Typing. It's optional.

I've been playing while on holidays. A little light stress relief. Well, it was supposed to be, but now I think it's presented a whole different level of 'stress'...



Ignore the 'old lady' hand in the photo. I couldn't find any way to get rid of those.

So, I think we've been in the house for about a week now. Or is it two? Each day is much like the other when you don't have work days to mark them out. I'm back in the office today. Back at work for a rest.

I really like the house. I don't know about any of the others who shall be sharing my abode. True, it's going to take a lot more work to keep tidy. And I still am yet to find a way to get the 'housemates' to contribute to some of the upkeep. Perhaps I might just have to say that whatever day I pick will be cleaning day, and leave the cleaning gear out. I know the boys will be contributing to the rent, but I don't think that means that MOTH and I should have sole responsibility for keeping it clean. I'm really more interested in all of them keeping their areas clean - their bathroom and toilet, the rumpus room, their sleeping areas. That kind of thing.

We're still not completly set up - I had to do a mad dash out to the fridge in the garage this morning to get the salad dressing - but we are getting there. We can actually see some of the garage floor space. And we've managed to use the cooktops. All rusted and pitted as they are. I think they are not too bad under all the burned on stuff though. And in the course of cleaning the 'old' place, there has been the revelation of the stuff called 'gumption'. It's amazing - even jus the word gumption! - and if I get energetic, some of it might be finding its way on to the stove.

In the course of exploring the outside, we've found a compost bin. *smiles* I'm not sure if the Teen is altogether impresed with the idea of having to do a compost run. I didn't 'remind' her several times last night, so I see it still on the bench this morning.

A godsend is the dishwasher. This one doesn't complain about having to do the dishes, and does a super job. Since we aren't used to using one, it's going to take a bit to remember to clean out the food traps. I don't mind packing the dishwasher each night and kicking off the cycle. Or unpacking it in the morning. I know the job will be finished off properly then. I have managed to show one family member so far how to use it. MOTH will likely just try to work it out for himself.

One thing I'm not impressed with? The useless tenants before us. We STILL don't have phone or broadband. I did my end of the deal and organised to have the phone disconnected and a reconnection done. Telstra of course. And they move about as fast as a sandcrawler in a storm. Several days after making arrangements online for the move we received an email acknowledgement. A few days after that MOTH got a phone call. A few days after THAT, a techie turned up to do the installation. And guess what! We hadn't been using our broadband after all. The previous tenants HADN'T DISCONNECTED THEIR PHONE. And the techie couldn't do a thing about ours because of it. So we phoned the number he suggested, confused the heck out of the poor customer service officer and hopefully got the ball rolling to get our phone service connected....

I like that the buses run from stops about a two minute walk away. Most of them that is. The one I need to get this afternoon stops at the shops - about a fifteen minute walk away. I can walk down the hill to the train station down from the major shopping centre where I need to run my errand and then get a bus to home from my destination station, or I can hop on a bus just outside the major shopping centre and get off at the local shops. No brainer for me really. MOTH is hoping that with all the buses so close, he won't have to drive anymore. It's getting very difficult for him - these days he can't drive more than a kilometre before he loses feelings in his hands. And I really don't want to be in the car if he ever loses feeling enough to lose his grip on the wheel. Although it could make life interesting. For somebody. *smiles dreamily and wanders off*