www.LonnieSwift.com

I’m sure you’ve probably heard me blab about internet. When we moved into our new house, the internet connection became a high priority. My research found the fastest, which was not at all the cheapest. I was striving for something similar to what we get at work.

A quick test on www.speedtest.net gave me the following result:

WORK INTERNET CONNECTION

Ok, that’s fast. I can hear those who “grew up” on dial-up thinking, “huh! that’s about 1700 times faster than the good ol’ 56k”. But this is 2011, so I’m satisfied with that sort of download.

Now we have our home broadband wireless set up (hear: deep sigh of relief as our lives return to some form of normality).

So how quick is it.

HOME WIRELESS CONNECTION

Damn, is that all? I was hoping for a little more than that (hear: “disappointed grumble”). Especially since I signed up for the 100 Mbps, and I believe I’m paying for every bit! Yes I know it’s still about 350 times our good ol’ 56k modem (shall we all pause to remember what lovely sounds dial-up modems made  whirr, blink, bid-um-de-dum-de-dum). Nope this is 2011, this isn’t right!

Ok, time to talk rationally to myself. “Don’t jump to conclusions, before you spend 3 hours on hold trying to talk to your ISP, think about this. Why would it be almost 1/5th what you are paying for”.

Oh… wireless. Right, I’m sure I have one of those Ethernet cables around here some where. Ok, let’s try this again.

HOME WIRED CONNECTION

Phew! I’m happy with that. Yeah, I know, I should have just accepted what I had and saved myself a few days of pondering and about 30 minutes trying to find an Ethernet cable. Lesson learned? I doubt it. Now back to all those important things I have to do…

We have just driven 30 miles to see a Smeg fridge. I was trying to convince Kate that we *need* one. Well, thanks to an honest salesperson we came away with a fridge but not a smeg. It is a more functional, better designed and a lot cheaper option. The last factor didn’t bother me ’cause i loved growing up with a 50′s style fridge and i liked the idea of having one in our new lovely kitchen. It wasn’t to be though, and i knew it as soon as Kate opened the smeg and realised the drawers don’t come out fully – bad design on smeg’s side! oh well we’ll have a lovely fridge next week. It’s just not going to be my smeg. Photos will follow. We still have to get internet though…

As pointed out to me by Dave, the judges now agree. Melbourne is the most liveable city

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14716442

Two questions.
1- what solvent will remove radiator paint
2- who paints a radiator pink!!??

we initially thought it was white. It was after all in a room painted purple. But no, it wasn’t reflecting the colour of the room… It was actually pink. We did only figure this out after we had painted the room “boring beige”.

Now the cleaning begins. Why is it when you rent a house you have to leave it spotless but when you sell a house you don’t even clean the floor??

Edit: The upstairs was quite clean. We think that maybe the removalists were the cause of the grubby floor. Doesn’t help that it’d been raining either. Anyway, it’s clean now. Now to start moving and painting! Or painting and moving?

Step 1 to owning a house. Get the keys. Tonight we’ll get to see the house. Photos to come!

Tomorrow is judgement day. Or settlement – whichever you think is a more appropriate name.
We hope all goes smoothly, but this system didn’t evolve easily! Many people have experienced the joys. Of what am i talking? houses. In particular buying one…

Now to settle. Hopefully soon…

The British real estate system is definitely *interesting*. I share the pain of anyone who has ever bought or sold a house in England. I hear things are better in Scotland.

There are so many things to do in London. Today we wandred past this memorial. Guess to whom it was dedicated…

We all know food is important – especially to me! This was a while ago I know, but here is my birthday meal in photos.

The main was crispy duck breast with pear and green peppercorn sauce served with green beans wrapped in prosciutto with balsamic vinegar and a side of new carrots.

We had a local (UK) sparkling wine for our appetisers (cheese platter), then the big Aussie red for mains.

You do have to watch out who eats your cheese though…

And to finish off, Nigella’s old fashioned chocolate cake. It was as good as it looks too.

Needless to say, I appreciate Kate’s cooking!