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  • Heading to a dnb/jungle/dubstep gig tonight. Gonna see how many lemons I can give away.

    Just some rando handing out lemons to randos.

    Used to do it in the before times and they all went so keen to see if that still holds.

  • I told the man if he insists on keeping The Beard during Winter, then atleast trim it away from the top lip because sitting here whilst enjoying my dinner, I have seen some disturbing things.

  • After jumping into the puffer jacket thread yesterday with a bold claim you need neither a big jacket nor a puffer....I succumbed today and am now one of the great Melbourne puffy community.

    My fav little local store was having a sale so I got a proper down one for half price so just a bit over a hundred. I have to admit I am very toasty warm

  • For some reason I have Handel's The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba in my head this morning and I just imagine... cats. Specifically, a glossy-maned cat of regal bearing sauntering into a room on an overhead ledge and looking down on us unworthy humans. I am a bit cat-starved. I have much more freedom to adopt a cat compared to past years, but wondering if it's a good time when I might need to cut back on work for a year to finish my studies...

    edit: I shall ponder about this some more while I knuckle down and start doing my taxes. Did not save a copy of all my payslips from my old job which was dumb. Zero interest in contacting them again, so I will just work backwards to figure out how many hours of work (and therefore WFH I did).

    Also didn't realise I could claim airfare and accom for my work-related conference last year as a deduction as well. Score!

    • There is fostering rescue cats - limited time commitment, big expenses paid for, and you get to help a cat learn that hoomans are good companions.

      • This is sort of where I'm leaning towards tbh. It also means I can plan holidays around fostering periods without needing to find someone to catsit. Last I looked a few places required written approval from the landlord. I'm fairly sure mine will be okay as this apartment is all floorboards and very low maintenance. I need to get over my partly irrational fear that they'll use it as an excuse to increase the rent, though. I'm on a good wicket at the moment relative to the insane prices out there.

    • Queen of Sheba

      Eee that was my old abbys name.

      She also enjoyed heights to the extent she'd make sure you were looking and jump off the roof (2nd floor) for sport.

    • Logistics wise, unsure. But! A cat is the best study buddy. Mickey helped me heaps when I was at UniMelb, and prolly will again when I start TAFE. They just make it that much easier, even when sleeping on the laptop, pressing keys, or swatting all your pens. Good motivators but also good to remind you to take regular breaks, even if it's a moment to pat them. Idk, it depends on your situation of course, but my mental health is so much better with a furry familiar

      • Oh, the mental health boost would be 1000000000000000000000000% there. But I know that on top of regular food I need to have an emergency fund for vet visits, etc, and just wondering if it's a wise financial decision if I'll be cutting my earnings (reducing my work hours) to study, not long after a period of already eating into my savings from unemployment and then travel and a car.

        I also am not home a lot of the time and wonder if that'll be good for the cat. At least having a WFH setup means that now even if I need to do a late day at work I can come home and finish off what's needed and still feed kitty on time.

        I will see what study leave options I can utilise at work to balance it all out. The truth is, on a single income, it'll just take a rent hike to throw a lot of these plans in disarray. As much as I love cats I do not want to touch my savings again in order to afford having one...

  • Tax return lodged!! Of course my old employer's income statement isn't tax ready, they have ALWAYS been so slow at paying super, lodging tax details, etc. Meanwhile my current employers are on the ball - one is a huge org, the other a tiny firm, and they managed to get shit sorted. I didn't bother waiting for the old guys, the sums correlate to my bank deposits. Hopefully it's all in order, anticipating a decent chunk that I can put towards getting my car's head unit replaced with one that does android auto.

    There's also small silver lining to my reduced employment over the last FY, should be getting $511 back as a tax offset. Overall, a huge relief vs my shockingly low tax refund last year of $250 or so

    • Happy to hear you managed to lodge yours in sooner rather than later.

      Last year my employer forgot to push the income statements through and I had to call the finance department and ask what was going on and they forgot to action it and push it through to the ATO. 🤦‍♂️

      They got it in on time this year so I just lodged mine in the other day. I’m glad that I’ll be getting back more than what I got last year by quite a bit but I think a lot of it came at the expense of travelling offsite and back constantly so I was able to claim back on that.

      Now for the wait of it being assessed which hopefully won’t take too long and then win!

      • That's really poor of your employer, surely one of the finance/payroll department's biggest tasks is to ensure staff get their tax-related statements on time. I would've been so mad - thankfully it came through on time this year. I hear what you mean about the travel, I was looking through my past tax lodgments and one year I racked up thousands in claiming vehicle use for work travel, dunno whether it really worked out in the end with all the costs of maintenance and some expensive service items.

        I'm keen to get something back before the end of this month if possible. It's time for me to restore my savings balance to where it was near the end of last year before I quit my job. I'll be due for a chat about my pay at my second job and going to negotiate as best I can...

  • sewing is done, now to tidy up and to press the panels

    tomorrow I will cover the chairs 👍🏻

  • Story prompt: my chicken coop has been decimated by a rampant platypus

    • Thank goodness all the chickens are OK. The platypus has a lot of splinters in its bill, and is even more ill tempered than usual.

  • Ferociously hungry out of nowhere. Already had some jackfruit and cauliflower and two frozen fish fillets and I might end up having two more fillets. I kinda wish I had some chips in the freezer for days like today but it's too cozy at home to bother going to the shops. Watching the first episode of The Gentlemen (tv series) but not really getting into it. Too much Guy Ritchie posturing vibes, lead actor is cardboard, and which idiot goes to a deal without a heavy? Eh, I'll try one more episode

  • Movie Review. Tora Tora Tora. Dramatisation of the lead up and attack of Pearl Harbour. Equal time given to each side. Both sides had admirable me, brave men. And even tho the US made mistakes they still won in the end.

    Pearl Harbour, this did not suck. I like how this movie is about Pearl Harbour and all the American people who lived and worked there.

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