Its very weakening this story was that transpired since Thursday 4 of March. A 3 yr old Indian boy who went missing and found dead after 3 hours in one of Melbourne’s northern suburb. The kid together with his parents is just on a 2 months holiday in Thomastown Melbourne.
It was believed that the kid run out of the house to look for his father who went to the nearby library. The mother who was with him is taking a shower while this happened leaving the kid unattended. 3 hours later, a local council cleaner found the body of the boy “Gursham Singh” lying dead in a field.
It’s pretty scary how things like this happen in just a blink of an eye especially if you are a parent. This event always touch the heart of every parent and reminded them to look after their kids wherever they go. Its also interesting to point out that this can happen anywhere, any country for that matter.
When we move in to our new house, a lot of things kept us occupied especially the first 2 months. In my case, items like letterbox, clothesline, curtain and blinds etc… are the stuffs that we saved a lot money on.
1. Curtain and blinds. Going to our nearby homeware centre, we initially requested a quote to have them supply and fit curtain and blinds on our windows and outdoors. We were surprise to find out that its gonna cost us AUD 4,000.00 for everything. Now that’s a thing you don’t want to hear at this stage when budget should be allocated wisely.
Moving forward, we decided to do it myself to save money. We went to Spotlight store get ready to fit blinds and curtains. We bought 2 Wide vertical blinds for the lounge, 5 roller blinds, 1 roman blinds, 3 pvc horizontal blinds, 2 curtains and poles for 2 sliding doors. All up it cost us about $1,300 on materials and $0 dollar on labour. We save almost 3 grand on these item. I just bought a $75 driller at Bunnings as an investment.
2. Clothesline. Now this an item you want to install immediately. I had a look in ebay to find one but no success this time. We ended up getting one at Bunnings again. About AUD270 for a decent rotary clothesline. Labour- free again. Investment - metal digger - about AUD20.00. The developer can easily charge you $500 to install this.
3. Letterbox - Got one at Bunnings. $65 bucks, just bought pre-mix cement and a spade. After an hour later, the letterbox is standing and ready to take mails.
To be honest, I almost gave up while doing this stuffs as I am not a handy sort of person back in the Philippines. But because having somebody doing these things for you might cost you an arm and a leg, I just dont have any choice but to do it myself.
But after I got through with these, it felt good and proud that I did it myself. None the less, we save a lot money in the process.
After watching Ice age 3, this particular song shortly played in that movie strikes back to me. Its a song from my childhood back in the 70’s. Its called ” Alone again, naturally” by Gilbert O’Sullivan. This song is a classic one. Brings back childhood memories.
Lovely melody. I cant stop playing this song. I remember the good times when my parents brought us to carnivals, parks and long driving. I still remember how they use to wear bell bottom pants and fitted stripe shirts. Back then life is a lot simple. all I know is play with my brother and sister. I love it and I missed it.
But after checking the lyrics in this website,
I was surprise how depressing the meaning was. A bit weired for an upbeat song. It then hit to me that if we still have our parents, we should cherish every moment we have them and never hold back to our feelings and tell them how much we love them.
Well, knowing the lyrics now, I still choose to enjoy the music and remembering the good memories instead. Rather than singing the lyrics.
I’ve always wanted to blog about this. Finding which bank is the best for migrants. After almost 3 years in Australia as a migrant, it all boils down to 2 banks. ANZ and Commonwealth bank are the 2 bank which I regarded as the most suitable.
Advantages of Anz.
1. Got a local ANZ branch in Manila, Philippines. - Country where I came from.
2. Secured and user friendly website- personal and business online banking.
3. Fairly visible everywhere particularly ATM machines.
4. Good interest rate deals.
Advantages of Commonwealth bank:
1. The most visible in terms of ATM machines installed.
2. The Largest bank in Australia by Market Capitalization.
3. One of the most highly visible ATMs in Melbourne and the rest of Australia.
In my opinion, Commonwealth Bank is the most known bank for home loans, NAB for businesses, and ANZ and Westpac for personal banking. Thus these bank comprises the Big 4 in Australian Banking. Don’t get me wrong these 4 banks has capacities for all sorts of loans. Just do some shopping around before choosing which bank to transact with.
We got ANZ for our personal banking. ” Savings and credit card account” and Commonwealth bank for Home loan account. Both we don’t have any problems with.
The most important feature should have internet banking. Wherein you can pay your bills, access and transfer across account balances online. These feature will save time and money in the long run.
Moving in to new property has always been a hard thing to do. Particularly the part of carrying heavy fridge, washing machines and other furnitures. Its almost certain that you will one way or another be exhausted, drained or hurt yourself.
When it comes to transporting your stuffs. Transport plays a crucial role to get this things in order. If you don’t have much stuffs to move; like only clothings and small personal effects, then you just use your car like what our neighbors did. Would you believe they managed to fit it their stuffs using their 2 door Mitsubishi Mirage? The good thing about them is that they don’t have furnitures and big appliances to bring as they lived to their parent’s house before.
In our case, its a bit different. We got some big stuffs to move like washing machine, sofas, bed frames and mattresses, dressers, barbeque grill, play ground that i dismantled, and some chairs and tables. Apart from that, items like 50 plants on the pots, 3 bicycles, 20 boxes of my son’s toys that our Suv just barely accommodate.
This is where my wife and I decided that we need to hire a truck. We went to Budget hire to rent a truck for a day. There are also other big companies that does the same like Avis, Europecar, Hertz, and Thrifty.
We did not have the luxury to shop around because of time constraint. Our builder Metricon just announced that we can move in to the property 2 days prior.
We got the standard commercial close van that my driver’s license allows. The truck comes up with hydraulic lift ramp which I find very useful and safe when lifting heavy stuffs. This will prevent back injuries from loading and unloading materials. It’s also safe for your things to avoid accidental drop.
How much did it cost? About $190 all up. $130 for a day rent, $30 for the petrol we used and another $30 (optional) to lower the insurance excess/participation from $2000 to $500 for every accident incurred. I just decided to get this extra cover for my added protection because I realize I am not used to driving big trucks.
Overall we are glad to get this truck because in the process its saves us time because it just took us 2 shifts to move everything. It also made it easy and lot safer for us to carry the heavy stuffs because of the hydraulic lift.
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