This is excellent. I was just thinking the other day that I was sad because I hadn't heard a good new joke in a long time but this has brightened my day, thank you
About to get up a ladder and clean some gutters but....
Spoke to the old man last night and was reminding me about the ambulance vic subscription.
Then he decided to tell me about one of his buddies who recently had a fall off a ladder.
Apparently he fell backwards and his leg got caught between 2 steps quite high up, leg snapped in half and he was just dangling there until his wife found him an hour later.
Ouch. People do get very blase about ladders and disregard the risks involved. It's also something that people insist on doing when they become too old to do so safely (like driving). Stubborn old men who insist on climbing on the roof are a fairly frequent category of rescue the Fire Brigade go to, when said stubborn old main realises they can't get down again or have a medical episode from the exertion of climbing up.
I forgot to water the plants all of yesterday because I was in the shittest mood/energy so when I greeted them this morning I felt a wave of resentment radiating from their wilted leaves. I will promise to give them a supplemental water as needed today.
This motherfucker is just growing like there's no tomorrow though, ever since I put it in a pot with a water reservoir. Time for a big chop tomorrow, freeze the leaves for use over winter, hopefully the new growth will stabilise over the next couple months.
EDIT: Western highway closed and VLine suspended both ways from Ballarat <-> Ararat. Vic emergency link if anyone needs it https://www.emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/
At long last after weeks of procrastination I took my haul of manzano chillos from the fridge (and washed off some fuzzy growth...) and a head of good garlic and made this forbidden smoothie
Chucked it into an ice cube tray to make little cubes for wintertime pasta/stir fry.
Also took the uselessly spicy Thai chillis and blitzed it with ginga, garleck and little red shallots plus some lime joos, and dried shrimp, fried it all in oil. THIS thing is almost unusably spicy. I hope it mellows out over the next few weeks. attention @Bottom_racer
hawt hawt hawt
RIP my fingers though, I was doing well until I got some spicy oil on one hand.
I'm convinced that all CEOs and those in equivalent leadership positions are psychopaths and it's only a matter of degree as to how strongly they show those traits.
Prime minister on the radio basically admitting he would never force Coles or Woolworths to divest, but said oh we've got an inquiry, oh we are looking at mandatory code of conduct with penalties.
Cut the shit that is fiddling around the edges. And breaking up large companies is not a Soviet policy. If anything it's a pro capitalist policy by returning to a more balanced market with greater competition.
Unlikely the inquiry will change much. Best thing to do is vote with your wallet if you can. (I know not everyone has access depending on where you live). Shop at Aldi, green grocer, butcher, markets, Costco.
I wish I could. If physical inability to shop (and particular needs around kitty's litter/wet food) weren't a factor I'd possibly be happy buying exclusively at Aldi
I forgot to reply to this, but it's a Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL case a friend gave me a few years ago. The front and side panels are glass, and it's about twice the width of a regular case to fit the power supply and drive bays in their own special areas.
Just got an email from ex-work asking me to return a whole bunch of equipment: monitors, mouse, keyboard, adapters, USB hub, etc.
I can't even, they don't even keep track of what they've given out?? I only took the two adapters and the USB hub because I have a dual monitor PC set up at home already. Mentioned this to them a thousand times, and they think I took monitors, a keyboard and mouse home on PT?? As if I would use their crusty keyboards over my mechanical one haha
Good grief, I was slightly regretting leaving (I shouldn't, I was suicidal) but I'm certainly not now.
I'm not going out today, so they will have to wait till Friday or Monday.
I’m not going out today, so they will have to wait till Friday or Monday.
OR: Counter proposal: How about they go suck a dick?
I dont think legally you can withhold pay over equipment. or so my HR tell me so I just watch laptops basically walk out the door everytime we hire someone and they quit inside a month.
They sent out a rote letter, but yeah, they really are fuckin' bad. I got the same when my old workplace rolled up, could be I heard of possibly a someone else who realised they had no fucking idea of inventory and got themselves a lenovo out of it...
It's a small business, literally 10 office workers including the cal centre, accounts, boss, and IT. And this email came from my manager. So obvious when I checked the adapters and USB hub I have at home and they don't even have serial numbers. I can't believe they have no way of tracking this.
I don't need the adapters as they're usb-c/HDMI and I don't need the hub. Plus, the had us using Chromebooks for work. Everything is based off the Google suite. I fkn hated that shit. I had to relearn all the shortcuts which is such a pain, and Google Sheets fucking sucks ass.
They don't have anything I value haha, the adapters and USB hub are useless to me, and they issued us all Chromebooks of all things, which I left at the office anyway. Absolutely despise Chromebooks, useless pieces of crap (to me).
My PC can run Spotify, Baldurs Gate 3, Cyberpunk, etc. I don't need their shitty tech hahahaha
If they had something I value or was useful I'd perhaps consider it, but I'm too much of a goody two shoes and would just return it anyway hahahaha
Mostly passively cooled house 24.7 degrees, outside 31.6, still bearable inside. We have no A/C, only cooling is ceiling fans and curtains on only 6 out of our 30 windows. I’m glad we aren’t having too many hot days in a row this summer.
Couple suburbs east of you and it was spitting down, just now getting hit by a small cell of rain. Looks like little pimples emerging over the bay and city on the radar.
I gotta say that buildup before the rain, after a dry heat, is really.... arousing.
I was sleeping ok until someone came into my room asking if they should stay home from school today. We need to have another talk about not disturbing mother unless there's a fire. 😡
Indeed! I was shocked too when I found out - turns out their fur is light enough that it acts as insulation against both heat and cold, which is impressive. That's why they don't drink much water straight up - they evolved to pull moisture from their food instead
Alas mate, that three months is dangerous for both people and animals. When it comes down to it, having one quarter of the year being unlivable is not remotely reasonable.
Glad though you have your investment property properly set up for all seasons, imo that should be the standard across Australia, not the exception.
Piece of advice: My Redback invertor seems to give me a LOT more data that my brother in laws fronius invertor gives him. When you speak to an electrician for quotes its worth asking how the app is, and making sure it can give you both usage and generation data to make it easier to use your solar.
same! my total reusable energy percentage takes a hit at night though. I was ~90% but dropped to ~80%. Cant wait to get my first bill and see what it looks like.
we haven't been able to swing a battery yet, but it's on the list. (a mate who has a giant whole house one in woop woop was taunting me during the outage. Joke's on him, he lives in moe)
just had to add some cardboard boxes and another blanket over the window in the study. Rest of the house is ok but the study is struggling. I feel for those without AC today, this is pretty warm!
Good advice. I did this Wednesday, unfortunately the wall in question is the longest in the house, and gets blasted with all of the afternoon sun. even after 2/3 minutes of cold water on the bricks the water was still warm by the time it reached the bottom of the wall. I think its the dark tiles on the roof that make it the worst though.
Kind of happy to be spending the day in hospital just for the air-conditioning! Poor housemate was cranking the evaporative cooling as I was walking out the door.
Step 1 - sort the money - talk to bank about borrowing limits, knowing that these can change in a blink of the eye. If you can get a guaranteed borrowing amount GET THAT IN WRITING and the expiry date.
Step 2 - look at houses available. Set up list of criteria in 4 sections - 1) Must have 2) Nice 3) Nice but can do without 4) Dealbreakers. Get agreement from spouse and kids on these.
Step 3 - identify possible purchase. Then get council reports, engineering reports, architectural reports - and any other reports you think apply like flood prone land, possible future freeways, asbestos and other soil contamination etc. They are cheaper than remedial works - trust me on this.
Step 4 - start negotiations. If the house needs essential work, an estimate of price of the work (not from the REA) should form part of your calculations. If they want the $$ fast, expect to get a substantial discount for settlement in less than 60 days. Don't allow REA to panic you into a fast decision. You might want to employ a purchasing agent - they charge a fee but do Steps 2, 3 & 4 for you once they have your criteria. As these are the difficult bits, this might be time/hassle effective.
Step 5 - pay up.
Step 6 - move in.
Step 7 - discover all the stuff that you should have done in steps 2, 3 and 4 above. Scream and regret not having a father/brother/sister/cousin with electrical/gas fitting and other general trade qualifications.
Step 8 - install petunias
Source: purchased just before the pandemic. Yes I did employ a purchasing agent cos I was ignorant/out of date of all that stuff. Seamless experience which I recommend. They even went to the auction and bid for me (within the limits I'd set) so I didn't have to panic about that either.
Thanks. The criteria bit has been discussed at much length. The no. 1 bit how much can we really is the biggest right now. Needs an app with 🐏 or similar.
Everyone's covered money and process well so far, so I'll just add some advice.
A global pandemic really helps. I'm not kidding. Never let a good crisis go to waste. Be prepared to strike when opportunity presents itself.
We brought in covid, and couldn't afford this place if it went on the market today.
If you can, going country can help. Warragal got expensive, but further out isn't too bad so long as you don't have to do the city 5 days a week. Seymour has houses for under 400k, and a vline to Melbourne taking 1.5 hours (which isn't THAT much worse than Pakenham to Melbourne).
Engage a mortgage broker. This will use some of your money but it is well worth it. They will be able to help you go over your finances and see what kind of loan you can get, they will do all the legwork finding out best rates and such, and you can even state preferred banks. They will also do all the negotiating with the bank for you, so you just need to look over what they present you, nod assent or shake thy head and then provide some ID and signatures.
When you have your loan, you have your budget. Begin looking at places within this budget, preferably below it so you have some wriggle room for reno or repairs. When you find a place you like enough to attempt to purchase it, engage the services of a building inspector (this will cost you money, but is worth it). The REA flogging the place will not bat an eye at this and will allow them access to do all their bits and bobs.
look over the building inspection report and see if there are any deal breakers. If not, then place an offer usually "pending finance" (see below). This will bandy back and forth between the REA and owners a bit.
If all goes well and everyone agrees, there is usually a deposit to be paid and then the bank will shove its beak into the property, looking here and there and making sure that it's worth what they're lending you. This is the pending part. They will also request you get insurance on the property (this will cost you money but is worth it). If all goes well, they say yes, you may purchase it with your loan and you start the torturous crawl towards the settlement date.
Once settlement date arrives the bank transfers the money to the seller, the debt to you, and the keys are placed in your hand.
There also a conveyancer required to handle the actual transfer of the money and legal documents. At one point all the parties would have a rep that would physically meet up and hand over paperwork and cheques, but I presume it's all electronic these days.
Lots of good advice here already. I will add, if you haven’t already, get a spreadsheet out and make a budget to know exactly what your living costs are. Put in everything - food, car, entertainment, healthcare, insurances etc. Now add in the extra costs that you would have if owning a house - house insurance, rates, body corp if buying a unit. Then see what amount of money if left for repayments. Next, work out what size loan you can afford based on how much you can afford for repayments, but make sure to estimate at a higher interest rate than is current, because this a pretty much a certainty in the next year or two. Now you can start narrowing down what kind of properties and which suburbs to look in. Look in suburbs where you can afford the median house price. Don’t forget to factor in stamp duty into the purchase price. This will mean you are at least looking mid-market, so won’t be restricted to renovators delights. Good luck.
Pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, and hot coffee please. Gotta carb load before it gets too hot to eat, or my brain will cease functioning. If it hasn't already.
Yellowjackets on paramount, am enjoying. Plane of girls soccer team crashes in Canada wilderness 30y ago. It's like 50/50 between then, and present time. Girls go nuts in wilderness, girls in present time deal with consequences.
I read those books as a teen. I think a few of the political subtleties in Tai Pan and Noble House went over my head due to my age but they were all very good
I got given some used items from work, some cushions and a seemingly very big expensive bean bag that I'll need to wash before using.
I barely managed to fit the bean bag into my back boot of the car, I have feeling that it's going to be way too big for my place but it might be nice to be able to lean back into a bean bag.
I love my beanbags and will often nap in them (mostly accidentally, the cat will come up and then we're both napping lol). But as an over-30 it does a number to my back haha.
Good for gaming in if you have a console too, or reading, chilling. Our beanbags were our couch for over a year before we could buy an actual couch haha
Home from pub. Those margaritas are fully dangerous, even without the coriander. House was 28 deg inside on entry, have opened all the windows and watched the thermometer drop 5 degrees in as many minutes. I may yet be able to sleep tonight. Tho I suspect the margaritas will help.
Got out all my art stuff today. Finished fixing up the trolley/organiser. Sorted my books. I have a new set of chinese water colours and a dinosaur colouring book I'm going to use to practice brush skills. I have a book on calligraphy page layout ordered and soon to be "pakige". 🤗 So excite.
Does that include all the certificates etc that they need to order as part of the process? If not, that price is a couple of hundred dollars too high. Shop around.