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...

The Real Snow Report #3: Fairweather skiers out in force

Blue skies. Mostly.

Exhibition groomed for the first time this season. Today we skied like we meant it skiing all the runs we haven't been able to see all week.

Schnappy hour at Black Sallee's.

The Real Snow Report #2 - a much better day

Snow falling softly, wind today was 'moderate' compared with 'gusty' yesterday. Visibility, reasonable.

Ready for a day on the snow.

Going up the Kosciusko Chair. A little blustery at the top but nothing like yesterday when this chair was on wind hold.

Lots of lovely fresh snow scattered over the resort. Not so much powder as that deep wet stuff that catches on the skis but still loads of fun. Proper Australian skiing conditions (rocks, crud, rain, wet slush/snow) - love it.

Spying on the kids skiing the Bowl.

A full day.

Sunshine is promised tomorrow. I'll believe it when I see it. Who cares. Here's hoping for another magic day at the snow.

The Real Snow Report (aka $30 a run)

So, day one started out okay. Clear skies, hardly a breath of wind. A full day of skiing to be had.

Day two started with a light rain/slush falling from the sky. No wind with conditions improving by lunchtime. Only Thredbo die-hards and those who had already pre-paid their lift tickets were on the mountain.

Day three. Well the fact that it is 11.55am and I'm back in the lodge blogging should give you an idea of the conditions.


All the lifts are on wind hold except the Gunbarrel, Snowgums and the old Merritts Chair. This effectively funnels all the traffic onto two lifts - Gunbarrel and Snowgums. After a 20 minute queue at the Gunbarrel we skied down to Snowgums.



Oh dear. Snowgums is an old, slow, double chair. 30 minutes in the queue...



... to sit in blustery blowy conditions like this.

I love my skiing and will ski in just about anything but after freezing on the double chair we decided it was time to come in. We calculated that after a total of three runs this morning we paid $30 a run each (on a discounted ticket).

Being parent-of-the-year my children are still out on the snow developing a tough skin.

Now excuse me while I take a blog-break to enjoy a hot tea and chocolate cake.