2024 you say

Hello, 2024, and what shall this year bring? I’ve still two more days tethering off my phone, but my NBN connection is supposedly going to be fibre to the premises, so vrooom once I get that you won’t stop me!

Finally got my ears cleared, no thanks to Drs. Went to a new GP today since I was gonna need one anyway, and they wouldn’t do them themselves then and there and I’d have to book in with the nurse – with the first appointment being on the 15th, which is the closest I could get at the specialist ear places too. So I decided to buy an ear syringe at the chemist and spend half and hour irrigating my ears, and by golly everything is so LOUD when you don’t have a plug of wax in the way. So hopefully I’ve got this sorted and I won’t need the appointment come the 15th and can cancel it.

Did some household and giftcard spending this morning at the Reject shop – got a Xmas tablecloth and matching serving plates for next Xmas, as well as a few little bins for around the house. And two purple croptop bras from Best and Less. SChmexy.

Got the AU registered, so now we can sell that, hopefully sooner rather than later. I like it but it’s excess to our needs and I’d prefer the money hey. Then Bruce can get the rust fixed in the other Ford and all the other repairs needed on that. And we can vroom around in the Corolla!

I AM intending to food blog more, but I’m not sure how or what, with budget restrictions but also going back to everyplate boxes for my sanity there may not be all that variety. But we’ll see what happens! Hopefully meeting some Antipoverty Tweeps for lunch in Sydney next week while they’re in town so there may be something in that lol. Or the 15th when the Cooranbong Community hub opens again and I can opshop and foodbank shop there and see what comes my way! Ended up buying a few of the household thins I was hoping to opshop off Amazon, but at least I have them now and can get more settled. I need to take the last of the moving boxes to recycing at the tip, if I can get myself to do that this week that’s be MORE clutter away and more settled for me.

 

Farewell 2023

2023? Nothing really went as planned but hey, we made it through, right?

January 1, 2023

Who else started the year with things they wanted to achieve and find themselves wanted to restart the same things now? I had a great run at the start of the year, practicing Japanese on Duolingo daily while streaming it on Twitch and making new connections.

I think I managed a good 4 or 5 months before I stopped, not bad lol. Hoping to get back into it once my NBN connection is finally in, 5 more days to go after being without it for a month at the new place!

Yeah, we moved at the start of December, after housing and who was in it being a concern for much of the year. We had Bruce’s daughter move in with their partner and newborn in August – and became grandparents. Eeps. They stayed with us til just after this move, it’s been full on and all consuming at times, and I barely had to look after the baby directly! A whole heap of internet people became Aunties by keeping us in nappies and other household needs! Thanks you!!!

I met more of YOU in person, went to some rallies and meetups, thank you!

I want to do more of that this coming year, hop on the train to Sydney once a month for SOMETHING, a rally, training, a meetup. Something.

I saw G Flip live at the Bar on the Hill this year, first gig in forever I’ve been to, and will be Seeing K Flay this Valentines day!

SO, I’m going to start back on the Japanese, and Blogging more things that take thought and research rather than just off the cuff rants. And streaming games and Japanese. I wanna start practicing the scripts properly in Japanese, and maybe Arabic. I’m thinking of getting a graphics pad so I can write on screen better for practice. SO I do it more. I also need to get another second monitor since mine didn’t survive the move. Ugh. (My Wishlist?)

I need to walk more, eat better, all of that. As always. More food blogging perhaps. Not sure what the little life here looks like yet, we’ll see come the 8th or so lol. When life resumes properly for the year. I have a car to register and sell, so I can enjoy the little Corolla we got the week we found out we had to move (timing hey?)

A woman with fluffy purple hair and glasses wearing a purple onesie with lace shoulders and unicorns. She has a romper with fairy bread print over the top. She is holding a coffee in front of a coffee machine
December 31, 2023.

Vrooooom!

 

By 2030, more Australian children should rely on charity

Is that the right interpretation Mr Leigh?

The famous quote I thought you should be going back to was Bob Hawke’s “By 1990, no Australian child will be living in poverty”. But that’s not today’s Labor party is it? The welfare state was already being disbanded in Bob’s days, but Labor of the new millennium have really gone for it, embracing the turns to the right of their opposition, while coming into power on weak words and impressions that they are there for those in need.

“Nobody left behind” was Albanese’s thing. But people are being left behind in greater numbers than ever. The lip service paid, forming an economic inclusion committee and ignoring its key recommendation to bring jobseeker to 90% of the pension. It wasn’t even a big ask really, the pensions are still below the poverty line and you though “yeah nah, let’s throw them $20/week” while costs of living spiraled for everyone. People who are working full time are becoming homeless, sleeping in tents and cars, dodging bushfires and floods. The rental landscape is bleak, and home ownership impossible when former public housing is going for a million plus in Sydney suburbs.

We saw the happy snaps at the Christmas lunches and hamper giveaways for poor people at your favourite charities. The ones that are meant to just fill a gap for the most needy, but are seeing record requests for help. Extending the single parent payment to kids aged up to 14 still doesn’t get those families out of poverty when you still have carers payments and the like below the poverty line. The $88 a day we’ve been asking for for a couple of years now is surely outdated, and rent assistance is a joke when it maxes out at $180 a week in a landscape where you take what you can et when you can get and hope your asthma isn’t exacerbated by the mold.

Healthcare costs are spiraling, and many GPs aren’t bulk-billing kids anymore, even with the increased incentives, so parents are forced to make some really tough decisions when it comes to prioritising healthcare of their kids, you wouldn’t want to be seen as neglectful because basic medical care is unaffordable. You won’t get more help from the system, because it’s already giving you all that’s legislated for, so you’d better make do and deal the the policing and more stress.

Medicines will go up again next week – 40c a script for concession card holders. But that’s fair right? we got indexation in one hand on our pensions, so the government ought to take away with the other hand.

No Aussie child in poverty by 1990? Those kids have had their own kids by now, some are even close to the next generation. But it’s only going backwards, and boosting charities and incentives for ladies who lunch, blokes on charity golf days and well meaning white women to drive their leased cars to negotiate donations isn’t the way to do it.

Raise welfare above the poverty line, build and buy more public housing, enough to house everyone who needs it, the effects will flow up, unlike the stage 3 tax cuts that will not trickle down.

Happy New Year, Andrew Leigh, I’m sorry you don’t see that you should be working to make the charities portfolio redundant rather than building up our country’s reliance on the whims of those with a dollar to spare.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

I have to say I’m pretty chuffed hearing back from people who had their Christmas dinners funded by my little thread on twitter. I feared it would flop or worse draw backlash. But it was so heartwarming 🙂 Thanks you to everyone who gave and received!!!!!

My Christmas was good and quiet, cooked a Xmas eve dinner for Bruce and I, went up to my cousins for Xmas lunch, and had leftovers with Bruce and his son for Xmas dinner. I’m glad it was quiet because I’ve been a bit deaf in my ears since about Thursday and I tried wax removal but it’s not better despite a heap of wax coming out. My Right wrist seems to have succumbed to RSI and gave me shooting pain I couldn’t sleep with a few nights, and my ankle I rolled while moving is still giving me grief. I do believe my body is screaming at me to stop. Usually it just gives me a sore throat, but I guess I pushed through too much and here we are, ringing ears to ring in the new year? I have a GP appointment booked on the 4th, so if I’m still suffering then I can tell all my woes to my non-bulk-billed GP for $69 upfront.

 

So we’ve moved in a starting to settle – the kids moved out a few days ago too. That was a stressful time and lead up but I’m glad we were able to provide them with clean safe housing for a few months while they established their baby. (yes, like a plant. I’m thinking of planting a rosemary bush here)

So, I rest this week, potter around, drive my little car with its new purple steering wheel to the shops when my ears give me more feedback on the world.

Love yas!

One Week til Xmas

Please sir! Maxi’s Wishlist

Well that was a few weeks of hell, wasn’t it? Moving house, cleaning the old place, 40 degree days, hot nights, family stress. We’re slowly unpacking, I’ve lost and broken a few things, but we’ll get there. Been using my phone tethering for internet. Still not getting the connection til the 5th December, which I guess is slowly coming.

We were asked in Antabuse last week what our goals were for 2024, what we wanted to achieve. I really want to get back to doing my Japanese practice and streaming it and games. My new monitor didn’t survive the move, and my webcam was on its way out a month ago. I’ve ordered a cheap webcam and I’ll use my phone for the twitch chat screen until I can bring myself to getting another second monitor, or if one falls my way which sometimes happens. It’s a real shame that the bulk waste just gone was the last one, with people needing to book one from next year rather than having certain suburbs having it at a time. It’s great shopping! We didn’t pick up anything this time since we were mid move, though we did dump a lot.

The kids are moving back to their mums place, I hope that works out for them, so I’ll get started on my new little phona routines when I have internet, when everything goes back after new year breaks. I also ordered a meal planning and shopping list pad for the fridge so I can plan meals each week when I get my vege box and local butcher and fish shop meats as much as possible. Though discounted Aldi and IGA items are on the menu too. Pottering around. Finding my way around.

Took most of the moving boxes to the recycling at the tip yesterday, my can and bottle recycling to the closest return and earn today. It’s in a carpark so not as cool for Maxi, but we went to another park for a run later. Next time we’ll do the park run first, then return to recycling.

Yeah sorting out my brain. Slowly.