Could you do it?

Could you go a whole month without buying anything new?

I've decided to attempt it for the month of May!

Consumerism is becoming the plague of the twenty first century, a big ugly giant rearing it's head and causing all sorts of problems as the generations of "I want therefor I must have it yesterday" coming into their majority.

As the national personal credit total blows out further and further the CEO's of our financial institutions are grinning all the way to their yachts in the Hamptons.

We purchase more and more "must have" items which end up littering up our homes, our minds and our lives.

In our backwards state our wants are defined as needs, and our true needs go unfulfilled.

We need to embrace a little bit more simplicity.

Letting our light shine instead of being defined by what we "own" ( or the bank owns in the most part).

Don't get me wrong, there are things I want, very badly (anyone like to send me an iPad?, I'll bake you cookies and love you for life, promise).

But there are many many things I think about buying every day that when I pause, I realise we don't need at all.

Do I need to own every Top Gear episode DVD? Not right now,  I don't get time to watch TV much anyway.


Gee that's a nice scarf. Yeah but you have ten already, and they can all keep your neck warm just fine.

SHOES! SHOOOOOOOOES! Pretty shoes! We all have our weaknesses... Maybe I can visit them in the shop occasionally, like a mistress, nice on occasion but you wouldn't want to see her every day.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

The abundance of choice everywhere has seen me come home from the grocery shopping $100 over budget and unable to show anything for it, on more than one occasion in the past.

I have been guilty of buying on autopilot. Not engaging my brain and deciding whether we really need what I have in my hands.

We have learned the value of our money over the last few years, and I  in particular have become a stickler for checking that we are getting something out of everything we spend.

At the same time I am on a continuous cycle of removing that which we do not need, that lies unused and abandoned for the next thing.

So it's time to up the ante, and challenge myself to Buy Nothing New In May!

Obviously this has it's places where you can stretch the limits a little. 

It's Frog's birthday this month and at three she is probably not going to understand "Mummy thinks consumerism is the devil so here's a hug which is much more meaningful than a commercially produced toy". There would be some serious backlash there, and a prime example she can give to her "blame the parents" therapist in years to come.


But we have already budgeted for her small party and gift. Gift singular. Why does she need more than one? And besides, if she gets one present from each of our generous and extended family she will still have more things than I have places to put them.


The rule doesn't apply to necessities. I'm hardly likely to dish up second hand food to my family at dinner time.


You can purchase second hand, upcycled, or do a swap. 


Just don't buy new stuff.

Stuff you want simply because it's staring you in the face.


I'm cutting out stuff for the sake of having stuff. 


Learning to treasure the good stuff - the made up songs Frog sings any where and everywhere with no warning, the games we all play together on a cold rainy Sunday afternoon, the laughter when we spend time with each other. 


You are most welcome to join me, I'll be updating you on my progress throughout the month.


And if someone is really clever they could teach me how to create a linky button and we could get all professional and clever about this too...

S.T.F.U.

No really.

Shut up already.

Just. Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

One more mind numbing, brain melting "if this is reality I'm ready to excuse myself from the human race now" program and the TV gets it.

How much drivel can you ingest before those pretty grey cells start dissolving faster than if I poured acid in your ears?

At night I can't sleep for the sound of a billion brain cells crying out for an escape, a respite from the smothering blanket fog of inanity.

When I do watch TV I mostly shout at it. A lot.

It's eerily similar to the scenes enacted every time I go through town and get cut off AGAIN by another knob-jockey with his brain removed who can't negotiate a simple roundabout.

I digress.

There are a lot of programs on television, which although not to my taste, I don't mind and make for good sport if you turn the sound down and make up the words after a few glasses of wine.

Harmless entertainment.

I have no idea what this new wave of mind slag is supposed to be but it is not entertaining. It is like a jackhammer to the sensitivities of anyone who dares to think outside the box. Who *gasp* have original opinions. Who THINK.

It's just hour after hour of drivel and people screaming "Oh. moy. gaaawd!"

Please tell me none of them are allowed to breed.

And before you tell me "If you don't like it don't watch it", I beat you.

I don't. 

Never have.

But you all won't S.T.F.U. about it.

It's on the news (the NEWS!)

It's on the radio every time I get in my car and I throw up a little in my mouth while waiting the one and a half seconds it takes to retune to 891 Adelaide.

It's endlessly debated, turned over and discussed to death on Facebook.

It's. In. My. Twitter.

Waves and waves of detritus seeping into every little bit of the world and I'm drowning.

I can't "mute" the hashtags fast enough.

In a flurry of childish rage I plot my revenge by tweeting throughout the entire Top Gear program every week. 

It makes me feel slightly less aggravated and hopefully aggravates someone else. A lot.

And then this happens and I know there is NO GOD.

So it's time now for me to return to my default setting, lest I burst a blood vessel.

I am the oldest, grumpiest 28 year old I know.

I need a sharp stick and a blue rinse.

The Centrelink Saga

I have to ring Centrelink today.

It is no longer avoidable.

I would rather stick pins in my eyes or go swimming in a cannibal's cauldron.

So I thought I would give you a real time run down, just for fun

10:50am - go to the toilet, make a coffee, open Twitter.

10:52am - ring Centrelink, put phone on speaker, Tweet about having to call Centrelink.

10:54am - automated voice stops talking and lets me say my CRN.

10:55am - Repeat CRN as requested by automated voice.

10:56am - Repeat CRN in clear, English sounding accent.

10:57am - Repeat CRN in a variety of different accents with no results.

10:58am - Automated system picks up CRN but gets it wrong. Say "NO"

10:59am - Repeat "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" until it gets it.

11:00am - Say CRN as requested by automated voice.

11:01am - Repeat YES YES YES YES YES! and finally enter PIN.

11:02am - Tell the voice why you are calling.

11:03am - Tell the voice you do not need Age Pension and repeat earlier instruction.

11:04am - Shout "Operator!" into the phone until the voice gives up and provides a push button menu. 

11:05am - Blissfully press 4 for an operator.

11:06am - Listen to advice that wait time is currently in excess of 30mins. Consider call back service but elect to wait after using once before and never being called back.

11:07am - Listen to hold music while chopping fruit for morning tea.

11:10am - Turn speakerphone volume down because hold music is giving you a headache.

11:11am - Dash back to phone when hold music pauses, in time to hear automated message about not bothering call centre staff and doing everything online.

11:12am - Make another coffee.

11:13am - Go to the toilet. Freak out when hold music pauses for yet another automated message.

11:15am -  Grumble about having an online system they insist you use if you can never complete the things you want to do ONLINE. 

11:16am - go and watch ABC Kids with the pre-schooler.

11:20am - Tweet about your Centrelink induced headache.

11:21am - go to use your phone and realise it's still playing hold music and you forgot you were waiting for Centrelink.

11:26am - consider ringing back tomorrow because your headache is unbearable and you've wasted half an hour.

11:31am - Think you've been cut off because hold music stops. Discover you have actually been forced to out wait brain melting music.

11:32am - enjoy blissful silence.

11:33am - Read a book to pre-schooler, hang out some washing, unload the dishwasher.

11:40am - Wonder why you can hear next door neighbours talking so loudly, discover it's the long awaited Centrelink advisor.

11:41am - Apologise for making them wait (irony?) and explain your query in detail.

11:42am - Answer all your privacy questions and be stuck dumb when they say "Now, what can I do for you today?"

11:48am -  Repeat query in detail through clenched teeth.

11:49am - Ask some clarifying questions. Worry about inflation of dentists bill due to teeth clenching.

11:50am - Explain some more. Start to come apart at the seams as you are told you never returned the (non-existant) form/you can do it online/ I'll just find out for you.

11:51am - Resist the urge to scream "But it's your fecking JOB to KNOW"

11:52am - Wonder if you can put a claim in at tax time for a rebate of "Hours spent on hold to government departments" or "Call centre induced dental trauma"

11:53am - Finally get an answer. Hang up and go online to discover you can't fill it in properly.

11:54am - Begin again.

11:59am - Remember you have to call Child Support as well.

12:01pm - Burst into tears with frustration and hang up because you have already wasted your morning.

12:05pm - Elect to bake chocolate slice and get your accountant to sort it all out at tax time.

12:15pm - Hope you still get some tax back.

12:25pm -Worry you will have an overpayment and they will send you a bill.

1:30pm - Give in and ring Centrelink.

 

 

Can you hear my wallet sobbing?

At this price it would want to be a Gucci labcoat...

I lost a piece of the inside of one of my front teeth on Tuesday.

While I was brushing them, which is just a kick in the pants because here I was trying to look after them and they go falling apart.

This made me quite huffy but also meant I could no longer put off a dentists visit no matter how much it will cost.

I'm pretty freaked out by going to the dentist.

The last time I had any major work done I opted to pay the 400 extra dollars and go under... but the reality is I cannot do this regularly, and I cannot justify that kind of expense just to be a sook.

I have to suck it up and get these teeth healthy, and hopefully straight.

Because if Tiger can sit through dental work with not a whimper in sight I can too.

Instead I'll let my wallet do the crying for me....

Standing In The Rain

My alarm beeped at 5am this morning... followed by a muffled "turn it ooooffffffff" from WonderMan beside me. 

But it wasn't long before he shuffled out of bed, turned on the heating, and boiled the kettle.

The children ate breakfast while it was still dark outside, dressed without fuss.

We tucked hair into beanies, checked everyone was rugged up tight.

Then stepped out to stand in the rain to watch the dawn.

My mother once asked me why I got the kids out of bed and made them go. Why I would stand in the rain, and the cold, before the sun had even risen.

My answer is simple.

Because we have that choice.

We choose to leave our warm beds for the rain soaked streets. We choose to watch the sunrise on that special morning.

We choose to stand in the rain and get wet. We are not wet because the roof of our house has been bombed.

We are cold because we choose to be, not because we have no clothes, no food, no shelter.


We are awake at 5am through choice, not fear.


We are free to choose to stay in bed if we want to.


And we have those choices because of the sacrifice of others.


So we choose to say "Thankyou" in this way, at this time, on this day.


I want my children to know why they have the freedom to choose.


Lest We Forget.

Mondayitis

photo from here

There's no mistaking the pile of dog's business that was today.

It could only have been a Monday.

And I'm still furious at the universe, so I thought I'd lighten up a bit and join in with Java at Never Growing Old

So you can Meet Me On Monday!

This weeks questions and answers.....

I keep putting off_______________?

..... the filing....

....the ironing....

...the research into the study I want to pursue but can't get up enough courage to initiate...

What is your current weather?

The drama queen in me is shrieking "Cold! COLD! It's fecking COLD I tell you!!"

It's Autumn (Fall)

The season of rainbows as the sun plays games with the grey skies and showers.

The air has a freshness that renews the soul.

 And enough bite to tell me that I need to get some wood into our woodshed before I become the Michelin Man in layer after layer of shivering cold bloodedness.

What is the nicest room in your house?

I love this house a lot. In fact the only bad thing I have to say about it is that it doesn't have a hall because it is set sideways on the block, so the (rarely used) front door opens into one of the living areas.

I adore the main living area at the back of the house. We use this as our lounge room, and it has large beautiful windows to let in the sunshine and of course the delightful view.

And it wins my favourite room because it has a bar.

What jewellery do you never take off?

 My engagement ring. Except when I bake sometimes because it has claws and spikes and gets crap stuck in it. But after losing it at my mums at Easter I can assure you it will never come off again!

Do you eat a snack before bed?

Confession time - I am an in-bed snacker. Which is probably 100% why I seem to be slowly morphing up sizes, a bit like a melting glacier on rewind.

A cross between my avid reading in bed, and boredom caused by insomnia means I turn to all the things I can easily say no to during daylight hours. There's just something about a warm snuggly bed at midnight with a hot mint chocolate and some Malteasers.....

I'd love to learn more about you!

Join the link up at nevergrowingold.blogspot.com  

 

The Mess Fairy Lives Here

This is my house after being away last weekend and at work all week.

It seems the Cleaning Fairy sub let her tenancy to the Mess Fairy.

Supposed to be my office/sewing room - you can see the filing is mixed with the sewing and junk.

It started raining today, set to continue for a week *sigh*

The floor is only clean because my favourite wine glass fell off the bench and shattered this morning.

The Bar. Full of crap (as most bars are!)

Tidied this afternoon before I took photos, before I had to map paths through the mess.

The bed WM made. It was not much better before I jumped on it believe me. Note the lack of bedside tables meaning mess just piles up.

Because on is in apparently.

Ah. My wardrobe. Let's close our eyes now shall we?

I would like to tell you this organised chaos, and that it's a home, and we live here, and that's how a home should be....

But the mess is an indicator of the dark cloud, and the troubles in my head and my heart.

I need order to balance the chaos of my life.

This is the worst my house has looked for weeks and I'm so disappointed in myself, and I know that I will be the only one fixing it.

I'm very tired of doing it all myself.

It's very hard to live with a "mummy's boy" when you rely on cleanliness and order to keep your head straight.

 The more anxious I get the neater it needs to be.

The harder it is to deal with what has piled up around me now.

And I have no doubt that I will be spending Sunday doing it all while WonderChild tells me how tired he is from the couch*

*So I can add shampooing the carpets to remove the blood to my to do list. 

It may not be as clean as it should be, it may make me anxious and cross, but it's REAL. 
This is our home, right now, because we live here. 

 I'm sharing my house, as it is, with Marita at Stuff With Thing.

You can see more real households on Twitter using the #Myhomerightnow, and #thisisourhome tags.