DONE AND PAID SOMEONE TO DO THE DUSTED BIT.

After 6 1/2 years in the Shaggy House- named by my American niece cause the grass was so long, so stop snickering- we are out. When I said to Fuschia who has moved three times since we have been there, "Oh yeah, most of its done now, shouldn't be too much stuff to do" she did the equivalent of a telephone eye roll. Well if I had a hat I'd eat it, but its packed or been given away.
Santa Vaca- it never ended till it did 5 minutes before the real estate chick showed up.
We moved all the furniture out on the Sunday and drove around Sydney dropping it off to various people. Then spent the next 5 days sorting and packing. I worked the nights and did midnight drops at Vinnies. Still have several boxes to go.
I now know why I bought so many freezer and snaplock bags over the years and never seemed to use many. They were all dragged into the back cupboard which was blocked by the recycling bin and made into a huge rustley nest by the ferrets. I didn't find any pulsating ichorly eggs but there was a few unrecogniable items hidden among it all.
Its the little treasures that keep you swearing.

It was a fun house. Many, many 'I have a cunning plan and it involves your BBQ' phone calls. Was great, all we had to do was make a salad and see who turned up.
Turkey days, Dacquari and Margarita afternoons, Munchkin fests, my 30th Moulin Rouge themed party, so much Absinthe so little memory, Snerg's 30th fancy dress party with Jumping castle on front, slushy Margarita machine and driveby Kabab man.
Lots of great times with great people.
Thanks all.

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Moving...its just like Christmas, all those dusty forgotten nooks and memories rediscovered. Moving overseas... is just like Scrooge's christmas, find them, remember and chuck them out.

Somethings can't leave the memory or the possession.



Half drunk bottle of 1991Talisker, not the original brought back from Isle of Skye but Ob's favourite. Its been on top of the bookcase for at least a couple of years.
A Vulcan graduating from Sunnydale Mountain View High, CA...who knew?!
Bat the Rat- named by SnowPea aged about 5. I built Bat in '97 or '98. Skinned it, scraped off remaining fat and flesh from skin and skull. Mounted skull and stuffed skin. Wire in the tail for easy pointing and waving. Great for chasing and freaking out mother of said SnowPea.
I was thinking of being harsh and releasing him, but was voted down by various ForBattlers.
No one is willing to take the thing of course.
hmmmm maybe a special stocking filler is in order.

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The Boy Is Back In Town

The Obster is back safe, sound and jetlagged from his work trip. YAY. Lucky bugger got to see Antony and Cleopatra at The Globe and Avenue Q in London, run literally through the streets of Atlanta for hours in the middle of the night to get the money I wired him, catch up with friends and rello's in LA and probably got some work done aswell.
I mentioned presents but then retracted with I have enough crap to pack but if you are anywhere near Trader Joes in LA then I have a mission. He came through as I suspected.


Avenue Q bag and T-shirt, though sadly "Ready Normal People" was not a choice. I say we make one.
Chocolate (low fat..whew) Meringues from Trader Joes. Very good though not as yummy as thier Cappacino ones. I remember before passing out from a suger spike we consumed a tub of them on a flight back from LA once...
Chocolate Covered Cranberries. You haven't lived if you haven't tried these. Truely they are a masterly work. I think there are several packets which if they last we will share, but don't wait too long.


ohh and this
Mine All Mine, well it will be when Ob finishes reading it....

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The British Raj party went off like the Annexing of Mysore.
More photos at ForBattle and Flickr

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ONLINE MY ARSE

Just had a great call from Ob who is in good ol' Atlanta, Georgia on his last leg a business trip - sounds so grown up doesn't it?
He is all good but totally broke. He is a wierdo who only has a debit card and when you pay $1800 for English hotel rooms work organised it it rock bottom. So he wanted me to wire him some cash- I feel like I'm in a war time movie with James Stewart.
WesternUnion has a 'online' service which after you have spent 5 minutes typing in a bunch of info you then have to phone them, and if its after 5pm or on a Sunday you are sleeping in the park.
So I say goodbye to my loverly husband and ring a Indian callcenter, which I am them told they will ring me back within the hour- ooohhh thanks guys- to reconfirm.

They just rang back and they are letting me send the cash.
Thank god for the web.

Oh yeah and my creditcard needed to check aswell before they released it, which is fair enough.

The internet is a amazing place, really it is. No need to subscribe to "Goats and the People Who Love Them" anymore its all here, glossy and bright.
But just because its here, means you don't have to use it- as I type on my silly blog- they should have a website saying 'Ring us and we will do all the tedious typing and checking and it will be done 7475849 times faster' but instead we make you think you are all techno savvy and cool and then make you ring us anyway.....
sheesh.

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I got my passport with my VISA in it yesterday, looks all official and everything. With it was a mysterious envelope thick with documents.


If I was Veronica Mars I would have it steamed open and pawed through by now without anyone being the wiser.

Had a great visit by Mum last week. We got through quite a bit of packing, chatting and hanging out. I worked most of the nights so she had to cook herself dinner and the such but she coped very well ;) Played WOW with her and she sees the appeal in the game hehe.
Having a nerd Parental Unit is very cool.

A few blogs lately have been talking about new books they have bought at markets and stalls.
This is the opposite. A total purge of about 95% of our books. The house is a bit echoy.
Most of our books consisted of Sci-fi, Fanasty, Thillers, and various reference books from "What Dog is That?" to "History of Lots of Stuff and That..."

Our backroom bookcase before the purge.

Mum took most of the Sci-fi stuff to read, and sell at markets if she can bear to part with them.
Kate who also visited on the weekend took kids and reference books - some of which where hers to begin with- and a few left over novels.
We have kept a few books that I think we will ship over. Prattchet's, Bryson's, Banks, Lonely Planets but not that many.
Just means when we get to the States we can start again...cool.

And after. The three in the lounge room look much the same.

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