My gas usage (excluding supply) for 2.5 months was $90. The only gas appliance I have is ducted heating which hasn’t been switched on at all this year. That seems high, right? The heater system has an always-on pilot light but $90 for just that seems very steep.

The heater system is about 30 years old, might be on the fritz - but turned on this morning and it was working fine.

Mickey says “good meow-ning”

We weighed him yesterday, by weighing us and then holding him to weigh again. Almost 9kg. You wouldn’t think it when he’s curled up. I checked some charts online and he doesn’t seem to be overweight, but he is due for his vaccination so I’ll ask the vet.

He eats less than the sachets say to (apparently a 4kg cat should eat three whole sachets!) because he has access to food all the time and he doesn’t eat constantly. Anyway, he’s healthy, he likes to play “chasey-hide-and-pounce”, so he’s keeping me fit too running around the apartment. I do want to invest in one of those cat-wheels, a biiiiig one, but I’m afraid it would be a waste if he isn’t interested.

I love him.

First day at second job was really awesome. Feels like I’m working with real people! And so much respect and warmth! Plus some very compatible interests/tastes/politics. Cozy, comfy office and such a short commute… I couldn’t ask for more??!

I think I have a random crush developing on a colleague however, which needs to be viciously stepped on and killed with a flamethrower immediately. Please let them have a partner. Haven’t heard one mentioned so far… if they don’t say anything I’m going to ask (obliquely).

so I’d say camping was a success. COLD, but a success. It was Tinyest’s first ever camping trip and he took it super well, but I will admit I think the mrs is right, it’ll be a LOT easier when he can walk. But still, good to get him started early! I also brought a friend who I’ve been begging to go for ages, she wasnt a huge fan of camping but gave it a go and says she had a great time and wants to go again, so thats awesome.

I know I say this every time, but Wilson’s Prom is just SO damn pretty. If your sitting here being like “man I haven’t camped in ages” or “Man, I’m not really into camping” I beg of you to give it a go. I’m prepared to bet its physically impossible to have a bad time down there.

I just got my contents insurance renewal notice. I braced myself for a big increase, and apparently it is $2 less than last year?! Was there a leap year surcharge I was unaware of, or has my neighbourhood become safer?

My song for today. Journey - Seperate Ways

Used in the Tron movies, such an awesome song even if the music video is a little bit comical.

https://youtu.be/LatorN4P9aA?si=s_8uE-K6BPH9PAYa

i think i gave away my entire stock of motivation

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I have apparently had a suspicious transaction on my credit card, someone trying to buy gift cards. I do wonder how they got the card number, I barely use it. I think I’ve seen something about methods using random numbers so maybe they just guessed it. The transaction history on that card are all Paypal, Amazon and a couple of local stores in person so not really anything risky. Fortunately it’s not my main card so there are no automatic payments to be messed up.

Lol reading that thread on the other website about school refusal. So many people don’t get it. I was a chronic absentee, I didn’t even go for the entirety of year 10 and had way more than 20 days off per year before and after, from primary to HS. I was abused young, and my mother had untreated schizophrenia. Neither of us had support, and she certainly didn’t realise what I was going through. She’d sleep all day, because she worked nights as a cleaner in a factory. So she wasn’t home at night, and wasn’t present during the day.

Then, if I went to school I was relentlessly bullied for having frizzy hair, being fatter than the other girls (funnily enough, I was a normal weight, and they were starving themselves :/ ), for being interested in science or “boy things”. The boys bullied me too, because I wasn’t “cool” enough. I wanted to do “boy things”. Assaulted, teased. Starting in primary. I distinctly remember the boys not allowing me to play footy with them, and the girls not wanting me to play with them because I didn’t wear lip gloss or straighten my hair.

I wanted to go, I felt like a failure, which just fuelled the depression no one realised I had. I cannot blame my mum, she herself didn’t have support for her mental health, I could hardly expect she would know what to do with me.

And it wasn’t really the schools fault either. Some teachers sucked, sure, but the classes were oversized and there were kids who were loudly unruly. I was quiet, and I got really good grades. I fell through the cracks, and it was easy to fall back in the 2000s.

I’m glad that the kids in the article are getting into schools that can meet their needs and foster a sense of self-worth. That just wasn’t available to me back then. It has affected me, and still does. I blame the system, no real individual. If you don’t conform, then you’re just left to rot. And if your parents aren’t great and perfect, or they’re absent… What can the child do??

Anyway, that’s my little rant. That “other place” can be such a cancer.

You’re not going to believe this - after one person at the auction place called on Friday to say that the furniture I want to sell can’t be picked up, someone else called to talk about pickup.
We agreed it would be easier for me to bring the stuff up anyway but they now don’t have a slot for me to drop it off until 2:45.
Anyway the neighbour came around to help me load the car so that’s all done, and he helped me disassemble Mum’s old bed in the bargain and waved off any suggestion of payment. What a guy.

all the tapestries are washed, ironed and ready for patchwork making , I hope it looks good when done

I’m watching The Trojan Women, a 1971 movie from a Euripides play.

It’s full of great tragedy. It’s meant to be emotional, it was written to shame perpetrators of war. This is like Sophie’s Choice x 10.

I think I watch too many movies that require concentration and empathy as I find my reactions just too intellectual.

How many murders a day do I see on screen?

The other thing is i keep on asking myself how they did a shot or what dramatic device is this that makes me think a thing. I find myself changing focus from the story to the how.

Ok. Groceries purchased. Cat fed and brushed. Dinner in the oven.

I really hope this cold doesn’t last much longer. I live alone and am single so bring sick brings my life to a standstill.

Gibson is concerned also.

C’mon little package waiting at Sunshine West. Get in van. You can do it. You’ve got this.