Sorted!

This morning at 11:15am the car sales guy hadn't called me back so I called the car dealership and asked to speak to my sales rep, he was busy, so I asked to speak to a manager or someone else as I keep leaving messages for the sales rep and he doesn't seem to call me back - thankfully the woman who answered the phone remembered me from yesterday and so got me put through to someone.
After speaking with a manager we got it all sorted. I explained I was annoyed that I was told I would be called back and I wasn't and that I didn't mind if it was to tell me the date was late next week, this week, whenever or you didn't know - just keep me informed. If someone had done that at my work then it wouldn't be acceptable. We got it sorted and he understood my position and he agreed that if you say you will call someone back then do so, anyway it was all good and he would get the sales person to call me back and apologise and give me more of an update
It turns out that my car was being delivered to their preparation site or what have you today, so then they will be able to finish the car off.

The sales rep called me back about an hour later to apologise for not calling me back and he said that the car is still on schedule for Tuesday and the latest the end of the week - OK! Sure, not so happy with saying the end of the week, but now I have at least been informed of what is happening and my expectations are set.

My main gripe was that I don't know the process involved in buying and delivering a new car and I just wanted to know if it was possible to bring the delivery date forward or not because the bank is waiting to give me the cheque.

This afternoon at about 3pm or so the sales rep called me again to say that they will have the car delivered to their showroom on Tuesday and what time would I like to book in to collect it!! YaY!!! He is also going to call me on Monday with the rego plate details.

I get my new car on Tuesday!!

It has been weird dealing with the car dealer cos I am so excited I just want it now! now! now! but I am trying not to harass them too much, but they really should just return calls when they say they will.

In other good news, I saw my payslip today for the pay that goes in tonight - my new wage is now officially being paid to me :D Back pay is such a nice wonderful thing, so is not paying HECS :D

Not Happy Jan!!!

I am extremely annoyed with the car dealership I am getting my car from. I called the sales rep on Monday and he didn't call me back, yesterday I called again and said i never got a call back, he called me back about 10 mins later. Today I called and spoke to him again and he said he would follow up my query and call me back in 5-10 minutes. As he hadn't called me back, I called them again at 2:30 and mentioned that he never seems to call me back now that I have signed on the dotted line . It is now after their closing time and I still have not had a call back. Tomorrow if I don't get a call by about 10-11am then I am going to call back and ask to speak to a manager, it really is, in my view, very poor customer service, even if he can't give me an answer to my question, at least call me back to tell me instead of making no contact at all.

Frustrating

I have spent the last 2-3 days working from what I believed to be the latest version of a document. I just went up to the author of the document to ask them a question about it and they informed me that I wasn't looking at the latest version that was issued last week, and that it mustn't have been sent to me, the Test Lead, on the project... Things like this really, really annoy me!

Only 7 sleeps to go...

Full On

What a busy weekend! Friday night I had my brothers Deb which was interesting, being one of the few sober people in the room didn't really help and the whole concept of a debutante ball really isn't mu cup of tea.
I didn't end up getting home until 1am after driving everyone home and then going home myself, which is quite a late one for me these days... I am getting old ;)
Saturday morning I was meant to get up at 6am to head down for the BBC brekky ride, but I needed more sleep, so ended up heading down for the brekky only and even then I felt I neded more sleep.

After the brekky I headed to Alexandra - the last big trip in the Barina nd it wasn't that sad really. Driving up those hills having to change down gears and being over taken by all the cars - something I am looking forward to not happening anymore!
In Alexandra my photo club won the interclub comp with the Alexandra club - YaY! I got there just in time for lunch and then after the competition juding I headed up to the Eildon Dam wall and then headed home. All up 4+hrs of driving for being there for about 2hrs max - ahh well, it was fun!

I had Japanese for dinner on Saturday night with Ange - YUM! Banquet! I have also lent Ange JT, my hybrid bike, for her to get used to riding again - I hope she is still alive!

Today I got up at 6am and did a ride down to Mordi with some Forumers. If I hadn't been meeting up with people this morning I really wouldn't have gone out at all, I just would have turned off the alarm and gone back to sleep. We also got back to Racer just before the wind really picked up - very good timing.
This afternoon I had nearly a 2 hr nap and I am still tired - just mostly lack of sleep, so tonight will be an early one for the week ahead.

This week I am going to try to commute 4 days again to work. Providing it isn't raining or about to rain when I leave in the morning then I will do it.

9 more sleeps.

I will stop now...

I went shoe shopping tonight at a factory outlet! I needed to buy a pair of shoes for tomorrow night to wear with my nice new suit, but they had deal where I could buy a second pair for 50% and then the third pair I bought cos they were more casual shoes and red! The shoes I bought are a bit different to my normal shoes and are very funky! Once I broke down that barrier of trying on shoes that I wouldn't normally think to buy, I really enjoyed it :D mmmm shoes

I need to stop shopping now, well until I get the first pay of my new salary. I will however need to buy a new melways for the new car but car seat covers can wait a few weeks/months.

Another good thing happened today - I found out that I have been asked to be a moderator on The Forums and I accepted. It was actually sent to me on Tuesday but my email decided it was trash :(

I bought a powerball lotto ticket today.

I should buy a Tatts ticket

In the past week or so the following has happened:

• Substantial pay rise
  
• Won $65 on Friday night on the pokies - I never normally play them
  
• Worked out my HECS was paid off and stopped it being deducted from my pay
  
• Paid off my personal loan
  
• Bought a brand new car
  
• Got approved for finance for the car
  
• Won 4 items of the 20 being raffled off at Biggest Morning Tea held at work this morning

I think I should buy a tattslotto ticket today

GCC 2007

Today the Global Corporate Challenge of 2007 starts. My work paid the entry fees for any staff member that wanted to participate and everyone partaking wears their pedometer each day which records how many steps you have done. At the end of each day you need to go to the website and log in to record the number of steps. The other great thing is that you can also input the number of km's you cycle :D We have been put in a team of 7 and the website maps how far we have gone as a team.

In other news, today is The Cancer Council's Biggest Morning Tea and each year at work we have a morning tea on the day and have some prizes raffled off provided by local stores - I want to win the teflon cast iron griddle - mmmm noice!

Done... almost

Well tonight I was informed that my finance application for my car has been approved!! FTMFW!!! Well, that is providing the verification of information provided - not a problem!

Tonight I read this article in The Age and found it pretty much expressed what I think about private school education versus public. I went to a public school and I turned out OK (well reasonably ;) ) and I have a Business degree and a good paying job. Any kids I have will be going to a public school as I personally find private schooling a massive waste of money.

No more HECS

I forgot to mention also that today I sent off the forms to the pay office to stop my HECS payments!!! Yes after doing the last two years of tax I will technically owe money, but then after doing this years tax I wont, so it all works out. I figure with the new pay rise I should just stop the HECS now and if there is any residual I will be able to just pay it off.

What a day!! Stopped my HECS payments coming out of my salary, which I never thought would happen, and I bought a brand new shiny sexy car!!

The Paperwork Is Done

So tonight I signed on to purchase a new car :D :D :D

I went with the Honda Jazz VTi with floor mats, towbar and ball, window tinting and fog lights. A price I got on Monday night from a car dealership came in at about $23,500 and today I engaged a car broker to hunt me down a price and he came back with a maximum price of $21,500 but he would put it to auction.
Tonight I went to Eastern Honda and asked them what they could do, I then told them about the price from the broker and I told them I would sign with them, today on the spot, if they could beat it by $1000 - after a bit of time re-checking with me that I wouldn't budge on my price etc and then doing more calculations, they met my price - they didn't want to lose my business and if it meant that price then they would, even though it was a very tough price to match, but they again repeated they didn't want me to walk out the door. When I went to sign the contracts I noticed that they hadn't included the fog lights - the sales rep knew I said it, he could remember it and they came back with offering them to me at the price it costs them - $500. I got the impression that I really did actually push them and put a lot of pressure on them with the broker price. They basically told me that they couldn't do the agreed price with the fog lights and as much as they hated it, it would mean watching me walk out the door. The price was still better than the broker price and there was no promise of what I would get in the broker auction, only that he had a highest price point and they were still beating that price.

They have one in stock in the colour I want so delivery should be in 2 weeks, June 5th, all subject to finance mind you, but that shouldn't be a problem!

I am considering getting the paint protection and enviroshield paint finish because I know that I can be a bit slack in washing cars -looks around all innocent like- It even warranties against things like bird poo etc which can eat at the paintwork.

How awesome, I just bought a new car!!!

The Weekend

This weekend I spent a lot of time shopping - it was very exhausting!

Friday morning I paid off my bank loan that I have had for three years - YAY!

Friday afternoon I went and test drove a manual Honda Jazz VTi 1.5l and it was awesome! I really enjoyed driving it and the way the car handled, very nice! The service I got from the dealer was also oustanding! While I was test driving the Jazz they did a trade in valuation on my car and to my suprise they came back with $1200! And to think that morning I was wondering what I would do with my car if I couldn't trade it in.
Saturday I went and checked out the Mazda 2. This is smaller than the Jazz and while they have slightly different features I didn't really like it. Driving it was too soft, the power steering was too powerful in a way, it felt like steering in a computer game - a bit NQR.

I then headed to Nissan to look at the Nissan Tiida. I didn't even test drive this car as the rear seats don't fold flat - what's with that?

After Nissan I headed over the road to Toyota where I test drove a Yaris which was again smaller than the Jazz. In fact, while it was a 4 door, the boot was really tiny - smaller than my Barina has, so it was off the list. The sales man then convinced me to test drive the brand new Corolla. While I really enjoyed driving this car, it was a bit too pricey for me. He got the price down to something reasonable, but it was for the stock standard basic model with no extra's so I decided against it - a stock standard basic model car has no re-sale value.

I went and had brunch with Ange where we had a great chat just the two of us and then we headed off to St Pauls Cathedral where she had to ring bells for a wedding. It was so interesting being up in the bell ringing area. The stair case up there was kinda scary as it was so narrow and had really small steps, but the view from up there was great!
Once they finished their ringing I tried to ring the massive tenor bell and after a big effort I got it to make a noise and then cos I was holding on so tight it then lifted me off the ground several times!

I then wanted to show Ange the Honda Jazz, so we went down to Yarra Honda and took out an auto - the guy just gave us the keys and said cya later! Wooooooo! I really got to test drive it and relax :D It was still great to drive!

On Sunday I did a lap of the boulie on my bike and my foot didn't hurt at all while riding which was a relief.

Once I got home and showered I then went shopping for something to wear to my brothers Deb. I wanted to get something that I would also wear for work when I travel interstate or to NZ. After trying on many pairs of slacks and suit jackets I finally decided to go to Myer where I tried on a very nice jacket and some very nice slacks. I have an issue with jackets in that their sleeves can often be too long, but not with this jacket - it fitted very well. Well ok the sleeves are marginally too long, but not obviously so. I then went to find a shirt, which I did, but I don't think I will wear it on Friday.
I still have to buy a pair of shoes to wear which means more shopping....yay....

Today I got the quotes from the company that my work uses for novated leases on cars. I did some sums and I don't think I will bother with it. To be honest it gave me a big headache trying to work it out but I honestly don't think it is worthwhile. I wont be changing tax brackets, I wont own the car at the end and they have to make money somehow so umm yeah I wont be doing that.

This arvo I went to a Honda dealer that I am not going to buy the Jazz from to get a price on the VTi model with a few extra's like tinting, floor mats, tow bar and fog lights. I now have an idea of what the package will cost and when I go to the honda dealer I want to buy from tomorrow I will have an idea of what to expect and what I can try to bargain with. Once I sort all that out and I put down a deposit I can then organise the finance and set a date to pick the car up! At this point I don't want to collect the car before June 1st as I hope that on that pay day I will get my new wage back paid and have some money to the deposit of the car so I wont have to borrow it all.

All these great things seem to be happening at once and it is all rather exciting and I am finding it hard to focus on anything, especially work, but I really need to knuckle down and start getting things done.

HECS

I haven't done my tax return for the past two years as I owe them money, yes yes silly I know. Due to getting a bonus at work each year it gets tacked onto my yearly income and so the ATO say 'ooooh you haven't paid enough HECS for what you have earnt' even though work takes out the correct amount based on my fortnightly income. Yes I should have done my tax returns, but I am doing them in the coming week or two, once I get the tax packs in the mail (I was going to pay someone but I think I can do it myself now after talking to the ATO today). I couldn't afford to pay back the debt so I just kept putting it off. I was going to use my bonus from last year to pay it but decided to buy Smurfy, my road bike, instead :D

I asked the guy from the ATO how much my outstanding HECS debt actually is, but because I haven't done my tax for 2 years (now almost 3) he could only give the amount from when I last did my tax. Idid some rough calculations on how much I may have paid off over the 2 years of non tax submission and after doing these sums I worked out that it would have been about 2/3 of it - SWEET! I figure that with the money I owed and using this years bonus to pay it off then I would have paid off all my HECS - FTW!!!

A few hours after working this out, I then came to the realisation that I hadn't actually considered the HECS payments my work has been taking out for the current financial year. Again a few quick sums I am pretty sure that I should have now paid off my entire HECS debt FTW!! How fricken awesome is that!!!

If I do 05 and 06 tax, then it will come back as me owing money and if I organise a payment plan or something and then do my 07 tax that will probably show that I have paid off the debt. I am not sure though if they will either say I still have the debt and then give me a refund for 07 or not, but either way I think I wont have to use this years bonus to pay off my tax debt and I can put it all on my CC or in the bank to save it for a rainy day or something.

I really didn't think that this week could get any better. Once it is actually sorted, I will need to stop paying my HECS, cos it is quite a substantial amount, and put it into my ING account where it can earn interest.

I think I need to go sit down with my dad in the next few weeks and try to sort everything out and put a plan in place for paying off existing debt while at the same time saving. If I can halve my CC and save a heap of cash, then in 12 months I could have enough for a deposit on a house.

To risk it or not?

Ok so a few glasses of wine and a baileys tonight haven't helped the pain in my foot, which, the more it hurts and tighter bits get, is now affecting my calf and hamstring. Maybe tomorrow I should just cary my ventolin and risk taking some voltaren or nurofen or whatever it is for the inflammation... it can sometimes be a tough choice between breathing and being able to walk ;) I don't think I will be riding beach rd this weekend. On Saturday my foot didn't hurt whilst riding but it is worse now... I might go down to the velodrome instead and do an hour or more down there with the iPod and see how I go - I need to do some kind of exercise but I don't want to get part way to mordi and not be able to get home, at least the velodrome is only 3km from home.

Yes, I am in a whingey mood, but I am also in pain and it is my blog so I can. Today I saw a new osteo at the clinic I go to and he even commented on my my high pain threshold - so when I am in pain/discomfort it isn't just a niggle, it does actually hurt and when I was only 20m from my car tonight and I thought I might not be able to actually get there - it wasn't such fun and driving home not being able to hold the brake peddle down when at the lights for more than 5 seconds, that wasn't much fun either (besides being dangerous).

BLEH

Getting Bored

Seeing as I haven't done any exercise since Saturday and I probably wont until at least the weekend I am getting bored and a bit stir crazy. When I commute by bike I normally don't get home until 5pm or so and by the time I have showered, washed my cycling clothing and had a bit of a sit down, its time to cook dinner. Often I will also go for a walk before showering. All of this takes up time, time that I would otherwise just sit around doing nothing. With my foot being nuffed, I am getting home by 4:30pm and getting really bloody bored and also finding it hard to sleep cos I am not exercising - I got to work at 6:15am this morning because I was wide awake at 5:15 so I got up.

I went to the osteo today and he said something in my foot has dropped due to walking around home w/out my othodics or whatever which is causing strain on tendons as its all out of whack. Four to five times a day I need to roll a tennis ball under my foot for about 10 minutes at a time to try to fix the problem and I go back in a week or sooner if it gets worse - well tonight it got worse. After visiting a couple of car yards tonight by the end of the third one I practically nearly couldn't walk back to my car I was in so much pain. Now tonight I am finding it hard to even go to the kitchen or the toilet or anywhere that doesn't have my arse sitting in my arm chair. Cooking dinner hurt as it is now hurting to even stand on it and I am going to go crazy soon with all this spare time, being unable to exercise and just not even being able pretty much walk right now!!

In other news, I went and looked at some cars (which probably didn't help my foot...) I have decided that the amount of towing I would do I don't need to buy a car to tow, I could rent one when needed. I am also contemplating buying a brand new car - small hatches keep their value really well these days. The Toyota Yaris is out - boot is too small. I could get a corolla that is a few years old... or I could get the Honda Jazz! I love it! It is just sensational. I could get a 1.3l for $17k on the road, but I might get the 1.5l - its the EOFY so there should be some deals happening. It is more than I wanted to spend, but why not considering I just got a nice payrise.

Life Changing

Now that I have had time to think about my payrise it really is going to change my life. Being able to now make headway and pay off my credit cards and start saving for a deposit on a house is going to be a massive positive change for me, but also knowing that if I want to buy a pair of shoes or some new clothes or whatever, I can afford it. Naturally I am going to focus on paying off my debts etc, but even just small things like being able to replace my $400 X-drive that was stolen from my draw at work and buying some more CF cards (also stolen) - I can afford to do that now if I choose to!
When I go to New Zealand in a few weeks for work I will actually be able to afford to head over a few days earlier and stay in a Hostel or something and just explore for a while, where as I couldn't really have afforded to do that which would have been dissapointing and a real shame to waste the opportunity.

If I want to go see a band or go to the footy I can, I wont have to not go due to not being able to afford it. If I want to get away for a weekend and go visit friends in another state or go stay for a night down the coast - I can! I am not going to blow this money on frivolous things, but knowing that I can do these things if I want to join other friends doing them is sensational.

It really is amazing, I am still blown away.

I have roughly worked out what the difference in my take home pay will be and I have to sit down and work out what I am going to do with it to make the most of it. How much I will put away for a rainy day, how much to my credit card, how much extra for just living etc etc.

OMFG!!! I can't believe it!!

I got a promotion about 6-8 weeks ago and at the time they couldn't give me a payrise. I made it clear that if it wasn't honoured at the end of financial year that I would start looking elsewhere - I told them that I love where I work and what I do, but I need to start taking care of myself financially a bit more and if that meant looking elsewhere then I would have to do that.

I had the conversation again on Friday at lunch with Caroline, my managers manager (she raised the topic, not me) and today I just got a phone call saying that due to the organisational change in the past week, they can now do something about it.

I was ideally hoping for a 50% increase - yeah fat chance of that happening for an existing employee, so I figure a 25% would probably stop me looking elsewhere for a while at least.

I am getting just over a 40% increase FTMFW!!!!!

Goes to show just how under paid I have been

Not a good combination

I currently have a nuffed up right foot, I have no idea what is wrong with it, but I will get up from sitting down and about 10 steps later it starts hurting on the outside part and the further I walk the more it hurts. I massaged it for about 20 minutes last night but and it seems to have helped a little bit. If it doesn't improve at all today I might have to go see my osteo with the magical hands.

I also haven't ridden my bike since Saturday. Sunday was a rest day and yesterday I needed to bring things into the office so I drove. Today it was raining so I haven't ridden again and so if I don't ride in tomorrow then I wont have commuted all week :( I can't commute on Thursday as I am donating blood and I would prefer not to ride Friday, but if the weather is OK then I might take it gently.

All this combined is not good for me! If I don't get some exercise then I will start getting angry/fiery and not be able to sleep... I think it is already happening -takes a deep breath-

About Time

Well I finally got off my arse and took some photo's on the weekend! Yes, they were of a cycling event, but it was still me out in the world taking photos, something I need to do more of. Photo's of the ATTA event at Diggers Rest from yesterday can be found here

Can it really just be so simple?

I think I shut myself off from the world in certain ways, by wanting to be independant and not needing to rely on anyone I wonder if I have actually closed down certain feelings and if I am actually sabotaging myself from opportunities. Yeah, I am talking about that 4 letter word, that one that society deems we all need to be able to feel complete - well maybe we do. I am a self sufficient independant female, but I don't think I want this lifestyle forever. Yes, I want to be able to survive on my own and make my own decisions, but I want more than that. Lately I have been thinking about my future... thinking about career versus a family. Right now all I can focus on is career because it is all I have, but what if I do one day fall in love and do have a family, what then? Will my career go out the window and will I be OK with this? Am I willing to put my career on hold for a few years to have kids, and how many? Do I want to one day have a massive family? Am I running out of time age wise? All these thoughts roll through my head and the one at the forefront of them all is - will ever find that magical someone that society leads us to believe is out there.

I have said for years that I am not scared of dying, I am scared of growing old. The one thing that scares me more than growing old is growing old alone. My mother is in that situation now, due to her own fault she has alienated everyone in her family, including her children - I don't want to end up that way. She didn't end up this way due to being independant, quite the opposite and then years later she screwed over the only people left in her life. She will live out her years a very lonely old woman.

I don't think that I have become so independant because my mum wasn't, it is just my life. I need to be able to pay my bills and live and it is just what people do as adults - you survive, but I don't want my survival to prohibit me from moving onto the next stage of my life.

Don't get me wrong, I am not hunting for a partner or on the prowl, but I think I need to open myself to the possibility of something happening, that someone could love me for me. Years of being single doesn't have me as a jaded person, but maybe I am closed off to the thoughts/possibilities.

There is a saying that goes around the internet love like you have never been hurt, sing like no one is listening and dance as if it is your last dance or something along those lines - maybe I need to take this to heart a bit more.

Good Work

In the last week, Sunday to today, I have ridden 213.7km's and burnt about 7200 calories just from my cycling - for me that is huge! I also went for a 40 min walk on Wednesday and Thursday after work, plus on Thursday I also did another 40 minute walk to where we had dinner in Northcote.

Tomorrow I am off the bike, the legs need the rest, and I wont even be able to go for a walk cos I have done something to my right foot and as it is I am hobbling around the house. I didn't do anything directly to it but it feels like the outside of my root foot has been bruised or something somehow. It started hurting Friday so all I can put it down to is the walking I did on Thursday but I don't see how it can cause this kind of pain. It also doesn't hurt to touch at all so I really have NFI about what's going on. I have tried massaging it a bit and that doesn't seem to provide any relief either -shrug-

Smells Great!

Tonight I am cooking chicken kiev and roast vegies for dinner - yum! I have already put the vegies in the oven with some garlic and it smells so damn good. I wasn't all that hungry when I whacked the vegies in the oven, but now it smells so bloody good that it is going to be a frusting 80 mins till everything is cooked and ready to eat!

This morning I did a ride from St Kilda to Mordialloc and back which was a fast pace out due to Anna and Jason being at the front but then after Black Rock we told them we were slowing down a bit. Cruised back from Mordi and I think due to the fast pace out, the commuting this week and the BAD ride last sunday my legs were toast once my cadence dropped below 82-3 or so. I have been trying to keep my cadence up lately anyway, but even more reason for it today :)

I am a good girl :)

As previously mentioned in here somewhere, tonight my department was hosting the monthly work BBQ. I spent about 6 hrs either preparing food, cooking food or cleaning up. Over the space of about 4 hrs I had 3 crownies and 1 light beer - I had the light beer cos I knew I was driving and I shouldn't have another full strength beer and I had also hardly eaten anything. After everything had been cleaned up and we had spent some time chatting I headed home... about 1km from home I got waved into a booze bus. The thoughts going through my head was 'shit! Ahh well, can't do much about it, I feel OK and fine to drive, lets hope that my breath tells the same story, I could turn down this side street... nah what will be will be' So I got waved in, blew into the little thing and commented to the cop that it will probably register something as I have had a couple of drinks after work. It beeps a beep that I haven't heard before and he asks me for my licence - crap! I figure it is good though that he hasn't asked me to get out of the car although I really have no idea what happens when people get done for drink driving. While I am getting my licence out he asks me if I am a P plater - no, and he checks my licence and it is all good. I asked him what the reading was but all he said was that it shows a minor amount of alcohol, but under .05.

This is the first time that I have ever gone through a booze bus or been breath tested after having consumed a few drinks and I am very relieved that everything was ok - heck I worry about it even when I haven't been drinking, silly I know.

About a year ago one of my mates bought his dad a home breathalizer thingy and we were all fooling around with it checking what our readings were so I had a rough idea from using that a few times of what I know I can drink and still legally be able to drive.

Friday Crazyness

I am in one of those cheeky smart arse moods today and its a Friday so it is all good! I am even wearing my very bright stripey, knee high, socks :D (they are pushed down though and under my jeans, but you can see them through my shoes :D)

One of the projects I am working on at work is called the Munta Remediation Project. Now, the scope of this project was modified to include a few extra bits, which have no relation to the canning of the munta server, but it was convenient to use this project to get the changes done. With the business changes happening at the moment and the lack of resources, all the bits of the project that relate to the remediation of the munta server have been axed and only those extra few bits of work are being done. As a result I have decided to rename my test document from 'Munda Remediation Project Test Document' to 'The non Munta parts of the Munta Remediation Project Test Document' - I wonder how many people will pick up on this ;)

Where has it gone?

This week has just flown by! It may have something to do with me either sleeping or working for the majority of it and basically watching no tv... ok well I lie, I have maybe watched about an hour or two, but in comparison to what I normally watch it is bugger all. As a result, I now have about 7 or 8 hrs of recorded tv shows that I need to watch this weekend to catch up on them all before their new episodes this week.

I have managed to ride to work 3 days in a row (didn't work on Monday) and then both Wednesday night and last night I also went for a 40 mintue walk once I had ridden home. Last night I also walked up to the Northcote Social Club to meet some people to have dinner which added another 40 mins of walking. I didn't actually think it would take that long to walk there, but that means that yesterday I did over 2 hrs of exercise!

This week at work I have been helping to organise things for our ATB (Around The Bay) team to get people interested and setup the training schedules etc and to meet the conditions, training has to start this week and I am only emailing out the training roster to people today... it isn't really ideal giving people one or two day's notice, but to meet the deadline of ordering the team uniform by the EOFY we have to.

I also volunteered to help out with the monthly BBQ at work. At work each month we have a BBQ that work pays for, but the responsibility is appointed to a different departement each month and this month it is our turn. We are doing an Indian themed BBQ so lots of meat being marinaded and indian type salad's and decorations - we are even going to have a projector showing bollywood style music clips, should be funny!

The Forum's aren't working this morning - ARGH!! The world is going to end!! Even the main BV site isn't working. It looks like maybe someone upgraded something to do with their webserver or similar and it went horribly wrong... No forums first thing in the morning... I might have to actually -gasp- do some work!

Sleep is needed

After the BAD ride on Sunday which was about 5 hrs of riding and then 2.5 hrs of driving in the same day I have no idea why I couldn't sleep on Sunday night. By the time my alarm went off on Monday morning I had only had about 3 hrs sleep so I emailed in sick to work and went back to bad. I managed to have another 3-4hrs sleep which made it about 7hrs of sleep all up - not enough, but better.
Yesterday arvo I really needed a nap but I knew that if I could hold off that I would sleep better that night, so I pushed through the need for sleep and went to my WW meeting to work where I struggled with a massive headache on top of the tiredness.

By the time I got home the headache had dissipated (thanks to codeine) but I was still very tired, so I pretty much ate some dinner and went to bed to read for a bit. At 9pm I turned my light off and didn't stir again till 3am! That's 6 hrs of no tossing and turning or needing to get up to go to the bathroom. I thought I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, but I did and finally woke up to my alarm at 6:20am - 9 hrs of sleep, I almost felt human again.

The commute to work by bike this morning was tough as my legs felt very dead still from Sunday's ride and work was a struggle. I ended up having two coffee's and that soon sorted me out, but then by the end of the day when it was time to ride home it was the last thing in the world I felt like doing. It is times like that when I know I really need/should ride as it always improves my mood, and it did. The good thing was that the ride home felt great! The legs weren't feeling dead and I had a slight tail breeze which always helps.

I am still quite tired, but I am about to go to bed and try to get another 8hrs sleep tonight.

BAD Ride

I wrote this yesterday when I got home...

Today was my second longest ride ever and I am a tad tired now, my knees are a bit worse for wear and I have a bit of chaffe - whats with that?!? When you consider I didn't do any 'training' for this ride and yet last year for the 100km ATB, which is practically flat and I did lots of prep for it, I think I did quite well today.

I rode the majority of the day with TennisDude and was greatly appreciative of the company and the wind break after the lunch stop.

Today's ride had a pretty strong head wind and quite a few bits of the road headed north, but then the downhills were oh so sweet! When you compare this to last years 100km ATB where we had a tail wind and a lot flatter and I completed both rides within 10 mins of each other which was just under 5hrs - I am quite happy with today's result.

I thought that the signage all day was fantastic as were the volunteers, the only thing that was pretty poor was no food at the morning tea stop when we got there but the food at lunch was fantastic!

At the finish line I was welcomed by a few forumers and Heather with a beer - what a friend

I reckon I got the best tan line for the day courtesy of the wrist band that we had to wear for today's ride.

Here is my output from my Garmin Edge 305

Stats:
Time: 4hrs 51mins 47 secs
Distance: 104.0 km
Calories: 3423
Avg Sp: 21.4km/h
Max Sp: 65.6km/h (faster than Heather!)
Avg HR: 153
Max HR: 182

How things change

At lunch today I was telling someone about how on the last Saturday of each month, a group of us get together and do a short 30km bike ride before eating waffles with chocolate sauce. Their reaction to me implying that 30km was a short ride was suprise and shock. When I think back to a year ago, when I was contemplating if I should do the 40km ATB ride or the 100km ATB, 30km was a HUGE ride distance and now, for me, its nothing. Admittedly 30km on JT (the old hybrid) requires a lot more effort than on smurfy (the roadie). I used to call one of my sisters friends crazy cos he would ride 50km's on a weekend and here I am this Sunday going off to do the BAD ride of 100km distance.

I am really looking forward to the training this year for the ATB. I need a ride to focus towards, to ensure that I do get out of bed and ride, otherwise it is just too easy to go back to sleep.

A Community Service Announcement

The Australian Government has finally opened up the Do Not Call Register!

I used to have the best telephone number at my old house, it was so easy to remember but I used to get so many telemarketer calls that I ended up no longer answering the house phone. The only person who didn't call me on my mobile anyway was my mum, so it wasn't a bit loss for me to not answer the landline.

While I haven't had any telemarketers calling my new number I have still registered my number anyway.

Hello there!

mmmmm new desktop picture and another one added to the screen saver folder... Lance is good

Engaged

Each year at work we have to do an Engagement Survey so that the company can work out if we are engaged or not. According to the one done in February, as a company, 47% of us are engaged (49% in NZ and 40% in AU) and they are very happy with the result.
The survey also identifies area's that could be improved to increase engagement. These form the three main area's that the company tries to focus on over the next 12 months. This years three main area's are identical to last years, even in the same priority - good to see that they worked well on those in the last 12 months ;)

Here is their thing on why they want to know the level of engagement:
Engagement is an important measure as there are demonstrated links between engagement and business performance - and it also tells us how to make the Telecom Group a more fulfilling place to work. It measures the state of emotional and intellectual involvement in an organisation. Think of our engagement score as a measure of the extent to which our hearts and minds are committed to producing great results for Telecom!

Update

Housemate has since gone down to her room... interesting to note that she never once asked me to either stop playing the music or to turn it down. I am a firm believer in that if you want something then ask for it, don't just whinge around it and hint and nudge about it. If it is too much trouble/effort to ask then too bad.

Brain Implodey

I think my brain is going to implode! I am very glad that the One Office Project two day workshop, which I thought was for only one day, has now finished. I now have more of an understanding where the project is going and what it is doing and what is ahead for me. It has really helped me get an understanding of what is existing in the product suite and I now have a rough idea of the 16 initiatives being added with this new phase of the project. All 16 initiatives being introduced in this phase are different which is great because it offers a lot of variety in what I will be doing and it introduces me to so many systems, both in AU and NZ, that I don't currently know much about.

After the two day brain dump/overload sessions, I came home with a headache tonight so I decided to go with low level lighting and lit several candles around the place and put on some relaxing music to help me unwind. My housemate came home before and complained about the music, put on the bright light above my head and is now sitting in the arm chair next to me with her headphones on and her music up load. I think she may have attitude tonight... I wonder if she has been taking her pills. Now, just for examples sake say, you came home and didn't like the lighting and music in the loungeroom and there was another room within the house, which wasn't a bedroom, and it had a couch to sit back on and your own stereo in it to play your music, wouldn't you go to it so that you didn't have to put up with the 'sh1t' music being played in the main room? i reckon I would go do that... so then WTF doesn't my housemate f*ck off to her second room and sit in there instead of sitting next to me like a grumpy moody arse person.