Well I've finally got the internal routing on my network sorted out again, and was able to access my blog. I'm kind of shocked and embarassed looking back now at home long it has been since I last wrote anything in here. Granted though things have been hellishly busy what with the job change, impending move, and Christmas in general. This could be an epic post, so hold onto your underpants, here we go...

In our last installment, I was about to commence employment with the new company in Brisbane. That was I'm pleased to say a rousing success - the new crew are really neat people and I think I'm going to be really happy there. The only thing that has sent alarm bells ringing so far has been the apparent lack of organisation. I've been working there 3 or 4 weeks already, and have yet to be paid. Everyone's returning from holidays next week, so I will have to get onto them about it and get it sorted, because we can only survive so long on what I got when I finished my last job. But so far, the work has been challenging, and varied, so that has been rewarding. I'm looking forward to going back and seeing them all again.

The house finally sold, at the virtual 11th hour. After weeks'n'weeks of open homes with nobody turning up (I still reckon it's because they're off spending up large on Xmas crap at the Warehouse), we had a couple come through after Christmas, and loved it on sight. Within two hours we had a few offers and had reached a settlement. So the team came through on the day! That triggered off a whole new cycle, and so now we're dismantling the house, rehoming bits'n'pieces, and organising movers etc. They're coming on Monday, so we're going to be living in an empty shell for a few days. We might end up staying with Reg's and Bev though for awhile. We have tickets to fly on Friday. Can't wait to finally obtain some normality in our lives. It's been really stressful moving, lots of fights, periods of not talking, and mostly a lot of tiredness. It's probably been harder than we imagined it would be.

Micky went off a week ago. We figured there was nothing for her to do here in the upheaval, so she flew over by herself. I thought it would be an exciting adventure for her. I think she might be missing us though, because she has rung a few times, and sounds like the grandparents might not be as exciting as she had envisioned. Beeb has gone to stay with Reg and Bev tonite, and they're bringing him back tomorrow when they come over. I think that'll be really nice for them, gives them a chance to play parents, and Beeb to have some time playing with his good mate Bev ("he's my friend, but he's an adult!")

Christmas was really good, although not without the usual family infighting. I'm glad to say this is the last one this year. I have finally washed my hands of the manipulative bastards. No longer will we dance like puppets on a string at the whim of my family. We tried to go to speak with them for weeks about us moving overseas, but couldn't get hold of them. We ended up meeting with my grandmother, and spoke at some length about how unhappy we are at the 10 years of abuse and manipulation we've endured. We spoke about severing contact with my parents (my mother in particular is the master manipulator - I feel sorry for Dad), and asked that our children be kept away from them from now on because Mum has been using them against us to cause problems. We left on the understanding that our wishes would be respected. A few days later, Beeb went to stay at grans, and when he arrived she told Rob that she was going to visit my parents because she had a previous appointment with them. Why didn't she tell us? We could have rescheduled. So we again reiterated that we don't want him to have contact with them, and believed that would be respected. Finally a few days later I contact my parents and try to arrange a meeting, only to detect that they aren't speaking to me and won't meet with me. Mmm strange I think. I then find out from gran that she met with them, and she's discussed our private business with them, thereby effectively removing our self-determination to do it. So that's it, I'm done with the whole damn lot of them!! I hope they're all very happy together! They show no respect for our family, they're rude to my wife, divisive of my children, and cause trouble at every turn. No more!

For Xmas, Beeb received an Xbox from Santa this year because he had been a very good boy. Micky received an iPod from Santa. We decided they should just get 1 good thing each. I think they were pretty happy with them. Beeb drags anyone who comes into the house through to have a look at his Xbox. It was nice to see how happy he was this year, after the heart crushing disappointment of last year when Santa mistook PS2 for Pirate Ship not Play Station. Woops! (Ah well, Santa was on a budget after all!)

We're still trying to sell the cars now. I'm really crushed that I have to sell my little yellow baby, but its too difficult to take it overseas because of all the import restrictions that Australia applys. Also, we just had to spend $1700 on repairs to the transmission, because Rob unfortunately broke it while I was away in Brisbane. Mind you, $500 of that was due to the utter incompetence of Orewa Automotive who in two weeks managed to do nothing right, didn't fix the problem, and just simply wasted our time and money. Kudos to Dave Storey Motors of Albany who once again fixed the problem quickly, affordably, with politeness and professionalism! I'm going to miss dealing with Dave - they really are outstanding! We were going to take the car to auction this week since the private sale hasn't really come to much so far, but we have had a young lady who is trying to move heaven'n'earth to buy it, so we're waiting till Tuesday now for her. I hope she can pull it together, because I'd like the car to go to someone who'd love it as much as I have.

I'll try to post again some more before I go. Unfortunately probably Tuesday, the server is going to have to go off, and into the shipping container. I hope to have it back up again in 6 weeks, but it depends what is involved in getting on the DSL in Australia. Telstra are a bunch of pricks by all accounts, so crossed fingers it isn't too difficult. I was actually really surprised about that, because in NZ we keep getting told how the rest of the worlds telecommunications is better than ours, but so far Oz's looks worse. I'll work something out in the end.