Sunday:
We spent Saturday morning at a family birthday party, Lucy was the first of our new babies last year and she just turned one! The party was very nice but it is really pissing me off that no-one has noticed my eight kilogram weight loss yet! I'll go out somewhere feeling like I'm quite a bit thinner, but come home feeling like I must look just the same. Well I can see the difference.
We all spent Sunday morning working in the front yard: pruning hedges and pulling some of the weeds from the lawn and trimming edges and raking. Tim and I did about two and a half hours and the kids helped for most of that. It was a good workout.
I went over to our neighbor's on Friday to ask about getting something in writing that they are ok with the noise from the heat pump, Craig was away but his wife whose name unfortunately I can't remember said she would talk to him. I'm hoping that will be resolved soon. Today she saw us working in our front yard and brought out some warm apple muffins she'd just made and had a chat. So she is willingly to be friendly and repair any awkwardness or bad feelings.
Sunday afternoon was the highlight of the weekend. Jasmine had her trial for the State acrobatic gymnastics competition, she and her partner got a blue ribbon (the highest rank) and are through to the State final! It was a much bigger event than the little one a couple of weeks ago, with a lot more competitors, and held at an enormous Olympic-fitted gymnasium. Everyone from Jasmine's acrogym school did well. I know Jasmine certainly worked very hard. We are so proud!
Showing posts with label neighbours. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neighbours. Show all posts
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Saturday, August 5, 2017
A chat and some hard work
later Saturday:
Well, you'll remember this morning my stress about our neighbour's complaints. I spent the whole morning worrying about that, and stressing because Tim (wanting to get Aiden to his tennis lesson, already very late) told him we'd go over later to discuss the matter. Also waiting for the skip bin to arrive. It was actually supposed to come yesterday, but the guy called and asked if 9:00am today would be ok, I said yes. Waited and waited. Eventually texted him, he called back to say he'd be here in an hour. Ended up getting the skip at 1:00pm. He confessed when he got here that he'd forgotten us entirely and was doing some gardening!
So without the excuse of sitting waiting for the skip any more, we went next door and sat down with Craig and his wife whose name I can't remember. I was glad I hadn't invited them to ours because they have an immaculate home and ours is always a mess. But then we do still have children at home. Anyway, Craig started with very closed-off body language, crossed arms and constantly rubbing his chin and neck. But he spoke calmly and we spoke calmly, I think having the two women there might have helped diffuse things, and he ended up being quite friendly. We basically apologised and expressed willingness to explore options to resolve any problems, after waiting to hear what the heat pump sounded like once turned on, how difficult it would be to move etc. He seemed ok with that. So it all turned out fine. But I was a bit shaky afterwards.
So relieved.
Then Tim's dad and his partner Jo came over and we all did a solid three hours work (with a break for tea and a biscuit) filling the skip with all the rubbish from the garden demolition and pool construction. I didn't think we could do it all in one day or with only one skip but we did! Amazing what six people can accomplish.
Before:
And it only took one skip:
Well, you'll remember this morning my stress about our neighbour's complaints. I spent the whole morning worrying about that, and stressing because Tim (wanting to get Aiden to his tennis lesson, already very late) told him we'd go over later to discuss the matter. Also waiting for the skip bin to arrive. It was actually supposed to come yesterday, but the guy called and asked if 9:00am today would be ok, I said yes. Waited and waited. Eventually texted him, he called back to say he'd be here in an hour. Ended up getting the skip at 1:00pm. He confessed when he got here that he'd forgotten us entirely and was doing some gardening!
So without the excuse of sitting waiting for the skip any more, we went next door and sat down with Craig and his wife whose name I can't remember. I was glad I hadn't invited them to ours because they have an immaculate home and ours is always a mess. But then we do still have children at home. Anyway, Craig started with very closed-off body language, crossed arms and constantly rubbing his chin and neck. But he spoke calmly and we spoke calmly, I think having the two women there might have helped diffuse things, and he ended up being quite friendly. We basically apologised and expressed willingness to explore options to resolve any problems, after waiting to hear what the heat pump sounded like once turned on, how difficult it would be to move etc. He seemed ok with that. So it all turned out fine. But I was a bit shaky afterwards.
So relieved.
Then Tim's dad and his partner Jo came over and we all did a solid three hours work (with a break for tea and a biscuit) filling the skip with all the rubbish from the garden demolition and pool construction. I didn't think we could do it all in one day or with only one skip but we did! Amazing what six people can accomplish.
Before:
And after:
Now we can do some proper gardening whenever we like!
I'm so tired though. I'm not a fit person but I pushed myself today. 8,000 steps does not tell the story of all the broken tiles and buckets of rubble I carried! I wonder how sore I'll be tomorrow.
Definitely a roller coaster day.
Friday, August 4, 2017
Roller Coaster
Saturday:
Life is a roller coaster, isn't it?
I was so happy this morning. The pool is finished, and full of water, we still have to do the 'hand-over' but it looks great.
And we're getting a skip bin put out the front this morning so we can get rid of all the piles of rubbish and get started on the garden.
But then Tim was taking Aiden to his tennis lesson, and was trapped by an angry neighbour outside. Craig is the one who put in the complaint about the heat pump for the pool, which has still never been turned on. We understand his concerns but haven't done anything about it yet, the pool company is supposedly following it up, we weren't too worried yet as we were not even going to turn it on for months, we're not using the pool in winter. We've got time to put up barriers and/or lots of plants or at least find out what needs to be done, like moving it further away from the fence (difficult and expensive). So a silent heat pump can hardly be disturbing him, can it?
Well it can. Tim was subjected to a 15 minute rant about everything from legal action about the 'non-compliant' heat pump (apparently he has access to information we don't?? He said he'd talked to our certifier which is very annoying as they haven't spoken to us) to concrete dust from the construction on his clothes on the line to us doing everything vindictively because we don't like him. Apparently we never speak to him, we never consult him about anything (I thought we did! About the fence, anyway, which I had thought was the only thing that would affect him.) Very confused, we fed his dog when he was away and I though we were fine if not good friends with them.
Right at the moment I don't like him at all! I'm utterly miserable. Have we been bad neighbours? Is he an unreasonable person? A bit of both? I feel guilty, sad, worried, frustrated, depressed. I've never had to live next to an enemy before. Seems like he hates us. Will we be banned from using our very expensive pool heat pump, and can we get our money back on the grounds they didn't tell us it wasn't compliant? Will Craig complain when we run our water feature waterfall - will that be too loud too? Or if we have happy children squealing as they play in the pool in summer?
Tim was surprised when one day I described them as our 'old' neighbours, he says they're not much older than us. Obviously I was getting the curmudgeon vibe from the start. Although they had a huge noisy NYE party soon after we moved here.
Or is he justified?
I just don't know, I'm too upset. We can't get on to the pool people or the certifiers today because it's the weekend, so we don't know what is going on. Does the pool company have information they haven't passed on? I've never had any kind of dispute with a neighbour before, I feel like I'm getting a stomach ulcer. I'm scared to go outside in case I see him and he yells at me. I would just start crying if he did.
In our last house we had a big tree that dropped a branch on a neighbours roof and broke some tiles. We were on very good terms with him, we had the rest of the tree branches trimmed so it wouldn't happen again and offered to pay for repairs (he had spare roof tiles which he put on himself so we didn't need to). It was all amicable and stress-free. I certainly didn't feel under attack by him pointing out the damage and asking us to have the tree trimmed, it was just something that needed to be done. It doesn't need to be like this. First we heard of it was a letter from the certifier saying he'd complained.
Life is a roller coaster, isn't it?
I was so happy this morning. The pool is finished, and full of water, we still have to do the 'hand-over' but it looks great.
Well it can. Tim was subjected to a 15 minute rant about everything from legal action about the 'non-compliant' heat pump (apparently he has access to information we don't?? He said he'd talked to our certifier which is very annoying as they haven't spoken to us) to concrete dust from the construction on his clothes on the line to us doing everything vindictively because we don't like him. Apparently we never speak to him, we never consult him about anything (I thought we did! About the fence, anyway, which I had thought was the only thing that would affect him.) Very confused, we fed his dog when he was away and I though we were fine if not good friends with them.
Right at the moment I don't like him at all! I'm utterly miserable. Have we been bad neighbours? Is he an unreasonable person? A bit of both? I feel guilty, sad, worried, frustrated, depressed. I've never had to live next to an enemy before. Seems like he hates us. Will we be banned from using our very expensive pool heat pump, and can we get our money back on the grounds they didn't tell us it wasn't compliant? Will Craig complain when we run our water feature waterfall - will that be too loud too? Or if we have happy children squealing as they play in the pool in summer?
Tim was surprised when one day I described them as our 'old' neighbours, he says they're not much older than us. Obviously I was getting the curmudgeon vibe from the start. Although they had a huge noisy NYE party soon after we moved here.
Or is he justified?
I just don't know, I'm too upset. We can't get on to the pool people or the certifiers today because it's the weekend, so we don't know what is going on. Does the pool company have information they haven't passed on? I've never had any kind of dispute with a neighbour before, I feel like I'm getting a stomach ulcer. I'm scared to go outside in case I see him and he yells at me. I would just start crying if he did.
In our last house we had a big tree that dropped a branch on a neighbours roof and broke some tiles. We were on very good terms with him, we had the rest of the tree branches trimmed so it wouldn't happen again and offered to pay for repairs (he had spare roof tiles which he put on himself so we didn't need to). It was all amicable and stress-free. I certainly didn't feel under attack by him pointing out the damage and asking us to have the tree trimmed, it was just something that needed to be done. It doesn't need to be like this. First we heard of it was a letter from the certifier saying he'd complained.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Nothing to say
Tuesday:
I didn't blog yesterday because I couldn't think of anything interesting to say. I do much the same things every day. I can (and have in the past) give you a calorie by calorie breakdown of what I ate and what I did for exercise, how much water I drank, whether or not I meditated, whether I got a good night's sleep, but really all that gets old after... what... five and a half years of blogging? I'm not stopping blogging! But maybe some days if I truly don't have anything to say, then I won't say anything.
Because I work from home I don't have a lot of interaction with other people apart from family (and I don't say a lot about them because they have a right to privacy). Today at least I met the neighbours we'd never seen! I was out checking the mail when the mother and one girl walked past and stopped to say hi. They seemed nice. We'd met the elderly couple with the Labrador dog on the other side a few times (always when I was looking unkempt!) but had only heard these people splashing joyously in their pool, never seen them. They have three girls, I think similar to my kids' ages, so it would be nice for Jasmine in particular to meet up some time. Now that I have at least spoken to the mother and she doesn't seem like a crazed drug addict or anything, I should suggest an after-school play date.
I'm finding it really hard to settle in to write at home. Maybe I'm just not used to it after such a long break, maybe it's my desk being covered in various papers (still haven't found the key to the filing cabinet, and there is another stack I haven't even looked through, and a whole box of stuff beside the desk) and it feels very cluttered. I might try taking my laptop up to the library to avoid distractions.
I didn't blog yesterday because I couldn't think of anything interesting to say. I do much the same things every day. I can (and have in the past) give you a calorie by calorie breakdown of what I ate and what I did for exercise, how much water I drank, whether or not I meditated, whether I got a good night's sleep, but really all that gets old after... what... five and a half years of blogging? I'm not stopping blogging! But maybe some days if I truly don't have anything to say, then I won't say anything.
Because I work from home I don't have a lot of interaction with other people apart from family (and I don't say a lot about them because they have a right to privacy). Today at least I met the neighbours we'd never seen! I was out checking the mail when the mother and one girl walked past and stopped to say hi. They seemed nice. We'd met the elderly couple with the Labrador dog on the other side a few times (always when I was looking unkempt!) but had only heard these people splashing joyously in their pool, never seen them. They have three girls, I think similar to my kids' ages, so it would be nice for Jasmine in particular to meet up some time. Now that I have at least spoken to the mother and she doesn't seem like a crazed drug addict or anything, I should suggest an after-school play date.
I'm finding it really hard to settle in to write at home. Maybe I'm just not used to it after such a long break, maybe it's my desk being covered in various papers (still haven't found the key to the filing cabinet, and there is another stack I haven't even looked through, and a whole box of stuff beside the desk) and it feels very cluttered. I might try taking my laptop up to the library to avoid distractions.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Boris
Thursday:
Another creature has been added to the "this woman gives out free food" menagerie, or was probably hanging around all along and I just didn't see him. Boris is a lizard longer than my arm. Maybe from the water dragon family. There is a little creek just across the road and I've seen a couple around there. He keeps to the edges, probably trying to avoid kookaburras, but didn't seem particularly afraid of me. I didn't go too close.
The baby magpie annoyed me this morning. Turned up alone after all the food was gone, sat on my outdoor table and demanded attention very loudly and persistently, and poohed all over the table. Not that much different to a human baby I guess! Interesting to see it here without its parents after only a couple of supervised visits.
Really sleepy today with a dopey head and heavy eyelids. Just the heat I think. Another scorcher. I felt much better after the cool change came through in the evening. Weather is up and down, up and down. The forecast for Kangaroo Valley on the weekend is cool on Saturday, warm and rainy on Sunday. I'm trying not to think of it as camping and feeling more positive about it. Yes I'll have to endure some outdoor activities and an evening BBQ with the mosquitoes, but I get to sleep in a cabin with a real bed and bathroom, it is a pretty location, and there are cafes and a picturesque little town nearby if it does rain on the Sunday. I won't exactly be roughing it! The kids are very excited but Tim is exhausted with new job and long commutes and would really rather stay home (it was all his brother's idea in the first place). My complaining probably isn't helping his mood.
The pool guy came and it would be pretty expensive. We are still thinking about it. And it wouldn't be finished until mid-February, which is the end of summer! I think the kids would love a pool so much.
I haven't met any neighbours yet. I thought it would happen naturally if we were in our front yards at the same time, getting the mail or something, but that hasn't happened. The side and back fences are all high solid colourbond. I'm not really comfortable going and knocking on front doors. We've been out a lot on the weekends, or else buried inside unpacking. Lots of people have children the right ages to play with mine, but there are lots of schools around here so they go to different ones. I might have to be more pro-active about meeting people.
Another creature has been added to the "this woman gives out free food" menagerie, or was probably hanging around all along and I just didn't see him. Boris is a lizard longer than my arm. Maybe from the water dragon family. There is a little creek just across the road and I've seen a couple around there. He keeps to the edges, probably trying to avoid kookaburras, but didn't seem particularly afraid of me. I didn't go too close.
The baby magpie annoyed me this morning. Turned up alone after all the food was gone, sat on my outdoor table and demanded attention very loudly and persistently, and poohed all over the table. Not that much different to a human baby I guess! Interesting to see it here without its parents after only a couple of supervised visits.
Really sleepy today with a dopey head and heavy eyelids. Just the heat I think. Another scorcher. I felt much better after the cool change came through in the evening. Weather is up and down, up and down. The forecast for Kangaroo Valley on the weekend is cool on Saturday, warm and rainy on Sunday. I'm trying not to think of it as camping and feeling more positive about it. Yes I'll have to endure some outdoor activities and an evening BBQ with the mosquitoes, but I get to sleep in a cabin with a real bed and bathroom, it is a pretty location, and there are cafes and a picturesque little town nearby if it does rain on the Sunday. I won't exactly be roughing it! The kids are very excited but Tim is exhausted with new job and long commutes and would really rather stay home (it was all his brother's idea in the first place). My complaining probably isn't helping his mood.
The pool guy came and it would be pretty expensive. We are still thinking about it. And it wouldn't be finished until mid-February, which is the end of summer! I think the kids would love a pool so much.
I haven't met any neighbours yet. I thought it would happen naturally if we were in our front yards at the same time, getting the mail or something, but that hasn't happened. The side and back fences are all high solid colourbond. I'm not really comfortable going and knocking on front doors. We've been out a lot on the weekends, or else buried inside unpacking. Lots of people have children the right ages to play with mine, but there are lots of schools around here so they go to different ones. I might have to be more pro-active about meeting people.
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