A woman on the train opposite me is having an absolute blast smiling and nodding her head along to her music. It is so joyous to see. Even better that she’s wearing headphones and I just have to imagine the music!
Ever have one of those mornings that just seems so perfect and well-rested and you feel at peace with yourself ... only to have it thoroughly sullied by the realisation that you have to throw your natural pace out of the window to fit the demands of paid work?
I am going to do the sums this weekend on how I can move to that 4 day week asap while not taking too much of a financial hit. I always told myself I'd do it as soon as I got PR, but fuck if expenses haven't ballooned despite my best efforts.
Someone from leadership let it slip that there will be no payrises this year since the business is struggling. That’s fine… except I’m still being paid the same wage despite having a huge increase in responsibilities. Yeah, nah to that. This is what I get for being nice.
Damn, all the going ons have been really affecting me recently. The kid getting stabbed on Monday night was the straw that broke the camels back. Of course people have been stabbed since the invention of stabbing instruments, and it happens in every suburb, city, country, and in every decade, year, and (seemingly) month, but it's pretty shit that it all seems to be happening right around my area
This one, and the one that happened in sunshine a month ago are particularly affecting me because on top of them happening in my area, they're both my age too. I'm probably sounding kind of entitled/selfish but it's just a hard nut to swallow that they were my age doing the same thing I do several times a week, then someone decided to just.. end them... Forever gone, all that potential just lost for good
I've done the unthinkable. I'm cooking sweet potato and potato NOT in the microwave 😱
Cooked off some red onion, garlic, cumin, chilli flakes & powder & sauce, cayenne pepper, pepper, paprika, ginger, salt and pepper. Added chicken stock, crushed tomatoes, sweet potato and potato. Results pending. Will add beans
My kid's sick and she's hassling me about the use of the tv. I said yes under the condition that it's not the Gilmore Girls otherwise I'll blow my brains out.
Sitting in my Kmart oodie, drinking negroni gin, watching old episodes of the Crystal Maze and ruminating on what my life has become...this is a whole mood.
Fuck yea drinking duty free in the shower it's like a mini hotel but at home and you have to clean it yourself but you'll get around maybe the next day maybe and there's no privacy button.
During my haircut yesterday, (which turned out fabulous btw) I was informed that there is a massive shortage of qualified hairstylists.
The lovely lady doing my hair was the only one there and has bookings until Feb of next year.
astonishing.
Morning beautiful people! Hi ho, hi ho... Got 80kg of spuds to hand peel today because I've taken the day off tomorrow, so I've gotta do extra so they don't run out. 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
Well, we got through the first night of the new sleep plan for baby. He was NOT happy with the new arrangements. But this was to be expected. Just have to keep going.
Also partner is home on holidays at the moment and the division of responsibilities has been a lot better. I actually got time to write yesterday! I wrote a lot! My brain is coming back online!
I’m in such a better mood and feel less depressed just thanks to having that little bit of time to make serious progress on a project. It’s scary how easy it is to lose yourself simply because there is no time and/or energy to BE yourself…
Real talk.
I think y'all need to post more of your meals. If it's just me posting potato inspired content then people might get the idea that potatoes are actually really fucking amazing, which might increase their price, which I do not want.
Any food content is welcome
Back home after a half day at work. Miserable weather out there. I did stop on the way home to turn the plastic promise notes Marketplace buyers insist on paying with into proper digital money. Not keen to go out again, but Mr Woof obviously wants to walk, the weirdo.
Ok a friend of mine asked me a question and tbh I’m wondering if perhaps I’m saying it wrong, as I’m not Aussie born (but have lived here a long, long time)
How do you say Melbourne and can you spell it out phonetically for me please
I’m having all sorts of trouble with the internet at home today, and have been messing around with cables and modems and switch boxes et al to try & work out what’s wrong. Still can’t fix it and would throw the internet out the window, except that I’m on the ground floor. Hrmph.
I need some more lines to my Daddy Distraction song.
Currently it goes:
"Daddy Distraction,
Dad-dy Dis-Trac-Tion,
Dis-tract-ing (First name)!"
And its a huge hit, I think due to the alliteration. But since there's only 3 lines I have to keep increasing pitch each go through, and I think the dogs are plotting against me as a result.
Watching a new movie everyday has been so good, it's improving my mental stamina so much. 😊
Back story, when I had cptsd I could barely keep up with anything more than a music video. Any mental energy I had , and it wasn't much, I used to read related medical literature and do psych therapy.
Covid did not help. That was a pretty frightening and tiring experience, it lasted years and was relentless.
Travel money update: from my research the 28 Degrees Latitude credit card is the best for credit and UBank seems to be the winner for best debit card.
Both are free to sign up for and it's always good to have multiple payment options overseas in case one fails you. Both have Google Pay/Apple Pay contactless payment options.
Both charge $0 fees for foreign exchange and the UBank card has $0 fees for ATM withdrawals overseas (although local ATM operators may charge their own fee).
28 Degrees uses the Mastercard Exchange Rate and UBank uses the Visa Exchange Rate with no extra fees on top.
UBank has a $2000 (AUD) daily withdrawal limit, which is up from the $1000 limit I've seen on competitors, and no monthly withdrawal limit like some cards do (Wise has a $7000 monthly limit).
So my plan is to use the credit card to pay for things like hotels, meals etc and then use the debit card for ATM withdrawals and as a backup other payments. This means I don't need to keep too much cash sitting on the debit card balance.
I've done a bunch of research and read lots of terms and conditions so hopefully this info can help someone avoid nasty fees and gotchas. The one thing to note is that the exchange rate is calculated when the payment is cleared each time you spend, so if you want to lock in an exchange rate you need to use a travel card which 'loads' foreign currency rather than a debit/credit card.
Damn this mood dip. I've been sailing for days. Drinking coffee to wake up a bit and get the oomph to be excited when my sponsor calls. Anonymous it may be so I can only say I'm very happy with the person who reached out. Ha, mood lifted and I still hadn't posted this. The oestrogen patches seem to get a little less effective on the 7th day. Mood lift though was due to calls from my sponsor and another person I've met in the program. It's a fair amount of work involved in doing it correctly so I'm glad I'm still on leave for a while. It was a completely spiritual thing meeting my sponsor. I'm starting to sound like people I was deeply skeptical of until now. Serves me right for trying to out think believers in a higher power.
I'm becoming a lot more empathic and relying on my intuition more as it's increasing in strength as well. HRT isn't just life saving, it's life changing and enhancing in ways I always desired in my dreams of being female. Lets just say when I see someone in obvious emotional distress it's fucking heartbreaking and I'm left exhausted afterward. But to feel like that I wouldn't change for the world and to remember it brings tears to my eyes again.
Cats got me up at 4am today. Little kitten sleeps beside me and must notice immediately when I wake up. He's such a little dynamo and really talkative so there's no choice but to get up and play with the little guy.
My volunteer work is so heartwarming at times. There's confidentiality involved so I can't speak of what help I could give, but it was pretty nice to have the privelege of being able to.
Wife just said the most insensitive hurtful thing. She’s tired, so I asked her if she was serious. She doubled down. I gave her an out, and a chance to apologise assuming she didn’t understand how upset I was. She mocked me, said she was sorry for “hurting my feeeeeeellllliiiiings”. Jesus fucking Christ who is this woman?!
Have done my compulsory nature staring, now I can return to the nest for some quiet time. Side note, saw a camper all the way from Harvey Bay (QLD), why would you drive down for some coastal camping in the middle of winter...
So apparently a realestate agent has saved the Paky pub. Thank god. There are so few GOOD drinking places out here its criminal. The only good options out this way are Urban Reserve and the tap house in Berwick, and then the Drake in Paky.
Dumb question: All my mates moisturize. I don't often cause.... I dunno Im an idiot. Noticed my forehead was a bit dry so I chucked some on and my skin immediately feels 100 times better. Does this mean I have really dry skin? Or does it just it do that to your skin regularly anyway?
Gist is went to indo with parents and mum (vision impaired, mobility issues, unfit but thin) behaved very differently to what I'm used to after a few big days. We spend a lot of time together and this was different.
I've had this book titled "Queer: A Graphic History" on my bookshelf since 2020 and finally got around to reading it. And don't you hate it when you consume a piece of media (whether it's a book, movie, tv show, video game) and what it says on the tin is something completely different? And not in a "oh that was surprisingly different, but I liked it!" way more in a "you know you don't have to force yourself to finish it... right?".
When I read "Queer: A Graphic History" I think, oh it's about the history of LGBTQIA+ stuff. So activism, people, the history itself. Nope... it's about queer theory (basically looking at things through a queer lens, whether it's entertainment, politics, philosophy, general life, etc). And I don't mind queer theory, I did a bit of it at uni, I did an assignment using queer theory. I love queer theory (as a queer). But it just felt so dry and like I was so annoyed that this book that I've been excited to read, is just not at all what I thought it was.
Oh well... next on the list is Heartstopper vol 1 and 2.
Down to the last episode of Mad Men s4. Oh my God Don you total fool I can't believe this Megan storyline. I have been screaming internally for the last 20 minutes. Thank god for Peggy channelling my feelings.