Personal Services

It's all going ballistic. As I reported in the last post a few weeks (oops!) ago, I've been putting a number of quotes out. It's rather pleasing to be able to report that they've all been accepted, but worrying that they've all come in at the same time. I have 6-8 weeks of work ahead of me, which is nice, but also a bit of a juggling act. One of the more interesting jobs involves me working for a male escort agency. Not as dodgy as it sounds - I'm writing a customer registration database back end and it's not that sort of an agency - it's more of a companionship thing and allegedly no rumpy pumpy is allowed.

We've had our first fuel bill since the insulation was fitted, and we've achieved a $60 drop. Hurrah. Sadly we've also had our rates bill. This comes in at a biennial $960 and the b******s want it up front by the end of the month, or get this, they add 10% on top. Apparently it's not possible to pay by instalment. Unbelievable. We are eligible for a rebate however, because it's based on the previous year's income which was approximately $0.00. But they won't just take our word for it, they want some sort of acknowledgement from the IRD. This is where the rot has set in, because although Diane has received an official notification of earning sod all, mine has yet to be "processed", according to their website. I tried ringing up, but the automated call handling system was buckling under an apparently excessive load.

The Mirth Mobile made it through another WOF. This was a bit of a rush job, as I was driving on Saturday morning, and happened to glance up at the sticker on the windscreen and noticed that the due date had passed three days ago. Oops. I dimly remembered that there was a cryptic comment about one of the tyres being a bit dodgy, so I got it replaced with a cheap second hand one (now the tyre with the deepest tread!) at Tyremaster before wandering down to VTNZ. I still have one borderline tyre, but it's not the one they moaned about before!

Diane is on the verge of signing up not two but three and maybe even a fourth listing as one of these has a neighbour who wants to sell. Di came up with an apparently convincing argument that two houses up with the same agent makes for a quicker sale etc. Said with a straight face and a confident tone, it rang the appropriate bell.

Freya had to visit the doctor earlier this week because of ear ache. The English doctor we saw prescribed the usually amoxycillin and some paracetamol. 24 hours later Freya was more or less back to full scream. So much so in fact that she managed to trip over the dishwasher (while walking backwards through the kitchen) which of course sent the contents flying, including the very sharp vegetable knife which stuck in her leg. I'd just come back from a Sunday morning run and was just stepping into the shower when I was required to cover up and take her off for stitches. She was quite good about the anaesthetic, no doubt aided by the lollipop she was given to chew on by yet another English doctor.

We have had a few builders round to give quotes for putting up and taking down various walls. The first task is to put up some walls around what has become the office space. When we sell, it will of course be a fourth bedroom, but as far as the council are concerned it will be an office. More bedrooms apparently means a large rates bill, and it's big enough as it is. We're also getting quotes for putting up the walls for the bathroom, since the lack of a family bathroom will be a sticking point when we sell, and I'm getting fed up playing U-Boat Kommander every time Freya and Phoebe have a bath.