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Well, we finally have confirmation from the bank that our finance has been approved, but the settlement (and moving) date have been officially pushed back to the 22nd August (11 days away). We’ve still got lots of packing to do, with the current total of 33 boxes exactly a third of the way to Jen’s estimate of 100 boxes. Chris also thinks we might not fit everything into a 3 tonne truck, which might be interesting. We might need to drop off some of the pre boxed stuff at Jens, cos she is the closest.

We’ve had a few glitches we are trying to work out about our moving dates. The main problem is that we couldn’t get our buyer to bring the settlement date on our current home back as far as we would have liked (we had verbal agreement, but then the bean counters etc. got in the way). This means we buy our new house on the 15th but don’t sell the old one until the 22nd which is a bit of a challenge, but I’m sure we’ll work it out….

Hopefully we can get bridging finance for that period and that will give us a whole week to move.

On the subject of moving dates, I forgot when I wrote the last post that our server was at GMT so the date ticked over at 10am. The new code is:

$tz=date(U)+36000:: //add 10 hours because we are GMT +10h
$movingday = (226 - (date (z",$tz)) ):: //August 15 is the 226th day of the year

Being as we only have a couple of weeks until we have to move, we’ve started packing, so I decided it was time to add a counter to the page to show how long until we move, and a count of the number of boxed packed, and by whom.

The counter is a simple formula, that calculates the number of days so far this year and subtract it from the moving date (which happens to be the 226th day of the year.

$length = (226 - date (z") )::

The counter is actually a bunch of text files that use a seperate page to edit them and then reads the files, displays them and calculates the total.

<::table border=0>
<::tr><::th colspan=2>Moving House Box Count<::/th><&lt::/tr>
<::tr><::th>Bernie<::/th>
<::th>Mark<::/th><::/tr>
<::tr><::th><::?include (""boxes/bernie.txt"")?><::th>
<::th><::?include(""boxes/mark.txt"")?><::/th><::/tr>
<::TR><::th colspan=2>Sundries: <::?include(""boxes/sundries.txt"")?><::/th><::<::/tr>
<::?
$bernfile = fopen(""boxes/bernie.txt"",""r"")::
$bernie = fread ($bernfile, 5)::
$markfile = fopen(""boxes/mark.txt"",""r"")::
$mark = fread ($markfile, 5)::
$sunfile = fopen(""boxes/sundries.txt"",""r"")::
$sundries = fread ($sunfile, 5)::
$totalboxes = ($bernie + $mark + $sundries)::
echo ""<::TR><::th colspan=2>Total Boxes Packed: "",$totalboxes,""<::/th><::/tr>""::
echo ""<::/table>\n""::

Yeah, it’s messy, but it was fun, and I learnt stuff.

PANORAMIC 24/7 VALLEY VIEWS $285,000+

Watch the changing weather day by day from the tranquillity of your own home.

Situated on approximately 1360 sqm of landscaped native gardens the home features northerly views from the living area and return verandahs to 3 sides. Three spacious bedrooms (master with full ensuite), rumpus and family rooms will accommodate all your living needs.

Home office or study facility, fully enclosed + private pool area plus double carport in the Toorak section of Lilydale.

Sunset views – a must to inspect!
From the front, View from the Deck, Lounge & View, Formal Lounge

We sold our house after it had been on the market for about 6 weeks (which means it wasn’t so cheap that it sold the next day). We got the price we wanted for Boronia, but we knew it was going to cost a bit more for a bigger house, even though we were moving further out”. Settlement date was set nown for October 27, giving us plenty of time to find the right place…

Since then we have been flat out looking for a new place to call home, searching the Real Estate Web Sites and spending our evenings and weekends traipsing around the suburbs looking for the “”right”” place.

On Friday 18/7/03 we thought we had found what looked to be the right place: Real Estate Add
We had a first look and were impressed. Even though it only had three bedrooms, there was the downstairs office for Geekzone & TT and plenty of space to put a desk for Bern. We got Jen & Tam & Bern’s parents to have a look that same afternoon (while I was off signing my new work contracts) and got lots of good feedback. On the Saturday we had another look with Danny & the Parlos and, after going away to look at a few more houses that afternoon we decided to put an offer in. We now know that when you see house price that is $xxx+ the “”+”” means +10% so we started by offering them $306,750 and a settlement date of Oct 27, which we already knew would not suit them.

They knocked the offer back the same day and the feedback we got was that they were looking for at least $315k-$316k and a 45 day settlement. The settlement was the big thing and we were told the price was negotiable based on the settlement date, with the shorter the settlement the better. We then spent what time we could on the weekend and an awaful lot of Monday & Tuesday seeing how short we could cut the settlement and still settle on our house and get our finances in order.

The upshot was we were able to trim the settlement back to the 15th of August (24 days) and offer them a flat $310,000 which was all we had to spend. We put this offer in at 6:30pm of Tuesday 22nd and heard back the same night that they had accepted. All our racing around and stress had not been in vain!!!

Of course now we have to sure up the finances and get packing….

One of the difficult things about moving, especially if you have to do it all in one day, is working out what needs to go in the truck, and in what order, so I thought I’d start a list of the really big and bulky things:

Bed, Lounge Suite, Fridge,

Dressing Table, Mark’s Chest of Drawers, Dining Table & Chairs, Outside Table, Mark’s Desk, TT Chest of Drawers, Washing Machine, Dryer, Crystal Cabinet, Bec’s Toy Box, Brown Lounge, Office Chairs, Bikes, Filing Cabinet, Bedside Tables, Bec’s Cradle..

Last tuesday night we went out for dinner as part of getting to know our Cell Group from our Church, Careforce Church Mount Evelyn (CCME). We had a great night chatting and eating Thai food at a local Lilydale resturaunt. The food tasted quite nice, but the next day I really knew how much MSG (flavour enhancer 621) was in it.

I had the worst MSG hangover on Wednesday (called a hangover because you are lethargic and dehydrated, exactly like a hangover..). That is the second time it has happened to me, the first being only about 4 weeks before after a eating a Yum Cha lunch with the guys from Vermont Secondary.

I spent the morning trying to work fixing my server problems at Heathmont College but in the end I grabbed a couple of Aspro Clears from the principal and called Bernie to come in and pick me up.. I slept for most of the afternoon and even though I still felt a little cotton wooly in the evening, I made it up for a few hours before I went back to bed.

I’m at the point of believing I have an MSG allergy, which is interesting as it was something Jase went through for quite a while too.

Okay, We’ve finally decided it is time to move. This house is too small for our current needs, so it is time to sell up and find a place with more space, and preferably a seperate office from which I can run GeekZone and Talkin’ Tech

Bugger..



Actually it still works, but it’s kinda hard to use.

It was in a plastic bag I’d been using to carry a few around in, and I think I stepped on it in the dark on Sunday night.

Now I’m looking for a new one. What I want is a Treo 180g but I don’t have $1200. Palm only seem to have colour ones for $lots except the Zire, which, while cute, only has 2Mb which I’m not sure is enough. (The Visor had 16Mb). What I really want is a Palm m125 like Jase’s.

On our way up to QLD to visit Bernie’s brother and sister in law (Jim & Christina) and thier new baby Jessica we had a nasty altercation with one of the local inhabitants. We were about 130Km West of Toowomba at about 6:30pm when a roo popped out of the trees beside the road while we were travelling along at 110Km/h. In the couple of seconds I had to see it, I managed to slow down a bit, but I probably still hit it at around 90Km/h. It must have been on the way up, as we pushed it into the air a bit before we hit it again and went over the top.

The Commodore is a little the worse for wear, with a smashed grill, bent bonnet and a left headlight that points into the top of the trees on the right side of the road. Luckily enough everything seemed to still be in working order, though the headlight must have been a pain to passing motorists. When we got into Landsborough and friend of Jim & Chris’ was nice enough to straighten the light out so we could make the return trip without bugging people going the other way too much. There are some photos here.