Cant believe we have finally caught the attention of someone! We have written to authorities since the Qld incident with no responses :( but yes Legal Aid Queensland have responded to the latest email and phone call. They are right on the case and you never know we may get some justice yet. That would be brilliant and naturally any compensation would be gratefully received. If nothing else getting justice would hopefully bring a peace to P which he hasnt had since the bashing. P has started writing again so that is also good. As soon as the letter arrives from centrelink we will file the bankruptcy papers.
We have a critter living in the house. Acts like a mouse/rat sort of.. no poos, only eats vegetable things (not everything like those rodents do). As yet we havent located the culprit but need to move a heap of boxes from the storage room to hopefully convince this critter that living outside is Much better. We do have a resident ergernia (giant skink) who just loves MauMau's cat food!! MM also has to compete with farm dog (well bitch) Sam who is a black kelpie and very very sweet. MM and Sam have an understanding, ie Sam is scared of MM and gives her a wide berth LOL This is despite the fact MM is blind and almost deaf as well as having little or no smelling ability... but other than that she is healthy as. We know the day wont be too long away so enjoy any time we get with her. I still miss LanLan sooooooo much.
It is another warm one here today so Im getting through the washing - in readiness for the next rain to fill up the water tank :)
got more housework to do .. tomorrow is pension day so we will be off to the big smoke of Lismore to do the grocery shopping.
23 January 2006
Gosh it is nearly a year since I last wrote something here! A lot has happened since then.
We finally got our computers back from the police. Naturally they hadnt been very careful with them and they all had scratches and dints !!!
Shell came but dont know how much she enjoyed her visit. We didnt do that much but then we didnt have any money for petrol or such things. Went to a nice bushwalking place one day. And when she arrived we found out she was pregnant so needed to rest a lot.
We moved to the country in early June 05. What a fantastic place we have got to live in now. Peter has stuggled on and off with the change and solitude but has now found he rather enjoys the lack of intrustion in our lives by others. The landlords are delightful and have bought the things needed to fix the house up a bit, eg renovate the bathroom which leaked when the shower was used. Peter has built a beautiful new bathroom. We now also have insulation in the roof which was and essential. There are a few more things that need to be completed before winter but they will get there.
Got a call today to confirm that the mobile phone will be delivered within five days. This was a bit of a give away as we also get a seven day accommodation at a luxury hotel included in the deal. the phone comes with the package. We had only just decided that we needed a mobile being back on dial-up... and now we have three!!
We sold the Dell computer and with the money we got from that Peter bought the parts and built a new more up to date PC. I like it much better than the Dell. he still has his laptop but eventually we will build him a PC also.
Tuesday 30th March 2005 not much has been happening. just waiting around till we can get our computers back... not until 12th April now! We had no problems with Centrelink and they naturally came to the conclusion that Peter will remain on the Disability Pension. My now receiving the Carer's Pension and Payment is making a huge difference in keeping our heads above water. Hopefully in another two pensions we wont be struggling with only one payment to each credit card per fortnight.
Autumn is here. Very cool nights. Dont notice then but the mornings require rugging up for awhile. MM insists on having the heater on most of the time. She is old and obviously is feeling the cool change.
Trying to get the house ready for Shell to come visit. She is a cyber friend who lives in NZ.
7th March 2005
It wasnt a remake but a sequel and not too bad a movie. Have been watching cable quite a lot. It is good to watch movies without the masses of commercial breaks!
The business we have been awaiting an outcome has been finalised with good results. It has been very trying for both ot us but has seen a great change in Peter's way of looking at the world. I hope it brings him the same peace of mind it has brought me. We wont be moving for awhile we have now decided ... we would like to clear all the debts before we start anew.
The end of February was an extremely busy time. The car required registration which involved the replacing of the exhaust system - $400! Then the driver's seat belt had to be replaced due to fraying; that was $88 second hand. Lucky, as pensioners, we get free registration so then only had to find the cost of the CTP another $260. Quite an expense to cover when you only get the meagre pension and are not able to earn additional funds.
We took the car to CarLine in Casino. The owner, Andrew, is a most agreeable person. We arrived there for the booked in time of 9.30am by which time he was overwhelmed. We had also arranged to see our lawyer so we headed into town which was only a couple of blocks away. We had several hours to kill while waiting to see the lawyer and for the car to be repaired, so we found a nice place to have coffee and tea. We had no sooner sat down when John Marriott and his mate Mick turned up to take us up to John & Bev's while we waited. When we arrived it was very apparent that Bev was in a very bad mood and I almost suggested we leave even before we sat down. It took her about five minutes of monosylabic answers whilst leaving through a magazine before she started getting into Peter. He reacted magnificently and told her he would not continue the conversation as she only wanted to yell and we left.
Their house is about 5-6 kilometres from town and the walk back took about an hour. We were in total agony by the time we got back to CarLine. They hadnt been able to start the car yet so we headed, slowly, back into town. It was nearly time for our appointment with the lawyer so we slowly made our way to his office. After waiting for ten minutes his assistant, Julie, came to tell us that he had been held up in court and could we talk with her - that we did. It was now 1.30pm so we were hopeful the car would be finished. Boy did I need a cuppa! No such luck .... it was another three hours before we could head for home. What an exhausting day. Both of us were in extreme pain for the next few days after all the walking. I don't think my feet have recovered even now.
Whilst in Casino we also checked out getting a licence for me but again I need an extract of the Marriage Certificate .. another $40 but I get a free licence being on a pension. Just hope I can get back there before the month is up. They had to get a police report from Queensland and will hold it for one month only.
Monday, 21st we made the journey up to the Gold Coast (Surfers) to visit Mum, Jacquie, Ian and David who were there for the annual bridge congress. It was wonderful to see them if only briefly. We got there in time for the dinner break and had that at the Costa Doro. The food was delicious as always. I had spinach and ricotta ravioli with a cream sauce (and I paid for having the dairy the next day). Peter had Sea Perch with a lemon sauce. Mum's dinner got stuffed up so she got her's for free. I had brought up some lovely wine and we enjoyed a beautiful red with our meal. Jacquie, Ian and Mum shouted us our dinner. We hung out at J & I's flat until they had finished the night's play and talked for a few more hours. The drive up during the day has been awful (all those cars!) so we decided to drive back that night. We had a great trip home, an hour shorter than the one up, and were home a bit before 4am - after losing an hour with the difference in time zones for daylight saving.
Naturally we were totally knackered on Tuesday. Wednesday saw another trip over to Casino to CarLine to collect our seat belt and Peter install it; have a piece put in that they hadnt had last week and get the pink slip for the registration. The 9.30am arrival was too late and he was overwhelmed with work already. We arranged to return the next morning early. Thursday we were there by 8.30am. The car fixed we headed to the Motor Registry and then home to fall over.
A quiet weekend and now another busy week with two customers wanting work done today plus a doctor's appointment this morning. Thursday a trip to Lismore to attend a Commonwealth Medical Exam for Peter. Friday to Lismore yet again to collect our computers. It will be rather wonderful to have my fab machine back. It should fly on broadband, plus Peter will have his laptop back.
I need to rest just thinking about it!
19 February 2005
well it has quite some weeks to get the web editing software to load! at last. I have installed an alternative web browser - SlimBrowser - which I quite like as it has tabbed pages rather than the taskebar lists... just hope it hasnt come with too much Extra stuff as so many of these things do.
There has been lots happening since I last was here! to say the least. We are trying not to put our lives on hold while waiting for the outcome. I wont go into it all cause it is way to yukky. We are planning ot move yet again, this time to somewhere rural so we dont have neighbours or people just turning up at the door.
It isn't that the house isnt OK just we don't want to have neighbours and want a bit of space to move around on, grow vegetables etc. Everything and everyone are just too close for our peace of mind. We need more trees and more nature.
Recently I was given a Carer's Pension for Peter whose health has deteriorated with all the stress and now on more medication than he can deal with comfortably. This gives us a good raise in fortnightly income plus we both now have four 'free' rail tickets per year.
Christmas saw me in hospital after and emergency operation on Christmas Eve to have my appendix out. By the time they got me to the operating theatre it had burst so had to have three days of heavy duty antibiotics. I was in hospital for four days. It has taken longer than the doctor expected, I guess due to having had so many operations on my abdmen. More adhesions! great! just what I didn't need.
January was a tough time and now in February with some action by us and a postivie attitude we are feeling a little better. Our major problem with the house is the garden - all steep banks. We thought we would be able to use a gardener but everyone we tried did a very bad job and each time "Mrs Next Door" would complain about something not being done to her satisfaction. Yesterday Peter tried to do a bit with the weed eater and while doing that fell over only to find a large amount of rusty offcuts buried in the ground. He ended up with a deep gash in his knee and today the shock of that has set in.
Our sleeping or the lack of is quite a problem and we hope a move to the country will help us get better sleep ... cause we need it. The only one who doesn't mind the company during the night is little Mau Mau. She is still reasonably well though going blind. Some days she cannot see at all others she doesn't have a problem. Other than that she is healthy... but like us is still feeling the loss of Lan Lan.
Well it is soon time for the movie to start - The Italian Job - the remake that I keep missing. Must be almost on its last screening. Lots of cricket to watch though.
