Asbestos Removal and introducing the Street Cancer

This morning as I drove past our house I noticed activity.

Today is the day that this shed disappears.

Of course our abrasive neighbour has already had words to the builder about all her woes. We can't win with this unfortunate lady. If we keep her fully informed she uses the information to cause us problems; if we keep her in the dark she runs to council, annoys any tradies on our property or sends her husband over to complain. I swear the last "discussion" we had was over the way I trimmed back a large rose in my garden - it wasn't to her liking.

I bet she'll be all in a dither with the asbestos removal today.

She's currently spreading stories about what we're 'really going to be doing' at the house. Which apparently includes ripping out all the mature trees on the property. (Not).

Don't imagine this to be some old biddy. She's probably about 45, and so terribly tragically bored. I try not to let her get to me but she is like a cancer in our street. Last month we thought they'd managed to sell their house and there were plans afoot for a street party. Alas, it seems she doesn't want to move.

I connected to Cable all.by.myself

People, I have just about entered the 21st century. I am only 10 years late.

I still do not have a landline courtesy of my friends at Failstra, however this evening I crawled behind the TV to connect up a cable modem to my Foxtel point and I am now WIRELESS. What a revelation it is to sit with (my work) laptop on knee and iPhone in hand both connected to the ether.

Methinks perhaps 5 connections at one time will not be enough in this household. On our recent holiday we had 10 adults, 5 children and 23 devices connected to the wireless router at our accommodation. Think about it - we all had a laptop, a smartphone, there were 3 iPads and a couple of the kids had iTouches. Soon everything will have a wireless component and our household wireless demands will be huge.

My sturdy desktop, however, is not yet wireless. The 24 hour Failstra connection guru tells me that I need some sort of adapter for my 3yo outmoded technology ("desktops...do they still exist?"). I find it somewhat amusing that my wireless adapter will be coming via snail mail and not arriving in the fireplace in a puff of green smoke.

And while we are talking wireless, when are we going to be able to do away with the twenty cables that connect our TV to all the bits and bobs? Surely that's the next BIG IMPROVEMENT.

Renovation Diary - the move in 10 dot points

1. Did the student move. Mostly. Big guys came on Friday to move the heavy stuff while Firegazer and I moved all the small stuff. Took all weekend. Children 'too tired' or 'too bored' to help. Resolved to do full service move on the way back.
2. Telstra managed to disconnect our land-line at the old house but failed to reconnect at the new house. Am not surprised. Telstra also failed to answer any calls regarding the matter.
3. Why is the most useful phone number for Telstra in the white pages but not on their website? Big FAIL Telstra.
4. Mail redirection is also a big fail. Our house is at No. 9. Due to typo the mail from No. 8 is being re-directed to our house. Only way to fix this is by WRITING SNAIL MAIL and waiting for someone to get out their quill and ink and fix the ledger.
5. Luckily our temporary house is cute and cosy.
6. Good news story - the space for the washing machine at the new house was too small for our current machine so was forced to purchase the machine and dryer that we had planned for our renovation anyway. LOVE my new front loader plus 6 star condenser heat pump dryer. Yes, 6 stars. Uses 1/8th of the power of our fridge per year.
7. Salvation Army came and collected a room piled high with furniture and stuff. Didn't take: Moran sofa bed; 3 x IKEA Billy bookcases; 1 x 80cm CRT TV.
8. Put all the above on the verge and they went within 12 hours.
9. Love the verge Freecycle system.
10. Renovation starts...tomorrow

Why I avoid calling Telstra at all costs

For years the only two things have stopped me from giving Telstra the flick are

1. that I would lose the personal email address I have had for ten years
2. that even calling Telstra to give them the flick would put me in a world of pain induced by errors

On Friday I made the call. We're moving house while we renovate and I had no option but to call to have a phone connected at our temporary abode - I wanted my number to follow me, you see.

I had a lovely hour-long conversation with a consultant who was only too happy to help me - actually getting me up to speed with the modern world a little and putting me on a plan which was far better cost-wise that the current arrangement. I was even a little chuffed when I got off the phone. Telstra's not that bad, I thought. And when given the opportunity to give feedback to the automated survey monkey, I gave positive feedback.

Little did I realise that at that very moment of giving positive feedback the Telstra gremlins were hard at work. Within 30 minutes I discovered I had no internet connection and no email access.

A phone call later I discover that the consultant that I was so happy with inadvertently sent a disconnect order for my Bigpond account. I had lost my 10 year old email address.

Bigpond disconnection was not discussed or asked for.

Panic. HOW MANY people have my email address and how would I contact them? School, online accounts, I get online statements, newsletters, all the people associated with our renovation. Cripes.

Worse, a disconnection which took seconds would take days to 'fix'. And no guarantee of getting my old email address back.

I am now back online using a mobile broadband stick and a new gmail account. I'm not sure I can see the point of taking up the ISP email address again...