I am angry.

We are struggling as a nation with the constant rise in the cost of living. Rents are going up and properties are scarce. In Victoria it is getting worse as the government has imposed a tax on landlords which has resulted in a lot of potential rentals properties being sold. It is very obvious here.

Christmas is around the corner and the telly is full of ads and "news" content encouraging people to spend money to "show them you love them". All this while we are being told to rein in our spending or face further interest hikes in the new year.

The last few days have seen a resurgence of pay day loan ads and I am beyond furious.

This one was just on ...

... let's throw health into the mix as well. 

These ads are meant to be funny.

Yeah, right. Tell that to the desperate people who get sucked in by them.

Things are happening!

Yesterday was the end of year lunch for the coffee group. My anxiety ramped up as it was at a different venue but I went and it was lovely. There will be some catch ups over Summer but we will start again in Feb, I believe. I will probably go to the cafe with a book even if nobody else goes. It's nice to get out of the house.

We went up to the block this morning and things were happening.

This dude was drilling pylons into the fill part to stabilise the ground prior to the slab going in. Or something like that.

The tops are levelled off 

And this shows the machine waiting for another pylon to be attached. 

It was really interesting to watch.

While we were there the plumbers arrived to do their stuff. I came home but Himself spent most of the day watching it all happen. I am not sure if the plumbers will have to go back tomorrow but once they are done nothing will happen until the second week of January when the retaining sleepers will become available - all going well.

I had a lovely day by myself! I did a load of washing, vacuumed the floors, made dinner and did some puzzles all while listening to music up rather loud.

Dinner was rather nice. It was a recipe that popped up on Facebook. Chicken done in the slow cooker with a sauce of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, chilli flakes and ketchup. It was very easy and made enough for three meals.

Fresh fruit and yoghurt for dessert. I am making the most of the brief mango season.

And this was the view just after sunset.
 

Good dog.

This is Jinx being a brave girl at the vet.

She is going in for surgery next Monday. It will cost a lot less than we anticipated and will hopefully fix her tendency to contract this antibiotic resistant bug. The couple of weeks post surgery will be a challenge but we will get through it. If you are interested she is having an episioplasty.

After the vet we took them for a walk along the Kalimna Jetty path. It was a glorious day.

This is taken from the carpark at the jetty. You can see the discolouration of the water from the floods.

Nothing happening on the block, much to Himself's disappointment. Maybe tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, we are having our coffee group break up lunch at the Kalimna pub. It has recently changed hands so it will be interesting to see what it is like.

And that, folks, was my day. Nice and quiet.

An unexpected win.

I have mentioned before about the block behind us which discharges a huge amount of water when it rains.

We went up to our block today to see if anything was happening (it wasn't). The owners of the block behind us were digging a trench to install agi pipe and connect it into the storm water pit on our block. In the course of the conversation we found out that the developer of the estate had installed considerable drainage and the storm water pit. (This would have been dictated by council and water authorities).

Himself came home and rang the company. They were very helpful and he went back and met with someone who is working on the new subdivision. Long story short, they will fix the drainage issues as best they can and we won't have to pay.

Win win!

When I say as best as they can, I am not implying that they don't care - it's just that the whole area has a lot of underground springs which bubble up after rain so there is a limit to what they can do. By installing the appropriate drainage it will mean that most of the water will be directed into the right place. Not on our block!

We had managed a quick walk before Himself got a phone call to go back to the block to meet the site supervisor so we took the dogs for a run at the 3 o'clock club. They came home absolutely knackered! 

It has been warm and sunny today. And very humid with all the water evaporating!

Tomorrow we take Jinx back to the vet. Fingers crossed for a good result but I do think we will need to brace ourselves for surgery. I can see December/January being very expensive as Alice will have her surgery at the beginning of January and we are footing that bill.

It's only money!!

Blue Skies!!

For the first time in days I woke to the sounds of birds. Obviously they didn't like all that rain either!

We took the dogs for a walk along the foreshore. The market was cancelled late yesterday. Rain notwithstanding, the ground underfoot was so wet and soggy it would have been a quagmire with all the cars and foot traffic that I doubt it would have recovered any time soon. Such a shame.

Swans!!

I have no idea what this plant is but is has bean like fruits and apple like fruits. Very strange. Looks poisonous to me! Not that I would know. Maybe it is some healthy bush tucker but something in the deep recesses of my brain say that bean like fruits are poisonous. 

These are the swan family that hatched a couple of months ago. There have been conflicting reports that the mate was killed. There was only one today but that is not uncommon. They seem to share the care.

The surf has been pounding the beaches for days and the rivers have been flooding and all that water empties into the lakes and then out through the Entrance. You can see how discoloured the ocean is. I imagine it is mainly sand. I haven't been to the beach yet to see how much, if any, has been washed away. Maybe tomorrow when the threat of rain has well and truly passed.

 

And it's STILL raining.

After yesterday's glimmer of hope the rain has returned. At this stage it is forecast to end around lunch time tomorrow which is a real shame as the monthly foreshore market is on in the morning. It is the last before Christmas so I imagine the stall holders woule be hoping for a good turn out. The wet weather also stops the weekend tourists.

We drove into Bairnsdale as Himself wanted some tshirts from Kmart. For $8 they are really well made of good quality cotton that washes up beautifully. Explain, then, why women's tshirts are $12, lose their shape and are made of flimsy cotton. I bought some men's and will see how they fit.

We then came back to Lakes and went to the supermarket to get some steaks for dinner. We still haven't become used to the specialist shops (butcher, chemist and the like) closing at 1.00 on Saturday for the weekend! We were spoiled in the city where nearly everything is open 7 days a week.

When we came home I worked some more on the intarsia crochet. Yes, every single one of those balls of yarn are in use! This is the wrong side.

When we bought the steaks for dinner it wasn't raining that heavily.

By the time we got home the rain had really set in and the wind had sprung up. 

Needless to say, the steaks were not cooked on the barbie!

Regardless, it was a lovely meal with baby asparagus and potato gems. Later on we will have fresh mango, strawberries and raspberries. Himself will have ice cream and I will have greek yoghurt.

A perfect summer meal. If only it felt like summer!!

First day of Summer.

The weather eased a bit.

If you look closely you can see the steam rising off the bitumen.

We took the dogs for a walk along the jetty path. It was too wet and muddy to take them anywhere else.

The entrance was churning ...

It was still very dull but so nice to get out in the fresh air.

This is usually more swamp than pond.

I could feel the pleasure in the stretch of the wings. He sat like that for ages. He must have been very damp.

I doubt anyone was walking this track today.

In building news we can have the cut battered. We just need Dicky the digger to come and do that and then they can lay the slab. Next week they will be drilling the posts into the fill part of the ground (see yesterday's post) which stabilises things. Then the slab can be poured.

Unfortunately we can't have any framing done until the retaining wall is up so that will have to wait until next year.

Someone stuffed up big time as even if we had gone with the sleepers that were delivered they wouldn't have been able to be installed - it was explained but over my head. Our Site supervisor assures us this won't cost us anything extra - as long as they don't try and bill us for something else to make it up. A good thing Himself is vigilant with this sort of thing.

Rain is forecast for tomorrow but for now it is nice to be able to actually see the town and ocean. Next week should be better.