Saying No to the Culture of Death

I have been a little remiss with my blogging because I have been occupied with surfing sites on the TEs. What has changed in the past week is the number of referrals that I have received. The fun part has been that several of these referrals are direct, that is the people have clicked on the advertisements that I have circulated, and suddenly I have a downline!! On one exchange I have 6 referrals to date, and if I get 4 more then I will get a free upgrade so that I will be able to use more URL's on that exchange. Yes, I really do feel that surge of excitement. On another exchange I have 9 referrals, 8 of them are first level referrals, and the other is a second level referral. Another one has provided 2 direct referrals, and there are at least 3 other exchanges where I have referrals. Suddenly, I find that I really want to get out there and promote, and see if I can earn my way to upgrading my memberships without spending money.

This is not the only form of excitement because I feel the urge to compete in the competitions and to at least win some credits with my activity. There are some fun ways of competing, such as playing Dodgem Cars, Horse Races, Lotto, and yes even card games such as Craps. I have just been surfing on Web Biz Solutions where I can play Craps, and i had this real desire to get ahead of someone called Muriel. I see her name on another exchange and I never seem to be able to catch up, but this time, I am ahead (until she gets up in the morning I suppose).

What I have noticed is that there are a few different types of exchanges, and it all depends upon the owners as to whether or not they provide a good surfing experience. The really annoying thing about some of the exchanges is the pop ups and the frame breakers. There are also some submissions that almost break the variety of rules about pornography (I guess the singles are allowed to advertise for partners but I do find it tasteless). Some of these exchanges provide an overall good experience, but if one person has gotten by with a site that provides a frame breaker, or attempts to download what could be malicious software, then I am going to help the owners get these people banned from their sites so that everyone can enjoy the experience.

Since advertising my sites I have had a lot more in the way of interaction with other people, and it is a real surprise to see myself being mentioned as an "activist." The TE's are one way that I can let people know about what the MSM is refusing to acknowledge, and at the same time advocate to see a change in attitudes towards women in underdeveloped countries where there is Sharia rule. This means having a go at the feminists who continue to stand back and do nothing to help women in these countries, especially in the latest outrage of the teacher who had the 7 year old children in her class name a teddy bear Mohammed. The woman is to spend time in jail and then be deported from the Sudan. The case against her was trumped up because the bear was being named after a child in the class.
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We have just reached the one month anniversary of moving to Canberra. Oh how very exciting!! Besides the fact that I hardly know anybody in this hick town, I am already showing signs of being bored out of my mind. Yes, I still have over 100 boxes to be unpacked, but I just do not feel enthusiastic about doing the task. I am taking it one day at a time because there have been a few days when I have been too sore to bother with any unpacking. There has been a slight increase in the headaches caused no doubt from the arthritis in my neck and shoulders.

Anyway, I did continue unpacking boxes until I was successful in finding my pearl earrings - and then it was time to slump.  Then I decided that I had to find the knitting needles that I had not wanted the packers to pack in the first place (that is what happens when hubby is left in charge and he tells them to go for it), and now that I found one lot of the knitting needles, it is back to the slump, and goofing off.

I have managed to choose to throw out more clothing. Most of it is very outdated, and for whatever reason some of the clothes were never a good fit in the first place. I find that I need a good selection of clothing because my weight goes up and down like a yo-yo. In summer I tend to retain fluid and when that happens my body tends to blossom outwards. I gained some weight over the winter because of the stress relating to this move (I did not want to move in the first place).

There have been so many hassles with this particular move. First of all, there was the gazumping of the first house that we started to negotiate to buy. Then we had to return to Canberra from Sydney to find another property. I came down with a chill and that sparked off an arthritis flare due to the fact that I have an autoimmune disorder. The flare then caused me to be in pain a lot of the time as I was trying to sort things out and start packing boxes. Then when we moved, there was the hassle of the packers being Irish!!!  Within a week of our Sydney house going on the market we had a buyer. We decided to take the offer and the contracts were exchanged. All too easy we thought, but not so straightforward.

My husband had decided to build a room where he could play with his model trains. The room cost quite a bit of money to build, and council made us reinforce the concrete floor because of a known water easement. What we did not know, and it appears that council did not know, is that there was also a sewerage easement on the property. We did not find this out until the eleventh hour of the cooling off period. Great!! At first we could hardly believe that the information was true. So, my husband had to find out how he could verify the information and then seek approval after the fact from Sydney Water. EEK!!! He was mucked around because nobody seemed to know what was required to get the approval from Sydney water.

What is really annoying is the way in which the NSW government had legislated that Sydney Water was no longer under an obligation to inform householders about the whereabouts of the sewerage easements. In our case the easement was not on any of the plans that we possessed, such that when we purchased the place we were not aware of the easement's existence. We are left with this mess and out of pocket to the tune of $1000 and rising because Sydney water did not want the responsibility of providing vital information to householders or land owners. This is one of the real and existing problems that point to the corruption of the Carr-Iemma government. They were all too willing to introduce legislation that abrogated responsibility.

It is almost a month since we moved from Sydney to Canberra. I still have over 100 boxes to unpack and I am taking my time. I am still feeling so very lonely and isolated. The isolation is made worse because I established such good friendships in Sydney, and the original friends that I had in Canberra in the past, well they were rather shallow friendships and I have not managed to re-connect with anyone.

Skittles and Ruby are settling into their new environment. It seems so strange, but Skittles is spending most of her time underneath my desk. She has done some outside exploration, but there have been days when she has point blank refused to go outside. However, what really gets me laughing has to be the way in which she will spend all day outside, and as soon as she comes in, she heads for her litter box !!

This week has been a small turning point because I managed to move outside of my confinement in the house. I have returned to daily Mass. It was such a relief to know that Mass is being offered in my new parish. I hit a snag when I made the first attempt to start going to the Mass. I did not know the precise location for this Mass and out of shyness I could not even ask anyone when I did attempt to turn up for the very first time. However, someone told me about the exact location and finally, I made the effort. I feel more at peace now.

There was one item of furniture that was damaged in the move - our wall unit that was over 20 years old. We went out to Fyshwick and found something as a replacement. We went to a few shops, and at the one that was probably the most expensive, the assistant had no idea what we meant by a wall unit!!. The new unit arrived last week, and to our dismay the mirror in the centre module has been cracked. With its arrival, though, we have begun to move a lot more of our good dishes and cutlery into this new unit. The entertainment unit that was used for the stereo and to hold our LP collection is to be dumped, for it is closer to 30 years old and it is looking very tatty these days. At the same time we purchased some new bar stool and this is where I came up with a new expression: The Goldilocks Test.

I have a very sore low back because of inflammation in my sacroiliac joint. If I sit on wooden seats for too long the pain can get out of control. Last November, when I fractured my coccyx for the second time in 30 years, I seemed to have sparked off a new round of inflammation, accompanied by pain. I did feel a lot better between March and June, and then I suffered a chill, followed by a secondary chest infection that needed to be treated with antibiotics, and it was hard to shake. As a result of this infection I have had a renewal of the pain. This also coincided with the amount of packing that I was doing on my own. Perhaps packing almost 10 boxes in a day was going a little too far, and yes I was rating more than 5 on the ouch factor scale. The pain was so bad at night, and once again, if I sat too long on any surface, I felt very stiff. There were other symtoms that were bothering me, and then I had a series of falls. The worst of these falls caused me to have a nasty scrape on my left knee, plus I had bruising on both knees at the same time. It was a real nightmare to have this happen just before the move. It meant that I was stiff and sore. Anyway, because of that sensitivity, I need to test the seats for comfort before purchase. Suddenly, it hit me, that testingout the furniture in this way is just like Goldilocks and the three bears. Some of the stool seats were too hard, none were too soft, and the ones that we purchased, were just right. 

 Alas, though, the new seats for the new church building in my new parish failed the Goldilocks test. The seat back is too low and it caused strain on my low back. I think that I can correct the problem with the use of an extra cushion that will support my back.

We have finally made the move to Canberra. To me, moving is a real scourge. There is all of the packing and unpacking to complete, and then one has to find space for those things that I do not want to throw away. On top of this there is the scourge of my husband who wants to throw out everything without regard to whether or not the things are useful to me. We have over 400 boxes to be unpacked, and we have been working on this task since our arrival here last week.

We had used the removalist company in a past move and at that time I was quite satisfied, but this time I am feeling disappointed. The packers were Irish, and I also mean that it was their nationality, not just what they did. First of all, the woman packer got into our bedroom on the first day of the prepack, and that meant everything was packed. I was shocked when I discovered that she had packed everything. On top of this a pair  of pearl earrings continues to be missing, and we cannot find the remote control for the TV set. Someone took an expensive bottle of after shave from the main bathroom area that was not to be packed. The company has said that they will purchase a bottle of the same brand.

The pre-pack and uplift took three days, and then we had to move the animals as we drove from Sydney to Canberra. I took the cat in my car. She cried at first but she soon settled down to not making a noise. Upon arrival at the house she refused to get out of her cage for a day, and even then she ended up with her nose flat against a wall. However, she has come out of the shock of the move. The dog was also well behaved on the trip to Canberra.

The unloading was to take place over two days. On the first day the crew was late because of delays due to an accident. On the second day they did not turn up until the afternoon, and there were two containers to be unloaded. They ended up working in the dark because they started on the job so late. 

To add to our woes we had to find our computer equipment, and this was not easy because of the way that they had labeled our boxes. In the end we found everything so that we got our computers running over the first weekend. However, we did not have the ADSL.

On Monday morning I contacted Bigpond, our provider and the young woman was not at all helpful, so I asked to speak to a supervisor, she got upset, said hang on, but then she allowed the line to drop out. I think that this was a terrible example of customer service. So, I contacted them again, and I did as the operator asked, but still no luck. Eventually I got onto another man and a woman, and both were extremely helpful in sorting out the problem. It turned out the previous owner had put in an order to cancel the telephone line on 8 October and this held up our order. Once that was sorted we had to wait another 3 days before getting back online.

Now it is a week later and we are still unpacking. My husband has just found the remote for the TV set top box that was missing, as well as the cross that we had placed near the door of our old house. So at least we are getting somewhere.