Yrae Chronicles

God I'm so productive in January. I'm very good at getting organised at the beginning of the year, for some reason. December is largely a write-off, with parties and Christmas and friends and social occasions all over the place, and god I love it that way. But then come January 1, somehow I knuckle down and get all the shit done. All of it. In the past two weeks, I have:

• Applied for, received and activated a new AMEX credit card.


• Got new tyres for the car.


• Had the car serviced (it had a clunk whenever I did slow-speed manoeuvres or headed towards full lock with the steering wheel. I was scared of it being expensive; turns out all it needed was for the steering column to be cleaned and re-greased. WOO CHEAP AND EASY FIX. Also they said my car was mechanically faultless. I love my Yoshi <3)
  
• Changed mobile phone plan.


• Changed electricity plan.


• Got Dad to disconnect the goddamn house alarm. I don't know how to arm it, how to disarm it or how to change the code, but the real kicker is that its backup battery probably went flat 20 years ago. Whenever the power goes off and comes back on again, which happens with some frequency in SA, it would turn on. Usually at around 5am. It was very relaxing.


• Had an eye test, and subsequently bought glasses. It was pretty much as I'd already guessed--right eye is better than my left, and while glasses would improve things, it's not a lightbulb WOAH I CAN SEE NOW moment. My left eye on its own is one level below being able to drive, and the right is pretty damn good, so eh. Up to me, said the optometrist, so I decided to give it a shot. Just cos. If it turns out I never wear them, then I know not to bother.


• Gotten the ball rolling on refinancing the house.

SO MUCH ADULTING. Today I've gotta get all the bits and pieces for house refinancing together and send that off. Payslips, bank statements, 100 points of ID, that sort of thing. With any luck I can cut back what I'm paying on that every month and actually save some money, cos hell knows I'm not getting a pay rise anytime... ever... =/

I had hoped to also get some garden stuff done this month, namely get a shade cloth installed and hang up my terracotta pots that are going to form my screen in the unit 1 direction, but it's been way too goddamn hot. Starting Wednesday we've had 35, 40, 42 yesterday, 39 today, then 35 tomorrow and a cool change on Monday! 29! Then 30, 33, 37, 40 (Australia Day. That's going to be a fun barbecue...) and 42. The only gardening I'm willing to do in any of that is standing in the shade with a hose on the citrus for a few minutes.

I also picked up some free chairs this morning, which will be my permanent chairs now. I'll strip back the legs and whitewash them the same way as the table, and eventually get them reupholstered in whatever material I get a couch in. Exactly what I was after :D Slightly dodgy and therefore free, no compunctions about changing them up myself, but still good enough (well, four of them are, anyway) to keep using in the meantime.

Tomorrow I've got Mum and Dad coming over for dinner and cricket. I have planned salmon with papaya mojo and I had heaps of egg whites in the freezer after making mayonnaise last weekend, so for dessert I've got mini-pavlovas with mango mojito sauce. I've just done the mini-pavs, so keen to test one out and see how they go. Aww yeah.

Yoshi's in with the crash repairers and will be fixed and ready for me to pick up by Friday ♥ I miss him already. I was told I'd be getting a late model hire car for a loan car, but I've got a silver Mirage that feels older than the Shagna. The aircon controls are identical to what the Shagna had, but then it has a tape deck instead of the CD player. Have any cars been made this century with a tape deck? Oh well. At least it's only for two days, and I sure as hell won't feel like it's a step backwards getting my Yoshi back. I miss my steering wheel radio controls. And my connectivity. And my Yoshi =( I was going to go plant shopping again after work today at Bunnings, but then I decided I couldn't be bothered driving the Mirage any more than I have to. So. Back home to draw Nol.

Yoshi update: RAA says she's definitely 100% at fault. She's also with RAA, so they can look her up. Here is where the good news ends.

Because my policy is just third party and not comprehensive, I can't lodge a claim. I can only wait for her to lodge her claim, then latch onto that. Problem: she doesn't think she's at fault so chances are very, very slim that she'll be doing anything there. At least we're both RAA so this makes things really easy if she DOES, but that avenue is pretty much at an end.

I can, however, send her a legal letter that the RAA emailed me that basically says I hold you at fault and if you don't pay up I'll take legal action, and if she doesn't pay up in 21 days then I can call the RAA back and work out the next step from there. Problem: Like an angry idiot, I forgot to get her rego number and address, so all I have is her mobile number. EEJIT.

I've called her half a dozen times today, left two messages, had the cops call her when I was filing my police report, and she hasn't picked up.

Through the powers of Google, I've found where she works, and by calling every M Smith* in the White Pages (there were 10) and getting multiple wrong numbers, I've narrowed her down to five: one's been engaged for an hour, two ring out and two go to voice mail but with a really unhelpful automated 'you have reached the message bank of [phone number]' type deal. One of those lives in Victor Harbor, which is about an hour away, so it's unlikely but one of my workmates at Flinders Street lived in Victor and drove up every day, so not impossible.

Still every chance that she's not even in the phone book--I'm not--but I hold out hope. If I can't get her home address I can at least send the letter to her work. Or idk ask the RAA really nicely for her address.

Don't worry, Yoshi, I'll get her to fix you ♥




* not her real name but you get the idea

*cranks Tchaikovsky*

*while drawing Yoshi icons*

*cultured?*

o I want to do NaNoWriMo, but I lack a) story and b) time. So that sort of cancels that out.

o 9:30 is a crap time for Good News Week to start. The thing before it is one of those ones that goes 15 minutes overtime, and GNW itself tends to go about half an hour overtime. I'm~ not going to be going to bed until quarter past 11. I'm so skipping it from now on and downloading it on Tuesdays. Sucked in, Channel 10, I'm not watching your ads anymore.

o Started on Kazin girl! The forest idea scares me. I'm going to turn half of it into padi fields.

o I have an urge to make Yoshi layouts again. I've kinda had Malaysia for well over a year now >>

Today~ I bought sexy shoes and also a game.

I frigging love Yoshi, you may have noticed. Yoshi's Island was my faaavourite game on the SNES and now I finally have it back again *^^* How much did SNES games cost back in the day? $70 seems familiar, 'bout what DS games are. This one was for cheap with spring sales. Yoshi for $40, mmm.

Shoes were also on sale :D I like spring. $100 reduced to $75. So really, I saved $65 today. I feel constructive.