The Waiting Man

Or, another thing as rare as that... 2 days off in a row!!

L-SP & I actually had 2 days off together... nice to get re-acquainted with the person who lately I've only seen asleep, in passing, or in various photos around the place. I feel like I've been living at work recently, with early starts, late finishes, long days, then cancelled days off, while L-SP has been getting used to her new work schedule & dealing with altered sleep patterns & pretty long days too. anyway, the good news is we seem to still get along well !!

There has been one major change to the household recently... Out with the old...



And in with the new...



We sold off the little hatchback we've had for a few years as well as my beloved OBluV8 who, after 15 years with me, has gone to, literally, live on a farm somewhere in outback New South Wales, about 100kms from the nearest big town, so every day will be a road trip for him. The guy who bought him seemed like someone who knew the foibles of older cars, but loved Fords & I felt comfortable letting OBluV8 go to someone who will look after him for the next 15 years of his life... So, if you include the work ute that I use, we have gone from 3 cars down to 2. We look forward to many road-trips (& especially off-road trips!!) in Laura - a name derived from the Vietnamese for "A long time coming", as the whole process of preparing paperwork, financial planning, delivery time & installation of optional extras seemed to take forever. For a couple of days, it looked like we'd be without any car at all...

The downhill slope to the end of the year has begun & I don't feel ready for it...

For the moment, my weekend has been split up, to Wednesday & Saturday. Not happy & hoping it's not a permanent measure, but I have a feeling the only way it will change is with a change of employment. How many straws does it take to break a camel's back?

Anyway, I had today off... Being a weekday, it was a good opportunity to catch up with some admin & business-related chores that sometimes don't get done when I'm at work. Trouble is... I didn't achieve completion on any of them!?!? Return some items to a store for L-SP? - I went to 2 of the brand's outlets - was told to go to the 2nd, bigger one by the 1st, then found out the return couldn't be completed without L-SP's credit card - even though I have a card linked to the same account, with the same numbers. So, we have to go there together, later... Trying to chase up the NSW Public Service to find out where my RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) card is, so I can work in bars, should the bottom fall out of the flooring industry? I was told by one department I needed to speak to another via phone, was given the number, then spent 25 minutes on hold being told every few minutes that I was 4th in the queue. God only knows what the 1st person was rabbiting on about for all that time... Needless to say, I reached my patience threshold long before any progress in the queue was made & I'll tackle that one tomorrow at work, when I can be paid for waiting

The remote control for our garage door is on its last legs - having faithfully opened & shut the door for 15 years or so, its buttons are just about gone. The first locksmith I went to told me they didn't have the right one, would have to order it & it would cost $66, but try the place down the road & see what they say... The 2nd place had a generic replacement unit that also cost $66, but said they might have an old one like ours & if they do, they'll replace it free. I'm still waiting to see if they'll call me to tell me they do. Somehow, I doubt it... OBluV8's locking remote has also done faithful service for 16 years, but the buttons are going on that as well & it's getting harder & harder to unlock the doors. This came to a head on our recent weekend up in the Blue Mountains where the temperature was 0-2 degrees Celsius pretty much the entire time we were there & rapid access to OBluV8's interior & air-con was urgently needed to prevent frostbite & loss of digits, only to be stuck, shivering, swearing & walking around the car, jabbing repeatedly at the recalcitrant remote. The first locksmith I went to had the replacement remote, but told me it wasn't just a case of replacing the outer casing, the whole thing needs to be programmed & I had to bring OBluV8 down to them for about 10 minutes, then pay them $135. So $200 to fix 2 remotes... Needless to say I'll think about that one, get clearance from the Ministry of Finance & tackle it another day...

It wasn't a complete waste of a day. I set up our new compost bin in the back yard, washed the kitchen windows & sills (& most of me in the process!), did a load of washing & got keys cut for our front door & the work Showroom front door to replace the ones I've managed to lose somewhere between here & Oberon in the Blue Mountains. They were on the same key-ring &, you know what? Don't ask... I have no idea, obviously, otherwise they wouldn't be lost!!

The day has also been soundtracked by my old iPod on random & at considerable volume. It contains probably about 1/2 my CD collection, plus a lot of iTunes purchases & is only about 2/3s full. It's an ongoing personal challenge to fill it eventually... It's been throwing out some gems today, from all over the music spectrum. While I've been writing this, I've heard Jeff Buckley, Chet Baker, Mark Knopfler, Harmonia, King Tubby, Debussy & the Divinyls. I wonder what's next?

It was a normal week... It had its good things, some annoying things, a lot of driving around, fun times with friends, we won our Trivia night after a month or so's absence... watched the latest 'Game of Thrones' episode, like most of the world did, saw 'Avengers: Endgame', like most of the world did...

In other words, we just loped along in the human race, neither falling behind, nor improving our places

We went to Taronga Zoo, thanks to our annual memberships & were reminded how closely we are related to chimpanzees



Not sure who's more bamboozled by that 2% difference...

Well, how about that... A quiet weekend! Nothing much to report or comment on, so have a photo of a pelican...

How de hegg do you ged a code id de middle ob Summer?!?!

No... I don't know either, but I suspect it has something to do with air-conditioning & two cow-orkers who've had mild coughs over the last week. Revenge will be served slow & cold (of course)

It does mean I left work early today, due to plummeting energy & care-factor levels... it also meant I had to cancel plans to see the Spooky Men's Chorale with friends tonight



But every cloud has a silver lining... & there were quite a few of them that rolled across town tonight...

Wednesday - my Saturday

A busy day... up at 6.10am to feed fur & feathers & it actually took until I was putting the food bowls in front of the cats for me to realise I didn't have to go to work today. I was about to sigh in relief & go back to bed, when I remembered we had a carpenter arriving at 8am to install a cat door... also that we were out of sugar & soy milk... & that I had meant to go to the stupormarket last night to get those things. So, time for ablutions

At 8am, a call from the carpenter citing car trouble for his non-appearance & promising to let me know when he could get here... So, having put on the first load of washing, shall we go out for breakfast? Absolutely! Off to a nearly-local café, then the stupormarket to pick up the essentials & back home to hang out the washing. Then load 2, vacuuming, then mopping the floors, then hang out load 2 while fielding calls & texts from work... Hope the carpenter arrives soon, it will be a pleasure watching someone else work for a while

He eventually turned up, needing his phone charged & his car battery charged as well. Having plugged in all those things, he set to work & actually had the door complete pretty quickly. Then it was time to introduce the cats to it

Then it was time to wash, dry & dress the deep scratches on my arm... Gigi certainly isn't a fan of being put through a cat door. Maybe I'll try with Bella a bit later...

A handful of CDs transferred to the iPod - which now has 33.3 days worth of music on it, yet still insists on repeating certain songs. And some work on the photos from our Zoo visit a few days ago...



Yes, there was glass between us & yes, that's his tongue flickering... I smell delicious, apparently

Wednesday is Trivia, Guinness & Pizza night... I should go & read the news - we won last week & have a title to defend

Things often go that way

Friday & Saturday were rollercoaster days at work. I landed a couple of projects, one of which I'd quoted on so long ago I'd forgotten about it, the other from a website enquiry that became a 'sale' within 10 minutes. Happy Boss...

It was also discovered that I had stuffed up the floorplan for another project currently underway, by missing a room when site-measuring, meaning we were short quite a bit of materials. I'd missed the bedroom that you could only enter via the bathroom - there's no other door. My excuse was that the day I'd been there, painters were on site & had their stuff everywhere, including the bathroom, which obscured any view I might have had of any room beyond it & who the hell puts the door to a bedroom inside a bathroom anyway??!! My work never involves bathrooms, so I'd cursorily marked the bathroom on my plan & moved on, not remotely suspecting what lay beyond it. Unhappy Boss...

Fortunately, the client was reasonably understanding about the error & agree to pay the cost of materials & labour, so at least we didn't lose money because of me. Slightly happier Boss...

Therefore, Saturday afternoon couldn't come fast enough &, once home from work, Long-Suffering Partner & I made vague plans to go & find a good old pub meal - steak, 2 veg & Guinness - it was St Patrick's Day, after all. It took 3 pubs in 3 suburbs to find what we wanted at a reasonable price & you wouldn't expect that place to be in Mosman - one of the better-heeled suburbs of Sydney, not usually associated with bargains or economy, however this pub not only had Guinness on tap, but their Bistro menu was amazingly cheap. We'll be back!

Over dinner, L-SP received notification that a friend of ours was hosting a Karaoke night in an iconic pub in the inner-western suburbs. Not having seen our friend this year, we decided to trek over & maybe sandblast the tonsils a bit, for the first time since my birthday last year. A small but very vocal crowd - probably a good thing for a Karaoke night - & the usual mix of good, great & bloody awful singers. I wondered if anyone would do the pub's theme song & sure enough, someone did... though if Slim Dusty were alive today, it would have killed him to hear it. My rendition of 'Ballroom Blitz' was well received &, after a couple of drinks, we wound our way back home through the after-midnight traffic - more than you'd expect, but far less than what I get stuck behind during my normal commutes

Today is expected to be the last blast of Summer, with temperatures in the high 30s, so it could be a good car wash day, after a slow start, leisurely breakfast & maybe some cat-bonding time... if I can find the little buggers

Ah, Sunday morning... A bit of a sleep in, then feeding the feathers (butcher birds) & fur ( Bella & Gigi), then back to bed for a bit, then coffee & bacon rolls, while Andrea Bocelli blasts from a Bluetooth speaker firmly aimed at our neighbours' windows

Wait... what?!?

Well, if they're going to play basketball outside our window at midnight, carrying on like they just won the NBA championship every time the ball even went near the basket, we reserve the right to blast some culture at them (& their hangovers) at 8am. Then again, the next album they're going to hear is by Aqua, so maybe culture is the wrong word

Petty? Perhaps. Satisfying? Well, maybe a little... (I don't like Aqua either, but needs must...)

Catching up with an old school friend this afternoon, having been invited to teach his 15yr old son some guitar tricks, licks & bad habits. I've never taught guitar before - mostly because I'm entirely self-taught, play it upside-down & use a different tuning. I'm left-handed & picked up the guitar one day, held it the way that felt right, tuned it to something that made harmonic sense to me, then set about learning from Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters, the Sweet, Ian Hunter, Albert, Freddy & BB King, Django Reinhardt, Les Paul, Paco Peña & Robert Johnson... with master classes from Robert Fripp once I felt brave enough... So all my chord shapes are incomprehensible to other guitarists & have different voicings to theirs, which makes me a great guitarist to play with, but a nightmare to try & follow... Good luck to my prospective student today, then

Godabbit... I hade habbing a code. Ezbeshly a hedd code. Id stubs me ub ad all I wad do do iz sleeb

Trouble is, it's a busy week at work & I can't. What a hero... Before you lecture me about spreading my infectious misery, I've been working mostly alone the last few days, so the only things I've possibly infected are carpet & timber samples

A day off today - scheduled, not a sick day, but fortuitously timed, as it's been the day where the stuffed headedness has reached its zenith... I hope. That way, it's all downhill from here. Or at least, a lot of coughing & the return of my sexy, deep-voice Barry White impression as the sore throat kicks in & my vocal register plummets 2 octaves Brigg id on!!

Even the cats aren't sure what to make of this shuffling, sniffling shambles...

It's 4.30pm & a fair bet that I won't leave the house today. I call this quite an achievement

Whenever I'm Wednesday-deep in my working week, I'm always thinking how good it would be to have a day doing nothing. Somehow, it never happens. As my Journal title says - 'There's always something about to happen' & it takes precedence, usually by necessity, over doing nothing

Not today. Having seen Long-Suffering Partner off to work at about 7.30 this morning, I've worked on some photos, listened to a lot of music, fed the butcherbirds a couple of times, read some more of 'Raising Steam', one of the last Discworld novels by the late, much-lamented Terry Pratchett, had a couple of coffees, grazed a little on whatever's in the cupboards or fridge that looked appetising... & have now poured a decent shot of Glen Morangie. Soon, my lamb korma will be defrosted enough to call it dinner & I'll find a DVD to keep me entertained enough 'til bedtime... whenever that will be

Before you paint me as an utter sloth, I have repaired (hopefully) a kitchen cupboard that needed attention & done a couple of little household chores as they presented themselves & I will remember to take the bins out tonight!!

Probably...

Been busy lately...

To categorise:~

Work ~ The curse of the Retail Downturn very nearly struck again about a month ago, with me being called into head office & told that my branch/showroom was being closed down & my position made redundant. Frequent Readers will know that this is a recurring theme in my professional life & this actually makes 3 in a row. The difference this time is that I came out of the meeting with a new role, a kind of pay-rise & a secured future... for the time being.

How... you may well ask?? Well, if a 25-year veteran salesman can't sell himself... When my Showroom closes, I will take up a Marketing/Servicing/General Dogsbody role that will see me more on the road & less in any one location - in fact, they haven't even promised me a desk at Head Office, just that they will find room for me somewhere. Why? To cut a long story short ("Too late!!"), because I told them that there are lots of other things I can do, lots of other skills I have that they may find useful... & they agreed

Home ~ So, with my immediate future secured, it was time to think about re-doing the floors at WaitingManor, while I still had access to staff pricing for carpets & tiles. Cue lots of swatches, samples & fragments being laid on our existing (red) carpet to see what colours would both match & transform a space that has been dominated by 40yr old decor since I moved in, following the death of my grandparents. Could L-SP & I afford it? Well, kind of... & given there's never a 'perfect' time to do these things, we jumped in feet-first, chose a carpet & tile combination that wouldn't break the bank irrevocably, then I secured supply & installation deals through work & the grand adventure began with moving furniture out into the garage ~ some of which hadn't been moved in quite some time. Thank god for friends & their loaned muscle. Once the rooms were cleared, it became clear that other things needed doing as well, including replacing the curtains, which L-SP decided to wash, then reported they'd virtually disintegrated after the layers of dust (which were obviously the only things holding them together) were removed. So, 2 quotes for blinds were obtained & the 2014 New Zealand Holiday fund took a further hit. And let's not even start thinking about re-painting the entire inside of the 'Manor, okay. Not just yet... though it will need to be done.

With carpet & tiles installed, the slow process of re-patriating our combined bits, pieces, trinkets, collectables & general stuff has begun ~ with the avowed intent of cutting down on the sheer amount of dust-gathering CRAP we seem to have accumulated

Damages over the transition period have been minor ~ a computer monitor, the old curtains, some termite-infested skirting boards (don't ask) & some kind of strain/nerve thing to my right shoulder & neck. The carpet had been laid for only about an hour before a magpie managed to defecate on it (Again... don't ask) & the tiles managed about 36 hours before we put some scratches in them while moving the 'fridge back into the kitchen. So all's gone reasonably well... considering

If we ever move, I'm definitely paying top dollar for professional removalists...

I now have a monitor so large you can see it from the moon

Okay, maybe not that large, but pretty big ~ it barely fits into the space on my desk, which was bought back in the days when monitors were still CRTs, deeper than they were wide. I've had to turn down the brightness on this new screen, as it was giving me a headache & blinding the possums & Tawny Frogmouths out in the back yard

It's great for editing photos though... & a sound investment for someone whose eyesight can only get worse, given I crossed the border into Reading Glasses territory last year

So... just because it will look great on my mini IMAX screen:~

.............

Well, what did you expect for a Monday? Excitement... Mmhh? Adventure? Hah... A Reader craves not these things!!

So ~ not the rainy day that was forecast, but quite a windy one... with a southerly banging on the doors & windows & howling for most of the day, including now. Could have gone away with decent weather after all

Ah well, a weekend in hasn't hurt anything or anyone. Breakfast at the local café, then a wander through the recently-opened hardware megastore for a new showerhead. This seemingly simple task was complicated by none of the new designs being compatible with the plumbing in WaitingManor, so an adaptor for the actual water pipe was needed before any discussion of what kind of showerhead we wanted this time. We settled on one that has a hand-held nozzle that, fingers crossed, fits quite securely into a holder for those of us who don't need to wave our water about. For my second piece of DIY plumbing, there were more components & tools needed, but less time & significantly less swearing than last time. The Loved One has just had a shower & reports that it works well & hasn't fallen off the wall, so all going well it will still be working when I have a shower tomorrow morning

My second attempt at a laksa tonight... still a few refinements & wrinkles to work out, but edible at the least. Watched the grand final of MasterChef Professionals & was surprised, if a little heartened by the perceived Underdog's victory. If he could win that contest, I can certainly perfect a laksa...

Played guitar at home today, for no real reason except I wanted to... Been a while since that happened

Otherwise, a fairly normal Sunday ~ breakfast at the new-ish local, followed by shopping for various essentials & comestibles, then home for a bit of domestic duty, then a little photo-work & aforementioned guitaring, then kitchen duty, followed by dinner accompanied by The Walking Dead & Justified. Are we, as a modern society, becoming so callused & blasé towards horror & violence that we can sit & eat dinner comfortably while watching those activites without so much as a gag reflex?

Discuss