The Waiting Man

The hottest day of the heatwave, as predicted, with temperatures in the western suburbs of Sydney in the low 40s celsius, as predicted...

I had to drive to various western Sydney suburbs to drop off & collect various things - as predicted... so no quiet day in the Showroom air-con for me... though the new work ute's air-con is certainly much better than the old one. At least today was a public holiday, so the only traffic jams were near the beaches - including the inner-harbour beach & reserve just down the road from WaitingManor. Leaving for work this morning at around 9.15am , there were already cars parked on both sides of the streets leading to the beach from about a kilometre away, causing a couple of traffic jams & a couple of incidents as people driving sloooooowly looking for parking, came face-to-face with me, driving quickly to get the hell out of the area, in what would normally be a reasonably wide street, but was now a narrow lane, thanks to the cars parked on either side. I'm in a large-ish commercial vehicle... you're in an under-powered sedan. YOU back up!!

It's now 9.30pm & the temperature is 29 celsius, with no breeze & a cloudy night sky. It's an oven...

A quieter week, this one... Let's see what the weekend can do about that

Quiet mostly because it's still been absolutely Scorchio!! this week, the only upside being that it's become less humid as the heatwave has baked all the moisture out of the air

Of course, as I write this, it's raining. A southerly change came through overnight & dropped the temperatures by as much as 15 degrees in as many minutes in some areas of Sydney. I personally look forward to sleeping under the sheets tonight, for the first time in a while

No social obligations during the week, as everybody stayed indoors with whatever air-con, fans, or bodies of water they could muster. We went to our mid-week Trivia - mostly for the cold drinks & air-conditioning at the Club, though we also like the Host. Hadn't been for a couple of weeks, so only came 3rd, which for reasons best known to the host, doesn't get a prize (but 2nd last does!?!?). However, we won the Jackpot round at the end... which was worth $200 so $50 each... 'cause our teammate's mother had come along & probably cost us a few points in the main game & didn't know any of the 3 Jackpot answers (I did!!!)... but you have to do the right thing. Or, at least it seems we do - & if you refer to some of my recent posts, you'll understand why this is starting to stick in the craw a little...

It's been a week of putting out fires at work - & it's been a week when that metaphor is possibly a little inappropriate, given how much of Tasmania is on fire!!!. When our southernmost state is a tinderbox, you KNOW climate change is real... Anyway, let's change that metaphor to... ummm... sheltering & shielding ourselves from shitstorms. Or squalls anyway - they haven't been as big as some we've endured - none of them are headed to Court, or Arbitration... yet

My cow-orker who threw me under the bus last week seems to have absorbed my ever-so-subtle response to her actions & has been pretty quiet this week, only annoying me through her usual heedless laziness & sense of entitlement... so kind of back to normal then. It was therefore a little weird to get a text message from her this evening, after I got home, which said something along the lines of "Thanks for your kind support & co-operation at work, I've been going through a lot lately. Have a nice weekend" Now, the more suspicious of my Readers (& me!!!) would immediately suspect sarcasm & prepare to break out the 98 octane for a firefight. But... she doesn't use sarcasm. If she did, I'd probably respect her more than I do (which isn't much). So I have the weird feeling that this is genuine & I find myself reviewing the week, wondering where I went wrong & appeared to be supportive... let alone co-operative. Usually, if she demands I do something, I tell her to at least get it ready, so I can do whatever it is she can't - I won't do everything... most of the time... So - strange. Could it be that irony is beyond her grasp as well?

Well, that all just flew by, really - especially the last 10 days or so... Told you the regular posting would tail off by the end of the month. Doesn't feel like it's been more than a week though

January 26th is Australia Day. It's the middle of Summer & the middle of a heatwave too. Those of you who know what a typical Summer in Australia is like, may shudder at the thought of a heatwave ramping up the heat'n'humidity we normally get... It's been "Hot enough to boil a monkey's bum, Your Majesty". so, of course, everyone either hosts, or goes to a barbecue

Bunnings is a national chain of hardware stores. One of the good things about them is they help local community groups & charities to raise money, by having a 'Sausage Sizzle' outside their stores on weekends & public holidays. $2.50 gets you a sausage on 2 slices of bread, with optional onions & your choice of sauce if it's BBQ or tomato. If you're lucky, you can even get mustard. A friend of ours is riding in the 'Tour De Cure' in March & needed to raise enough money to help pay for support teams, accommodation, spare tyres, wheels, lycra shorts etc... & was doing so by having 3 or 4 Sizzles at various Bunnings locations. We agreed to help out at one of them &, as no good deed goes unpunished, our number came up for the Australia Day one down in the far south of Sydney (We live on the Northern Beaches - so it's quite a hike!). We thought it would be a quiet one, as it was a public holiday, the middle of Summer & school holidays... surely everyone would be at a beach somewhere, or in a pool, or just unwilling to get in the car & drive to a hardware store. I know I would have been one of those three things

Wrong!! We turned up at 9am, with extra drink stock, met up with our friend & his Dad, then it was on with the aprons & onto the front counter for Long-Suffering Partner & onto the gas barbecue for me. And it was like that pretty much all day 'til 4pm - there was an incredible amount of people who seem to think that a day off is the ideal chance to start that project at home you've been meaning to get 'round to for months, but need some esoteric power tool & sundry attachments to complete. Not that you'll complete it in one day... Maybe by next Australia Day... But everybody wanted a Charity Sausage - either to fortify themselves before they plunged into the store, or to recover once they'd emerged. Some did both

Our friend did at least 2 more supply runs, cleaning out the nearest supermarket's bread shelf as fast as they could re-stock it &, by the end of our day, we had maybe half a bag of sausages & one loaf of bread left over... as well as a box full of money!!

Collapsing back into the car & heading home, we soon noticed that everything in the car smelled like sausages & onions, but realised it was just us - clothes, skin, hair. The cats thought we were a walking, talking dinner when we got home... they loved the smell, but were annoyed that we both took thorough showers before getting their (chicken) dinners ready. So, a little karma earned & a tick on the wish-list... but I don't think either of us will want to even look at a sausage for a while, much less have them for dinner

Next post - we join 60,000 people in a giant stadium. In the middle of Summer. In a heatwave.