My brother’s sugarcane business ANTS Canefusion was  featured in Kabuhayang Swak na Swak last Sunday (June 28, 2009). He and his business partner were interviewed for the show. I’m trying to find an uploaded video to post here. The shoot was done at their SM North Edsa stall.

A.N.T.S. CaneFusion | Promote Your Page Too

update: My brother was able to find a video and posted it on ANTS’ facebook page, please view it there. I’m having trouble trying to embed it here.

–

I need to get a move on the enrollment forms for E, just timing it financially. I have to have the enrollment forms signed by the school and sent in to DET to get the approval for enrollment.

–

Finalising the schedules of when my mom and my in-laws will be coming. So far, we’ve been able to book my mom her tickets and hopefully she’ll get her visa in a few weeks. We have angels in my brother and brother-in-law helping us out with my mom’s visa.

–

Haven’t prepared a thing for the baby aside from some of E’s baby clothes that my mom will be bringing over. Have my eye on one of the convertible carseats and will probably be buying that in a few weeks. Not decided on which stroller though still have to research some because I’m not too keen on all the bulky ones. Tin will also be passing along some of A’s clothes, really much appreciated. And yes, we will be having a baby girl!

When we were still in Manila, at one point we considered buying a personal pressure washers for washing our cars. But since there are lots of car washes opening almost everywhere in the city, it was cheaper to just bring the car for a wash. Some of the places also had a cafe on the side for waiting patrons. Here in Sydney it is also impractical as there are limited spaces in the common garage where you can wash your cars. I think it will be more practical to get one if we have our own place.

With the pending offer of the new buyer for the unit we’re renting, we’ve put on hold canvassing for good moving companies. I was already starting to look for one you know just in case and came across lots of entries when I googled. Like moving companies san francisco where they specialize in moving from coast to coast. Of course I would have to find a similar one locally. Hopefully not till early next year.

Australia is making the switch from analog to digital tv. So they are presently on an information campaign to inform everyone how to switch. Between 2010 and 2013 analog free to air signals are being switched off. With all the sets of televisions currently on sale being either HD ready or HD, its easy for these to get the digital signals. Though with the old televisions you can still buy a digital set top box to be able to get the digital signals. We recently had to purchase a digital set top box for our HD-ready set and we were able to access additional free to air digital channels.

The prospective buyer of the house we’re currently renting sent an independent pre-sales/building inspector the other day to make a report on the condition of the property before deciding to go through with the purchase. Based on the comments of the inspector I would assume that the sale will indeed push through. If it does then that will mean that we’d get to finish our lease here. If it were me buying the place some of the things that I would definitely change in the interior would be the carpets (they’re old), faucets (that sometimes get stuck, maybe to some kohler faucets that I saw on the net), lighting fixture (outside and inside). Ichi would most likely remove the plants outside the main door and lay bricks over the small patch of land which would make the space more useful and definitely renovate the small backyard. Well, one can dream, haha. For now, we just have to wait for the outcome of their transaction.

I was watching an episode in the latest season of Cold Case and it featured a reporter who was killed because she was trying to expose the cover-up being done by a company that had a lot of its workers getting sick. It turns out that the expose she was doing was about mesothelioma cases, cancers due to asbestos exposure. While looking up the topic on the internet, I found out that here in Australia the incidents of mesothelioma has quadrupled in the last 20 years with men making up 85% of the new cases each year. And these incidents are not expected to peak until after 2020. One frightening thing is there are still a lot of homes here in Australia that contains building materials with asbestos. It’s a good thing that the house we have right now wasn’t built in the 80s when building materials with asbestos were commonly used.

I use Ichi’s cellphone unit that we got in Singapore before. It’s a SE K800i, it beats my SE K750 so when he started using his company issued mobile, I used his unit instead. Anyways, I like the phone and it serves its purpose for me. The only thing that bothers me is that at some places I get low signal or completely no signal whereas the other models of cellphones that we have would still have signals. Here in Oz, it happened one time when we were driving through the city, the phone just completely lost signal while the Nokia that Ichi was using still had a couple of bars. I know that buildings can interfere with the signals etc but then I think the problem lies mostly with the brand or the model? Because my K750 also has the same problem, this is pretty evident when we are in Manila and staying at my mom’s place. I have the only Sony Ericsson phones, all of them have Nokia ones. I would always be the one going out of the house to get a proper signal. I think my situation on ly improved when there were a couple more mini-cell towers put up in the area. So is it time for a phone upgrade?

Remember my breakouts that I mentioned a few posts back? Well, I must say that although it’s not completely gone, there is a little improvement. Hopefully as my pregnancy goes along, things will normalise. I was at the mall last weekend and while Ichi and E were browsing at the toy store,  I went to buy a toner from the skin care kiosk (which I think is one of their few kiosks remaining here in Australia, they are primarily an online/tv shopping product) and when I asked the girl for the toner, she asked me which products I have and tried to get me to buy the packs while not so subtly implying that my skin really needed it haha. Acne treatments maybe?

Almost all of the stores are having sales this weekend for the Queen’s birthday and the mid-year sales. We get lots of mailers and brochures every Tuesday from the different stores showing what their promos for the week are. One of the frequent flyers that we get is from a carpet store which shows their huge discounts for carpets, floorings, rugs etc. It’s a good thing that with our rental almost the whole area is carpeted so no need to go and buy area rugs to cover some surfaces.

Winter officially starts today, though we’ve been turning on our heater at night for the past couple of days. In a couple of weeks, we’ll know the gender of the baby and it will also mark Ichi’s one year here in Oz. Sometimes it seems like we’ve been here longer will all that’s happened. On the moving front, it seems that the owner was able to get an offer from someone that was willing to take the lease too so for now we’ll be staying put till the end of our lease, unless their deal falls through.

Last Friday, we went to the open day of a nearby public school only to find out that we were just a few steps short of their local enrollment area. We’re still thinking if we should go and visit the other school (which is in the opposite direction further away from our current place)or just apply out of zone with this school. We’re leaning towards this school as we wanted one that would be on the way to Ichi’s workplace since with the baby coming, it would be easier if Ichi drops E off in the morning. Our other option would probably be to check out some of the private schools in the area but I haven’t found one that’s really near. Another thing is this will be causing financial strain on us because although we’re on a temporary resident visa, E will be considered as a foreign student hence a tuition fee that would be payable a full year in advance (though not as high as those on student visa but still a big amount). Add to that the costs of giving birth, I’m just worrying about our logistics, anyways I’m sure it will work out. It’s just a little overwhelming but somehow things work out so I’m really counting on that.

One thing that’s adding to the concern is how fast our health fund pays on claim. We’re having a little bit of problem claiming some GP consultations, I don’t know what the hold up is. I’m frustrated because They couldn’t pay me out on the spot at the centre something with the system not being able to release the payout (and this happened the 3x I went to their office to submit claims). I appreciate the front office staff at the centre because they really did try to do everything to get me paid on the spot but it always ends up with me spending a minimum of 30 minutes at their centre only for them to forward the paperworks to the head office. With us paying a high premium on that insurance, of course we expect prompt payout of claims. Makes me wonder if we should be looking at other health funds after I give birth, I’m sure with all the health insurance leads out there, a lot of companies would want our business.