Desperate Times...

Well, I know I haven't posted here for a while, but boy has there been some stuff going on. Alas, all the concerns are ones to do with that one thing that causes everyone much concern... yes, I am speaking of money, and especially the lack thereof.

You see, as many of you know, I have 2 "investment" properties that I rent out - and I am currently renting the place I live in. Unfortunately, the cost of living in Brisbane over the last 10 years has seriously escalated, and it is not unheard of for me to have to spend quite a large whack of my salary on everyday necessities... you know... food...electricity...a roof over my head...

With the setup costs of moving into my flat, things have been somewhat tight, and I have had to go without a lot. I've also had to swallow my pride, and ask for help where needed - like with furniture, a fridge, a tv... and its been tough. It's been particularly tough to do without internet at home - but that's because I don't want to be locked in to a contract, so of course in that instance you pay more for the set up and so on, but once you're connected, you're pretty much on even stevens with everyone else. But I've been getting by with going to McDonalds and using the free wi-fi there, when it works, and stuff like that. Its a pain, but do-able.

I've had to make do with crap TV too, because unless you have Foxtel, there's nothing really worth watching on the box. In the past my way around this has been to watch lots of DVDs - but of course here, they're region 4, not 2, and my Mac isn't as easy to hack as a PC and get around the region encoding. Plus, why would I change everything to region 4 when I have a load of region 2 DVDs in my collection? So I bought an external DVD-Rom from Cash Converters to attach to my Mac, but recently that has been going belly up - and I don't own a DVD player for the TV. So no movies or anything for me. Just crap telly.

Anyway, I was sort of making do, and getting by ok, until recently. One of my tenants has moved out - and the real estate agents as yet haven't found anyone else to move in. This leaves me with a substantial mortgage to pay on top of my already very high living costs. Not good. Then today I found out that the other tenant is moving out next month! How am I going to manage?

I mean, as it is, my grocery bill is as minimal as I can make it - and therefore my diet is not very interesting, bit like eating cardboard, really. So how on earth will I afford all of this?

I just don't know... these are desperate times, indeed...

Menopause: The Musical

Now before you think I've completely lost it - this actually was surprisingly quite good! Last night, Mum, Mel and I went to see this musical at the Gardens Theatre, QUT. I was a bit apprehensive - hey, its a theatre in a University after all - but I had heard good reviews and thought that it could be a bit of a laugh. Plus, its Mel's birthday this weekend, so the tickets make a perfect birthday present, right? Well, aside from the intimation that another year older, another year closer to the big M...

Anyway, I picked Mum up earlier in the day at Chermside (after returning the boys to their mother there - having endured the awful Land of the Lost movie - how that got a PG rating I'll never know!) and we made our way back to the flat for a cuppa and to wait for Mel. Mel rocked up around 6ish and we headed into town, grabbing a very quick bite at some Chinese restaurant in George St or something.

We made it in good time to the show, and settled down to a very fine evening of laughter. This musical uses old 60s, 70s, 80s songs to get across their humorous viewpoint on the menopause. It was soooo funny!

If you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.. Menopause: The Musical!

School Holidays Week One

This week was the first in two of school holidays for the Winter. To be honest, it hasn't really been all that cold, and has at times felt more like the Summer holidays in London, with the exception that I only have 2 weeks off, and not 6. Bummer. But we'll take holidays any way we can get them. Anyway, for the most part, I have been unpacking the flat - a mundane way to spend the holidays, but hey, with no money, and with distance being somewhat of a problem, there was never going to be any chance of going someplace exotic anyway - so might as well spend the time at home unpacking the flat and sleeping in as doing anything else. The only hitch was that I knew for sure I would have the boys to look after on the Thursday - other than that, my time was my own. So I made plans to meet some of my colleagues at the Art Gallery on Wednesday to see the American Impressionist and Realist Exhibition. This actually was quite impressive, because its the first time that these paintings have been seen outside of America. The reason for it is that the paintings are on loan from The Met, because they are refurbishing a wing in their gallery, so rather than store the paintings somewhere where no one can appreciate them, they shipped them off to Australia. Sounds a bit like the paintings are convicts, eh? Anyway, for $20 you can see some pretty impressive paintings, plus have a free (volunteer, of course - so they can't be held liable for the quality of information they deliver) tour guide through the exhibition. It was actually pretty good. To be fair, I had a bit of a quick squizz at the rest of the Art Gallery too, and the verdict is - Brisbane is definitely on the up for Arts stuff. Especially as the main Art Gallery is actually free.

The next day I was on duty - babysitting duty, that is. I had my nephews come stay with me for 2 days - daunting for some, and to be fair, at the end I was ready to hand them back - not because they had been naughty, because they had been really well behaved, but because I am too old to keep up that level of energy!

The first day we went on the City Cat, which is the city ferry along the river. Its actually a really good service, quite reasonably priced, and a cheap way to entertain kids for a bit. We stopped off at New Farm Park first of all, and the boys had a bit of a climb on the big Moreton Bay Figs there. After that, we discovered a free AFL clinic run by the Brisbane Lions, so they had a go at that, before making our way back on the City Cat to the South Bank. The South Bank is now an area in the heart of the city that was previously used for Expo 88. It has lots of lovely cafes and restaurants, as well as a man-made beach, a small rainforest, and a large piazza for often free entertainment. The 'Wheel of Brisbane' (aka the "Brisbane Eye" - not a jot on the London Eye, I might add, but the concept is there) is also there, and it is adjacent to a couple of museums and the Queensland Performing Arts complex, so its pretty good. The boys had an absolute ball! First of all we had a spot of lunch, then off for a Cold Rock icecream (easily the best icecream in the world) and then we sat and watched a street performer for a bit. He was actually pretty good. After this, we made our way down to the Queensland Maritime Museum. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical - and even more so when I saw the price. So I asked the boys if they wanted to go in. Lach had a quick peek and said "Nup. Not interested" but Haz marched straight up to the ticket attendant and asked if they have anything about the Titanic inside (Harry is absolutely fascinated with the Titanic). Sure enough, they had a bit of a model on the 2nd floor - so that was that, off we went. And I'm glad we did (as are the boys) because although the inside of the museum was a bit naff - mostly models of boats, and the occasional real boat - the outside though was very cool. Outside the museum in dry-dock is an old Royal Australian frigate from WWII called the "Diamantina". The boys had a complete field day! They climbed all on, around and through the ship, from the bridge down to the engine room. It seemed that each new corner they went around brought forth more whoops, gasps and excited calls of astonishment! But the piece de resistance would have to have been the gun turrets. They still have working winches on them, so they boys could wind the winch and reposition the guns. Oh boy did they have fun! We were easily at this museum a good 2 1/2 hours. After this, it was starting to get a bit dark, so it was time to get the City Cat back home. The boys stayed overnight and we watched Star Wars, which Harry is just starting to get in to. The next day I had them only for the morning, as we went off to see Land of the Lost. That movie has a PG rating but it was so full of innuendo that it was embarassing to sit there and watch it with kids aged 10 and 8. Anyway, here is the slideshow that Lach made about their "Boys Day Out"!