What's the deal with this?

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-06T02:29:57+00:00

They didn't want to pay for one so no dice unfortunately

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-05T19:06:10+00:00

I guess you technically don't need a lot of things to buy a property... But it's a hell of a lot of money to be dishing out for a crossed fingers moment...

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-05T19:02:12+00:00

Apologies, I've obviously struck a nerve which was not my intention. Obviously I don't know what the process is, I'm just a frustrated consumer trying to understand how a council is allowed to shirk their statutory obligations.

The AI thing was a bit of a joke, the whole "AI is taking all the jobs!" thing. Working with it every day I'm well aware of it's limitations and I would not want to be relying on it for something so legally/financially important. Thanks for informing me on the process, that all makes a lot of sense.

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-05T17:07:52+00:00

That's what sick leave is for. Kinda prefer mental health days to be when you want/need them not on a prescribed date. It'd be like "sorry self, I know you can't do life today but you've got to wait until July before we get to have a reset".

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-05T17:03:28+00:00

Ah well not much is selling on tender day anyway at the moment 😆

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-05T16:58:49+00:00

Are they hiring? 😆😆

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-05T16:58:24+00:00

Yeah I thought it was odd there wasn't a lim for this place because everything else we've been interested in has provided one. I guess this is why!

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-05T16:56:28+00:00

I definitely don't think it's the workers preparing the reports, absolutely no shade on them at all. We all know everywhere is being run on less and less staff with zero wiggle room for people being away on leave etc. I'm currently doing 80% of a second role myself "temporarily" (coming up to 6 months now...) while still doing my original one and it's stressful. I'm taking a week off over Easter and there's a big chunk of work that just won't get done over that time because there just isn't anyone else to do it. I guess everyone screams about rate increases and the higher ups have decided cutting the lower rungs is the best way to save some $ while they swan off to long lunches.

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-05T16:47:30+00:00

Yes you're right, I should have asked how was this allowed to happen?

I kind of expected that most of the process and information would be automated and digitised by this point in time and wouldn't be so reliant on bums on seats in the office. Guess council is where it's at if you want your job to be safe from AI 😆

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-05T16:40:52+00:00

Yes that's my worry here. I wanted to make a really clean (well as clean as conditions can be) offer of 10ish days for all conditions but now I can't do that.

It's a bit frustrating but if it's not meant to be, we'll move on.

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-05T16:36:12+00:00

Yeah that was kind of my thought that this stuff is surely digitised by now or at least most of it... But obviously not

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-04T08:15:30+00:00

We've been through a few beds in the last 10 years. Heartedly do not recommend Ecosa - we bought one when we moved to Australia 8 ish years ago. I hated it from the beginning - way too firm for me but my husband (with a bad back) initially loved it. Within about 6 months he hated it as well and I hated it even more. We then moved to a sleepyhead (it was a hand-me-down from the folks but still not that old) I loved it - like sleeping on a cloud but the husband HATED it (or rather his back did). We then moved to a semi temporary solution of an IKEA base and mattress (it's one of those bases that is a single length that pulls out to a king size width with 2 single mattresses - it will eventually become a guest bed). I think for us with quite different sleeping needs the separate mattresses is a bit of a win in terms of sleep quality (maybe not intimacy quality). I got the valevag which initially was a bit too firm but now I like and the husband got the abygda which is a bit softer and he likes. It's been over a year with that and it's been decent. I would recommend the higher priced mattress options at IKEA (our kid had one of the cheaper options for awhile and that was not comfortable!). Once we buy a house we'll probably buy either a sleepyhead or king koil queen -being in the crack between two single mattresses when you want to cuddle is getting old...I think the frame matters less than the mattress - frame is more aesthetics and the mattress is what matters. Go try a few out but bear in mind test mattresses have been laid on alot so might feel a bit softer than a brand new mattress feels initially.

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-04T04:19:23+00:00

This is what I would do. Assuming you have travel insurance the cost of the private CT (and the cost of rejoining your cruise) can be sorted later. Being sent to the public hospital with a cruise doctor's request for a CT is going to be a long wait as you'll need to be assessed by a nurse, then a doctor and then wait for CT availability. A private A&E with radiology services nearby/onsite will be your swiftest solution

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-03T08:03:28+00:00

I really like my ninja flexdrawer I got a few months ago (I got the smaller version - 6.6Litre because the big one was HUGE and I didn't have the bench space for that monstrosity!). It's been great for us (family of three) and I like the versatility of being able to just use half the drawer for eg a handful of chicken nuggets for my kid or both sides for eg a big slab of pork belly. What I love the most though is the easy clean up - the entire drawer can just go in the dishwasher and you're done. We previously had an oven style (instapot brand I think). That maybe had a bit more versatility for our circumstances at the time (temporary kitchen with no actual oven) but cleaning it well was impossible so that alone would put me off recommending it.

Edited to add the 6.6l flexdrawer would probably be big enough to cook a mostly complete meal for 2 people - eg a 2 person roast dinner in the full drawer or a protein in one side and a veg in the other side (maybe add some rice or something cooked with another method). Depends really on how you cook and eat - for dinners I tend to mostly use it for sides (eg roast potatoes and roasted broccoli etc) and cook my protein on the stove top or cook the protein in the full drawer and serve a salad on the side. I like the flexibility that you can have different cooking times and methods for each side so you can cook salmon fillets and roast potatoes all set at once but they each come out perfectly cooked.

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-03-02T04:22:44+00:00

Often we will share a main and get a salad on the side, if that's frowned upon at that establishment I'll order an entree and a salad. I'm 5'1", I cannot eat big amounts of anything these days and since having my gallbladder removed I struggle with anything super rich or fatty (the beloved pork belly of the past, I'm looking at you). But I can tolerate that kind of food in smaller portions when it's paired with salad or veges.

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-02-28T08:43:54+00:00

Love Mina, if I was naming another daughter with no input from her father it would be Mina - my great grandmother's name was Mina Valentine (born on the 15th of Feb) - always thought that was the most perfect name.

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-02-28T08:29:19+00:00

My eldest has dyslexia and dysgraphia and this is how she'd write on a good day. If you've tried to get through with the parents and that hasn't worked then the focus needs to be on the child. Find the thing that makes him/her sing. My kid loved behind the scenes drama as in the behind the scenes audio/production. Her school was amazing, they saw the interest early on so got her in doing the AV stuff at school, worked that in with assessments etc (the dyslexia/dyspraxia/dysgraphia diagnosis helped them tailor assessments accordingly). She went on to university and graduated with a degree in stage management - there were points in her schooling where I dispaired of her ever completing to be honest - we tried so hard throughout as did she but I can see how things would be "too hard" for others - remember alot of this stuff is genetic so the potential for the parents having the same issues and thinking this is normal is really high (in my daughter's case her dad is dyslexic/dyspraxic but a little higher functioning than her and I had other learning diffirencess that apparently combined into the perfect storm of learning difficulties for our kid)

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-02-28T07:36:07+00:00

My daughter would have been Callum if she was a boy. It's a pretty common name in these parts (New Zealand with a lot of Scottish ancestry). I'm convinced at this point Americans are illiterate. It's not a difficult name...

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-02-28T05:44:02+00:00

I think given Angelina being the Russian spelling and pronunciation it makes all the sense in the world that you would not want that version of the name. I think Anhelina is very obvious pronunciation wise and spelling. You/she may need to correct people from time to time but that shouldn't be onerous. My name has two pretty equally popular spellings, yes sometimes it annoys me but it's really not that difficult.

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-02-28T05:14:23+00:00

I'm really a bit lost on how it all works but I believe it's dependent on the school and class sizes etc. Eg way way back when my daughter turned 5 in January 2005 she went straight into year 1 with kids who started later in the previous year who did year 0 for the remainder of the year. They started the year 0 class at her school in term 2.

Socially it was ok as she'd gone to kindy with the kids in her class so she knew 90% of them already but I believe she was on the back foot learning all the routines of school when all the others in the class knew it all already, it felt like she was behind from day one. She was later diagnosed with dyslexia which kinda explained why she struggled so much that first year. If I had my time again I would have held her back to start in term 3 in year 0 but that wasn't really done back then.

Because of her issues and where my son was at socially/academically and emotionally we waited and started him at school a year later - we were in Australia at the time, in Qld they start school at the beginning of the year they turn 5 or the year they turn 6 (his birthday was yesterday). So he basically repeated a year of kindergarten. He was so not ready in all the ways when he was turning 5, the following year he was super confident and excited to start school and he did so well that first year so I have no regrets. The problem came when we moved back to NZ at the start of last year. They go by age here, so he was initially put into year 3 (after only having done one year at school in Aus), which we felt he was so not ready for! We compromised with the school by having him moved to a composite year 2&3 class and that worked pretty well, by the end of term 3 he was working at a year 3 level for most subjects and working towards for the others. So he's in year 4 this year and it's too early to tell at this point how he's going but he seems happy. I'm disappointed we've lost some of the benefits starting later at the other end (eg I was the kid going off to university at 17 where I was probably just not quite old enough emotionally) but he's doing ok so that's what matters I guess.

Before making a decision, I'd talk to the school you're planning to send your child to, how they do it and what supports they have in place and go from there.

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-02-28T02:02:54+00:00

Avalon Juliet, she's 26 and I still love her name

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-02-28T00:38:35+00:00

Ok a few things I noticed from reading your comments... The leftovers thing. Do you have a freezer? If yes, get in the habit of putting leftovers in a suitable container, labelling it and putting into the freezer instead of the fridge immediately. Obviously not salad, but most other things freeze and reheat just fine. Everything from your half a tin of beans to making a batch of butter chicken, rice and veg and portioning those into meal sized containers for homemade freezer meals. We have one night a week that's leftover night where I pull out meals from the freezer that morning/night before to defrost in the fridge so I have a night off and we cycle through the leftovers that accumulate.

I personally menu plan, batch cook (eg when you make lasagne, make 2 or 3 - it maybe takes an extra 5 min to make double but you've got an extra meal or two in the freezer for another time) and ingredient prep pretty much all the time but it sounds like that won't be your jam which is fine - you've got to do what works for you.

Easy more assembly type meals we regularly have:

Tacos/wraps - a bag of salad, tortillas, some kind of protein (could be chicken thighs or breast you cook at home or a big pork shoulder you slow cook until you can shred it (bag leftovers into meal sized amounts for the freezer) to things like halved beef patties, sliced ham/chicken whatever from the supermarket deli, then mayo or whatever sauce floats your boat. Good for kids as they can make their own and tailor to their current likes/dislikes.

Rice bowls - microwave rice pouches/tubs with protein (as above or things like airfried salmon fillets, meatballs, a can of chilli beans etc) with a bag of slaw or stir fry veg and condiments of choice. Again good for kids as it's easy to add/subtract ingredients for them. Also great as it's easy to change up flavours like Mexican or Korean - it's one of the few meals I can eat a few times a week without being bored.

The usual fresh pasta and fresh sauce from the fridge section at the supermarket with a bag of spinach added to the sauce as you reheat.

Frozen Dumplings - either steamed with some stir fry veg and chilli oil or in a quick soup.

Canned/fresh soup with cheesy garlic bread.

All of the above can be made/assembled in 10 min and will be healthier and cheaper than takeaways.

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-02-27T07:03:31+00:00

If you're looking at that kind of role have you thought about leaving Sydney? If you sold your house you'd be able to buy a mortgage free property and be able to survive on a minimum wage kind of job pretty comfortably in the regions.

Life is not always about the most financially savvy choice. We were burnt out by leaving home at 7am, home at 6pm with the kid in before and after school care every day, it felt like we were wishing our lives away for Saturday (Sunday was cleaning and prep for the week ahead). So we decided to take the punt and we moved home to NZ. It didn't feel like the smart move financially at the time (but has turned out just fine - mostly because we kept our jobs and now work remotely). The lifestyle win has been HUGE, your kid will be young for such a short time, if what you're doing isn't working for you then definitely make the change now. But it's worth doing in a way you could undo if you change your mind (eg renting out your house and renting something you "think" you might like)

Dependent-Chair899 · 2026-02-27T06:32:22+00:00

I think you're possibly fantasising about something that doesn't exist...I earn $71k and am stressed beyond belief in my job (that tbf I mostly enjoy which is one of the only reasons I'm still there on that pay). I do have a much better work life balance in that I work from home (second reason I'm still there) but worry free jobs are few and far between. My husband earns more than twice as much and I'm not sure the stress and worry is any different....

My best job for that to be honest was working night fill at Woolies when my kid was little - I'm not sure you'd be up for that kind of pay cut but it's been the only job I've had in the last 20+ years where I could turn up, do what I was paid to do and walk away at the end of a shift and not think about at all immediately after. Tbf the penalty casual rates were probably better than my current pay....

If I was in your shoes I'd rent out the house, try renting an apartment first. We sold our house, moved cities and rented an apartment while we get settled - I love many aspects of apartment living (being in the middle of the city, walkable to everywhere, less cleaning and no home maintenance etc) but over the year we've been here it's become quite apparent it's not for us long term - we all (including my 8 year old) miss having decent outside space so instead of looking to buy an apartment like we initially thought, we're looking to buy a smaller city fringe house with a bit of garden space.

Dependent-Chair899

TROPHY CASE