Today was Eli's first day at "Big Boys" school
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
... and now a new car!
After 18 months we're finally getting our new car. To cut a long story short, when I started my new job it came with a vehicle allowance, which I could use to buy the car of my choice. We had already deciced on a Subaru Forester, we had use of a Forester, Impreza and Outback while we were in Singapore, and the Forester was probably the most practable (although I do love the Impreza).
Anyway, about the same time I started, one of the sales guys left, and his company vehicle (a toyota camary) became available. I took that with the understanding that I would give it back when the new salesperson started - but I still have it :(. This poor thing has been dragged up repeater sites, filled chocker with test equipment and radio gear and it absolutly knackered.
So, last week I was notified that the lease is about to expire. Yipee!!!! good ridance you petrol hungry beast.
Subaru just happened to be having a sale last week, so Eli and I went down for a test drive after work. We took out both an Impreza, and a Forester. I so could have driven off with the impreza, but I would have got 3 speeding tickets before I got home. Shelley went for a test drive the next day and loved the Forester, so I went back after work and put a deposit on one.
Now I've got to wait for the finance company to come through with the goods and were all set.
Anyway, about the same time I started, one of the sales guys left, and his company vehicle (a toyota camary) became available. I took that with the understanding that I would give it back when the new salesperson started - but I still have it :(. This poor thing has been dragged up repeater sites, filled chocker with test equipment and radio gear and it absolutly knackered.
So, last week I was notified that the lease is about to expire. Yipee!!!! good ridance you petrol hungry beast.
Subaru just happened to be having a sale last week, so Eli and I went down for a test drive after work. We took out both an Impreza, and a Forester. I so could have driven off with the impreza, but I would have got 3 speeding tickets before I got home. Shelley went for a test drive the next day and loved the Forester, so I went back after work and put a deposit on one.
Now I've got to wait for the finance company to come through with the goods and were all set.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
New year, New house
At last were in the new house. Most of the boxes are unpacked, a few of the pictures are hung up, and its starting to look like a home. Thanks heaps to Lynette who helped clean both houses - no mean feat.
Shelley spent the first week as she does in every new house - ripping out all the overgrown trees and plants. When we first viewed the place it had a beaut simple garden. We've now found out that the previous owners hated gardening and simply stick a few plants into the ground for the open home. They havent't watered the garden since, and so most of the plants are now dead. What had survived was an overgrown Wis
teria plant, which had taken over most of the back deck and BBQ area and was threatening to destroy the spouting.
Shelley also got in touch with her creative side, ripping out the old pond and giving it a face lift, complete with waterfall. My job is to source a suitable pump - which is not as simple as I thought. I decided to go solar - for two reasons, but mainly beacuse of the cost involved in getting a power socket fitted outside near the pond. There was one there previously, but the previous owners have ripped all that up and just left the wires sticking out of the ground - too short to do any thing with.
It seems that most of the low voltage water pumps available on the market at this time are 12V AC, what I need is some 12V DC pumps to work with the solar panel. The only thing I can source is one by a company called OASE, there are a couple of suppliers, mostly in SA or WA - they must have better rebates for Solar than in VIC. (http://www.creativepumps.com.au/Pumps/Oase/Solar%20pump/Solar_pump.htm).
Optus let us down big time - All my pre-planning fell through with trying to get the phone and internet set up in advance. To cut a long story short, our internet is now with Telstra, and we are using SKYPE for our phone calls. Skype has made a few improvements since we last used it on Shelley's iMac. The audio quality with the built in mic used to be shit, but now it's really good. 2 cents a minute to call NZ is pretty goo as well. Skype still crashes Shelley's mac when it goes to sleep though. I think this might be related to bonjour not working properly if the airport doesn't connect quick enough when it wakes. We get the same thing with iChat crashing, but that seems to be stable since I disabled bonjour. Perhaps it will be ok with a wired connection.
On the plus side, we've got to meet most of the neibours already. Everyone seems really nice and we've already had one offer for babysitting. (Fantastic!!) At the end of the court is a nice common with a play ground, and not far (within walking distance) are some wetlands - fun for Eli to explore.
Shelley spent the first week as she does in every new house - ripping out all the overgrown trees and plants. When we first viewed the place it had a beaut simple garden. We've now found out that the previous owners hated gardening and simply stick a few plants into the ground for the open home. They havent't watered the garden since, and so most of the plants are now dead. What had survived was an overgrown Wis
teria plant, which had taken over most of the back deck and BBQ area and was threatening to destroy the spouting.Shelley also got in touch with her creative side, ripping out the old pond and giving it a face lift, complete with waterfall. My job is to source a suitable pump - which is not as simple as I thought. I decided to go solar - for two reasons, but mainly beacuse of the cost involved in getting a power socket fitted outside near the pond. There was one there previously, but the previous owners have ripped all that up and just left the wires sticking out of the ground - too short to do any thing with.
It seems that most of the low voltage water pumps available on the market at this time are 12V AC, what I need is some 12V DC pumps to work with the solar panel. The only thing I can source is one by a company called OASE, there are a couple of suppliers, mostly in SA or WA - they must have better rebates for Solar than in VIC. (http://www.creativepumps.com.au/Pumps/Oase/Solar%20pump/Solar_pump.htm).
Optus let us down big time - All my pre-planning fell through with trying to get the phone and internet set up in advance. To cut a long story short, our internet is now with Telstra, and we are using SKYPE for our phone calls. Skype has made a few improvements since we last used it on Shelley's iMac. The audio quality with the built in mic used to be shit, but now it's really good. 2 cents a minute to call NZ is pretty goo as well. Skype still crashes Shelley's mac when it goes to sleep though. I think this might be related to bonjour not working properly if the airport doesn't connect quick enough when it wakes. We get the same thing with iChat crashing, but that seems to be stable since I disabled bonjour. Perhaps it will be ok with a wired connection.
On the plus side, we've got to meet most of the neibours already. Everyone seems really nice and we've already had one offer for babysitting. (Fantastic!!) At the end of the court is a nice common with a play ground, and not far (within walking distance) are some wetlands - fun for Eli to explore.
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