New beginnings

12 months today. That's how long Jesse and I have been engaged and preparing for 'the big day'. Tomorrow we celebrate our 7 year anniversary; 7 wonderful years getting to know each other and grow together. Then just 3 days later we will say our vows to become husband and wife and I will change my name as we start a new life together, a new journey to discover.

Final preparations have been made, we will go to the reception venue tomorrow to drop off place cards, bonbonniere and confirm everything. Rehearsal is Thursday night, and Friday (for me, at least) looks to be a day of relaxation and celebration of a different kind. Jesse will be spending the day decorating the venue with lights, but I'll leave it at that, I don't want to give much away.

Tonight will just be a short post, I don't have much else to say, except that I can't wait to publicly proclaim my loyalty and my love to my best friend!! ♥

26 days and counting

It has been almost a month since I've last blogged, and I've done a lot. Apologies for my laziness.

In March:
Over the long weekend we went up to Renmark to catch up with Gretel and just relax. It was a wonderful weekend. I even played the keyboard at the church service in Paringa, which was fun. It was amusing to watch the pages blow over from the air-conditioning, albeit annoying. I was glad when someone turned off the wind in our direction, but it got hot quickly. Jesse, Robin & Luke managed to catch 200 carp on Sunday afternoon in 2 hours and subsequently kill them. It was more than a bit gross. I don't know how many they killed over the entire weekend. But I enjoyed relaxing in the sun, reading, and making delicious food with Gretel for dinners.

Saturday 19th Jesse and I attended a Huck's Day for Matt & Ash (Jesse is in Matt's wedding and Matt is in ours). There was go-karting, 10 pin bowling, and then a BBQ and drinks out at Matt's place. It was a wonderful night, even with Jesse and Matt drinking far too much alcohol. Unfortunately I was sick with a cold and reflux to be able to drink any alcohol.

On Saturday the 26th Jesse and I held our Buck's and Hen's celebrations. He went paintballing then to Luke's farm for BBQ dinner, drinks and mischief. After a hair and make-up trial in the morning I went to Warrawong Wildlife Park, and for a walk and afternoon tea, then out to dinner, then to Fumo Blu for cocktails! I had such a wonderful night, despite being sick as my reflux was difficult to ignore. In the end I had to call it an early night, and we went back to my place to watch a movie at 12.30pm. But while we were in town we found and played 2 of the Street Pianos (www.streetpianos.com/adelaide2011) and snapped a few pictures which was wonderful.

And now it's April and our wedding date is looming. 26 days today, less than 4 weeks to go. I feel organised, which is wonderful. I picked up our 'bonbonniere' on the weekend (so happy with them!) and have a time to confirm details with the florist. I've got the majority of the RSVPs back, and have started putting together the seating plans. I have no idea if I'll remember to, or have time, to post before the wedding. I would hope so, but never underestimate my laziness and ability to procrastinate.

Whoops, it's been a while!

It has been over a month now since my last post, I am getting a bit slack, really. So what have I done recently...

I have nearly everything organised for the wedding. The last major thing to arrange is our honeymoon, which I keep telling Jesse he needs to book. He bought his suit a couple weeks ago, I've sent through the order form for our 'wedding favours', and the guest list was finalised and invitations were sent out!! I was so very excited to get almost instant responses, and Mum has told me that 7 more arrived since Friday.

In February Jesse put himself in hospital (again!). This time the doctors reckon there might actually be something blocking his oesophagus, he has an appointment this afternoon.

Jesse and I have also been house hunting! This time, for buying, not renting. It's a very exciting and frustrating process. We have pre-approval for finance, and have been given the go-ahead from the finance broker to put in offers if need be. In fact, we're looking at a property tonight, and are also considering buying a house & land package to build in Nairne. But we'll see if either of them are meant to be (and if we can afford them!).

We're heading up to Renmark for the long weekend to catch up with Gretel and just chill with friends. And then 2 weeks later Jesse and I will be having our buck's and hen's night!! And one weekend in April Jesse and I will need to head up to Renmark again to see the Easter production that Gretel is performing in.

It's all coming together...and closer; less than 8 weeks to go!!!

God clearly hates Queensland

(Written on 03/02/2011)

So we woke up this morning in anticipation to find out what happened in Queensland with Tropical Cyclone Yasi overnight. The category 5 cyclone (same as hurricane Katrina in 2005) boasted wind speeds up to 295km/hour, compared to Katrina's 280km/hour. We have lost over 90% of the country's bananas (this happened back in 2006 with TC Larry), and about 50% of our sugar production. The banana plants have all been ripped apart with no chance of salvaging anything. Luckily, no deaths have been reported. This is in the wake of Dec/Jan floods, which covered 75% of Queensland.

To be honest, as much as I love Queensland as a holiday destination, I wouldn't want to live there. This is just the beginning of their cyclone season. The tourism industry is set to lose 4 out of 5 international and 6 out of 7 domestic visitors, putting their economy out hundreds of millions dollars. It's now a consideration for our honeymoon as it may be much cheaper as they try and attract tourists.

(Written on 04/02/2011)

So Big Day Out is in Adelaide. I know, I can hear it from my office. In certain rooms I can determine songs and lyrics, but mostly it's just noise. It annoys me because the music festival lasts past regular business hours, so there will be traffic restrictions as I go to leave tonight - hopefully they will work in my favour. I think the noise is giving me a headache though.

My boss stuck up for me today at work. A colleauge/friend/unofficial business partner claimed I was rude to him via email and on the phone when he called today. I transferred the call to my boss as requested and when C said this my boss started yelling at him. I am never rude to anyone on the phone. I may be short with telemarketers (especially if there is a definite delay on the line) but never with clients or associates of the firm. So from my desk I could hear raised voices and swearing, and lots of 'my staff is way better than yours' (paraphrased of course).

I am so very glad the weather is forecast to be in the low 20's this weekend. Somehow I need to cool down the house from the consistant temperatures this past week. Hoping for thunderstorms tonight.

Happy Australia Day

Hi all, it was such a beautiful day to celebrate the landing of the First Fleet and the beginning of our country as we know it. It began as a scrumptious lunch at the in-laws and continued as a delicious BBQ in Clare for Justin's housewarming. Lots of food, sun, drinks and friends! Couldn't ask for much more to be honest.

Luckily for me I have had the last 2 days off creating a 5-day weekend. So I used one of the days to continue with wedding plans. I have booked my trial for my hair style, and for my wedding day. And I have ordered the 'wedding favours' and decided what I am doing in terms of place cards. Yay for progress! And Jesse has a lead on wedding cars too. Yay for him doing something!

So that is another thing I can check off my list. There are only 2 major things left to confirm - cars and honeymoon, yay!

I am very much looking forward to this weekend. Saturday will be a lovely day bridesmaid dress shopping for Rosie, and then lunch/dinner. Sunday is the Adelaide Hills Crush festival, and I have arranged with a group of friends to visit a few wineries and sample the food, wine and awesome company...can't wait!

Hope you all had a wonderful Australia Day too =)

Australian Taxation Office

As I work in an Accounting office, it is essential that I communicate with the the government body known as the Australian Taxation Office. There are always good days and bad days, and worse days, but lately they seemed to have dropped the ball in their service standards.

Lately I have followed up 3 separate clients who have not had their Notices of Assessments released, despite their returns been lodged back in September 2010, and despite numerous follow up phone calls. There was another case where we lodged a return in May 2010, and the client contacted me in August questioning where their refund was. Due the volume of returns we process we rely on the client to contact us if they haven't received their Assessment as there is no way to follow them up without creating a huge new workload and waste time. It took 4 escalations and the lodgement of a complaint before we received the refund, 5 months after the lodgement date.

And today another delay has been realised. Generally twice a year we print a report of all our clients and see who has and has not lodged the current year's return. We went through a listing, current as of 13 January 2011 which shows a tax return as outstanding which we know was lodged in September. Unfortunately, there are various others on the list we know were definitely lodged last year. And we keep getting phone calls following up outstanding debts for entities who are no longer clients, and we have lodged documentation as such.

I would like to know this: exactly how far behind are they in updating their records?

Holidays are over

Now for a change of pace...

Last week on Monday (the New Years public holiday), Mum, Dad, Sarah and Ali came over and helped make wedding invitations, and they look pretty awesome...probably because I didn't have much to do with the making, just the designing =P

Then on Wednesday, Mum and I saw the dressmaker and have figured out all of the alterations needed for my dress! After that we headed to McLaren Vale and visited the florist regarding the table decorations, and the chair covers and sashes. I need to get back in contact with them as, after speaking to the coordinator at the reception venue, I have changed my mind on what I want for the table decorations. And then on to Port Noarlunga for the cake, and that's all sorted, yay! I have used these places as they were included in the package Jesse and I have chosen.

So there are only a few more decisions to be made, and suppliers to be contacted: limousine hire, glass printing, and travel agent! It's actually all coming together quite nicely. In fact (fingers crossed I don't regret saying this) I don't understand why people would get so stressed about this, I've really not done all that much to organise everything.

Saturday Jesse's Grandma & Grandpa Sumner celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. It was lovely it catch up and meet other members of Jesse's family, and celebrate such a wonderful achievement. Hopefully Jesse and I will get there one day.

This week back at work has been as if I never left. Somehow I'm stressed and I think I caught a bit of what Ali had last week, and so I have a sore throat an ulcers on my top gum, yay =[

Oh, also, because he asked, shout out to Peter who admits to reading my blog, thank you =]