Home Sweet Home

Well the time has finally arrived when we take possession of our new home. The months of looking and shopping seem to be winding down and now the next stage starts of D.I.Y. Can you see my excitement!

I did the final pre settlement inspection last night and now we just wait until 15.30 to collect the keys and get in there. I am staring down the barrel of a weekend of cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. Somewhere in the middle of the cleaning I have to move all our belongings over.

It is all really exiting and after moving house 11 times in the past 5 years it is really nice to look at a place that is your own and know you are going to be there for a while-unless Sarah evicts me when I wake her at 2am shouting at the TV during the world cup soccer that is!

I will post some pics of the new place on this site over the weekend in the photo albums so keep an eye out. All we need now are some international visitors.

Oz vs Italy

Tomorrow at 12.30am the might of Australia take minnows of the football world Italy, or is that the other way around, in the World Cup. The Italians are super scared as we have king Gus as our coach-as some may remember it was at this stage in the last World Cup when Gus's under rated Korean side knocked Italy out. So the Italians are rightfully nervous.

Come on Socceroos prove everyone wrong again.

4 Days & Counting

Well as it says above only 4 days to go until we move into our new house, which until now has been far enough away not to really be thinking about it, however the day is upon us and are we in control after what has been a crazy month? Who knows........All we can think about now is getting in there and making it home We have the basics and the rest will come once we are in and have a better idea on he dimensions and how we want to position furniture before we purchase it. Saying that we did get ourselves a lovely dining room suite on the weekend and Sarah finally got her hands on the car we have been looking at since living in London. I am not sure how to take it but that damn car seems to be getting more attention than me at the moment and even got tucked up last night before we went to bed. Coincidence that this happens on the first night that my electric blanket wasn't turned on? I think not. I am seriously thinking of removing the immobiliser batteries to show it who is really boss.........

Moving on, the plans are all in place and we have even been planting flowers in pots to get a head start before getting into our garden-which at this point has absolutely nothing in it. Sar's mom has been doing this without my knowledge for a couple of months now and has a mini nursery around the side of the house ready to go. Fantastic. I have done my part and planted a chilli bush. We just have to wit and see now whether or not I have green fingers. I planned this pretty well in that I picked a plant that requires no looking after at all, so it has no chance of failing. Sarah is dealing with all the temperamental plants, she has the patience for it where I certainly don't.

Other than that we had a really nice weekend going out for a fantastic lunch on Saturday afternoon in Surfers Paradise and had possibly one of the best Italian meals I have had in a long time. Not just I was impressed but Sarah and her mom agreed theirs was superb to. After lunch I was told to drive past the new house again-luckily we were in the new car as the people there now must think they have stalkers as Sarah and her mom stare with intent out the window at the house while we are parked across the road. This has been happening every weekend by the way!!!!!!!

I am just the driver I swear...

In between all that I managed to see the Iirsh get smashed by the Wallabies on Saturday night with a few icy colds which was extremely satisfying. The only thing that ruined this weekend was the French

World Champs?

After this mornings solid 2 all draw with Croatia which should have been 4-2 if not for the pom ref means Oz are through to the 2nd round of the World Cup and have a date with Italy on Tuesday morning for a place in the quarters. The way the country went of this morning you would swear they had won the thing. The Italians will be shaking in their boots at the prospect of going out to Australia in the round of 16.

Come on the socceroos!!!!!

Zoom Zoom, both in car and rugby

Well the good news is that we only bought one item this weekend which makes for a real change considering we are furnishing a house and have 2 rooms in Sarah's folks place filled with new toys for the house.

Much as Mac said in the previous post, we went to one car yard, then to another, test drove another care, went to another car yard, walked out and went back to the first car yard and bought the car.

I'm back (mac that is) yes it was the usual case of look in every showroom on the coast and end up back at the one where we looked at a car 3 weeks ago. All that investigating just for peace of mind which we duly got when the Holden (Vauxhall,Opel) dealer in Robina told us there was no way any dealer could do the deal at the price we were quoted by Surfers City holden-they would be making a loss!!!! WHATEVER!!!. He said we should be sure it wasn't a demo model make sure it wasn't an 05 model as with the new ones it was just not possible. He has assured me he will contact me on Monday to see if it was real. Armed with this info and fealing as if someone had tried to pull the wool over my eyes I flew back to Surfers City Holden ready for battle. The conversation went like this:
SCH: Hey Ryan
ME: Blair we are interested in that Astra we looked at 3 weeks ago.
SCH:It was sold 3 days ago mate.

At this point I am thinking "here we go"

ME: Really, pity as we were really interested and keen, we have been looking at the Toyata Ascent at the same price but like the Astra, you meet that price and you will get our business.
SCH: Your budget still $xxxxx
ME: Yes
SCH: Let me go speak to my manager and see what we have.

Here we go I bet he tries to add 5k

SCH: Yes we can do it at $xxxxx just to prevent you from going to Toyota.
Me: It is brand new, 06 model, elec windows and alloy wheels.
SCH: Ye mate, exactly the same as the last one you looked at with 12 months rego.
Me:Done

All this said I am really looking forward to the Robina salesman ringing me tomorrow to see how we had been misled by surfers city and exactly what they said when we aproached them with his information.

Who's pulling the wool over who's eyes?

He did exactly what he said he would for the price he would and didn't spend 15 minutes not wanting to talk price. He got straight to the point with the car we want for the price we want. He also did exactly what he said he would and for that got our business and recomendation.

By the way the car is a 2006 Holden Astra, the same colour and car as the one pictured above

In between all that I again managed to see the English get smashed by the Wallabies on Saturday night with a few icy colds which was extremely satisfying.

State of Origin

Queensland 30 New South Wales 6 QUEENSLAND wing Adam Mogg enjoyed a dream Origin debut at Suncorp Stadium last night, scoring a brace of tries as the Maroons hammered New South Wales from go to whoa.

"We came up here and got our pants pulled down ... they smoked us really," O'Meley said.


Say no more

The house is the easy part

Well those will remember me going on about looking at houses week in week out then having deals fall through, well after this weekend I am begginninto think that was the easy part!!!!!! We are now trying to furnish the thing. Really it is all good fun, shop to shop looking at everything yet not knowing what you are actually looking for, so you head for a coffee shop to discuss which route to take. Four hours and 3 coffees ater you go back to the 1st shop and purchase the first item you first liked and thought a good deal at the time. This has been going on for 2 weekends now, though we are starting to see results.

Saturday June 1st is going to be a hell of a day. At 7am we have the carpet cleaners arriving followed by the bed, fridge and washing machine but before they arrive we need to have the house vacumed and cleaned which means a really late Friday or early Saturday. It is all really exiting though.

In between all that we have organised for the water, electricity, telephone and broadband (can't not blog) to be connected on the Friday 30th. Oh I almost forgot we still have to finish the settlement on the house.

So we have A TV, a bed, clean clothes and cold beer but nothing to sit on.........care to guess what we are doing this weekend.......


BUYING A CAR!!!!!!!!!!

In between all that I managed to see the English get smashed by the Wallabies on Saturday night with a few icy colds which was extremely satisfying.

The Winner is

Well well, the contest for "champion seal clubber of 06"has come to an end and by the number of hits on the site it seems to have been a success though we only really had 2 passionate clubbers out there between which the competition was fierce. There have been a few competitors silently going about their clubbing beneath the watchful eye of yours truly during their spare time through the day (retired) and had the coolness of a real pro to actually print their score when being unable to access the comments section. This is the kind of commitment we like from our competitors.

However the final results are as follows:

Tie for 1st place between Groper and Millsie at a distance of 593m, as groper so aptly put it curse that elusive 600. As there is no facility for a club off it was difficult to seperate the 2, HOWEVER, Groper's score was entered at 10.16am on the 2nd June and Millsie's score at 13.06 on the same day. In my eyes this means buggerall and as many a finesmaster in the past has said:

'"ITS A TIE"

I leave it to the 2 of you to settle it the way we all know how once again as a finesmaster once said:
"A BOAT RACE, A BOAT RACE"

The placings are as follows : 1st place : Millsie and Groper 593m
3rd place: Dave Harrison 588.8 (picture to prove it)
4th place: Sarah Harrison 588.3 (nice of your dad to beat you)
5th place:Yours Truly 586.4 (beaten by a girl! I am gutted)

Obviously with all the organisation this comp took I hadn't the time to compete to the best of my ability otherwise I would have kicked all your asses!!!!!!

THE NEXT COMPETITION IS "STICK CRICKET"

The next comp is one that takes a little more skill "Stick Cricket". Go to the site http://www.stickcricket.com/ click on one player at the top and see how many runs you can get in a 10 over slog. Once again leave your results in the comment section STATING THE TEAM YOU ARE PLAYING AS. This is one I will dedicate some time to.

Later everyone and remember "IN THE ARC OUT THE PARK"

Smash a penguin or club a seal comp.

Ok our first competition on the blog. This is for bragging rights and the title "Champion Seal Clubber 06" on this site so give it a crack-literally Click on this link http://henriluoma.net/pingu/ and see how far you can smash the penguin. We will run the comp over a week so get bashing and I will do a piece on the blog announcing the official placings on Friday the 9th June. Once you have your distance leave your name, official distance and country you are from (comes in handy as we may have to handicap people from Alaska for having hands on experience at this) and a victory speech you want metioned on the blog in the comments section below this piece.

How to play: Click on the caveman, then click again when you want club the seal/penguin.

So get clubbing and good luck. This is open to all so get your mates involved to.

PS: While you are on the blog put your bloody pin on the guestmap

New House

Well the good news is that the house hunting appears to be over. Yes we have found a lovely spot in Nerang with 3 double bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I think the major selling point for Sarah was the walk in wardrobe which should hopefuly, and it will be close, hold all her clothes. Seriously though it is lovely with a nice flat block of land that we can do what we want to without having to re-arrange to much. So it is a blank canvas. We are also 5 minutes to the Nerang river which has walking paths. So I reckon a few beers and a fishing rod is perfect as I don't even need to take the car.

All we have to do now is wait for all the required valuations and inspections and once it is all cleared we move in on the 30th June.

So all those thinking of a trip down under the spare bedroom is awaiting and bookings will open soon. We will be 69km from Brisbane (3 lane moterway in 40 minutes) on the Gold Coast with the nearest beach being roughly 10km form the house. Surfers Paradise city centre about 10 minutes away.

Watch this space.