Wednesday, July 7, 2010

What else could possibly go wrong!

I am fed up and probably shouldn't be posting on my Blog as this is supposed to be my "Happy Place" and certainly one where you guys don't want to read about my dramas.... but I feel the need to get it down on paper... so to speak.... and so you are the lucky ones that get the news.

We seem to be having a very bad run at the moment. A few weeks ago our VHS/DVD player broke down. We managed to replace it, but had to return the new one the next day as it didn't work. now the replacement seems to be working, except that after a couple of hours of recording stuff of the TV, the sound goes and we watch the rest of the program in silence. Then the belt on the Dryer broke, right in the middle of a load of washing naturally!

Nicholas had a friend over for the weekend a week ago and they discovered that the remote on the TV in the Games room wasn't working and this meant they couldn't play the Playstation as the TV has no AV selector on it. Not a huge drama, but one more thing. Then after this friend had left, we discovered that we had "lost" a few things. A couple of mobile phones, headphones and then Gary also discovered that his USB thumb drive was missing.... with all his backups of his Bookkeeping study that he had been doing all year! Of course Gary was fuming!! This has been a headache as Nicholas has had to accept that his friend is no friend at all, and Gary spent the week going to and from this teenagers house trying to get him to return the stuff he took. Finally Nicholas got word through another friend that this boy had "found" his mobile phone at the bottom of his bag. Nicholas now wants the whole matter dropped as we had by this time threatened with the Police. I can understand that N is worried about his standing with his friends, after all, ones friends are very important, but this is a hard lesson in some people do not deserve your friendship. We are worried about bullying at school when we aren't around, but fortunately we have just started two weeks of school holidays so it will be some time before he sees this boy again and we will be in touch with the school so they will keep an eye on him. We filed a Police report on Monday afternoon and the Policeman let us know that he knew the family really well. He spoke to the boy and got Nicholas's phone back and is going to formally interview him on Thursday, so we will see what happens from that. Silly child.... surely he must realise that "finding" the phone just confirms that he took it in the first place! Just backs up our claims that he is a thief! and the policeman wants to make the complaint we made formal as he is fed up with this child as well.

Then..... could it get worse you ask..... OH YES!! of course if you have been reading my Blog you will know that the car blew up! The mechanic has labelled it "Terminal" and not worth the money to fix it.... we now have to convince him it may not be worth it to him, but as a couple surviving on disability support payments, we don't have a choice ...... we cannot get a loan to buy another 4WD nor could we afford the repayments, so we need to fix the one we already have.

Then Gary went to cut some firewood on the weekend (it is freezing here -5C most nights) and the chainsaw stopped working. Apparently it has some part that pumps oil to the chain (which we had only just replaced the day before) and this part had stripped off some teeth and no longer pumped as it should. G rang the place he had bought the new chain from, and was basically told the chainsaw was crap! sorry folks! So now we need a new chainsaw.... only another $500 to replace it!

so... is there any good news you ask.....

Fortunately, we had a little sedan that one of my daughter gave to us some months ago as it was unregistered, needed work and was clogging up her driveway. Gary flew to Adelaide in Feb to collect it and it has been sitting in the yard ever since as we couldn't afford to get it registered here in NSW. I managed to rearranged some bills and not pay others LOL so we could get the car registered. Of course it needed new brake lines and G neglected to clear it with the Mechanic that we pay in a fortnight, so after the job was done and he didn't pay, he managed to really upset the woman (whose owns the shop with her Mechanic hubby) as they don't do accounts...... this is the mechanic that we need to keep happy so that he will work on our car! he managed to smooth that situation over a bit and drove to the next mechanic to get the registration check done. Unfortunately, not all mechanics in NSW can do rego checks, you need one that is approved to do a full check as this is the first time registered in NSW. Next time, it wont be so much of a headache, but that first rego is a pain as they go over the car with a fine tooth comb. This sedan is a 1986 car, so as you can imagine, it is not perfect and we were a little worried it wouldn't pass. However, it did pass and G headed off to pay $450 for the insurance we needed to have before it could be registered. That done, he headed for the Roads Transport Authority office to registered the car, transfer it from South Australia to New South Wales and get new plates for it. Simple you would think..... oh no!! ..... I had a form I had to fill out, a Stat Dec I had signed and witnessed, an email from my daughter transferring ownership, but not enough! They still wanted more. It took Gary an age to finally get approval from the "head honcho" to register the car, and only because they couldn't get hold of my daughter after trying a few times.

G took apart the chainsaw and contacted a few people and finally found someone that had the part we need and only for $57 . A lot cheaper than a new chainsaw and may get us out of trouble for this Winter anyway. Now we just have to wait for payday (another 2 weeks) to afford to get it. In the meantime, we are freezing here and trying not to use the small amount of wood we have already cut and not use the electricity as our next bill looks as though it will be over $1000.00 !!!!!!!!! already ( and this for 3 people for 3 months). But... at least we can get the part!

I managed to get to Sydney to attend my eldest daughter's Ultrasound for the new baby. Very exciting! but a little surreal! Strange to think my baby is having a baby... and after so many yrs of trying as well! Turns out that we are having a little boy ........ Lachlan James .......... and he wasn't being terribly co-operative LOL The machines are so amazing now, they can do a 3D image, but Lachlan would look at the camera LOL so it took the technician ages to get a pic where you could actually see him.

I am having my last day on the computer for a while as we have an Interstate visitor arriving tomorrow and she is here for the next two weeks. I hope she is prepared for the cold LOL

So.......... I will try to get a freebie up soon for you, please forgive me for not getting one organised, but if you have read this far...... I hope you can understand why!

have a great day wherever you are!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG Caroline, all I can say is God Watch Over you all and keep your faith, it has to get better sometime very soon. We will continue to keep you in our thoughts and prayers-Big Hugs and dont worry bout us - thank you for keeping us posted so we dont worry as much about you!
Robbi and Mike

Chris Allport said...

I will be thinking of you and your family.

I hope your luck changes soon.

Lots of luv and {{{hugs}}}

Chris Allport

Kessa said...

Oh you have certainly had everything happen at once haven't you. I really feel for you having it so cold with a short supply of wood. I have been complaining about the cold here in SE Qld but it's nothing compared to you - think I'd best stop complaining - lol.

Hope everything works out for you soon...you've certainly had more than your share of problems.

Thinking of you and sending you warm hugs. Keryn x

MonkingsMusings said...

OMG! What more can go wrong. We are having a heat wave in my part of America. Wish I could send you some of the heat. Nothing worse than having a liar steal from you. Glad the car finally got sorted but I do understand about not affording things. My mini-van needs new brakes and I only have one disability check coming before my benefits are cut off. This will leave a big chunk missing in our budget. So big infact that my husband may have to forfeit the loan on the van as we didn't now my health would take a drastic turn a year after buying it. Things will get better. Take care.

paperlady said...

I'm so glad that you do share your problems with us. I'll keep you in my prayers. I've always heard that it's darkest before the dawn; so certainly hope that your dawn is very near and that things begin to improve for you rapidly. Keep us posted.
Joan

Anonymous said...

i'm so sorry to hear about your troubles. sometimes they all come at the same time. :-( but don't worry. they'll all pass as quickly as they came.

Accents By Eddita said...

Caz, I'm playing catchup on my blog reading...SO Sorry to hear all of the bad things...on the bright side they number 3 so no more for the rest of the year!

Hlad you had a good time with your visitor...stay warm!
Eddita :)