Just took Sammi for her ultrasound - poor love hadn’t been herself all yesterday to the point where I phoned the vet again - they suggested admitted her overnight but there wouldn’t have been anyone there so I decided to keep her home. Wise choice - the wind woke us both up at 3 and she was straight off with the snuggles and purrs and this morning she was demanding breakfast - unfortunately I couldn’t give her it since it’s a fasting procedure.
Now having a coffee and cake in Mentone while I wait for the school traffic to clear.Sending hugs.
we’re doing a welcome to country before every meeting now?!
Is this any different to standing up and singing God Save the King/Queen/Whatever or the ‘National Anthem’ before sporting events? A ritual to be gabbled through before the real business begins. As such, it’s a travesty of what such a welcome should be.
I like when we have an elder do a welcome to country. It’s different and always pretty cool.
Doing the acknowledgement before every meeting is basically tokenism at this point.
This is very much my feeling. And if you’re going to do it every bloody time at least use the short form not the 6 paragraph version.
Disclaimer I have a genetic but not cultural link here, so don’t often claim.
I like when we have an elder do a welcome to country. It’s different and always pretty cool.
Hundred percent. That feels like we’re honoring the indigenous communities.
Is this any different to standing up and singing God Save the King/Queen/Whatever or the ‘National Anthem’ before sporting events
Yep, you’d find I’d have the exact same reaction to god save the king before each meeting. Are we really gonna do this 6 or 7 times a week?
wait, is this like a union meeting, or a mid week office catchup?
The former is ok, the latter is fuuuuuuck off
it was an ad hoc “telling off” meeting by a department who thinks they have power (and probably SHOULD have power) but in reality they dont. Kind of a nothing burger meeting.
Yeah fuck that. The whole acknowledgment was probably an attempt to look more important by them
Welcome to country, or acknowledgement of country?
I’m pretty sure a welcome to country should only be done by a first people’s elder (or representative)
they said “welcome to country” but I suspect they meant acknowledgment.
That makes it even worse!!!
This is the face of, “why are you at home during the week, and where the fuck are my treats homie.”
Oh my goodness 😂
The symmetry in her markings is something else 😻
The look of “you better be here tomorrow mfer, I don’t have opposable thumbs and those treats aren’t opening by themselves (I’ve tried)”.
She actually did try!!! I came home the other day and she’d grabbed the treat bag and had been gnawing at it to try to get to them.
Aw sweet Gibson, the beauty of her face and colours is awesome 💜💜
Whos a handsome boy! Yes he is!
I have a personal computer for the first time in over four years (my last company was very lax and I used their laptop for most things). Now I have Steam installed for first time in just as long. Very excite
Even at lax places I’ve never been able to get past knowing they can look at my web history and that it’s technically not my computer, plus there’s always those user account controls that mean I couldn’t install anything.
What did you end up getting?
I got: Lenovo LOQ 15.6" FHD 144Hz Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i5)[GeForce RTX 2050]. The only game I’ll play is Dota 2 probably so this should do the trick nicely
It’s good you know what you need it for. I built a pretty hectic PC a little while ago and the most intensive thing I play I’d Elden Ring. Otherwise I’m happy with older games. I probably didn’t need to go that hard with the specs
The peregrine are back in the city. I think she has laid two eggs so far https://www.youtube.com/live/VLLNNTjaSEA?si=NIcrIT3OZVQUcPHr
really long safety+organisation+life+mental health uodates
Today’s the 50th day since I returned and found all the damage and theft of my belongings. They’ve just about all been replaced now, there’s a couple of cables I’ve noticed missing, and one of the replacement things didn’t include a cable, but that’s about it.
They installed that gate thingy, but forgot to get the parts they need to make it actually work. It’s on un-detachable gears and pulleys, so it’s basically stuck open and doesn’t do anything. They measured all the door frames (most of them are cracked from where he fucked around with the locks), but apparently the tradie man forgot how to measure properly, so he came to redo it today.
ALLEGEDLY someone will be out to install new door frames and such tomorrow, but there’s probably no guarantees on that. They seem confused about if that’s actually happening or not. Apparently they’re installing proper security cameras tomorrow, and apparently on Friday the locksmith will come past to fix the shed lock.
AFAIK the deadbolt for the front door was knocked back, but it’s not that bad I suppose as the screen door essentially functions as an external deadbolt. I always lock that, so it’s fine. I’m worried that once that change the doors and door frames though, they’ll also change the locks to shitty ones that locksmith referred to as “night locks”. They’re easily opened by shimmering a butter knife down the side, or honestly even giving it a firm shoulder (it doesn’t even damages the lock, because it barely sits in there!). Don’t know what in house safety that’ll leave me, except to hope and prey they don’t move another drop kick in.
The program manager has been on “unplanned personal leave” for 2 or 3 weeks at this point. Not sure what’s happened, she was just here one day and then hasn’t come back since. The “case management practitioner supervisor” has been talking at me a lot. She gives kind of assistant manager vibes. Doesn’t have a whole lot of say in anything, so compensates by having little ego and power trips. The bloke above her, the regional manager, doesn’t seem that bad kind of, he’s so far maintained a professional demeanor with me, but he’s not too keen on doing very much and acts a lot more like a penny pinching CEO than anything else.
The org case manager took an “unplanned half day” on Monday, and no showed to a meeting we had scheduled. I, along with the 11 other people attending the meeting, just had to chill in the teams waiting room (which I super wish allowed cross-attendee conversations), and after about 15 minutes I ended up being the one to tell everyone the meeting had been cancelled and telling them they could leave. Even though I wasn’t running the damn thing.
On the DL, it seems that most of my care team and workers are all pretty pissed about the way things are running. Apparently they cancelled another meeting a week prior with 15 minutes notice.
I took to calling the “case management practitioner supervisor” (who seems to do more than supervise, and is temporarily program managing too), every single day about the security gate and other arrangements. I’m super pissed about it, it feels like they’ve kind of relegated my safety to concern number #45. There’s still no active protection keeping me safe, and I’m still here on my own. It also feels horrific that the other dude seems to get off on intimidation more than anything else, and nothing’s actually been done to stop that. The cops haven’t followed up about him tearing up the lawn, or the theft and damage, the gate is still non functional, the gate still doesn’t have a lock (besides my unapproved padlocks).
I still freak out and spiral into a panic everytime I hear a particularly loud motorcycle, and I check my cameras at every noise. I still have a constant fear that he’s somehow inside the house, and I still wake up at 2 or 3am in a sweat with a looming sense of terror that somebody is standing over me.
In the last couple of weeks, I seem to have a lot of repressed rage that sometimes bubbles up. I’m usually able to keep it repressed, but every couple of days, something minor seeming will happen and ploop I’m in a blind rage. That was the main reason for taking my Lemmy break, I don’t want to run the risk of that happening on some unsuspecting soul here. I’m seeing a psych weekly (her suggestion + child protection is paying the gap, and will pick up the rest of the costs for 6 months until I turn 18). It’s helping, but the primary focus has been on other things, with this as secondary.
Tafe has been a useful distraction. Being completely dumbfounded about how their LMS works, and how different it is from high school has been a useful distraction from everything else. Besides that, I’ve been trying to throw myself into my projects, but some of them just annoyed me too much so I temporarily gave up.
God, that whole situation sounds awful. You’re doing the right thing by pushing and calling everyday to follow up on things.
Learning that LMS will keep you busy. They’re done of the worst programs ever made. At least you have something to take your mind off things
Thanks tom. I’ve honestly been beginning to wonder if I’m putting unfair expectations up, mostly due to the absolute apatheticness most people involved irl seem to show. I did get some hopefully good news about an hour after I posted that. The “case management practitioner supervisor” sent me a text to say that “a number of builders will be there replacing the door frames and people for the cctv stuff”. I’m a little worried about their implementation, as before the doors may make the situation worse if they don’t reuse the same locks, and the cctv system might end up being installed in some office somewhere monitored by randos. AFAIK it won’t be on premises. It’ll be proper corporate type surveillance, so remote monitoring (by the people living here anyways) won’t be a thing. But if it’s like the ones they put in resis, it also has extremely good night sight
And yes, I’ve never used something that looks so modern, yet acts like it hasn’t been redesigned since 4kbps was the average internet speed! I had a zoom call earlier with a “success coach” from the TAFE who walked me through how to use it and what to do. Seems I can safely ignore most of the buttons, which is nice. But there’s still a bit to figure out
Not unfair expectations at all.
They royally fucked up and failed to protect you. And they’re still failing to protect you.
Dude I’m so sorry.
If it’s any consolation those absences probably mean shit is hitting the fan for a few staff behind the scenes over this fiasco, and the power trips are just her pettily taking that out on you. Classic HR behaviour. But it really doesn’t help the lasting effect you’re experiencing.
Btw the rage is incredibly normal in the circumstances and along with the rest may be a symptom of ptsd. I’m really hoping one day you can get well away from these incompetent chucklefucks because what you’re going through is so difficult.
I’m wondering if (for now) you can jam a chair under the door handle for extra reinforcement or warning, put metal pots that would topple making noise, and keep an uncapped can of oven cleaner spray handy?
At least then it would be a more specific sound heralding trouble so you might feel less jumpy at smaller noises, and you would have something to grab if you felt threatened. Whatever helps.
Edit: Even just a firm door wedge or a temporary lock might be some protection, delay, or help alert you.
You can even improvise with a fork which isn’t perfect but is something that can be done fairly quickly short term to give some early warning.
Ps. I hope this unsolicited advice isn’t stressing you out worse or making you angry. It’s a bad habit of mine. Just hoping there might be some comfort or something workable in there.
Thanks Melba. You’re probably right, at least I kind of hope someone’s copping it. But I doubt it. I think everyone’s gotten off mostly scott free, because the program manager, and area manager were on leave, and the “case management practitioner supervisor” had been sacked. And of course, nobody ever wants to rock the boat when in an interim role, so I think child protection exploited that as well, I’ve seen it happen before so it wouldn’t be unsurprising
There’s just 198 days until I turn 18, and then these people don’t really have a say in my life. However, I will likely still live here anywhere between an extra 6 months and year after I turn 18, although then I’ll have even less recourse in such situations
I can jam things in the door, but I’m not sure it’s really worth it. I already know that there’s nobody either in the house or my room, it’s just trying to teach my brain to comprehend that at 2:30 in the morning that’s an issue.
I don’t have oven cleaner, but always have something I know how to improvise with in case of self defence. I don’t keep a knife in my room anymore, because that does seem a little OTT and paranoid, but there’s always something. I also got a bright torch off Amazon (technically we’re meant to have one of those giant ones in the evacuation kit, but the last one was noticed to be completely corroded and smashed about 6 months ago, and they’ve yet to replace it). It has a strobing function, which might be useful, although I do wonder about the effectiveness of them.
If the new doors and frames do result in shitty locks, I’ll probably have to figure out how to install one myself. That’s probably a rather bad idea, so I’ll definitely have to see what happens next before I do anything like that, but it’s a possibility I have shoved away in the back of my mind if it’s ever as bad as it was again
Also probably worth noting: I have security cameras all over the property, and as of today, there’s now proper ones with a UPS as well. It is technically possible to get into the house by breaking into the neighbours backyard, then jumping the side fence, then shimmeying a window up, but it doesn’t seem super likely. So I’ll always have advanced notice if he returns
And no, absolutely not. I appreciate the advice and suggestions
These organisations are all about saving face but I suspect at least some manure is flying behind the scenes.
And yeah, I totally get it.
So many hugs.
Thanks SG. I just want to say that I really appreciate how much of a rock you and the rest of the DT regs have been through the entire ordeal. It helps to have somewhere to vent that isn’t biased towards the org
more hugs
More thanks
Random heavy rain in CBD just as I’m leaving work 😭
More of a spray here (we got the heavy earlier) fortunately just as I dropped the papou home. And fortunately over by the time I picked up Sammi. Can’t say the same for the wind, much to her chagrin.
I brought my bin back in.
So many bins were tipped over while I was coming home today. Looks like half of them had spilt their rubbish everywhere and still had rubbish bags inside. Tbf if I was a Garbo, I wouldn’t be picking rubbish bins up in this weather either, but bin time on the street I drove down was this morning, so they’re gonna have to deal with full bins for another week!
My bin night is Thursday night/Friday morning, hoping things settle down by then…
I just started barbecuing haha
RIP
I need to know are they still on the BBQ?
Uh no. Why ?
Because I wanted one :(
Ohh bud I’m sorry.
Spicy pork. soooo good haha
It’s raining horizontally out west. The wind is something else too
Copped it here too. It was wild. It would go quiet for a sec, then a big gust of turbo wind would come and it accelerated them to about the speed of a bullet. One hit me on the neck. I thought it was hail or something, it fucking hurt!
Outcome of the ultrasound with Sammi - no obvious tumours or obstruction. Enlarged lymph nodes in her stomach, so they want to proceed with the other ultrasound and take some samples. Meanwhile she’s home alert and hungry.
In other news there was a three vehicle stack in the middle of Main Street Mordialloc on the way home. Hopefully it’s cleared by now…so many hugs, hope she gets better soon
I have a meeting about the conclusion of my performance agreement at work tomorrow.
It’s at 4pm on the last day of the pay cycle so I’m preparing myself for the worst
🤞
Fingers crossed for you mate 🤞🏾
Cat rambles
Melbcat got her antibiotics yesterday! Now I have to wrestle her (gently) to ensure she swallows the weird banana flavoured liquid instead of sneakily spitting it out. I am deeply unpopular for a few minutes afterwards (until it’s time to cuddle again).
If the infection reoccurs after this she may be referred to a specialist to check for underlying causes. I’m so glad I’ve maintained a bit of an emergency fund because if need be I will absolutely be getting a lift and going for it.
I’ve found an old smaller sketchbook + just a normal pencil sharpened in a standard way (both more portable) and am using it to scribble for art exercises. I’m also doing them as multiple tiny drawings on one page just so it doesn’t take forever to get the idea down, shade, draw precise lines or just finish. Also doing it while watching trashy video essays on youtube.
I really don’t have a lot of spare energy to create so trying to lose the perfectionism and just do easy structured doodles is probably the only way I could get anything done.
The Void is unimpressed with his diet. Both our knees are nastily niped
Roof is still on
I was convinced I was gonna walk out to find the pergola gone. It was built by an idiot before we brought the dump so its not exactly structurally sound.
I’m scared to look
Got to my early morning grocery delivery before the birds this morning. It was out there for 15 minutes so they must have been busy
I got one of those mealy box things denigrated in the 12am-8am slot, once. It was 11:30 and still hadn’t been put on their truck, so I figured it was gonna be more of a 5/6am delivery and went to sleep. Then at 7 I woke up, and saw a text from 12:23 telling me it had been delivered 😟
Luckily the ice block kept out cool enough I wasn’t too worried, but I’m never making that mistake again!
The gel stuff they use in those deliveries stays cold for a really long time. They’re all enclosed as well so you’ll get no birds in there
Ew gross sleep. Not looking forward to work
I have shifted wake up time to 6am from 7. I enjoy the darker start to the day.
