Where the Grass is Greener

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    25 November 2008

    When 'Out of Office Assistant' goes bad.

    Pic below shows a real Welsh 'translation'.

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    No one has even published my Out of Office Assistant before - I'm feeling rather left out.

    Full story is here.

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      24 November 2008

      Stormy Auction

      On Saturday we prepared to bid at our first auction. I had spent some time getting advice from various people and was slightly nervous about the whole process.

      Finally Saturday morning arrived. Saturday brought with it more crazy weather* and husband, back from Brisvegas. I would have accused husband of bringing the weather from Qld but it had been shitty all week - not to mention blowing our side gate open on Friday so that our dogs could have free run of the neighbourhood. They got as far as our neighbours' yard who thankfully are lovely and kind and put them back, wedging the gate shut for us. This made me feel terribly guilty as we have never really spoken to them very much so I bought them some flowers.

      I digress...

      The weather was crazy stormy, but we hoped this meant that less people would be at the auction. There were about 30 people, all in the garage, and the auction kicked off. Slowly. As they do. The auctioneer ended up making the opening bid at $350. I had wanted to wait until they went in to speak to the vendor (although I'm pretty sure sometimes that is a sham and they're just prolonging things) but nothing was happening so I made a couple of bids. We held the bid when they went inside at $375, and then when they got back things got going a little more.

      It was basically between us and one other guy - he was pretty confident and we happily bid away until we reached out limit. It was down to bidding in ones and twos which just felt silly. We went to $405 ($5k over what we said we'd do) and then pulled out. It went for $407 but we thought we should be good and not push our budget - and to remember we were bidding for what we thought the house was worth, not to compete with someone else.

      It was actually quite enjoyable and although disappointed I'm not heartbroken by any means. I'm still not sure that my mother will love me if I live in Reservoir so that is a good reason to miss out this time. But I think we'll be in better stead next auction. Husband wants to bid next time but I had too much fun - we might have to auction off the right to bid between ourselves...


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      *8 degrees! 8 degrees! It is summer in one week, I'm wearing gloves jackets and scarf, have put the heater back on, and all people can say is - "Well, it is Melbourne..."