The good, the bad and the bitching!

It has been a month tomorrow since my surgery and I am slowly starting to feel a little more like me again. The scars are still raw and red, and there is still some pain if I dont think before I reach down to pick up something, but I feel it is time. I am getting itchy feet, and so it is back to the gym for me!

I will go back to the gym tomorrow – its been 7 weeks since I last visited (due to illness) and while I will be taking it slowly, it is good to be back.

The kilos were slowly starting to pile on as I am stress eating myself silly! so… back to my normal life of eating crap and trying to do better!

Missed out on the place. Went for $370k – just 5k higher than we were willing to pay. We were sad, and dissapointed, but at the end of the day, we just couldnt afford that extra amount. SO – as they all say – it wasn’t meant to be.

I just took a test on http://www.sproost.com that says my Design Style is:

Vintage Modern

Flea Market anyone? You know you are drawn to modern furniture and interiors, and yet you really don’t like a space that feels cold and sterile. And who could blame you? And that’s why Vintage Modern is so appealing to you. Though the backdrop of the room, the walls and windows, are many times white or monochromatic, the furniture and accessories have the color, shape and texture to bring the warmth into the space. The great thing about Vintage Modern is ease of mixing different styles in the one space. You can have a new modular sofa mixed with a great pair of chairs that your grandmother purchased in the late 1950’s and the new and old work appear as though they were destined for each other. What’s great is that even if you don’t have time for swap meets and garage sales, so many of the pieces from the mid-century were so great that they have been remade and mimicked year after year.

Some examples:

put an offer in on our first home. Lets keep our fingers crossed that it all goes Ok! Should know by Tuesday if we get it. We arent overly hopeful but we are hoping

I mentioned last post that my sister would not be attending a birthday lunch for me. You might be thinking, shes busy, whatever, but while she claims she is working, (and yes she might be) lately all she is doing is lying and going off the rails.

It all started the day before my surgery. I got a really weird phone call from her. She had just gotten back from a weekend away with some friends that I had never heard of – spending a few days drinking and relaxing on their farm. First of all my sister is younger than me – who on earth could she know that has a farm (turns out theyre a 40 year old couple) and while there, she got to fire a gun (not an easy task – Australia has tight gun laws) so I was worried and told her to go get some sleep.

The morning after my surgery, Dad called. But while he was checking up on me, he wanted to know what my sister had told me when she called. Then he informed me that she had broken up with her boyfriend and nobody could get a straight answer out of her. OOOOK. While them breaking up wasnt that much of a shock (hes a great guy, we all liked him and he was one of the only ones who could talk sense in to her, but they never saw each other… so breaking up not a shock) the fact she couldnt articulate why was.

So nearly a week passed and they continued to live together, all the while my sister was turning up at our auntys place crying about it, but not saying what happened and telling my parents she was moving home. Eventually she did move home, but then she didnt spend any nights there. Or she did – but she would dissapear for hours at a time.

She is out drinking most nights, even though she isnt working enough shifts to cover the money for drinking… and basically, she is just stressing my parents out. My mum spoke to her and she promised to get herself sorted – she started doing her resume again, applying for jobs, and even stayed at home for a few nights. But all that ended on Wednesday. When I spoke to Mum yesterday she hadnt seen her since Wednesday. I had seen her on facebook constantly since then, so I have no idea where abouts she is living.

Then I got a text from her on Saturday night saying she couldnt come to my birthday lunch and we should catch up another time. And I cracked it. Im looking at the two busiest weeks of my life with work and birthdays and she has nothing on (Im 99% sure she isnt working, because she told me that on Wednesday) but still expects everyone to organise their life around her. The thing about birthdays is you make an effort for the people in your life. You certainly dont send them a text at 11pm.

I think it made me so mad because of the crap she is putting my parents through… the lying, drinking, dissapearing acts. Shes 24 for gods sake, time to grow the hell up and get a real job, stop sponging off parents, and to stop partying. She needs serious help but is so far refusing it, so I am frustrated, pissed off at her and worried about what is really going on. I just hope she cuts the crap soon and lets people help her.

I turned 27 on Thursday.

And Wednesday night I really just wasnt feeling it. I am in a new job and hadnt told anyone about my birthday, my best friend is on the other side of the world and acting weird – even though I got a great pressie from her, and my family hadnt mentioned anything about it. Then Mum called at 9 to apologise for not calling me earlier and to wish me a happy early birthday and lament as she always does that she is too young to have a 27 year old daughter.

Thursday morning Ben woke up early with me to give me pressies, and he got me a purse and 3 seasons of how I met your Mother. He also wrote me a wonderfully sweet card – he isnt a boy of many words usually, so its great to read how he feels.

then at work, they had actually discovered my birthday (damn facebook!) so I had a card from the principal, and one of the girls brought me in a cake. that was nice of them and as silly as it seems, makes me just feel a little more at ease on my place there.

that night Ben took me out for a lovely Thai dinner, then for some icecream (even though it was one of the coldest nights weve had here for a while!)

Bens birthday is next week so we wanted to do a really low key birthday, so next week we will celebrate with 20 of our closest friends and i will no doubt get wayyyy too drunk. Im seeing my parents today for Yum Cha, something Ive been wanting to do for AGES. My sister however, will not be there. But I guess she is a post of her own!

I think yesterday we may have seen our house. In fact, we saw 4 potential places, but there was one we just loved. It was the first for the day, and we did like 3 laps of it! Nothing needed renovating – not until you felt like updating anyway, you didnt have to paint anything, its got big bedrooms, but the living area was small so hopefully big families wont be looking at it. It is on a set sale, so I now just have to convince Ben that our offer should just be as high as we are willing, because on set sales mean they wont necessarily negotiate better prices with you.

I like the place so much that I had 3 separate dreams about it. So now Im awake early on a Sunday so that I stop dreaming, because I really dont want to get myself that excited.

So, the cute house I thought I would like… I didnt. It was opposite shops and while standing there waiting for the agent, I thought I could live there, once inside, nope. It was nice enough, bedrooms were big, bathroom and kitchen were good, just the living space was so small. Like, I couldnt even justify it small! Im pretty good at that too – I can tell myself that I can put up with this or that… but this place, I just couldnt.

That was kind of dissapointing. Then we saw a 2 bedroom place that was GREAT, the place was HUGE, massive bedrooms, and only a few years old. Except it was going to auction on Tuesday, so we just didnt want to do anything in that short of time.

And that brings us to my favourite…

It is the worlds ugliest unit! And it has a side door that leads nowhere. But, it has SO much potential. Put a fence around it, most of the ugly is hidden, plant some pretty flowers, paint the windows a darker colour so they dont stand out so much, and fix up the gutters, and it will be much prettier!

And heres the inside:

Check out those floors!

And the awesome kitchen!

And why yes that is a spa bath!

We saw this a week ago when it first went on the market… but when we got home Ben told me he didnt like it. I was floored because I loved it! He then gave me excuses, too close to his parents, its in a bad area, its ugly, and so I thought I let it go. But… I couldnt. I struggled to sleep that night. Then on the weekend I showed my mum and she informed me that Ben was wrong about this one (and that I was wrong on another house, so we’re even!) so I told Ben I love it and he needed to see past the ugly. So we are looking at it again tonight with his mum and my dad and if they like it… well, I may need to do some persuading! The thing is, all it needs is a fence. That is it. And it is in a better suburb than the others we are looking at, and its closer to everyone. If we can get it for the right price, then we should go for it!

Fingers crossed everyone!