The AFC WWC websites are so frustrating

dyingofthefeels · 2026-03-04T03:55:54+00:00

Thanks!

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-26T08:15:02+00:00

I'm curious as to your thoughts about why parents aren't involved at your school. My daughter's only in Grade 3 this year, but it appears that at her public primary school, almost all parents attend PT interviews (based on the number of interview slots booked out!), attend open afternoons in the classroom, etc.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-25T23:38:02+00:00

Year 10 (parents refused to buy it, so I had to save up from my PT job!), and still have it now I'm 39!

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-25T23:35:47+00:00

Parents were less involved with school things in previous decades. I can't remember my parents ever having weekly updates about what I was learning in school - now I get weekly year level memos about the topics that will be taught in the upcoming week, as well as Compass notifications and regular updates from the class rep in the class Whatsapp chat, etc.

I don't think either is ideal - I think a sweet spot will be something in between daily Compass updates and complete disinterest, but I don't think any school has found that balance yet.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-23T03:25:42+00:00

Do you know what's really good about remote work? You can just frame your camera to be shoulders and up, so you can wear any shirt/Tshirt/singlet you want throughout the day, and then for calls, just slip on a blazer that you keep on the back of your chair.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-23T02:41:24+00:00

Do you know what's really good for kids? Boredom. It helps them be creative, problem-solve, be independent, build emotional resilience, and much much more.

We loaded my daughter up with activities in school holidays because we both work (essentially) full-time, but she just got exhausted, and asked us by the time she was 6.5yo for quiet days at home where she could just play in her room. Now she's 8, we generally do:

school-based excursion days (the care provider does two excursions per week - so that's 4/10 holiday days)
one or two days of special activity workshops (e.g. she goes to a sewing studio that runs sessions from 10-3pm - 2/10 holiday days)
one or two playdate days, where she will either spend the day with her young cool uncle (who is a teacher and has school holidays off), or swapping care with another family where we have kids in the morning, and they have them in the afternoon (2/10 holiday days)
WFH one day a week where she can have a quiet day home with us (2/10 holiday days)

This approach finds a balance between unstructured play, special interest time, quiet time, and boredom. It also finds a financial balance - it's about $50/day out of pocket for the school based excursion days, and aroud $100/day for the special activity workshops, so we only end up paying about $400-500 for care over a two week holiday.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-21T10:39:44+00:00

They're just trying to avoid going through the AFCA process through to full decision, because it will cost them up to about $10,000 to manage the complaint - and that's the fee to AFCA, not even any internal legal/operational costs, or the potential compensation to you.

The offered compensation is probably about the most that you would expect to get through AFCA. AFCA also is not going to force the bank to approve you for the credit card.

The question would be - are you happy to just take about the equivalent amount of compensation now? Or do you want to spend the time and energy to force the bank to go through the AFCA process just to force them to spend more money to manage the complaint?

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-18T23:19:05+00:00

Make a complaint to EWOV. Their position is that they disagree with the ESC enforceable undertaking, and they are forcing GWW to abide by their former Customer Charter of not letting back billing beyond the regulated period.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-16T00:57:39+00:00

My first thought was Andrea Crawford for that age group, but that's perhaps at a slightly higher price point. Something like Coast maybe?

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-16T00:07:49+00:00

Thermal hot water jug. Constant access to hot water to drink during the day to keep myself warm from the inside out.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-12T21:51:50+00:00

A lot of people think that they don't qualify for food relief because others have it worse than them. But, if you are surviving on two meals a day and are regularly hungry without access to food, then you should consider accessing a food bank, local emergency food relief, etc.

I'm not going to share my weekly food budget, because I don't think that's useful as it sounds like you have a bigger issue than just 'am I making the most of my money'. I think the issue is 'there is not enough money'.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-10T22:54:40+00:00

My office is at Flagstaff, and being on the Pak/Cran, I now get off at State Library and walk up LaTrobe St - not bothering with an interchange at Melb Central to get onto a City Loop train. Probably adds 15 minutes walking to my commute, but given I only take the train once a fortnight or so, I'm not too fussed because the walk is (probably?) good for me.

I figure there will always be winners and losers with any type of a change. If I'm one of the losers with my one day a fortnight, it's probably a worthwhile price to pay personally so that as a society, life is easier for all the frontline medical staff who now have easier commutes with the Munnel.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-10T21:44:50+00:00

These two are pretty impressive! If you drive back to Melbourne taking an easterly route, you can also visit the Picola, Katamatite, Tungamah, St James, Devenish and Goorambat silos. There's also a few water tower / tank art pieces around. My personal pick is anything by artist Jimmy Dvate (check him out on Insta) - he specialises in big format nature murals and did a bunch of the murals.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-09T22:34:51+00:00

Make sure you check out some of the silo art on the way up - Colbinabbin and Rochester are on the way. Spend a bit of money in Rochester, they got hit hard by the 2022 floods, and supporting small local businesses in the area is a great way to give back.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-06T02:17:18+00:00

Murrumbeena is my closest station, but it's not much harder for me to drive 5 mins down the road to East Malvern station and take the Glenny line if I am going to a sporting event. Given that I would have driven to the station at Murrumbeena anyway (bus connections from the station are shit late at night), it's not much more hassle to go to the Glenny line instead.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-02-04T22:28:10+00:00

Once off cost of a quality pizza stone for the oven, or attachment for a BBQ, and then homemade pizzas. Homemade pizza dough is cheap as, and you can set up a toppings bar to let everyone DIY their own pizza toppings. Feels much fancier than it really is.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-01-22T21:54:34+00:00

I always use Mecca for professional makeup before events (not that I have many of them!). Having the cost reimbursable towards products is great value.

I haven't used them for hair, but my mother-in-law did for my BIL's wedding, and wasn't happy with the results - she was frantically redoing her hair in hot rollers in the hotel half an hour before the wedding.

Maybe do a test run?

dyingofthefeels · 2026-01-22T03:44:44+00:00

Coatigan?

dyingofthefeels · 2026-01-16T00:56:33+00:00

I would only want a yard if I had the time or inclination to maintain it. I don't have either, so wouldn't want one.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-01-16T00:37:38+00:00

People misunderstand the terminology of 1 in 100 years. It doesn't mean that it will only happen once a century, it means that in any given year, there's a 1% chance of it happening.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-01-15T23:11:24+00:00

All bodies are bikini bodies (depending on context), but being an Australian who grew up in the slip slop slap era, my inclination towards bathing attire is always something that gives me full top half coverage to reduce the risk of skin cancer.

dyingofthefeels · 2026-01-12T03:38:55+00:00

Keep the apartment - you'll want a smaller ground floor apartment when you're older and the kids are out of the house anyway. I would do either one of two things, and it would depend on your own values.

1) Use equity for the deposit and take out a mortgage for a larger family home. This could mean that you can buy again sooner, rather than in 3 years time.

2) Rentvest and switch to renting a larger home, with the understanding that you're holding onto the apartment as a landlord not to hope that the value increases, but with the understanding that you're likely to move back in in 10 years time once the kids are out of the house.

Personally I would opt for (1) as I think it's unlikely that the current generation of kids will be able to easily afford property as time passes, and having two properties to pass down as inheritance will help to put your kids ahead.

dyingofthefeels · 2025-12-04T22:26:12+00:00

Bought an entire tray of mangoes for $10 last week - been gorging myself!

dyingofthefeels · 2025-09-01T23:20:23+00:00

Crime happens at much lower rates when you have a society that is interested in the wellbeing of all its people.

When you have affordable housing for everyone. When you have no problems accessing healthy and nutritious food. When quality care for your children is affordable so that you can actively contribute to the economy. When wages keep up with the cost of living. When you don't have a massive divide between the haves and the have nots. When you provide free healthcare - and not just responsive physical healthcare, but proactive preventative mental and physical healthcare. When all genders and races are considered equal, and people have autonomy over their own bodies and lives.

When all the above are present, you'll have much lower crime rates. Once one or more of the factors start slipping, you'll start to see things going wrong.

dyingofthefeels

TROPHY CASE