Adios, estupido!!

I have made friends with another ginger cat, who is using my backyard as his second home. I call him Mr Marmalade. Percy isn't very happy with the idea. I don't think they're friends yet - mostly when they have an encounter, they sing at each other with a few hisses from Percy, but no fighting (yet).

I got a little sunburnt while doing some weeding in the backyard. It can't be called 'gardening' if the ratio of garden:weed is 1:10.

I have the same plumbing problem here as I did back in Sydney. The difference here is that the plumber is not as good looking. Damn.

I got some old new furniture thanks to ebay! I love my new wardrobes and bookcase unit. Now all I need is a futon and a dining table and chairs.

I have a sunroom in this house which has nothing in it, and I'm still undecided about whether or not to do something with it. Reading room, maybe? The sunroom is sort of a no-go area for me at the moment. When I was opening one of the windows, I saw a quick movement near the window-opening and I recoiled/shrieked.. Two legs (or two fangs, I'm not sure which it is yet) subtely poked out from a hole near the window. It looks a lot like it belongs to a funnelweb, which is stupid because Wikipedia tells me they don't exist over here. YES! So it's possibly some other bigass, ugly-ass spider, which won't be confirmed any time soon (by me, at least).

I am also very seriously considering buying a 4WD for the purpose of exploring the semi-arid parts of Western Australia. I may as well put my 4WD training to some use, plus there are so many awesome things to see out here, plus it means my dad will be more likely to visit sooner rather than later if I told him I was in the offroad car-buying market.

Edit: I just checked the sunroom again and it's still there, pointing its legs or fangs from the window. *shudder*.

Edit 2: It's Tuesday night now and the spider is still there. Everyone at work thinks it's a black house spider, which apparently has a web similar to a funnelweb. Are they venemous? "Toxic but not fatal", according to one site. Somehow that doesn't really make me feel much better.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

May God be with you and bless you:
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the warm rays of the sun fall upon your home,
And may the hand of a friend always be near.

May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you.
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.

I would have blogged earlier about my arrival, but as it is, (and really, it's the story of my life), Telstra managed to take over a week to fix my phone line fault. Sadly I am not surprised that Australia's largest telco stuffed me around again, because it seems to happen every time I need a new connection. I look forward to the day that naked ADSL2 presents itself to my suburb.

My move to Perth hasn't been the smoothest transition in the history of my housing moves. In fact, it makes me seriously reconsider relocating in the future. Thank christ I had a house to move into before I left Sydney (Thanks Mark! I owe you a Pad See Ew). This factor alone made the move bearable and free of cranky breakdowns that I have since almost had with Telstra and the car company I used to relocate my Echo.

Moving my furniture and my kitty cat were the easiest parts about the move overall, despite the constant chase-up phone calls re: the furniture. Moving my car was a nightmare and I never want to do that again. To anyone googling moving my car interstate sydney to perth: I will tell you which company NOT to use. Drop me a message if you really want to know more. The company I used were relatively cheap, and you get what you pay for, I guess. Totally shit service, my car got picked up half a week later than it was meant to, which affected the time it'd arrive in Perth, which ended up being a week later than quoted. The call centre kept assuring me that it would arrive on the 24th, then the 25th, then the 26th... etc etc. And then it ended up arriving on 2nd November, 10am. This was my first day at work, when I was meant to be there at 8.30. Luckily, I have a very understanding new boss.

Anyway, I'm into my third day of the new job, and I know I made the right choice in moving to Perth. No regrets whatsoever and no looking back. I'm really upbeat about where life's taking me right now. I'm also secretly proud of myself for actively changing the direction of the path I was going down back in Sydney. It wasn't even a bad path, the one I was on, it was actually pretty good. But... it wasn't for me.

I'm also continuously impressed with all the support I've been getting from family and friends about this move. No one was super surprised when I said I was moving across the contintent. I wonder, at what point in my life did I stop surprising people with my various antics? Hmm...

So I officially now have a house to move to on the other end! Many thanks again go to Mark for helping me out with that. I signed the lease on Friday, and I'm able to call it home as of next week. The homelessness thing was stressing me out a lot, so it's a big relief not to have to worry about that anymore.

My furniture gets picked up tomorrow, which is a little scary because I haven't packed everything yet. They tell me it takes up to two weeks to get to the other side. My car won't make it over until the end of October.

It looks like I will hit the ground running when I get to Perth, with maybe a day or two to move into my house before I go straight to work. Craziness.

And now I dedicate a little tune to my neighbours. It's called "Ode to Stickytape", a number which they are all familiar with now.

I sent my dad a link to a place available for rent close-ish to Perth city and asked for his opinion.

Dad: I hate it, don't get that place.
Me: Yeah I know it's an older house, but if worse comes to worse it would only be a 6 month lease anyway.
Dad: It's a 40 year old house!
Me: Yeah but that doesn't mean it's going to fall apart or anything.
Dad: It reminds me of the house your crazy Aunt used to live in, it looks exactly the same. She was normal before she moved into that house. Then for no reason, she turned into a psychopath.
Me: Um no, Dad, I'm pretty sure her crazy antics had to do with her 30 year bout of being an alcoholic.
Dad: Maybe, but that house had something to do with it as well.

He called me up a couple of hours ago and asked again if I was considering that house.

Me: Uhhh... nooooo? (unconvincingly)
Dad: Don't get that house!

It's going to be so awkward if the house turns out ok and I end up getting it.