UPDATE

What's been happening? Shit loads! Spent 4 days down in Sydney with KatieP last week then came home on Thursday only to pack up again on Friday and head to Maroochydore to the Cotton Tree Caravan Park for the long weekend. It was an absolutely fantastic weekend and much needed for all of us. Unfortunately, we'd just started to settle in and it was time to come home again. On Saturday the weather wasn't so good so after playing a game on the beach in the drizzling rain and getting pushed into the water by Sofie, clothes and all (I took her with me too) we decided to go shopping and buy our new camera, a Panasonic DMC-TZ10:

After lunch we walked along the beach and I marvelled at how kids couldn't care less about anything other than the moment, playing and rolling in the sand, and sitting in the cold water, fully clothed:

We awoke on Sunday to the most glorious day, full of sunshine, so headed to the beach and spent most of the day there, collapsing in the late arvo from a day in the sun and surf for a quick nana nap before going to a Vietnamese dinner.

Home now with not much on (yet) other than catching up with Nicole and Eva, and Liz when she de-snots. Liz has also been wonderful and edited my book so once I make the changes it's a case of getting a publishing agent to take on my project.

We've also now taken out our travel insurance, opting to go with QBE Travel Insurance.

That's me - over and out!

JABBITY JAB

Another jab later and we're now on the way to being vaccinated against Rabies. This vaccination requires 3 injections in total, 1 and 3 weeks apart so 2 more jabs to go.

Jason, my eldest son, who will be joining us in Germany just before Christmas and staying with us for a total of 6 weeks including when we head to Vietnam, is here on school holidays so came with us and got all his required jabs too.

We were rewarded for our braveness with jelly beans and chuppa chups.

BUONGIORNO ITALY

I was given the task by Dave to organise our short stint in Italy after leaving Uzes. An ex-client of mine from way back has done a similar thing to us and her and her family packed up and moved to Italy for a year. You can read about their adventures here. I've been keeping in touch with her and emailed her for suggestions and comments and also picked our travel consultant's brain. Last night Dave and I sat down with the map so I could get my bearings and told him that I think we should go with the flow and do what we feel like, when we feel like it for this part of the trip and not book anything but see how we feel on the days. He thought it was a great idea so no forward planning, other than some thoughts of what we want to see, will happen for the 9 days we are in Italy. If anyone has any suggestions of great places or things to do feel free to leave a comment.

STORING OUR STUFF

When we move into The Ridge on the 14th May the Removalist will deliver and pack our gear at Newmarket Self Storage where it will stay until we return from overseas. We'll be able to access anything we might need whilst in the city and then simply box up what we've used and put back leaving us with only our suitcases to depart.

TELSTRA UPDATE

What'd ya know?

The dumb fucks rang this afternoon and could reconnect my internet within the hour and re-enable my old email address. How can every single one of their employees give different answers and solutions? If I didn't laugh I would have pulled my friggen hair out. I can't think any more about what cock heads they are or I'll go mental.

My eldest son is here with his mate for a week and his mate is a computer guru so has done all this "stuff" and got it sorted for me so I'm back up and running.

I'm still going to use my gmail account but at least I can now get around to advising any incoming mail from the old address that it's been changed.

OUR WHITE CHRISTMAS IN SALZBURG

As we didn't want to miss out on accommodation in Salzburg for our white Christmas we've jumped ahead again and booked a 2 room suite at Wolf-Dietrich for 5 nights from the 22nd December through to the 27th December. The main part of the hotel is on one side of the street and the other being the residence. We'll be located on the 4th floor with NO elevator. Salzburg is the beautiful city where the motion picture The Sound of Music was shot in 1965. It is also where Mozart was born, lived and worked. Breakfast is included in the price of our accommodation which sounds organically delicious!

FUCK YOU TELSTRA!!

In advance I apologise to anyone who reads this that works for Telstra but some fucking incompetent dickhead that works there cancelled my internet and email account. To say I'm pissed off is an understatement!

That's what I get for being organised! Last Friday I phoned to cancel my home phone and internet on the 15th May. I was advised that they could forward date the home phone cancellation but not the adsl account so I told them to do just the home phone cancellation and I would phone at a later date to cancel the adsl. It was repeated back to me and all seemed a-ok. I awoke on Saturday morning to no internet or email and after two phone calls, a long hold and lots of frustration told them to delete the home phone cancellation and I would organise it later also. The consultant told me it would take a couple of hours to go through the system and then she would call me back on my mobile so we could work out the internet connection and of course I received no phone call.

Today I have chased it up again with 3 phone calls and an even extra long hold only to find out that it will take a minimum of 3 days to have the internet re-connected and my email account has been closed forever and unable to be retrieved. As compensation they are giving me free internet for the next month - woopty-fucking-do!!

Any emails that have been sent to me since Friday night are somewhere in cyber space and any future ones will continue to float in thin air.

I'm currently at the library using the internet where I have set up a new web based email address:

sas2306@gmail.com

and Telstra can go fuck themselves!!

SALUT PARIS

Back to Paris. Located in the district of Saint Germain is this beautiful two bedroom apartment which we've booked at another discount of 10%. We'll be spending 5 nights here. The apartment is located in the heart of the shopping area with bakers, a delicatessen, bars and restaurants. It is also within 5 minutes of my beloved markets. Only 10 minutes away are the sights such as the Eiffel Tower. I can't wait!