I go to the letterbox this morning and remove the letters.
I'm flicking through the various letters while walking back to the house and notice the distinctive colouring of my firearms licence through the envelope's window. And I think to myself "Firearms licence .. that isn't due for renewal until July."
THEN I REALISE IT'S THE PAPERWORK FOR MY NEW RIFLE ...
<<Julie does happy dance>>
Rip open envelope and there is the additional page (to add to my firearms licence) showing my new rifle and the co-licence for Shooting Buddy's !!!!!
Woo hooooooooooooooooooo
Now to go pick up guns ... not sure when I can get away ....
[Update: That's a new record - less than a month since the paperwork went in (April 17th) to piece of paper in hand!!! Makes me want to go buy something else to see if it will be even quicker!]
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The Great High School Hunt Maybe Over ... Maybe ....
My regular readers may recall my post recently about trying to find a high school for Miss 11 (refresh your memories here, I'll wait).
Towards the end of that post I write:
"She’s sitting a trial exam next Saturday to give her an idea of what the GATE exam (and those for the Specialist Programs) would be like."
This "trial exam" was actually a Scholarship exam for a local Catholic High School - a very nice local Catholic High School - however, as they only award two academic scholarships (based on this exam) we were treating it as a trial for the GATE exam (this coming Saturday) rather than anything she had a real chance of getting.
WRONG ... but in a good way. As a result of this exam Miss 11 was offered a scholarship to this Catholic School which covers half her fees for the next 4 years (she will need to start there next year).
After a bit of a discussion we decided to accept the offer of the scholarship ("bird in hand" and all that) and that's where the fun started.
Putting in the paperwork for the acceptance was no problem. Putting in the paperwork for her enrollment is proving to be somewhat of an issue. (She still has to go through the standard enrollment process).
There are a number of "pieces of paper" that we need to submit with the enrollment form:
* Her birth certificate
* My naturalisation certificate
* Her immunisation record
Her birth certificate was no problem - that was in the safe.
However, my naturalisation certificate has disappeared. It actually disappeared a number of years back and I've never gotten around to getting a copy.
The immunisation record that I had was pretty old, so I rang the .gov department here that manages them and while on hold they suggest that I might like to do this via the net. So while waiting on hold I hop on the webpage to find out yes, I can obtain a copy of her immunisation certificate via the net as long as I have a password which they SNAIL MAIL!
So I applied for a password. And then spoke to the lady when I finally got off hold and requested a copy posted (let's cover all bases here). I was told that would take 10 days to come to me.
So anyway, minus my naturalisation certificate and Miss 11's immunisation record I trek down to the school to hand in the acceptance of scholarship letter and the enrollment form.
Nope, they won't accept the enrollment form without those two bits of paper.
So back home again to determine the process for getting a copy of my naturalisation certificate. According to the web it's a pretty easy process all you need is your birth certificate and a few other pieces of ID and you're set. Problem is, I don't have a copy of my birth certificate either. (That disappeared a very long time ago). Second problem is that I was born in Nigeria (however, my birth was registered with the British Consulate as my dad was British).
So phone call after phone call - firstly to the .gov department that handles naturalisation certificates. I can obtain a certificate without my birth certificate (probably anyway) if I have a statutory declaration from an "approved" person who has known me from before I was married (yes, naturalisation certificate is in maiden name all other forms of ID I have are in my married name). I also need a copy of a my marriage certificate (Did I mention that that had disappeared as well?).
Rang an "approved" person who meets these requirements only to find that they're currently out of the country (but will be returning this week).
Rang the British Embassy to find out if there was any chance of getting a copy of my birth certificate. The very helpful lady on the other end of the phone gave me two email address to start with. One of the emails bounced back, so I rang her again to check that I had it correct (I did), so she ended up directing me to a website where apparently I can apply on-line for a copy of my birth certificate. So I've done that. However once you order the copy there's no way of knowing what's happening until it does / doesn't turn up in your mail box.
Organised the paperwork for a copy of my marriage certificate - the request had to be actually done by hubby as I have no ID in my maiden name (which, of course, is the name on the certificate).
Pretty much satisfied that I had put all the appropriate wheels in motion I sat back and waited.
Yesterday the snail-mailed password arrived for me to access the site to get an up to date copy of Miss 11's immunisation record. So I logged on, downloaded her record only to find that it didn't show all her immunisations!!!! The last entry on the form was 2003 and I knew that she had had other injections after that. So I then had to ring the Doctor's surgery where the injections were done and leave a message for someone to check and get back to me.
The nurse rang me a couple of hours later and yes, the .gov immunisation record was incomplete. The surgery had records of all her immunisations. However, as Miss 11 is older than 7 the .gov department will no accept any additional records for her so I can't get the immunisation record updated. The best I can do is to get a letter from the Doctor's surgery and attach that to the immunisation record and hope the school accepts that.
So now I'm waiting for:
* Marriage certificate
* Birth certificate (if it turns up)
* Friend to return from overseas to do a stat dec for me (if the birth certificate doesn't turn up first)
* Letter from Doctor's surgery to attach to incomplete immunisation record
Is it any wonder that that I drink?!?!?
Towards the end of that post I write:
"She’s sitting a trial exam next Saturday to give her an idea of what the GATE exam (and those for the Specialist Programs) would be like."
This "trial exam" was actually a Scholarship exam for a local Catholic High School - a very nice local Catholic High School - however, as they only award two academic scholarships (based on this exam) we were treating it as a trial for the GATE exam (this coming Saturday) rather than anything she had a real chance of getting.
WRONG ... but in a good way. As a result of this exam Miss 11 was offered a scholarship to this Catholic School which covers half her fees for the next 4 years (she will need to start there next year).
After a bit of a discussion we decided to accept the offer of the scholarship ("bird in hand" and all that) and that's where the fun started.
Putting in the paperwork for the acceptance was no problem. Putting in the paperwork for her enrollment is proving to be somewhat of an issue. (She still has to go through the standard enrollment process).
There are a number of "pieces of paper" that we need to submit with the enrollment form:
* Her birth certificate
* My naturalisation certificate
* Her immunisation record
Her birth certificate was no problem - that was in the safe.
However, my naturalisation certificate has disappeared. It actually disappeared a number of years back and I've never gotten around to getting a copy.
The immunisation record that I had was pretty old, so I rang the .gov department here that manages them and while on hold they suggest that I might like to do this via the net. So while waiting on hold I hop on the webpage to find out yes, I can obtain a copy of her immunisation certificate via the net as long as I have a password which they SNAIL MAIL!
So I applied for a password. And then spoke to the lady when I finally got off hold and requested a copy posted (let's cover all bases here). I was told that would take 10 days to come to me.
So anyway, minus my naturalisation certificate and Miss 11's immunisation record I trek down to the school to hand in the acceptance of scholarship letter and the enrollment form.
Nope, they won't accept the enrollment form without those two bits of paper.
So back home again to determine the process for getting a copy of my naturalisation certificate. According to the web it's a pretty easy process all you need is your birth certificate and a few other pieces of ID and you're set. Problem is, I don't have a copy of my birth certificate either. (That disappeared a very long time ago). Second problem is that I was born in Nigeria (however, my birth was registered with the British Consulate as my dad was British).
So phone call after phone call - firstly to the .gov department that handles naturalisation certificates. I can obtain a certificate without my birth certificate (probably anyway) if I have a statutory declaration from an "approved" person who has known me from before I was married (yes, naturalisation certificate is in maiden name all other forms of ID I have are in my married name). I also need a copy of a my marriage certificate (Did I mention that that had disappeared as well?).
Rang an "approved" person who meets these requirements only to find that they're currently out of the country (but will be returning this week).
Rang the British Embassy to find out if there was any chance of getting a copy of my birth certificate. The very helpful lady on the other end of the phone gave me two email address to start with. One of the emails bounced back, so I rang her again to check that I had it correct (I did), so she ended up directing me to a website where apparently I can apply on-line for a copy of my birth certificate. So I've done that. However once you order the copy there's no way of knowing what's happening until it does / doesn't turn up in your mail box.
Organised the paperwork for a copy of my marriage certificate - the request had to be actually done by hubby as I have no ID in my maiden name (which, of course, is the name on the certificate).
Pretty much satisfied that I had put all the appropriate wheels in motion I sat back and waited.
Yesterday the snail-mailed password arrived for me to access the site to get an up to date copy of Miss 11's immunisation record. So I logged on, downloaded her record only to find that it didn't show all her immunisations!!!! The last entry on the form was 2003 and I knew that she had had other injections after that. So I then had to ring the Doctor's surgery where the injections were done and leave a message for someone to check and get back to me.
The nurse rang me a couple of hours later and yes, the .gov immunisation record was incomplete. The surgery had records of all her immunisations. However, as Miss 11 is older than 7 the .gov department will no accept any additional records for her so I can't get the immunisation record updated. The best I can do is to get a letter from the Doctor's surgery and attach that to the immunisation record and hope the school accepts that.
So now I'm waiting for:
* Marriage certificate
* Birth certificate (if it turns up)
* Friend to return from overseas to do a stat dec for me (if the birth certificate doesn't turn up first)
* Letter from Doctor's surgery to attach to incomplete immunisation record
Is it any wonder that that I drink?!?!?
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Ice Cream Bread is possible
Yes, it's true, you can make "bread" from just two ingredients -
2 cups ice-cream (in our case the girls decided that "Hokey Pokey" would be fun to try)
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
All you do is mix them together. I would suggest letting the ice-cream melt a bit first. We did it straight out of the freezer with a wooden spoon and it was pretty hard work.
Then you put it in a suitable baking container (we used silicone cup-cake molds) in the oven at 180C (350F) and cook until toothpick/skewer comes out clean. With the mixture split among the 15 cup cake molds this took 13 minutes of cooking time.
Allow to cool and then turn out.
Another easy "kid-friendly" recipe.
2 cups ice-cream (in our case the girls decided that "Hokey Pokey" would be fun to try)
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
All you do is mix them together. I would suggest letting the ice-cream melt a bit first. We did it straight out of the freezer with a wooden spoon and it was pretty hard work.
Then you put it in a suitable baking container (we used silicone cup-cake molds) in the oven at 180C (350F) and cook until toothpick/skewer comes out clean. With the mixture split among the 15 cup cake molds this took 13 minutes of cooking time.
Allow to cool and then turn out.
Another easy "kid-friendly" recipe.
Yummy Food ...
The girls have been doing some cooking lately:
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp each of cloves, ginger, and nutmeg
3 bananas, thoroughly mashed
3/4 cup sugar
scant 1/4 cup of cooking oil. Less if you add an extra banana
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans, if desired
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Miss 9 is becoming a master of this recipe:
Brownies (First found on Facebook)
(note, Miss 9 always make double this)
Dry Ingredients
(these can be mixed in advanced and stored in clip lock bags / jars)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain (all-purpose) flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
Wet Ingredients
(add these to the dry mixture at cooking time)
2 Eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Mix all ingredients together, place into a lined 8x8 or 9x8 pan.
Bake at 180C (350F) for 20-25 minutes. Brownies are cooked when a skewer comes out clean.
Miss 11 tried a recipe of DaddyBear's last night.
(As we didn't have the whole wheat flour this is what she did, follow the link above for the original recipe).
Banana Bread Recipe
Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp each of cloves, ginger, and nutmeg
Wet ingredients:
1 egg3 bananas, thoroughly mashed
3/4 cup sugar
scant 1/4 cup of cooking oil. Less if you add an extra banana
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans, if desired
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Thursday, May 9, 2013
New Rifle Purchase Process - Stage 3 Update
I received a phone call from Firearms Branch today - well actually I missed a phone call from them and then by the time I rang them back (direct number and name left on my messages!?!) the lady had figured out that she didn't need to talk to me after all.
She did say however that everything looked fine and when asked how long before I could expect the paperwork to come through, she indicated that it should be around a week or so!!!
Getting excited!!!!!
She did say however that everything looked fine and when asked how long before I could expect the paperwork to come through, she indicated that it should be around a week or so!!!
Getting excited!!!!!
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Send a message to our troops this ANZAC Day - 25th April
ANZAC was the name given to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers who landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey early on the morning of 25 April 1915 during the First World War (1914-1918).
While ANZAC day still remembers these brave men, the meaning has been widened to be a rememberence for all those who served and who gave their lives serving.
As a result, this one day in the year involves the whole of Australia in solemn ceremonies of remembrance, gratitude and national pride for all our men and women who have fought and died in all wars.
Last year I linked to news.com.au's memories page; this year they have invited members of the public to post messages which will be forwarded to currently serving members here.
It is interesting to read the messages posted.
While ANZAC day still remembers these brave men, the meaning has been widened to be a rememberence for all those who served and who gave their lives serving.
As a result, this one day in the year involves the whole of Australia in solemn ceremonies of remembrance, gratitude and national pride for all our men and women who have fought and died in all wars.
Last year I linked to news.com.au's memories page; this year they have invited members of the public to post messages which will be forwarded to currently serving members here.
It is interesting to read the messages posted.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
New Rifle Purchase Process - Stage 2 Complete
Shooting Buddy arrived down from "up north" yesterday so this morning we decided to attack the paperwork for the new rifles.
The forms have to be completed on-line and then you take them to the Post Office for them to be sent to Firearms Branch.
I logged into the online forms process on one of my computers and the form didn't display - not to be discouraged I woke up one of my other computers and tried again and this time it worked.
We decided to do Shooting Buddy's application first. The form is interactive, so depending on how you answer questions additional ones come up. I am sure there are questions on there that weren't on the form last time I did it, that or I've blanked it out of my mind! You have to answer questions about names / previous names / addresses / previous addresses (sure, list all previous addresses with dates!) / criminal convictions / medication / VROs etc, etc.
Once you get through these type of questions you actually get to the bit to do with the firearms. To be honest this bit was quite simple - as you require a Firearms Serviceability Certificate for each firearm which contains all the relevant details (make, model, serial number, calibre) you don't actually have to fill this in on the form - only the Serviceability Certificate Number (and attach it to your application).
I only ended up having to ring the Firearms Branch twice during the process. Once was regarding how to put the 'other licencee' information (i.e. my information) in and the other time was at the end of the process as the guy on the phone (blogged about here) had mentioned an additional form (Co-Users Permission Form) to me but the application process did not refer to this form at all. (Yes, you do need to submit it).
After filling in the six pages of information for Shooting Buddy we went to print it, which requires it to contact via the Internet to Firearms Branch and get a unique barcode - and for some reason this didn't work and we lost all of the entries and had to start again. Filling it in the second time was a bit quicker!
Validated and printed and then it was time to repeat the whole process for me.
No problems this time and once that paperwork was also printed and supporting documentation photocopied, we headed off down to the Post Office.
So for my application I had a five page printed form, a Firearms Serviceability Certificate for my firearm, a copy of Shooting Buddy's Firearms Serviceability Certificate, the Property Letter and the Co-Users Permission Form signed by Shooting Buddy.
Shooting Buddy's collection of paper was similar but he had a six page printed form as he had different answers to some of the questions than I did.
At the Post Office we had a short wait in the queue (apparently we were in the wrong queue but given that there was no signage showing two queues I didn't worry about that too much). Then the lady behind the counter had a look through my Firearms Application form and attachments (slight change from the last time I did this process where the initial response was "Do we process these?") and then she asked me for 100 points proof of identification. No where in the online forms or documentation do I recall reading that I needed to supply this, however, luckily I did have enough cards in my wallet to prove that yes, I am who I say I am. (Interestingly enough the "Working with Children" Card does not count (even though it has photo, address and signature and itself was obtained with a 100 points ID check). My Medicare card - First Name & Surname only - and Credit Card - full name only - were taken in preference.
Once she had scanned the form's barcode, entered the reference numbers off each of the identification cards, asked for $72.50 and printed me a receipt it was Shooting Buddy's turn. He was more organised than me and actually had his 100 points worth of cards out of his wallet.
That done she assured us that they would be scanned and then posted by registered mail to Firearms Branch for processing.
So Stage 2 is now complete. It will be interesting to see how long Stage 3 (Firearm's processing) takes. In the past I have not have any firearm approved in less than 90 days. I am hoping it will be quicker this time! Stay tuned.
The forms have to be completed on-line and then you take them to the Post Office for them to be sent to Firearms Branch.
I logged into the online forms process on one of my computers and the form didn't display - not to be discouraged I woke up one of my other computers and tried again and this time it worked.
We decided to do Shooting Buddy's application first. The form is interactive, so depending on how you answer questions additional ones come up. I am sure there are questions on there that weren't on the form last time I did it, that or I've blanked it out of my mind! You have to answer questions about names / previous names / addresses / previous addresses (sure, list all previous addresses with dates!) / criminal convictions / medication / VROs etc, etc.
Once you get through these type of questions you actually get to the bit to do with the firearms. To be honest this bit was quite simple - as you require a Firearms Serviceability Certificate for each firearm which contains all the relevant details (make, model, serial number, calibre) you don't actually have to fill this in on the form - only the Serviceability Certificate Number (and attach it to your application).
I only ended up having to ring the Firearms Branch twice during the process. Once was regarding how to put the 'other licencee' information (i.e. my information) in and the other time was at the end of the process as the guy on the phone (blogged about here) had mentioned an additional form (Co-Users Permission Form) to me but the application process did not refer to this form at all. (Yes, you do need to submit it).
After filling in the six pages of information for Shooting Buddy we went to print it, which requires it to contact via the Internet to Firearms Branch and get a unique barcode - and for some reason this didn't work and we lost all of the entries and had to start again. Filling it in the second time was a bit quicker!
Validated and printed and then it was time to repeat the whole process for me.
No problems this time and once that paperwork was also printed and supporting documentation photocopied, we headed off down to the Post Office.
So for my application I had a five page printed form, a Firearms Serviceability Certificate for my firearm, a copy of Shooting Buddy's Firearms Serviceability Certificate, the Property Letter and the Co-Users Permission Form signed by Shooting Buddy.
Shooting Buddy's collection of paper was similar but he had a six page printed form as he had different answers to some of the questions than I did.
At the Post Office we had a short wait in the queue (apparently we were in the wrong queue but given that there was no signage showing two queues I didn't worry about that too much). Then the lady behind the counter had a look through my Firearms Application form and attachments (slight change from the last time I did this process where the initial response was "Do we process these?") and then she asked me for 100 points proof of identification. No where in the online forms or documentation do I recall reading that I needed to supply this, however, luckily I did have enough cards in my wallet to prove that yes, I am who I say I am. (Interestingly enough the "Working with Children" Card does not count (even though it has photo, address and signature and itself was obtained with a 100 points ID check). My Medicare card - First Name & Surname only - and Credit Card - full name only - were taken in preference.
Once she had scanned the form's barcode, entered the reference numbers off each of the identification cards, asked for $72.50 and printed me a receipt it was Shooting Buddy's turn. He was more organised than me and actually had his 100 points worth of cards out of his wallet.
That done she assured us that they would be scanned and then posted by registered mail to Firearms Branch for processing.
So Stage 2 is now complete. It will be interesting to see how long Stage 3 (Firearm's processing) takes. In the past I have not have any firearm approved in less than 90 days. I am hoping it will be quicker this time! Stay tuned.
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