scan and we had lunch with our friend who has just moved here from Sydney.

But tomorrow he is taking me fishing for the first time in my life. I am looking forward to catching fish but i don't know what to really do after that, i am definately not willing to scale it or do anything nastier to it so i guess i will leave that up to him.

I do however look forward to cooking loads of seafood and finding delicious recipes on-line.

We are blessed because the island we live on has the best seafood in the country and it's basically in my backyard :)

On Monday to celebrate the anniversary we are going on a nice bush walk to the waterfalls, i really look forward to this because it will be "just us" where we can forget about the hustle & bustle of the world and be together, on top of that i am looking forward to the waterfall especially as it reminds me of being where i grew up - The Grampians.

So i am on the lookout at the moment for a nice log cabin for us to spend Christmas Eve together but i want one with an open fire so we can toast marshmallows and whisper stories to each other all night. Most of the cabins i have found do not have open fires, but the search will continue throughout the weekend.

That is all from me today. Enjoy your weekend everybody.

There are some odd people on the bus, smiling comes free of charge.

I have had my Learner Drivers Lisence for around 1.5 years and hopefully soon i will get my Probationary because it is easier to get in the state i'm currently living in.

So being in Tasmania the transport i get to work is bus (i have it good because my Partner is thoughtful enough to pick me up after work) when i wa sliving in Melbourne there was such an abundance of transport. I could choose from Tram or Train even walking to work which helped the hips :)

The first odd person on the bus i will talk about is a lady who is a little "larger than life", i don't mean to be rude but i don't think she has showered in a few days each time i see her. When you initially look at her she seems more normal than she is. The first day i discovered her was just over a month ago, i went to sit 2 seats away from her and after about 2 minutes there was a foul smell, there wasn't anybody else nearby so the only possible offender was herself. I moved seats but i could still see her. All of a sudden she started twitching like a mad-man and screaming "F" and "C" words and this was the first time i have ever saw someone with tourretes (other than the T.V of course). I felt a little sorry for her, hoping she was using medication because this could scare some small children to a high extent. I also felt sorry for her though because everyone (like me) would stare. I am trying hard not to stare at people so much but it can be hard when this type of behaviour is going on.

The second odd person was a brief encounter this morning, i must say though it was whilst waiting for the bus rather than on it. I looked across the road (as you do because your impatient for your bus to arrive) and saw a man with a limp, my dad has a similar one from a workplace accident 40 years ago so maybe it was from something similar. As he approached the bus stop he walked toward me to the point he was so close to me the only thing separting us was my handbag, he asked "How are you" and i couldn't really understand him, i told him i was well and left it at that not really wishing to engage in conversation. He then walked toward the timetable and asked me if a particular bus was on it's way, although it was clearly on the timetable. The bus he was questioning soon arrived (before mine) and he got on, he didn't say goodbye although i didn't expect him to, as he sat on the bus i wondered if i should of waved goodbye to him as a friendly gesture. At the start i thought he was a creep, but i could see lonliness in his eyes and then felt guilt for not giving him a simple wave because that could of made his day.

What if this man had no-one?

All i had to do was give a wave, which wouldn't cost me any money!

I hope that when i am older i am not lonely, i think i am quite scared of being lonely, i admit it being a great fear. they do say "lonliness is a curse".

I don't think i will be because i always meet people everywhere i go and whatever i am doing but i can't help but wonder and fear this.

From now on i am not going to be ashamed of saying "Good morning"" the the older lady in the morning dropping off the pamphlets in the mailboxes, or giving a smile as i walk past someone.

Smiling is contagious after all, if you smile at one starnger per day, that could be one persons day everyday that you make that little extra special.

My First Blog...Why does it have to be about work?

Today was a "Blah" day at work, oh and Yesterday was too. There were no Customers and i was thinking yesterday i just had a case of "Monday-itis" but now looking at today it was not the case!

I have been working at my current Workplace for almost 1 Year, i had worked in the same industry a few years back so as far as learning the products etc it all pretty much came straight back to me. However i was 4 years younger than i am now (17 then, 21 now) and i had ALOT to learn, one of the biggest things was how to deal with confrontation, well in time i learned how to manage that etc and i can be happy to say i don;t have that problem anymore.

Soon after i joined my current Workplace we got a new Manager, who unfortunately totally had it in for me, some people say she was jealous i just say she needed to worry about herself. She gave me the 1st written warning i have ever recieved and it was for "Not wearing stockings with my skirt" although this is not even outlined in the staff manual. She also was hired at the same time as the other male colleague was hired and he had it in for me too, but in a different way, i would walk past and he would say rotten things under his breath etc. 

I would go home and cry to my Partner "D" and the poor thing would'nt know what to do or say, because i only started this job for him as i moved Inter-state for him. 

Things got enough for me and i started looking for other work, unfortunately in the state i live in theres a smaller population to the state i grew up in which means the people applying for the one position can reach in the hundreds. I was not successful in any of the positions i had applied and i stuck it out where i'm still working now.

I am pleased to say that at the start of this year the Manager went mentally ill, took a huge amount of stress leave, tried to do our Company in for some pretty big $, was unsuccessful in doing so and hence never returned.

I am equally pleased to say the mean male colleague ended up with a larger than life drinking problem because of his Girlfriend that he cheated on countless times and stopped showing up to work.

So... both of the problematic people out of my workplace = peace at last!

In any other previous employment of mine have i ever experienced such conflict. I blame it on the "type" of personalities this state have as opposed to my home state, people here are very different, they're used to routine and their own "type" of people, so when somebody like myself comes along (Happy, Bubbly, Personality bigger than the world) they don't know what to do so they put their guards up.

So now that those rotten apples out of the bunch have been extracted i am struggling with something else and although it dos'nt seem like a big deal to everyone it does to me. So here it is:

My Partner and I plan on moving back to my home State within the next 6 months and i have been offered a transfer with work (which is great in alot of ways) but i don't want to be in Retail or Sales for the rest of my life, i feel as though the targets of sales (although i can sell ice to eskimoes) still get me down to the point i can feel the wrinkles forming on my face! It would not be a sensible idea to move States without a job therefore i will accept the transfer but this will mean i have a 7 day roster.

All i want is a general 9-5 job no weekend work! This way i can formulate so much more routine in my life and see my Partner and spend quality time with him every week. At the moment i'm lucky to have 2 days a Fortnight with him.

I don't know what i want to do with myself in the long term as far as working goes though and i feel as though the years are passing by WAY too quickly and if i don't figure something out soon i will be unhappy forever.

I wish for a job where i love it so much it dosn't even feel like "Working".

My Partner is worrying a little too much about finding work over there however the pay rate is higher for his Trade there and there are many more vacancies i don't think he will have a problem.

Please see above for a pic of me at work.