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[flexibeast]

It's been almost a month since i last posted, and a lot has happened in that time:

• naked_wrat and i moved house, to a wonderful new location - much closer to public transport, in a suburb with lots of greenery. :-) anark1 was a humungous help during the move - thanks so much! *hugs* And sacred_harlot and sweetmiso did a lot of work tidying up the garden - thanks so much to you both too! *hugs*


• sacred_harlot was given notice to move out of the place she is renting - and has now found a wonderful new place in the same street as naked_wrat and myself, yay!


• Centrelink informed me, after they had Health Services Australia perform an 'independent medical assessment' on me, that i am fit for full-time work . . . . having CFS, major depression and OCD apparently cuts no ice with them. Of course, recent medical tests showed that i'm perfectly healthy - blood pressure 120/80, kidney and liver function okay, cholesterol a bit high but basically okay, etc. - so clearly i'm just bunging on an act and i'm really just lazy. :-/ So i am expected to look for full-time work if i am to continue receiving benefits. (i've joked that i can just imagine selling myself to a prospective employer: "Hi, i have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, major depression, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and will be taking days off at increasingly frequent intervals as i push myself to attend work and perform my work duties . . . . and i feel i'll be a great asset to your organisation." :-P ) We have appealed the decision; i expect we'll hear about the results of our appeal soon.


• i had lots of 'fun' getting a net connection through Telstra. At first they insisted that our new place already had cable; but none of us could find the wall plate outlet they claimed the house had. Eventually a tech came round, and found that there was not only no wall plate, there was no backbone into the units from the cable in the street. And despite the distance from the cable in the street to our unit not being that large - certainly there are houses where the length of backbone required to install cable would be of similar magnitude - Telstra was not willing to do an install unless all four units in our complex got cable installed, because otherwise it would apparently not be 'cost effective'. :-/ So in the end we had to go with ADSL, which, for our usage needs, costs the same amount as cable, but for a download speed much less than that of cable. Getting an ADSL modem from Telstra proved to be rather difficult, however: they kept claiming it was on its way until yesterday, when a very helpful Telstra staff member did the running around necessary to find out what was happening. She eventually admitted that the package was lost, and that they were sorry. Which i was thankful for; i am much more impressed by someone who simply admits a problem and apologises than someone who denies that there is anything wrong, and that even if there is, it's certainly not hir fault. So in the end, naked_wrat and anark1 went to a Telstra Shop and bought an ADSL self-installation kit, for which Telstra has said they will re-imburse us. Hence me finally being back, yay!


• My head is being done in by the fact that a lot of stuff that i've had to do over the past month or so have required me to be referred to by my given name, and my chosen name, and by the use of the word 'he'. It's really been putting me on edge; and although i can't , under current Victorian legislation, change my legal sex, i can change my name - once i can afford the fees involved. Still, my situation is absolutely dwarfed by what naiyah and velitu are being put through at the moment; my heart and best wishes go out to them both.

So that's what's been happening. My apologies for not being able to follow friends' LJs in recent times; i intend to try to rectify that from here on. :-)
 

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[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

*returns hugs* Thanks. :-)