Stupid Cinema People

Ok, I haven't been ranting here for a while - I had something that was super annoying me in the cinema the other day but I couldn't be bothered blogging about it.  Another annoying occurrence happened the other day again at Hoyts too, so hell, I'm going to bitch about it!


Story One


MerlinFan and I went to watch Wrath of the Titans the other day at Hoyts.  We were sitting at J8 and J9, and you know the row letters are actually stuck on the steps beside each row of seats.  Anyways, obviously there were a couple of steps next to each row, so we headed into the row which we thought was J.


We were early, and not long after, a couple in their 30s (looked like) came in from the other side of the row and sat down next to us.  They said nothing, as if everything was all normal, but let's just call them Dumb and Dumber (yes, I mean stupid dumb and mute dumb).  Miss Dumb sat next to me and Mr Dumber sat on her other side.


A few minutes later, another couple came in, looked at their seat numbers and told Dumb and Dumber "excuse me, but you're in our seats."


Mr Dumber turned to MerlinFan and I with this super accusing look, and told the second couple pointedly, "well, these guys are in our seats too."


Excuse me, if you thought we were in your seats, why didn't you say so before?  I just find that bloody annoying - you have a mouth, you're not mute, is it so hard to just open your mouth and ask?  You've been sitting there for 10 minutes thinking we're in your seats and you said nothing?  If you're in the right seat, no one would hesitate to apologise for being in your rightful seat, dumbass.  It sure comes across much politer than suddenly turning around and accusing someone of being in their seat (as if we did it on purposely and don't wanna leave or something).  I was SOOO tempted to give him a 'What is wrong with you???' look, and say "Why didn't you say so in the first place?"


Anyway, Mr Dumber went on to say, "Well, we're in seat blah blah, here, I'll show you my tickets"  as if we were the bad guys stealing their seats.


I don't f@*&ing care about your stupid tickets.  Anyway, I, still being a nice citizen and not so ai-chwoi-su, told him my seat numbers and got up for him and checked the row numbers and stuff again (see, acknowledging that I could be in the wrong seats while he just sat there fat ass and all with his dumb girlfriend) and turns out we were in the wrong row, since the row letters were put on the stairs in the back of each row, not the front, so there were a few other people who were moving around that day because they sat in the wrong row.

Anyways, MerlinFan and I moved, and as I got out of my seat, some of the popcorn fell out from the bucket and spilt onto Miss Dumb's new seat. I just pretended I didn't see and walked off.  Honestly, I couldn't be bothered apologising to stupid people.  So we were in the wrong seats, but the point is if you think someone's in your seat, you should have said so in the first place instead of sitting down mutely and then waiting till someone chases you out of their seats to accuse someone else of stealing your seats. (So iau-kwui again... we were wondering why the seats were off centre instead of in the middle like the guy who we bought the tickets from told us). 


And what if the lights were already out and the movie already started?  Maybe it would be all right for you to just shift one seat over, but if it was a full cinema, you would have made it a hell lot more inconvenient for everyone else to get up and start looking for seats in the dark.  Congrats to Miss Dumb for being dumb and having a boyfriend that was even Dumber and super chivalrous, afraid to ask people to check their seat numbers.  Cinemas have assigned seats for a good reason, dude.  Why, do you think I'm going to beat you up?  Throw popcorn at you?  Shove my choctop ice-cream down your throat?  Please.


And that was the story of Dumb and Dumber.


Story Two


Story two was when Aunt S asked me to watch The Hunger Games with her.  Yes, the Hunger Games = lots of teens and tweens.


Anyways there was a bunch of teens sitting behind us - I don't know if they were high school kids or international students, but the girl sitting behind Aunt S was PT, so let's call her PT.  Anyway, halfway through the movie, Aunt S suddenly moved forward, then turned around and stared at them.  Then she got up and moved into the empty seat on my other side.  PT and her dumb friends just giggled aggravatingly.


I asked her what was wrong, and she said the annoying girl, PT behind her kept kicking and kneeing the back of her chair.  Not only that, but she had her foot on the head of the chair, and Aunt S said her feet bloody stank!!!


SICK!


Aunt S said she was soooo tempted to turn around and tell her off, but she didn't.  (Damn, I sooo wished she did, for she can be super nitpicky and crazy sometimes! :P) As we left the theatre, PT was standing around with her friends, giggling air-headily, and Aunt S said she almost wanted to say to her "Your feet stink!"


Gross.  Some people are SUPER inconsiderate - not only did you think you can put your feet up on other people's chair and kick the back of people's chairs, you also can't afford to wash your own feet.

Life As A Maid

I've said in my last post that since returning to Melbourne, I have taken up a full time (unpaid) job as a maid.  Yes, please call me kakak.

Damon pissed on our comforter and bed this morning at about 4.30am after refusing to use his new upgraded Litter Kwitter dish.  Woo-hoo... fan-bloody-tastic.

Anyways, Ahimi and I quarantined Pissy Paws Damon in the bathroom while we stripped the bed.  I started washing the pissy part of the massive, heavy comforter and the mattress liner in the bathtub and Mil loaded the bed sheet and comforter cover into the laundry.

Damon is mewing his head off because he doesn't like being left alone in the bathroom.  I ask Ahimi if she will clean the mattress bit that has pee on it and she is super reluctant, says "but I don't know where the spot is." (Umm... the wet patch?  Duh)  Fine, whatever, too early in the morning to argue.  I know Princess Ahimi doesn't like washing floors or giving Damon a bath ("It's your cat" she would say, and yes, I have no problem there, but just for amusement's sake, see Index below) so I tell her I'm going to do that too, if she'll take over soaking the comforter and mattress liner.  Princess gives me the stink eye again, looking super unwilling, saying "Which part is it?  What have you done?"

Good grief.  I just tell her which parts I've washed and go off to shower Damon and desanitise the bathroom floor with all the pissy paw prints.  After that I try to make adjustments to Damon's toilet - I am greeted by a sour-faced Ahimi saying "The wet quilt is too heavy, you HAVE to help me."

So I drop my stuff to come and help her, but guess what???  As soon as I stepped in the bathtub, Ahimi leaves and refuses to help, claiming she already washed it, now it's my turn to rinse it even though she told me it was too heavy so she needed two people to lift it.  Great, so you can't do it alone but I can.  Super.  I have been seriously duped.  (Like the laundry a few weeks ago - asking me to "get started" with the five loads of laundry while she went for driving (which I stupidly did), then coming home and plopping down in front of her iPad and not lifting a finger to help even though I still had 2 loads to rinse and hang dry.  So yes, Ahimi, in case you were planning of accusing me of "offering" to do the laundry too, you KNOW that is so not true).

Fun, fun, fun.  So after first-washing the comforter and mattress liner, then giving Damon a bath and desanitising the bathroom floor, I rinsed out the back-breakingly heavy, soaked comforter and mattress liner while Ahimi is playing with her iPad in the living room.  I then I trudged into the bathroom and started washing the floors with Dettol.  I go to the bathroom to find towels to wipe the floors to find that Ahimi has locked herself in the outside bathroom and is taking a leisurely shower (with the rinsed comforter and mattress liner in the tub and getting showered and wet again with her gross shower water).  Nice.

Finally, I am done at 8.15am.  I feel too pissed off to sleep, so I sit in front of my laptop and blog.  Damon, Mr Pissy Pants, comes and sits in front of me purring, expecting Damon time after being "ignored" while I was washing and cleaning.  Sigh, Damon, you are just too cute and too sweet... I give him a hug and cuddles and he falls asleep as always hugging my arm.

Index:

Ahimi's ridiculous roommate agreement

- Ahimi wrote this bizarre little document (inspired by Big Bang Theory Sheldon's roommate agreement and just as ludicrous) about the dos and don'ts of owning a kitty a couple of weeks after we got Damon (yes, I was working full time, left the house at 5.30am and got home at 7.30pm OR left for work at 12pm and got home at 1.30AM, but that was just for a month before my contract ended and I started to work part-time).  I made it through only halfway and it was just so laughable and hypocritical and describing herself that I just stopped reading altogether... the one extract that stayed in my mind for its hippo-criticalism is this:

"I am not OBLIGED to clean cat shit as you are forgetting he is YOUR cat as you wanted. Just like you get first dibs on the "good stuff" like telling everybody the good news that he is your cat, you also get first dibs on the bad like litter duty."

Of course you're not.  But when I'm at work, feel free to let him run around with poopy pants as you wait for me to come home and clean it.  Chi-si.  You're at home, I'm not - am I supposed to take a train for 1 hr home to clean his butt?  Don't even make sense.

Um... I DIDN'T get the first dibs on telling anyone the good news (in case she forgot) because she already told every mutual friend we have that I was buying a cat, his colour etc etc until I also have nothing to tell anyone else (of course until I told her I was annoyed, for I didn't want to jump the gun and tell everyone until I actually GOT him!).  So... according to the agreement, does that mean you get first dibs on litter duty too? XP

Not My Day

This post was previously published in my personal blog, but I decided I didn't want crap negative shit in my happy blog, so I moved it here instead.


Have you ever had days where everything just seems to go wrong?  It's like the first wrong thing of the day triggers off a chain of unfortunate events that just keeps coming... yesterday was just one of those days.

It started off with me going for my routine 6 monthly blood test.  Bad idea to go on a Monday and at lunchtime - after riding on the tram for 30 mins, I had to wait over half an hour to get a measly blood test done.  Not only that, but I got a student (now I really don't mind students because I'm not needle phobic and we all got to learn sometime, right?  And it was quite amusing too LOL)  But I knew at once he put on the tourniquet too loose (his supervisor was there and he showed her, who said it was fine, so I decided not to say anything) anyways, guess what, he missed cos the tourniquet had unravelled on its own and of course the vein went flat... and his supervisor couldn't salvage that either.  I told them politely "you can try the other arm if you like" which they pounced on immediately  @_@

I had time to do a bit of food blogging, then it was time to start on dinner.  I had intended to make chicken pie liaw (chicken pie filling - which was usually with steamed chicken, potatoes, onion and carrots but today I was making it without carrots as Princess Ahimi doesn't like carrots).  Anyway, yesterday when Aunt S heard I was trying to make chicken pie liaw for the first time (yes, I've never made it before) she said she was interested in coming after work for dinner to taste it.  So okay, I decided to make enough for three.

As I put the chicken into the steamer, I started to chop up the potatoes and onions.  OMG!!!  Seriously where were all the sharp knives in the kitchen?  Super blunt and I felt like I was chopping the potato savagely like a wood-cutter with a butter knife  @_@  I was getting nowhere - so bloody slow and the chicken was already almost done - I asked Princess Ahimi to come and help me chop the onions but of course, in true Princess style, she just ignored me and went back to playing her computer (yalah, as usual, cannot help but can eat). Damon tried generously to help (actually is just want to eat lah!) but smelt the onions and sneezed twice!!!  LOL poor thing.

While I was stuck with super slimy potato and stinky onion wet hands, the phone started ringing and I called for Ahimi to help answer it, but of course, yet again, in true Princess style (bless her chilly heart), she just refused to answer and made me have to go wash my hands and pick up the phone like 'kakak' a.k.a servant.  Of course, it had to be Aunt S saying she wasn't coming after all cos too tired after work - fine, too sian to care... at least now I don't have to rush and Damon can have extra chicken treats.

The only thing that came out perfectly I would have to say is the two steamed chicken Marylands (thighs for our chicken pie liaw, and drums for Damon's treats).  Really juicy and plump, and had lots of chicken soup.  I was proud of myself :)

Steamed chicken in super old fashioned tin- cut open to make sure it's cooked through (no salmonella please!)

Now for cooking the potatoes and onions.  For some weird reason, I thought they had to be steamed for 25 mins instead of 10-15 mins (lost in translation) after asking my Aunt J in Kuching over the phone the night before.  (Keep in mind too, whilst juggling the chicken and the chopping with dirty hands I was also messaging Kuching for advice!!!  And no answer for so long so okloh, I thought 25 mins was correct so I left it on and started peeling the chicken).

Before

Meanwhile Damon was going so crazy over the smell that I gave him some steamed chicken treats and his beef dinner.  After about 20 mins, I decided to just open the lid on the potatoes and see how they were going and SHIT!!!!  The bottom bits of the onions and potatoes were chau-tar!!! 

After

<String of expletives>

Now I know how the contestants in Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules must feel when their precious food gets burnt to a cinder!  And yes, thanks, now I got the sms from Kuching saying “no, cook the potato and onion for 10-15 mins.”  Grrrreeeeat <Tony the Tiger impersonation>

Anyway, I couldn’t be bothered redoing it all by myself, so I scooped out the good bits (most of it was useable except the bottom and sides), threw them in with the chicken, chicken soup and then the tinned condensed chicken soup.

Motherf&*#@r!!!  I hate tin cans that I have to peel the cover off – always gets stuck and feel like it’s gonna slice my finger off.  So I get Ahimi to literally lift a finger and do an itsy bitsy part in our dinner cooking by bringing the can – she refused to get her ass off her chair – and putting it right in front of her so all she has to do is pull with a finger.  Thanks, that was ALOT of help.

This is the overall outcome:

I thought it tasted okay – my steamed chicken was really nice and juicy and the potatoes soft and the soup had a chicken flavour from the steamed chicken that had so much juice.  So I call Ahimi and say I’m done and going to eat now.  She does not bother coming out to eat with me… instead after I’m finished eating over half an hour later, she strolls out casually for My Kitchen Rules at 7.30pm.  Nice.  And the only comment she made when she tasted the chicken pie liaw was “It’s so no taste.  Not like the one Mama and Aunt J makes the condensed soup taste is really strong.  Did you add something else to it?”

Thank you.  That is so nice of you.  And yes, she also sat down, guzzled down my lemon squash and left drops of soup all over the table for me to clean.  Nothing like having a twin like Ahimi to make you feel unappreciated and “why do I even bother.”

The night didn’t end there… there overflowing dishes to be washed (from this morning too) and I spent almost an hour scrubbing the burnt bottom of the pot, which is still dirty, BTW, while Ahimi sat watching TV and eating rock melon.  Nightmare.  This is also on the background of doing loads of laundry, emptying the rubbish bins in the apartment (which I’ve been doing and I swear I’ve only seen Ahimi do once since I came back a month ago), washing the both toilets and vacuuming/ “rubbing” the carpet twice a week (when Ahimi is balding and leaving balls of hair everywhere Ringu style).  Hey, we’re supposed to be sisters and equals, man, not princess and maid!  Play your part, man, we have no servants in this house!

My conclusion for the night was – I will die before I ever become:

1. Chef (at least they have fame and fortune)

2. Kakak/ maid (at least get paid for it lah!)

3. Housewife (ya, I will die first)

Then I see Damon running to the toilet and get a feeling he needs to use the loo.

I had upgraded Damon’s Litter Kwitter to the 2nd stage with a hole in it, and he had already peed in the morning in the old loo, so he usually wouldn’t go again until after dinner.  So armed, with treats, I went in with him.

The end of the story is that Damon finally peed (into the pan and not into the toilet, despite me positioning him so carefully!) and when he jumped off the toilet, he managed to shower the toilet seat, the floor and me with pee.  Thanks, Damon.  Exactly what I needed.

So I spent the next TWO hours in the toilet with Damon waiting for him to take a dump, which he just refused.  A bit of scratching and sniffing around, but no action.  So I finally let us both out at 1am 0_0 to fill his water and food bowls that I didn’t manage to earlier because I had been too busy.

And wow!  While I was taking his water bowl to the sink, my hand accidentally bumps the tap lever and out shoots a strong jet of tap water that bounces off a dish and fountains right into the drying rack, onto the dishes I had washed and dried, flooding the tray underneath it and also the dishrag under it!!!!  F@%# me – it was a disaster!!!

And as I scrambled to dry it, I turn around to see Damon jumping onto the dinner table!!!  NOOOO!!!  <scream of pure terror from germ phobic self>  I look for some sanitary wipes and bloody hell – the last one had snapped off and the next piece was stuck inside and the lid of the stupid contraption was IMPOSSIBLE to open.  Yup – did not budge!  It was just one of those days where you feel everything is lined up to make you truly khi-siaw...  I rushed to the table in the corridor to find the same thing with the other two in the hall.  Tulanlah!

After finally finding an opened pack of sanitizer wipes (and BTW the stupid zip lock bag the box was in just refused to zip and lock thank you very much) I wiped down the table.  Phew!  And as I bring Damon’s water bowl to his cosy eating corner (under our dining table LOL) I noticed something out of the ordinary.  What was that?  Something brown and crumpled, stuck between the wall and the transparent table cover.  I crawl in under the table and lean closer, frowning (like the stupid guy who saw the scarabs in The Mummy) and…

AAAAHHHHH!!!! <old fashioned horror movie scream>

It’s a SPIIIIIIEEEEE-DER!!!!  AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

F*^% me man!!!!  Now you might think what’s the big deal, it’s just a stupid spider, but to an arachnophobic freak it’s a HUGE deal!!!  Of all the disgusting things… I grab a kitchen wipe and sanitizer wipe – thought twice about it (it wasn’t your everyday soft spider, but the kinda hard looking and shell-like kind) and wrapped the kitchen wipe around a slipper and hit the arachnid with enough force to punch through the wall.

EW.  The spider was squashed and left a generous splat of brown spider juice on my wall.  Sick.  Left me feeling so gross and icky and hoping there wasn’t more where it came from.

Finally, at 1.30am, I went to shower and change my pissy clothes and crawled into bed, exhausted.

It was seriously, seriously not my day.

Going Home

I'm back again!  Yes, not with rantings and ravings of a madman (well, some), but just to update MerlinFan on my travel progress so far!


See, I'm heading home to Kuching today after being away for a year.  Time really seems to fly by!  Even just yesterday when we were going out I kept thinking I had to go back to work for my afternoon shift and then realising that I've completed my last day and my contract has ended!  Yay!!!!  No more full time work - hello to another year of locum and part time work.


Anyways, I had to admit I wasn't particularly excited to leave Melbourne yesterday because...
1) MerlinFan was not coming with me
2) It was sad leaving Damon (my kitty, btw) behind (although I knew he was left in very capable hands!) even just for two weeks because he got so big so fast in 4 weeks and imagine how huge he would be in another 2 weeks!  <sob>

Damon on my bedside table this morning

Bye-bye Damon!

Anyways, packing was horrendous last night.  I had dumped my stuff into my suitcase thinking I had nothing to pack, so I'd leave the rest of my belongings till right before I leave, and as usual, things that I always thought I'd left in the same spot miraculously grew legs and walked off.  Yes, I was really annoyed and tossing stuff into my bag and so not helping that the cabin luggage I was using was Damon's favourite luggage so he kept sitting on it and inside it while I was trying to pack... @_@


Got into the airport on time, and check in was really quick but as usual, I got stopped by the Friendly Neighbourhood Airport Officer wanting a "random" check of my bags for explosives and a frisk.  Erm... I DOUBT these checks are random!  There must be some criteria they're looking for, or else why is it that EVERY time we fly, either me or MerlinFan gets stopped?  I am NOT kidding... EVERY time, even when we're travelling with family, one of the pair of us gets stopped.  Do I look that shady?  Do I have a sign on my head that says "I'm a terrorist?"  I sure wasn't anything like the pink Pussay Patrol T-shirts the Inbetweeners wore to the airport!


ANYway, pass that ridiculousness, I went into the terminal and waited for a couple of hours.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (which was ok as I was updating my brekkie blog!) they finally called us in for boarding.


And now, another of my biggest pet peeves.  Why in the world does the airport bother "inviting" people from the back of the plane to board first when they just accept everyone at once?  Yeah... the flight wasn't particularly that full, but people were so "kin-teo" and waiting in front of the counter.  And of course, once they "invited" rows 49-60, 3/4 of the people rushed forwards.  I joined the line halfway as most of the people weren't moving (assuming they were rows 48 and under), and let a couple of women (who looked like mother and daughter) in the line ahead of me, thinking they should go first if they were in rows 49-60 and were there queueing before me.


Once I get in line, I see the mother's ticket and realise that they weren't in row 49-60!  They were in f#*@ing row 37!!!  WTF!  The nerve.  And what was even more appalling is that the airlines lady checking the tickets checked them and just let them through with everyone else.  Hello?  Are you deaf???  Did you not hear your own airline announce rows 49-60?  Or do you just not give a f#@*?  It's bloody annoying I tell ya!  They might as well say to everyone "Please cut the queue.  Please do!"  Honestly, the best thing I've seen was at Changi Airport, for the Emirates and SIA flights - the airport staff told the people off when they came before their row numbers were called (i.e. actually gave them stern looks and asked them "is this row 49-60?  Your ticket is seat number xxx" ROFL!), and asked them to wait in the corner (where everyone can stare at them and know they were queue-cutters).  Phai-seh, phai-seh, phai-seh... that's more what I'm talking about!  If not they will never learn their lesson!


Anyways, of course, all the air stewardesses were stationed at the back of the plane when people were boarding, and of course, naturally, the mother and daughter queue-cutters held everyone up for ages lifting and shoving their bags into the overhead compartment and then realising it was too big and the compartment couldn't shut... @_@ FYI, that's why we wait our turns before entering the plane, mate... so we don't hold up the rest of the plane!!!


At first it didn't look like a full flight.  I had a window seat so I was praying no one sat next to me... but damn!  A couple sat beside and me another of my pet peeves... the guy immediately claimed the arm rest as his!  And of course kept bumping into my elbow but I was adamant not to move cos hey, you're in MY space, man!!!  Come on...  why don't u take your girlfriend's arm rest???  I would love to invent new plane seats with electrified arm rests... and each passenger has a button to press to activate a jolt of electric to their half of the armrest as a "friendly reminder" when the passenger besides them decides to invade their space!  Ahahaha... >:D


Anyhoo, thank goodness there were no screaming babies and kids tonight.  However, when the lights went off, they were off for a grand total of maybe 30 seconds before the overhead lights on the left side of the plane (my side) flickered back on again.  WTF.  Turns out the lights were faulty and they couldn't get it to go off.  Right.


The guy in front of me was making such a kerfuffle about the whole thing.  Wanting to change seats to the dark side, wanting a window, wanting to be upgraded... hey dude, it won't be fair - the airline can't upgrade a third of the plane.  I thought the air stewardess handled it pretty well with a pleasant, benevolent smile on her face, although it did look a bit strained in the end.  LOL.  They were nice about it, they gave us eye covers and ear plugs, and asked the people at the window like me if I wanted to move elsewhere.  I was really tired after the whole day of being out and about and packing (without arvo siesta) so I didn't really care - I snoozed away like the dead...

Horror Moving Tales from the Crypt Part IV

"Nooooo!" you're probably thinking.  That's what I'm thinking too, mate.  I didn't want to blog another post because that would mean yet another shitty thing has happened!  And I went three whole weeks without blogging in the Crypt!!!  


Just when I thought everything was over, just when I thought I was finally freed of the stupidity of this moving business and could finally sit back and enjoy my fantastic apartment...


Recap: Remember the carpet damages 
1) Multiple burns with hair straightener in the bedroom (probably more than 10 so you can see this was obviously NOT accidental) with one HUGE burn and weird massive green stain in the bedroom not removable by professional clean.  (Sorry, burns not so obvious in the pics - was tempted to cut out and keep the actual CARPET as evidence)

2) And then there was the big white stain/ bleached section in the living room.


Anyways remember how I said I told the real estate agent and he initially just ignored my question regarding it, so I told him I was going to put in a query to my landlord insurer Terri Scheer.  So I get a reply from the insurer saying to put in a report along with a whole list of documents.  So I ask the Melcorp agent for the documents, after which he tells me oh, the tenants are compensating me $200.  I tell him that's fine, I still need the documents as I'm still putting in the report.


That's when it gets dodgier.  At first the Melcorp agent replies me saying there is NO existing entry/exit report or any of the other requested documents for the apartment.  How can this be?  (What kind of rental agency as you running, a black market one???) It was really dodgy sounding to me, but anyway I sent in the report to Terri Scheer stating the docs were requested from the agent but not provided to me.


A while later, I get a reply from Terri Scheer saying they NEED those documents or else they can't process the claim.  So I email the agent back (and had to email him TWICE - second time to remind him!!!) asking him about the documents again and hmmm why were there now entry/exit documents etc?  And it's not even like he hadn't done them, the documents were from 2009!!!!  WTF.


That was a while ago.  And last week I got a somewhat not-so-happy sounding phone call from Terri Scheer asking what did I do with the bond money?  I was really surprised and I told them I have no idea because I don't have any control over that.  The Terri Scheer agent explains to me they have found that the tenants would have been liable for the $2800+ cost of repairing the carpet in the bedroom and living room (that I had already replaced at my own expense obviously) and there was more than enough in the $6000+ bond the tenants paid to cover those damages, however the rental agent has already released the bond to the tenants.


I so have enough of this whole fiasco!  I have spoken and looked this up with the Consumer Affairs Victoria and found out that there is only a 10 business day time limit to sort out the bond, and since it is now well beyond that time period the only way I can ask for review of compensation is to put in a request for a VCAT hearing.  @_@ And I don't even know if the tenants are still here.


At the same time, the rep at Consumer Affairs Victoria also referred me to the Estate Agents Resolution Service (EARS) to discuss the conduct of the real estate agent.  They weren't particularly helpful either - they just suggested I could apply for a VCAT hearing about compensation for about $38, and bring up the conduct of the real estate agent and the documents with the agency itself.  Riiight... I'm sure the boss or whoever it is in charge of the whole agency would be super interested to hear about it (a.k.a. don't give a shit).  Another interesting fact the EARS agent told me was that I actually didn't have to wait for my landlord insurer to decide the tenants were liable before applying for a VCAT hearing - of course having their statement would be useful, but I could have applied to the VCAT hearing for an amount of the bond for compensation without it as soon as they moved out.


Hmph... this is a joke I tell ya.  I had no idea that the compensation would come out directly from the bond - I was under the impression that the tenants would have to settle that separately.  I also had no idea until the Melcorp agent sent me the documents (that I had requested for multiple times) that the bond was a HUGE $6000+.  Lastly I had no idea that there was only 10 days after the tenants vacated to sort out the bond.  I mean I did email the Consumer Affairs Victoria regarding this initially, and they did send me a link to the VCAT website for determination - however it said nothing there as well about the 10 day time frame.  And what was the point of having landlord insurance if all they could do was determine that the damages were coming out of the bond, and the time frame it took to actually get approval (not to mention delays in getting the whole truckload of documents - whether it was deliberate or not from the real estate agent I suspect because he may have already sent out the tenants' bond claim form) is beyond 10 days, after which the time limit to sort out the bond would expire???


I rest my case.  When doing my research on this ages ago, I realised there are tons of sites on rights of tenants but nothing much to refer to for landlords.  And there's no legal guidelines out there on real estate agent conduct, so I think a lot of that they can just get away with by saying "our agency doesn't have that policy."  End of story.


$200 compensation for damages to the carpet is a real laugh.  It can literally buy 6 inches of carpet... yes did the agent expect us to cut out the damaged bits and just replace it with new carpet like a patchwork quilt?


Anyway, after this life's experience, I'm a little older and wiser from it, and my advice to anyone looking to buy would be:


1) Get everything in writing.  Do not let the real estate agent assure you very confidently "yes, yes we will look after everything; Don't worry, we will fix up everything - the tenants will pay for the damages.  The apartment will be professionally cleaned before we hand over the keys!"  Bullshit.  As soon as the place is yours, out come their true colours.


2) Find out what the bond is.  The EARS rep told me the landlord usually won't be told what the amount is unless you ask.  Find out if there is enough bond there if there are damages you want to seek compensation out of.  


3) After the tenant leaves, there is only a TEN business day time limit to sort out the bond.  Once the bond has been released it cannot be claimed again, but you can still hold the tenants liable for damages they caused whilst on the property and apply for a VCAT compensation claim.


4) Don't know what's the point in having landlord insurance.  Sure didn't do me much good, did it?

$31 Million New Year's Eve Tattslotto

Damn, didn't win a single cent!!!


End of blog post.