That's what I put the pelmet over the top for, it seems to work well - the laundry it blocks off is really draughty and uninsulated and the cold and heat does not really get though at all.

I sewed some tape across the back with gaps to put the shower rings through, which means the top of the curtain is above the rings rather than hanging below, which also reduced the gap air could get through considerably.

Three units attending is just a baby fire, barely worth mentioning. A noteworthy fire would have something like ten times that many.

I had an old blanket nailed across my laundry door for a few years. I have now made a curtain with some discounted insulated curtain fabric I found instead, it hangs on a tension rod with shower curtain rings sewn onto the curtain. I managed to sort out a pelmet as well to help keep the heat in/out better, using some extra fabric and a couple more tension rods. Miss Meow has not discovered a way through (which is good, if I wanted her to I would do the raised corner) but Mr Woof is happy to push it aside so he can get through to the dog door.

I am grateful I put petrol in my car yesterday, so today I can drive straight home from work without stopping.

Edit: Bonus gratefulness - the food cupboard had some slightly squished lemon butter pastry things that are really yummy. I am having dessert first tonight.

Op Shops seem to have stupid pricing these days. They have so much stuff being donated that they dont always even accept donations, and then instead of putting reasonable prices on things to sell quickly they mark it up so much it's often not worth buying.

My Excel spreadsheet is refusing to play nice with my OFFSET functions. I do not know why, the exact same formula is working with other cells, it just won't let me create them with a different original cell reference.

Edit: have worked out a workaround to do what I want. I think this might be a better way of doing things anyway so maybe Excel did me a favour.

I wish I was in bed, instead of at work where it is very chilly this morning. It's been an indoor puffer jacket kind of day here.

There have been vaccination shortages anyway, so you might not have been able to get it done. Miss Meow was due for hers 6 months ago but the vet didn't have any available so it got put off.

Thankyou. The serving size for hot seems to be much smaller today than I recall it being. Are we suffering from temperature shrinkflation?

May I please have some hot

I used to have a great cold weather look when I was working in the city (many years ago). Long black coat, suede gloves with fur trim, and a black fur scarf and hat. Now that I I only have a few minutes passing between car and buildings I am much more the random hodge-podge look.

I do not like that forecast. I looked at the predications for the next week and the coldest mornings are all the ones I'm working (which means 4am wakeup). Two days -1, one day 0, and a pleasantly warm 2 degrees for the other. There should be an extra penalty rate or allowance for early starts in below zero temperatures.

I just picked up an overtime shift and my inner accountant is thrilled. The rest of me is not so pleased with the addition of another early morning wakeup to my week ☹️

More than the 3% that government policy caps the offer for all their other workers at. But the politicians themselves and the executives get to have different rules.

Well, 11.5 degrees looks to be as warm as I'm getting today. I'm off to have a stroll around the neighbourhood with Mr Woof.

Victorian public service executives have now been awarded a pay increase between 3.5% and 4.3%.

I washed the woolen underlay I use as a dog blanket a couple of weeks ago and hung it outside to dry. I missed taking it in before rain hit so it had to stay out longer. Now I have a magpie coming in regularly to collect nesting material from it, so I guess it has to stay there now.

On the other hand when you have to answer "yes" it starts opening up a bunch of complicated questions to wade through. I put a small amount of money into some investment funds a couple of years ago and now I get to wade through a whole bunch of extra questions, all over tiny amounts of money. It's all stuff like $20 of franking credits, $2.31 in foreign investment offsets and $6 of capital gains. I'm looking forward to hitting the age I can access Super and can just shove money in there and take it out tax free without all the hassle.

I think USA has the additional complication of having both State and Federal income taxes. There also seem to be a lot of things that can be deductable there that don't apply here - like mortgage payments on your own home and the value of donations given to charity (not just money, but stuff like old clothes you drop off at the op shop!). Plus they have the option to file a joint tax return as a couple instead of being treated as two individuals, which is beneficial in some circumstances but not others.

It's certainly a massive improvement on the old paper forms. The early electronic lodgements were also basically just the paper form online, all of this automatic stuff makes it so much easier.