Author: awmalloyadmin

 

 
 

It was a dirty day today, more so for Rae than me but we both got involved. It’s the continuation of the deck induced back yard work. When you have such a lovely deck you really can’t have it surrounded by dirt and weeds so over the past week we’ve flattened the back yard and today had a huge mound of top soil dumped out the front. Over the course of the day that mound has been moved, barrow load by barrow load, and spread over the back yard. Tomorrow we’ll flatten the new top soil out and then, with showers forecast for Sunday, we’ll toss some grass seed down and cross our fingers.

It’s amazing how different the place looks now, and it’s almost impossible to believe that with a bit of luck (and a bit of rain) we may even have a lawn of sorts for the kids to play on before winter hits. We’re getting there, slowly but surely.

You know, six people living in the house make a lot of dishes. Think breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks for the young ones in between, they all add up to a mountain off dishes. I stood at the sink washing the lunch dishes the other day and though ‘we need a dish washer’.

One of my sisters had already offered to lend us the money to buy one, but trying to keep debt down we said no. Still, it was great to know the offer was there and I was getting tempted to take Kate up on her generous offer. However my little sister rang yesterday – she found one for us that someone was getting rid of ‘only because my wife wants to get a stainless steel one’. Apparently it’s a give away but because I’ve done a fair bit of web work for her drama school in Shepparton she’s not telling me how much.

We’re going to pick it up some time this weekend and thanks to the kindness of my sisters we’ll be saving over half an hour of hassles every day. I’m a lucky brother.

The police helicopter spent the better part of yesterday afternoon chuckin’ laps around the neighbourhood. I wonder if we can dob in a hoon…

If you dropped by early this morning you may have noticed things looked a little odd around here, that’s because I’ve moved hosts for this site. The old host was bought out by a new company and that company has been nothing but hassles so I’m moving all of my sites.

I’ve had a quick look around, everything seems okay so fingers crossed. Daniel, you’ll be pleased to know that after 7 years I’ve finally moved it out of the WordPress directory too.

UPDATE

Of course, as soon as I typed this and hit Publish I found a problem that meant I had to move the site back to the WordPress directory. One day when I have time I’ll move it out.

Sitting here wondering why it’s so bloody hot, even after putting the air con on. Finally realise there’s no air coming through the vent (after two hours) so I go and check. Yep, I had turned the heating on instead.

I need rest.

It must be a while. I was watching an ad on telly last night and thought, “oh wow, that would feel great”.

Yes, it was hot and steamy too; the ad was for an iron.

It’s over a year since I left work to be at home looking after the kids and running my own web development business. In that time I’ve attended two weddings so that’s a grand total of two crisply ironed shirts I’ve worn in over 12 months. My daily uniform is now shorts and t-shirt in summer and jeans and rugby tops in winter. I thought the only thing I missed about working was the people, but watching that shirt being ironed I now realise there’s something else I miss; dressing well.

Coping with the mess three young kids make over the course of the day means there’s just no point in going any where beyond jeans and something that doesn’t show up the stains too much but one day when they are all at school and I can concentrate on Between Coffees properly I look forward to moving back to ironed shirts and shoes that need polishing. Who knows, there may even be a tie thrown in every now and then for good measure. Ah, those will be the days.

People. They all annoy me, well, except maybe for you.

I know we all break rules every now and then, push boundaires and play the odds BUT what sort of idiot does that when it’s a red light and they are in a car?

I had pulled up at the lights just as they turned red. I was sitting, minding my own business, looking at the RED disc on the lights opposite me when all of a sudden a car pulled up beside me but instead of stopping it just continued through. Now I have to reiterate, the light was red. Not orange, not just turned red, not just a little bit red but 100% solid-and-had-been-for-a-while red. They didn’t speed up, just kept on going.

What on earth!?!?

What could they have been thinking? What makes a person think that’s an okay thing to do – dicing with other people’s lives just because they feel like it? I don’t get it, I just don’t get it. And don’t get me started on drivers using mobile phone. Have you noticed they always seem to be driving expensive cars, the cars that cost enough to suggest the owner should probably be able to afford a $100 hands free? On the weekend we saw a guy driving a van, holding on to a phone as he went around a roundabout, while a passenger sat next to him. As I said, people!

The things you see out in the ‘burbs. This morning I had to run a quick errand first thing. I walked out side just after 6, dawn still an hour and a half away, and there, sitting underneath the letter box were two large white rabbits. Big, fluffy white rabbits. Just stiting there, staring at me, as if I was the one making the scene surreal.

I just stood there, not sure what to do when you discover two white rabbits sitting under the letter box in the dead of night. They stared back at me and then, with a flick of their ears, they bounded off in different directions.

I don’t know where they got to but just now as I was bringing in the washing one appeared in the back yard. Again, not sure of the magically appearing bunny protocol, but by the time I realised I should do something it had dissapeared again, an odd top and (fluffy) tail to the day.

I had the luxury of wandering around the local shopping centre by myself a few days ago. It was great to be able stroll along, getting to know the new shops and window shopping without having to keep track of Bert or try to manoeuvre the twin pram around people and shelves.

As I was leaving my eye was caught by, of all things, a tobacconist. Now I hate smoking, despise it. It’s filthy, smelly, dirty and having seen the effects it can have when I worked at Cabrini it’s a habit I can’t stand. Sorry smokers but it’s just despicable. The thing, or things, that caught my eye were Zippos. Lovely shiny Zippos.

For such an ardent anti-smoker I have an absolute weakness for Zippos. The touch, the smell, the sound, the perfect engineering. They are things of such beauty. I stood mesmerised as I spun the stand around, trying to figure out where I could find $70 to add another to my small collection.

There’s one Zippo I want above all others though. It must be 20 years ago now but I once saw in a magazine (could have been in the now defunct Sunday Herald, when it was just The Herald) a Zippo that was made to look like a clapper board. I almost got to buy one once, but I was a poor student and the amount at that stage was way beyond my means. I have a funny feeling it would still be the same today, but one day, one day, I will own one.