Life Update

Hello from the bloody hot Goldfields of Western Australia. For the past couple of weeks, Mother Nature has decided to let us all know that summer is really here. Western Australia has had so much heat, a couple of records have been broken. And with another heatwave coming (beginning with today), there's no respite on the horizon. But the other side of Australia has seen so much rain, most of the other states are flooded and a couple have declared a state of emergency. I feel for all of my eastern states friends and family.

I haven't been able to post for a while. The internet we have here (National Broadband Network - or NBN for short) sucks. Hubby and I had recently changed providers (for about 3 months of a six-month contract). Our download speed almost didn't register (around 6 mbps) when they offered much, much more (about 50 mbps), and our upload speed was lucky to reach maybe 2 mbps. From day one of the new provider (and just in case any of my Aussie friends and family want to know, it was iinet - I will tell everyone about the lack of service) we had nothing but trouble - low speeds, dropouts so much we couldn't even watch a whole Netflix movie without it dropping out a couple of times - which was frustrating as all hell, then, at times, no internet connection at all. I lost count how many times I had to call the damn company to get things sorted out. In the end, our internet was out for 2 days and I spat it, big time, after being on hold for a total of 5 hours in one day, and speaking to 3 different people because I kept getting cut off - and this was when I was nice. I can usually deal with this sort of thing calmly, but after 3 months of shit internet or no internet, then 2 technical support people cutting off my phone call after waiting so long (just over an hour the first time, then over two hours the second time), I'm ashamed to say I blew my top. The final time, I told the company to cancel the contract. Then I was hit with "but you signed a 6-month contract" over, and over again. That was the final straw. I told them the contract was null and void as far as I was concerned, from day one as they (the company) had failed to meet their obligations - their side of the contract. Yet again, I got hit with "But your contract still has 3 months (or so) to go, so you have to pay a breach of contract fee". Not on your life! It was only $40, but it was the principle of it more than the monetary value. I let loose and told them I would NOT be paying a breach of contract fee as they had breached the contract since day one, the 28th of October 2021. I have screen shots of the ridiculous speeds we had put up with, several times that the company had "escalated the problem", blah, blah blah, and I finished up with saying that I was going to pass all the information over to my legal team, and to cancel the contract immediately. We had already set it up with our previous company to take over - and this time, we got satellite - quicker speeds, but they had told me that they might not be able to get us connected for about 2 - 3 weeks - hence the post from one of our sons on my FB page to let everyone know we didn't have any internet. But we got all the new gear for the satellite connection within a week - thank God. And, I even got a refund deposited into our account from iinet, so bonus! I think the mention of my "legal team" made that happen. So we are now rid of iinet, and have gone back to our previous telco.

While all of this was happening with the internet ordeal, we had to deal with something else. For those of you who have been following me on any platform, or through here, you will know about our 2 cats because I have mentioned them. Hubby and I had to make a hard decision. Our old cat was 19 years old. He had an episode a few months ago where he had some sort of seizure and I thought he was going to die. I admit I cried like a baby while we tried to help him through that. He survived, and despite having no balance or body temperature, he thrived. He was still eating well, he still purred (although that took about a week before he began purring again), and he was play fighting with our other, much younger, cat, and he still wanted to go outside and sit in the sun for a while. But he began to waste away. He got so skinny, then stopped eating and drinking, so hubby and I had to make the hard choice to take him to the vet in the next town. I phoned the vet first thing on the 19th of January, but they didn't have an available appointment until the 21st of January, at 2.45 pm - so that's when I made the appointment for. As we had a firm date, hubby made a box up to put him in afterward, and we picked out a nice spot in one of his favorite spots for his final resting place in the back garden. We both paid him a LOT of attention on the 19th and 20th, knowing what we had to do. On the 20th, he stayed in one spot under one of our bedroom windows, for most of the day, with our younger cat not far away from him, like he was keeping an eye on him (old cat's name was Jasper - or Jabby for short), and our younger cat's name is Gizmo). Just before midnight on the 20th, hubby went to use the bathroom and found Jabby dead on the floor. My heart broke and I cried more for him than I ever did for my mother when she passed away - exactly one year prior on the 20th of January 2021. Putting him in his special box, with his blanket I had made him, and flowers to say goodbye, was the hardest thing we've had to do. He was like one of our kids. I also texted all the kids - at 1 am - to tell them poor Jabby had passed away. They were all sent photos of him in the early hours of every step. Poor Gizmo didn't know where Jabby was buried and I didn't think he really understood what had happened. But no body will convince me that animals don't understand now. We couldn't find him to bring him inside once he was let out, and I really thought he'd run away, but we found him in a spot I didn't think we would - sitting on top of the grave we made for Jabby. That almost broke my heart all over again. He was so sad and took until just recently to be more like his normal self. But we still find him sitting on Jabby's grave. And I did ring the vet when they opened and told them I no longer needed the appointment later that day because Jabby had passed away. In a way, I'm happy it happened while he was at home and not on a sterile, stainless-steel bench in a place he didn't know. But I am sad that I didn't stay up just that hour longer on the 20th so I could have been with him when he passed.

RIP Jabby. You are, and always will be missed, by all of us.