Interest Rate Worry

Aaargh. Today is not a great day.

Yesterday started out the badness with a company-wide Adobe audit. I've had to delete my Photoshop ... which does not bode well for resizing my pics for the blog. So I may just be pictureless for a while :( It also kinda hinders the retrospective posts project I was working on! But I did manage to finish up my whole Southern Africa trip. Sadly I only barely managed to get started on the Singapore & Thailand one. But keep your eyes peeled for more :)

Then I headed home and spent some quality time with the buns ... they are so cute and half an hour with them does wonders to calm me. After Varen got home we went out for some sushi at Sakura, we haven't had sushi in absolute ages! Sadly they've put their all-you-can-eat special up to R130 ... but they haven't increased the prices of the individual plates. Starting to not be worth it for me anymore.

And then once home we watched another good old movie, The Shawshank Redemption.

Andy Dufresne, is sent to Shawshank Prison for the murder of his wife and secret lover. He is very isolated and lonely at first, but realises there is something deep inside your body, that people can't touch and get to....'HOPE'. Andy becomes friends with prison 'fixer' Red (Morgan Freeman), and Andy epitomises why it is crucial to have dreams. His spirit and determination, leads us into a world full of imagination, filled with courage and desire. Will Andy ever realise his dreams...?

I loved this movie the first time I saw it. I loved the story when I read Stephen King's book (that the movie was based on). And I loved it again last night.

I loved it even more because we sat watching with the bunnies. I got my first licks from Henna who seems to be settling in more now :) This was an amazing moment! Hard to believe she's only been with us a week now.

This morning I have such mixed emotions. I'm so excited for my Mom's upcoming visit and Daddio joining us for the 2nd long weekend. We'll even get to see my cousin when she's up here for a school dragon-boating competition. It's gonna be awesome :) But things with Varen, although good, seem to have some underlying issues. Which is sad. I'm a little worried about us right now. They're all financial ... which seems so superficial. But in a relationship, you have to have a balance of all aspects and this one for us is supremely out of kilter.

I'm a saver. By nature, he's not. Although these days I know he's trying to be, probably mostly for me. He earns quite a bit more than I do, but it all seems to get spent each month without actually buying a thing! He's bought the house we live in (I do pay rent, but it's not a huge amount) and he's bought himself a fancy-ass car (he's a boy, apparently that's what they do). He's even spent a fortune furnishing the house in the last few months. But even tho the decisions might have been sound when he first bought these things, with the constantly rising interest rate, it's just costing more and more each month.

And I just want to book my holiday :( Yes, I know it sounds like I'm the frivilous one ... worried about my holiday while he tackles the bond but I'm sure the exchange rate is getting worse as each day goes by and we have yet to actually book (the trip is priced in US dollars). And on top of that, paying for the trip is not the end of the story ... we need some spending money. The plan was to save that between booking the trip and actually going on the trip. Sigh. Needless to say I am worried. I *need* my annual International Trip (almost physically. Hey, other people have smoking!). I have my heart set on these tours I chose. I can easily afford to do any one of them (I have half a bond for a way cheaper place that's technically already sold). I don't know how to fix this and it's driving me batty. I don't want to give up on my holiday and I sure as hell don't want to go without him.

Will this situation ever come right? Will planning next year's holiday be easier, less of a financial strain? Or will it just be worse because the exchange rate has gone up to 20% and his repayments have tripled from what he was originally paying. Never before have I been quite so glad that I didn't buy my own home. I just friggin' wish the sale would concluded on the place Bean & I own. Property is suddenly on a slippery slope here in SA. The prices sky-rocketed and now with the number of people reconsidering an international relocation, there are more houses for sale than people who can afford to be buying with the current interest rate! Aaargh. And my next psycho appointment is in May :(