Tuesday

Now Tuesday and hopefully if all goes well I will hear from the funeral director as to when the funeral will be and whether there will be a cremation. The hospital will hopefully have finished their formalities and release the body to the funeral director. If I don't hear from him today then hopefully tomorrow. I have exactly one week left of my vacation so hopefully the funeral will be before then although I won't have any problems getting time off work if need be, I do have Bereavement Leave, I took it for mother. It would be ironic if the funeral is set for Monday cos that was when mother's funeral was, I remember that day like it was yesterday. I guess Sally's funeral will be added to my growing list of eternally fresh and not-too-happy memories!!

I will keep myself busy today, going to the shops and running other errands. I have to remember that there will no longer be Sally's pension coming in on the Monday so I will need supplies to last me through to my Thursday payday. At the hospital they said I might be able to claim Bereavement Allowance as Sally was on a pension, but after contacting Centerlink it turns out that I earn too much. Basically it goes like this, the full rate of the Bereavement Allowance is about $700/fortnite and you can earn up to about $150 before they start reducing the amount at a rate of 50c per every dollar over the limit, so some simply maths establishes that my wages will be way above the limit where the allowance would be down to zero. As one would say, now I am single again I should have more disposable income, but reality is I still have these one-off expenses to deal with, the ambulance fees and then the funeral and other expenses associated with this whole thing, so it will be some time before I will start having some disposable income to enjoy. I have no credit card debts, just a small loan I had needed to take out to cover for Sally's ongoing medical expenses such as bandages and pads, and the repayments are relatively small and won't eat much of my fortnitely wages. Finance companies actually charges you a fee if you pay off the loans earlier, I guess to cover for the lost interest!! You'd think they'd be glad for me to pay off the loan earlier, but no, they are looking for the profits from the interest that I would be paying with each repayment!! Uh well as I said it is a relatively small repayment and I hopefully won't need any more loans as I no longer have to deal with medical expenses, and my utility bills, electricity, gas etc, will be lower as well. No more doing laundry 3 times per day so our gas bill from the hot water system will be way down, and my climate control requirements are far less than what Sally needed. Our winters are not cold so I never needed heating. While Sally needed the living room kept in furnace-like conditions due to her hypothermia, I was perfectly happy in my frigid computer room and bedroom, I never needed any heating at all. So the winter utility bill will be much lower also.

Then there are other matters that has been put on hold for two years that needs to be attended to. For example the car hasn't been serviced for over two years, and the hand-held control or "clicker" for the alarm has long since died despite a new battery being installed so the car has been without an alarm for much of that time. The trailer needs fixing to make it roadworthy again. And various other matters. Basically our lives has been put on hold for two years due to Sally's health issues, and well as money becomes available over the next few weeks and months I will be able to attend to such matters. The lease on our house runs until October so have plenty of time to get things sorted out there, then will decided whether I stay here, assuming the landlord doesn't want to sell the house or something. If I do move it will certainly be into a smaller place, I quite enjoy the apartment lifestyle, the only reason why we have been in detached bungalows on 1/4 acre blocks is cos Sally liked her space and privacy, she did not like apartment living at all !!!!

Anyway time to hit the boards running for this day.........