Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

vivatifosi

purch wrote: »

P.S. I would like to point out that I meant "went down" not "down down" in my previous post

Who would have thought it, purch outing himself as a secret Quo fan...

Generali

I got a great alarm call this am. My hosts have got a possum (like a squirrel only bigger). It went out overnight to get food an came back at 6am.

It leapt from a tree, straight at my window which it scrabbled up and on to the tin roof. A possum on a tin roof makes a hell of a noise. Imagine a badge scrabbling across a transit van roof.

The house is amazing. It's a 50-80(?) year old Queenslander which was almost derelict which is in the process of being done up. The bathroom has a beautiful tiled shower area which is next to a rotten wooden wall that is yet to be replaced for example. It's a mix of high gloss and rotting away.

It's going to be another glorious day here, 28C and sunny. They've had almost constant rain for 2 weeks so everything is amazingly green and lush. I've never seen Brisbane looking like this. It's like Devon in the tropics!

lostinrates

Generali, that sounds beautiful. The house, the lushness, the warmth and the possum!

I have turned an electric heater on for myself upstairs. It's ruddy freezing here. It was beautiful today but I have hit my emotional limits with no bath during time of stress. I am not ready to 'socialise' yet but will almost certainly be disappearing to a friends house. She is training in massage so I am promised a hot bath AND a massage as soon as I feel up to it.

Generali

lostinrates wrote: »

Generali, that sounds beautiful. The house, the lushness, the warmth and the possum!

I have turned an electric heater on for myself upstairs. It's ruddy freezing here. It was beautiful today but I have hit my emotional limits with no bath during time of stress. I am not ready to 'socialise' yet but will almost certainly be disappearing to a friends house. She is training in massage so I am promised a hot bath AND a massage as soon as I feel up to it.

Possums are funny creatures. They're basically harmless but they make a hell of a racket and they wee where they sleep. When that's in your roof space it gets unpleasant quickly.

They look quite cute if you can get over the ratty tail thing. They're pretty intelligent too.

Brisbane has had a drought for years, a decade I think. Last time I came the rains just started which culminated in all that terrible flooding but which more positively filled the dams (reservoirs). Now everything is really green, it's lovely. Gum trees, the majority here, are great at conserving water but the old growth goes quite dark. The young growth looks really alive though and there's masses coming through. The palms also use the rain to put on a lot of extra growth so they're all really shaggy. The whole city looks like the gardeners have been off on their holidays for a few weeks so now they've got their work cut out.

silvercar

Private health insurance quotes?

It is so, so much cheaper to be on a group business policy. DS1 has been evicted on the policy because it is through OHs work and they only cover kids until they finish education. The quotes I've been getting have been high, considering he is 22 with the only previous claim being non-re occuring (wisdom teeth).

The most reasonable for the cover I want is through a broker and then insured with April - anyone heard of them?

Anyone know a better place to look?

Generali

House update:

It was at the end of the runway but in WWII said runway needed to be extended so USAF planes could land.

So, they cut it in half, put in one a couple of lorries and drove it here! 70 years later you can still see the cut through the floorboards! A few GIs signed their names on the underside of the house.

Turns out we also get bush turkeys here. By crickey they're big!

mystic_trev

This mornings smile

CKhalvashi

mystic_trev wrote: »

This mornings smile

That's not even funny, unfortunately

I stuffed the car up a kerb last night, so I could avoid 2 police cars hurtling the other way, and it's damaged one of my tires, the exhaust, and damaged the protective plate thing under the front of the car :eek:.

Jaguar have just taken it away to be fixed (I've got an Aston Rapide in the meantime, as they're also an Aston Martin dealership), and although I'll hopefully have it back tonight, I'll be at least £1000 down

£1000 excess = not worth bunging through insurance IMO, but there we are. I seem to be having so many problems since I had this car, so I think it's jinxed!

CK

CKhalvashi

Generali wrote: »

I got a great alarm call this am. My hosts have got a possum (like a squirrel only bigger). It went out overnight to get food an came back at 6am.

It leapt from a tree, straight at my window which it scrabbled up and on to the tin roof. A possum on a tin roof makes a hell of a noise. Imagine a badge scrabbling across a transit van roof.

The house is amazing. It's a 50-80(?) year old Queenslander which was almost derelict which is in the process of being done up. The bathroom has a beautiful tiled shower area which is next to a rotten wooden wall that is yet to be replaced for example. It's a mix of high gloss and rotting away.

It's going to be another glorious day here, 28C and sunny. They've had almost constant rain for 2 weeks so everything is amazingly green and lush. I've never seen Brisbane looking like this. It's like Devon in the tropics!

Can we swap please? It sounds lovely!

lostinrates

It's really, really beautiful outside here. This mornings sparkly whiteness has been replaced by a a crisp dry day bathed in sun. Solar gain very much appreciated inside the house too...brrrrr.

The garden has taken a bit of a knock with these frosts though, some of the vigorous early tender shoots have withered leaves. I have four Japanese quinces here, one is the earliest and has been in flower ages, closely followed by the second. and the one in the coldest spot is well budded up today. . The fourth one is in a pot still, because I took a gamble on the colour, and I love it, and now I have seen it hope to plant it outside my utility room, where it will be cheerful at this time of year on the way to the back door and have biggish yellow fruits in late autumn/early winter still.