Melbourne

My partner is experiencing having mental clarity for the first time she can remember after starting a trial of meds based on a recent ADHD diagnosis. This is a good thing and I'm very happy for her.

Mickey wishes you all a great day!

Went out and got a cheap laptop for TAFE. Super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Got a coffee for a treat as well :3

I’d like to report an update…

Chook’s flight feathers have definitely grown back. He just zoomed around my head

So fucking tired urgh

Holy fuck it's cold. Getting out of bed at 2 degrees sucks even if you're working from home lol Have a great day everyone ❤️

Going to bed now even though I know I probably won't fall asleep until like 11. Bed too comfy looking I been fantasising all day about climbing back in. Will put a solid dent into my current audiobook: 11.22.63, which has been excellent so far

ok dudes, I'm off for a walk in the park and a little shopping , later 😘

The fake audience/cheering on the triathlon is so cringe. It's looping over and over again -- the race will take nearly two hours.

Well this is fun. We have an intruder at my worksite and we’re under lockdown now.

Well I’m in my car at the moment and no one’s allowed entry I presume until they resolve this.

It's become apparent to me some of my problems at work are coming from my manager's poor communication skills.

It's time to move on in my own terms before that decision is made for me.

might be a strange question, but any time I figure out something about myself mental health wise its almost always a "Oh shit. Its THAT easy?" kind of thing. It always seems SO obvious in retrospect! Curious to see if anyone else has the same thing happen to them.

For example: if you're always telling mates to take a deep breath have a sit and let things come to them, then you go and actually do it yourself and you're like "fuck, that was the key all along?!"

Welcome to the Daily Chair. All the tacks are out now, all approx 200. I've tidied the work area and am ready to attach the linings, the springs then the padding and covers. Yay.

I have also been buying some tapestry fabrics to make some scatter cushions, 2 big cushions for the big chairs, and two smaller ones for the dining captain chairs.

here are some of the components . I have to staple and sew it all into something resembling a functional supporting seat. There's the wood frame, the webbing, springs, lining fabric and the cover . That grey stuff is the original kapok chair stuffing

Melbcat didn’t eat her meal and spat out her syringed meds this morning - right down the inside of my sleeve! Thankfully she’s finished her antibiotics but she still needs her pain meds.

Found this Maggie in our front yard just now, and I’m not sure if there’s something wrong with it or not. It’s not at all scared of us, and I got quite close (<1m) with no reaction. It’s eaten a few salada crumbs and had a drink, but does look a bit bunched, and is just staying in the yard. Is it worth calling wildlife rescue? OH thinks we should leave it and see how it goes.

Under 8 working days until… 6 working days off. Just about counting down every minute.

Hope we all get some blue sky today!

So I saw this video of a dumpy house in Footscray (link), and on my first watch I barely even noticed anything wrong. My current place is similar. I'm hesitant to draw an exact comparison, because our place isn't quite that bad (there's nowhere that's rotted through to the outside). Being a government property, they're also very strict on fire safety (probably good, being a wooden house), and put at least 50% effort into making sure the electricity situation is safe.

But they've neglected minor maintenance works for so long, that there's probably some quite large work that needs to be done. On one side of the house particularly, there's a lot of rot. Every year or so, they send someone out to replace them, but they only ever replace the worst panel. They just leave the rest of the rotted out panels there, and never really bother to look at why it's rotting.

Before I moved in, there was some sort of gutter collapse along the outside gutter, and it started funnelling water inside the roof. The old LT reported it and followed up once a week, and they never fixed it. Eventually something in the roof either shifted or collapsed and the water was no longer coming inside. But eventually whatever stopped it shifted and started funnelling water into the eaves along the outside below where the gutter collapsed. Then that section of roof collapsed. Then there was a big hoo hah where they wouldn't fix it because they thought it may have contained asbestos.

The spare YPs toilet floor seems like it's been completely rotted out and is on the verge of collapse. There's major flexing when you step on it, and there used to be signs of rot damage on the outside, but they seem to have replaced the boards that were rotten. I've shown a few people in person, and the general consensus seems to be that the floor has probably rotted or at the very least been severely damaged. But they won't send anyone under the house to fix it until they have photos of the damage, and they won't send someone under the house to check on it or take photos because idk, spiders ig.

I think the very worst of everything though, is that the stairs at the front of the house are at uneven heights. In October, we reported the very bottom stair not being attached to the staircase risking thing (it was resting on the brick pavement slightly wedged into the stairs), and they sent someone out to "fix it". What this dude did was move the bottom stair up a bit, nail some wood into the staircase railing thing, and then screw the stair into those. This sounds fine, but now there's a little gap between the stair and the ground, then a half gap between the bottom stair and the next stair, then a double gap between the 2nd and 3rd stairs. I was in Sydney at time, but was privy to a very angry message in the house group chat from the old LT, because he got home when it was dark, nobody told him anybody was coming to work on the stairs, and having lived here for 4 years, it's pretty obvious what happened next.

I've heard so many people trip on it. The postie tripped on it, food delivery people have tripped on it, almost everybody trips on it. Now, 9 months or whatever later, they're finally planning on fixing it. They're going to have a cknreter come out and install concrete stairs. I think that's going to look ridiculous, with brick pavement leading up to solid concrete stairs, which lead up to a wooden patio, but that's better than the current state. I did ask the obvious - why can't they just put the stair back the way it was, maybe screw it into the stairs, and at least keep things even and safe until they properly fix it, but apparently because how the stairs were was considered unsafe, and they've now "fixed" it, they can't unfix it because that'll make it unsafe again.

I could rant for a long time about the lack of adequate maintenance here (in fact I already did!) but it seems to be pretty standard in Melbourne for older homes. It's probably a little bit more shocking that we have such poor maintenance since the government owns the property, but I don't understand why we don't have better laws. Why are houses like the one in the video even allowed to exist? Why isn't that considered uninhabitable?

Do we have the worst housing condition standards of "rich/developed" countries?

Far out this post viral fatigue is fucked. Third day in a row I feel like my brain has been cotton wool all day long. The coffees barely touch me. I really didn't feel too comfortable driving, I felt like I was zoning out way too often. Didn't even help that I got extra sleep because I didn't connect my phone charger properly overnight so it went flat and I slept right past my time to leave.

I really need to (a) fall asleep early and (b) stay asleep tonight... I'm already in bed, fed and showered, I think tonight shall involve podcasts.

E: I've got the warmest possible clothes on and the heater on while under the covers in bed and its still too cold to fall asleep ❄

Goodnight and good morning. May everyone reading this have a wonderful day.

So lately I shut my bedroom window at night. That keeps heat in, but it can lead to a stuffy room.

On the other hand if I open it then obviously that let's warm air out.

Hmm. Maybe I can try just opening it a crack. Or maybe I can open a window in another adjacent room to encourage air exchange.

I managed to get a trip to Kmart after the doctor today but really didn’t like any of their trackie daks. They all had the wide rigid elastic waistband high and tight on your stomach and I can’t stand even the suggestion of being squeezed. Or it digging in if you bend. Also the rest of the stuff was ugly.

I don’t want to have to sew my own clothes 🙃

The tricks these BMX riders do are nuts. So entertaining to watch.

Goodnight all. I think I've just had enough of today. See you in the morning!

anyone know where I can get giant googly eyes? Like, mug diameter or above. I've mounted my doona hangers and it's googly eyes or moloch.

Do not tempt me, fritz lang I'm already leaning steampunkwards with decor

edit: Amazon gets nothing from me. nothing!

PSA - Hot Chocolate Festival starts tomorrow at the Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula and Great Ocean Road Chocolateries! Usually some pretty fun and zany flavours.

Late gratitude contribution. I am grateful for scotch.

I'm having a pretty good day today. I hope everyone here has at least one moment of joy today.

Anti-gratitude thread.

Sleep still shit and the sleep debt is compounding.

Gratitude thread!

My manager offered me a shift this morning which was great. I wasn't going to be working at all otherwise.

Also grateful for my aunt's puppy that I saw briefly today.

This new Batman animated series intro looks incredible.

It's been such a beautiful sunny day 🌞🌞🌞

It's a bit foggy out. Looking out the window I see one set of street lights and then a lot of black.