One day at a time

 My life is frustrating at the moment.  Work is frustrating with some many tasks and not enough time to do the tasks I want to do rather then those that others need to get done. Social life is frustrating as I find little to interest or motivate me, and even though there are things I could or even should be doing, they are of little interest to me. I want to change but I can't be motivated to do anything about it, so even though I find work and life generally frustrating, it's not enough to prompt me to make the effort to change anything. I think when you've been used to a certain level of pain for a along time, you don't really notice it any longer. Maybe something will happen that will push me to make a change, I don't think I am in a good place at the moment. I should be living well, but that doesn't stop me from worrying about it all being taken away. This isn't a ply for help, I just thought it would help for me to write it down and I can come back to t...

 It's been a while since I last posted and in that time the last of my parents generation in my family has passed away. I don't feel like I have mourned their passing yet and it did take me a while to mourn the passing of my parents so I expect this time it will be the same. I'm more involved in looking after the affairs of their estate and together with my cousin we will need to deal with their estate. I think there are other changes come soon too, as I have started to think about moving out of my apartment and putting it on the market, but that depends on how much the real estate people think that I will be able to get for it. I have also been playing with the idea of changing my car, but the cars that I am interested in have long waiting lists, up to 12 months in some cases. Usually I would be looking forward to going away for my birthday, but I have nothing planned and on this occasion there is no public holiday around my birthday (instead it is the weekend before). The...

 Its been a while since my last post to this blog and whilst some things have changed, there is a lot that remains the same. I’m still working from home for the majority of the week, although we are encouraged to go back to the office, this time there is no minimum number of days that you are expected to be in the office. At the moment, our work space is being shared by another team, so we are only supposed to be in the office two days a week and that suits me, although I am yet to make it in on both days. As well as my usual problem, my elderly relative has moved in to permanent residential care and for the last couple of weeks I have been going up during the week as well as one the weekends. Work is being very good and flexible about the arrangements at the moment. Work is busy at the moment, as we prepare for the next state budget, the information I look after has been in the system for some time, but we are waiting for the other areas to complete their adjustments. I am sure th...

 Spendings three weeks off work over the Christmas and New Year break. In the second week and enjoying the weather, it’s warm enough for shorts and t-shirt during the day with a nice cool breeze. The building site has closed down for the holiday period so I can enjoy my balcony without any construction noises, but there are still plenty of traffic noise. Had a very nice Christmas Day and Boxing Day, although I haven’t done that much with my time off.

 Finally made the trip to visit my aunt and carry out her tasks she had waiting for me, although some of them I wasn't able to complete because the bank wasn't open. However, she welcomed the visit and the opportunity to video chat with my cousins. The drive there and back went smoothly, although I noticed the price of petrol has high again, so I won't be filling up again for a while. Work has been frustrating again, after being force to change the way that I wanted to distribute information, the results are far more complicated than they needed to be and I reverted to the original form for the next meeting. My father has given in to the demands of his "girlfriend" and she was coming round to visit him, I suggested he not create a bubble with her, since she is also elderly and unlikely to help him deal with anything that comes up, but he is certainly old enough to make his own decisions, whether I agree with them or not. Waiting for my two latest purchases to arri...

Good news is that the number of infections continue to drop,they are only in the hundreds (!) however the death rate has not shown the same decrease and the majority of those passing away are the elderly from care homes. I had plans this week to visit my elderly aunt to help her with some tasks she wants to do, but I was unwell for three days straight. Initially I thought it was due to my food intolerances but I've never had the symptons last for three days. Unfortunately after a few clear days and I am once again suffering, although this bout is mild compare the previous ones. Work is getting me down, I suddenly realised I wasn't as progressed with my project as I thought and I need to prepare something to send out on Monday. I'm not sure that I will be able to please everyone with what I send out, but its the first time that we have tried this approach. My dad has called me twice this week so he is definitely getting the hang of video calling on Whatsapp. He is looking ol...

Melbourne continues to be subject to Stage 4 restrictions, basically everyone is supposed to stay home and only travel no more than 5 km for essential reasons (shopping, care-giving and exercise). On the brighter side, my new phone has arrived finally (it was only a week late). I'm happy with it, especially the battery life. After three days, I managed to drain it and its now recharging (which I assume will take some time). I ordered a third party screen protector for it, but I think its already got one fitted, so I have put the one I bought away. I am still waiting on the charging stand to arrive (it is late too). Unfortunately no sign of the reusable masks that I ordered. I have contacted the sellers and they had some personal issues which delayed the send out of their orders, but that was a week ago now. In addition there has been a note put in the apartment's lift that someones delivery has gone missing from the foyer, so unfortunately sounds like one or more tenants are he...

 The pace of work has picked up although I am not convinced about the urgency or importance of the work given the situation in Victoria, but others are getting very excited by missed deadlines and delays. The department has finally rolled out Teams which has a better video conferencing interface than Skype (although they are both owned by the same company). So far only one of my recent purchases has turned up. The Tic Smartwatch from Amazon arrived on Friday, the only drawback with having another Android smartwatch is that I can not sync it to my iPhone, without removing the other Android watch, which naturally I do not want to do. So I have sync'd it to my Android phone for the time being. I have had to resort to using my phone as an hotspot this week has my internet has been very unreliable, even after rebooting the modem. I think I will need to transfer to Telstra service, which my phone is connected to, as my home mobile broadband provider. I will test it out with a prepaid ser...

Stage 4 across metro Melbourne and Stage 3 across the rest of the State. The only difference to me has been the curfew from 8 pm to 5 am, as I used to like to go food shopping after 8 pm when it was quiet at the supermarket and my favourite shopping area is outside the 5 km limit. Wasn't feeling very well on Tuesday and was worried that it was the start of COVID-19, but it passed and after checking my symptoms, they were not indicators of COVID-19. I have been feeling fine the rest of the week. My dad checked up on me during the week and was happy to find out I was fine. I have been on a small spending spree and bought a new smart watch and mobile phone, even though I don't need them, I felt like treating myself. Very sad what has happened in Lebanon and good to see their neighbours are helping, even when they are on different sides of politics. Although not impressed by suggestions of bomb or missile attack, sounds like attempts to distract people's attention.

I suppose I should rename the recent blogs, because officially I'm not in isolation, but that is how it feels even though we are under stay at home orders (with four limited reasons to leave). Unfortunately Victoria and Melbourne are making world headlines for the wrong reasons. Whilst the majority of the country enjoys returns towards normality, Melbourne has been having increasing infections, together with associated deaths. It's very likely that at the very least the current restrictions will be extended and probably tightened further. Strangely I'm not freaking out about it, I have very limited interaction with other people. I go to the supermarket in the evening when it is very quiet (more staff than customers) and the rest of the time I am in my apartment. I have taken a couple of days off work, not that I can go anywhere. Spent the time to prepare and submit my tax return,as well as prepare the information for my aunt's tax return. It obviously not the same as be...

So we are not yet in stage 4 lockdown, which I guess is good news. Face covering or wearing a mask became compulsory from Thursday this week and I have plenty of them,but they are too small and pull on my ears, so I can only wear them for short periods. Thankfully I have not had to wear them for any extended period and I do not have to wear one if I am in the car on my own. I did get my hair cut and washed the car earlier this week before the face mask order came into effect. I also went shopping in the car, so I have enough cat litter to last for the rest of the lock down period. Oscar the cat is being very affectionate at the moment and wants to spend most of the day laying on my lap, unfortunately he also likes to use one of my arms to rest his head on, so that makes typing difficult, although I'm getting used to typing with my free hand only. Been keeping in touch with my relatives in the UK, who are enjoying some freedoms, but they are worried that that Covid will kick off aga...

Second week of the return to restrictions and the infection rates continue to grow, although these would most likely been picked up before the new restrictions came into place. No trip down to Hastings presently although I'm not sure that my aunt understands why, sometimes she seems to get it and then will ask when I am coming down. I have tried to explain that I can't come unless she needs something done. Hopefully we won't need to go to level 4 restrictions which will be similar to those originally in the UK, with the closure of non-essential businesses and limitations on travel. The government has already requested that people stay close to home for shopping and exercise. Work is changing with the executive director moving to cover a secondment and my manger moving to cover her role in the team. Just as my work is beginning to pick up with the Annual Financial Report and Budget coming up soon. My cat is getting ear drops and tablets at the moment to try and get on top of...

Metro Melbourne has gone back into stage 3 lock down which means no family visits for the next six weeks. I don't think the weather or nature is helping, I have a lot of bird droppings on the windows to the study but no way to clear it off (they do not open) and the rain has been too late and too little to help clean it off. Further trips to see my aunt are on hold for the time being until she needs something done or more likely some banking done for her. The building site is about to get a lot noisier with a pile driving machine added to the other machinery already on site, they have taken over the car park of an adjacent building to hold more equipment, but I wonder if they have planning permission of its installation. I'm in the process of withdrawing my insurance claim since I can not provide proof of ownership of the bags that were taken and the repair to the door is well under my excess. I assume I can withdraw the claim because there is no point in carrying on with it. I...

Things are getting worse in Victoria with some suburbs returning to lock down, thankfully mine isn't one of them at the moment, but who knows whether the lock downs will spread. There has been some good news, as the garage door has been replaced, although I have not had cause to use it yet.  I was planning on going to see my aunt but she decided she didn't feel up to it and subsequently I've been having issues too. It's disappointing has I arranged for my dad to be ready for a video call from her but that can't happen now. Wasn't in a good mood on Friday, very down in the dumps, I did think about getting my hair cut but the barbers around me were busy when I wandered passed them. Oscar (the cat) is still suffering with his ears but it seems to be causing him a lot less discomfort, so hopefully the steroids are helping. I've need to find documentation that I owned the bags that got stolen, unfortunately I only have a receipt for one of them as the rest were c...

One of the disappointing weeks, on both a personal and broader aspect.  Personally I found that my storage cage in my apartment block basement had been broken into and all my cases and bags have been stolen. Alerted the police and the body corporate, but I still have to replace the cases and repair the storage cage. I'm particularly sad that my cage was the only one that had been attacked and the inconvenience that this causes. On a broader scale, panic buying as reappeared following the announcement that Victoria has to stop relaxing the Corona measures until July due to a spike in infections and there maybe the need for local lock downs.Some people are so inconsiderate, it's sad about the lack of compassion. Last week ended on a high with a positive performance review (although it didn't convert to an outstanding rating, but I still get the progression bonus). I had a good time with my aunt on the last Sunday, even though we didn't do much. I found out that my cousin ...

This week has had its ups and downs, as most weeks do.Work has been positive, my performance review was glowing and my manager is encouraging me to think about where I want my role to go. The main down has been the impact of my food intolerance, which has been particularly bad this week and it is frustrating as I do not know what is causing it this time although I have a couple of ideas. The weather has been a positive, even though we are in winter, the days have generally sunny and comfortable,whilst the nights have been cold. I am spending time on my balcony enjoying the sunny weather. My cat has had a long term issue with his ears and this does not appear to be improving, so more visits to the vets to try to establish what is actually causing the infection and therefore how to get rid of it. Still no word on when we might be returning to the office, the current advice is to work from home if you are able and the implication is that the public service will be the last to return, to h...

Short working week with the Monday a public holiday (Queens Birthday).  Work is plodding along, I do have a project for this week, collating all the responses from the businesses and writing (updating) a brief. Started a leadership program, but been having technical difficulties and missed one of the sessions as I could not get on to the Web portal to find out when it was. Pretty poor that even after an email to the organisers no one has been in touch with me. I finally worked out how I could get on to their portal on Friday. Took Oscar to the vets on Friday, they are trying a different treatment and this one only needs to be applied every five days, so I have to take him back for another treatment on Wednesday coming. Sunday was busy, I went to a friend's place for brunch and then drove to another friend's place for tea and a chat. Didn't do the radio this weekend and it was a good call because I would not been able to do it as my food intolerance hit Sunday afternoon and ...

What a sad state the world is in at the moment. I have taken the Friday off work and dealt with a couple of housekeeping issues, taking my cat to the vets and banking a foreign cheque. Neither of which had the desired outcome, although neither of them were a disaster. The cat still has an ear infection and I have to wait to see if the cheque deposit was successful, although I did learn how to pay in cheques in the future. The garage door is still broken and we are yet to hear from the insurers how much they will pay towards its replacement, as they requested a second quote. In the meantime, we have arranged for security during the night to help stop people wandering inside. I'm on to my third mobile data service, after trying out a prepaid service on Vodafone, I have signed up to them and will transfer over this month, and then cancel the Circle of Life (Optus) service before the end of the month. The Vodafone is on a month by month contract so I can cancel that one if necessary. M...

Beginning to feel more comfortable at home, but not had much motivation to go out, limited shopping to a couple of trips and otherwise have stayed indoors. No exercise, walks or exercise bands, it's not something I'm interested in doing. The garage door has been wrecked and will need to be replaced, unfortunately that could take two weeks to happen, and I don't know if the work order has been sent by our corporate manager. But we my have had a good outcome from the cladding hearing, although we have to deal with the Other Matters (whatever they were). Not visiting my relatives this weekend, it is someone else's turn this weekend. I have spoken to her and she was happy on the phone. Chatted to my sisters and father back in the UK and the rules are beginning to be relaxed there too, with people allowed to meet up outside. Been treating the cat for an ear infection and he definitely does not like to treatment, one day he hid under the bed rather than get his treatment. He ...

The restrictions continue to be relaxed with more coming on the 1st June, including restaurants opening but only for limited number of customers. Work is plodding along. My old team had formal virtual after work drinks on Friday and I put on a formal shirt and bow tie, it was fun. Next week is ultra casual clothing. There was a group meeting this week and the hot question was the name of the group, some in my team (the vocal one) doesn't believe that there should be a name change even though the group name makes no reference to two thirds of the group. No one liked my suggestion, but then it was a bit long. I went to see my Aunty and she was in good form, enjoyed the lunch I prepared and discovered that the chest freezer in the kitchen had burnt out, so unplugged that before it set fire to anything. There was also mood in the toilet from a wet towel she keeps there, to collect the rain, there has to be a better way to ventilate the toilet. I had brunch with friends at there home, o...