Before unpacking….

Imagine moving house one day, and by that evening every room in your new home has been set up and expertly arranged.

Ever moved while juggling children and pets, had last minute packing dramas or spent days in a forest of half unpacked boxes looking for lost items? Had an elderly relative interstate or overseas that needed help moving?

You can avoid all the dramas of packing and unpacking as well as the horrors of disassembling your old home and then reassembling your new one, with the help of a packing and unpacking service company.

Susan Williams of The Finishing Touch in Melbourne says inexperienced packers can take a full day to pack each room, and two days for the kitchen or for the garage and garden items; and the same amount of time to unpack it again.

…and after.

“These days people are too busy to worry about the hassle of moving,” Susan says.  “We can come in and transform a chaotic, carton-filled house into a beautiful liveable home in just one day.”

Susan believes she was the first to come up with the concept of an unpacking service when she set up The Finishing Touch in 1994. 

“To the best of my knowledge, it was the first such service in world. I visited England and New York to see if they had anything like it, but they hadn’t."

"I couldn’t believe the service didn’t already exist. I’d been working at one of the major removalists, and realised that clients were unhappy when the removalists left their new house in a fair amount of chaos, full of boxes. 

“People were calling out for someone to help them, and they really wanted ladies who knew how to set up houses – where things go in kitchens, bathrooms, how to make beds, organise wardrobes and get all their belongings sorted so they could settle in as quickly as possible. It’s a big change from a typical blokey, men-in-trucks removalist service!”

Both The Finishing Touch and the Sydney-based Moving House “White Glove” unpacking service employ teams of mostly mature-aged women, who’ve had careers, but no longer want to work full-time.

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Sporting clubs across Victoria are uniting in July to face their toughest opponent yet – cancer.

Call To Arms is the Cancer Council’s annual national event to raise funds and awareness of cancer, a disease that effects 1 in 2 men by the age of 85.

If you’re keen to take part, all you have to do is nominate a day any time in July to hold a Call To Arms match where the players in your club wear a yellow armband in a show of support to men who have survived cancer, those currently facing the cancer fight and to remember mates who have lost their lives to cancer.

All money raised goes to the Cancer Council.

Any sporting club can join, so register at www.calltoarms.com.au or call 1300 65 65 85, and help save the lives of men right across the country.

From: Friday 1st of July 2011  To  Sunday 31st of July 2011

Web Links:

www.calltoarms.com.au

www.cancervic.org.au

Australia’s biggest ice cream grab!

Ben & Jerry’s is holding Australia’s biggest pint tub giveaway which sees more than 60,000 pints of ice cream up for grabs. Ice cream fans are invited to Southern Cross Station on Thursday 14th July and grab up to eight dairy-licious pint tubs in return for a gold coin donation per pint tub, with all money raised (and any left over pints) going to OzHarvest.

Why are Ben & Jerry’s being so crazy generous? Well, Australia’s biggest ice cream giveaway is a big thank you to people who have sought out Ben & Jerry’s and a big hello to new fans. With Ben & Jerry’s nearing two years on Aussie turf, it is the perfect time to celebrate Down Udder. So help spread the peace, love & ice cream by taking part in the country’s biggest ice cream giveaway!

Social mission is integral to all that Ben & Jerry’s do, so instead of simply giving away pint tubs, a gold coin donation to OzHarvest ensures that by helping yourself to a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, you’re helping others! How sweet is that!? OzHarvest is a charity that rescues excess food from food businesses, which would otherwise be discarded, and is then distributed to charities to feed those in need.

With the July school holidays comes the madcap puppetry fun of Puppets at Fed Square — a free, week-long puppet program featuring two world puppet premieres, workshops, shows, films and giant eye-popping puppets roaming the Square!

In a world premiere, renowned interactive theatre company, Polyglot Theatre will turn children into living puppets and have them explore the fantastical, evolving landscape of Paper Planet, which is filled with strange and delightful creatures and objects. Children will be totally and literally wrapped up in the experience!

Meanwhile Snuff Puppets’ Human Body Parts, including a giant ear, hand, eye, mouth and foot will cut loose and roam free around the Square, no doubt raising a few eyebrows on the way! The enormous life-like body parts will be toe tapping down the cobblestones and shaking hands with fearless Fed Square folk in this second world puppet premiere.

Location

Federation Square

Cnr Swanston & Flinders Street

Melbourne 3000

Contact details

Tel.:03 9655 1900

info@fedsquare.com

www.fedsquare.com.au/schoolholidays

Date & times

04/07/2011 to 11/07/2011

Monday: 10 am – 3 pm

Tuesday: 10 am – 3 pm

Wednesday: 10 am – 3 pm

Thursday: 10 am – 3 pm

Friday: 10 am – 3 pm

Saturday: 10 am – 3 pm

Sunday: 10 am – 3 pm

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