And My Week Is Over

I got the new system we have at work in hand. It has taken them something like 2 years to get it up and running. I learned my bit in a day. Good thing I'm smart. Ha ha. 

Two Webex meetings with the consultant looking after us was all it took, both today.

Sorted.

And my weekend starts, I couldn't be happier. The start of my four days off.

I've taken the dogs for a walk. It was a grey kind of day. Still wearing shorts though. I'm finding it had to give up shorts having worn them all year. Jeans feel weird when I've worn shorts for so long.

I lie back on the couch and stretches out my legs. Perhaps, a bit of YouTube

Kit O'Connor from Heartstopper has never looked cuter

Monday

 

Monday, I work away all day with my trusty companions lying at my feet.

Getting Things Fixed, Or Not

The fridge was fixed last Tuesday, and it had kind of struggled for a few days to hit its proper cool temperature, so much so that we thought we’d have to get the service guy back. They said it takes about 24 hours for the temperature to reset, so it had been longer than that. Then yesterday it was nice and cold. And today, everything in the fridge was frozen. So I rang the service people, they can come next Thursday.

“Next Thursday?” I questioned.

Next Thursday.

Grrrrr!

Then Sam, unhappy with next Thursday, called them back. Because it hasn’t stopped working altogether, they won't becoming any sooner, next Thursday stands.

Otto had a sore paw so he couldn’t come out today, and he was none to happy watching us walk out the door with Bruno at lunch time.

Everything seems to happen on a Sunday, which is good, and it's bad. If it wasn't Sunday we may have whizzed him off to the vet, just because we could. But now, because it happened on a Sunday, maybe it will be better tomorrow and we won't need to take him to the vet at all and we'll save ourselves a couple of hundred dollars.

We did some shopping in Abbotsford. Bruno and I went for a walk while Sam shopped. We're walking back down Lithgow Street, and a cute boy and an ugly girl - in their late twenties, I'd guess. She had far too much eye makeup on, a pointy face and rotten teeth - come the other way and the ugly girl says, “Oh my gosh what an ugly dog.” Straight to my face, like I and Bruno didn't matter. The cute boy corrected her and then they were out of earshot. I wondered what she'd have thought/said if I'd looked her in the eye and said, "Oh my gosh, all that makeup isn't hiding your ugly teeth." The thought made me chuckle.

Funny. I am stopped every day by people who tell me I have beautiful dogs. (I'm not even sure why I felt the need to add this)

We bought some pork rolls for lunch. Bruno and I were walking as Sam stood in line. There is always a line for pork rolls at the pork roll shop. You'd reckon that was an indication that another pork roll shop was needed, but the other pork roll shop closed up.

Charlie is working so we don’t have to get him lunch. Sam cooks his meals for him, or otherwise provides his meals, if we buy something, but Sam doesn't have to worry about him today. Sam pays Charlie's uni fees and cooks him all his meals, I wonder how many uni students get that from their uncle?

Then I lay on the couch and watched YouTube.

We drank tea and ate sesame balls for afternoon tea.

Otto's paw may even be a little better. Maybe? I hope that's not just wishful thinking. It hurts to watch my little guy hobbling around.

Saturday

I'm trying to think what I did all day?

We went out for lunch, eating Indonesian in Lygon Street. We took the dogs, of course. There was a miniature/puppy Dachshund at the next table which Otto was super keen to get to, which was slightly annoying. Bruno just sniffed it and lay down.

I came home and fell down the Facebook rabbit hole, one of the reasons I don't do Facebook any more. It just sucks you into wasting-your-life-scrolling. Grrr!

I re-wrote some of the pieces on my fiction blog.

I lay on the couch, I may have even dozed off.

We ate pasta for dinner.

We watched Miriam Margolyes, she's always good. She was in Broken Hill.

I tried to watch the new Ripley series on Netflix. It is one of my favourite novels, and I have seen all the movies, and I'm loathed to say it barely held my interest. Maybe, I know the story too well. I don't know. I'm really not a fan of the overly stylised B&W of the new series, it kind of detaches it and makes it more of an art piece than a movie/series.

So, there you go, I didn't do much with my Saturday.

Now I'm having an early night. Some times that is good. 

Otto has a sore paw, not really sure why.

Smoking

Okay, I just looked back over my journal and I smoked for about a month, it doesn’t seem that long, but, apparently, it is. And now this is the 3rd day of quitting smoking and I feel back to normal. In fact, I had nearly forgotten that I had given up.

I gave up smoking regularly about 10 years ago, and that was hard, back then it took me, I can’t tell you how, many attempts to stop.

Now, though, and I never thought I would get to this, I can smoke for a short time and then quit again relatively easily. I never thought I’d be able to do that but, apparently, I can.

I can even smoke for an evening and then not smoke afterwards.

Of course, it all stems from smoking pot. I have a bit of a binge on the old gunger, seemingly, once a year, and then I smoke cigarettes for a short time after that before I stop again all together.

So, I smoked pot for a week. I smoked cigarettes for the rest of the time.

I would have quit sooner, but I knew I was going away for the weekend to Sebastian’s place last weekend and I knew we’d smoke.

Adriana and I smoked joints with tobacco, and Sebastian and Johnno smoked joints just of pure pot. I don’t really like joints of pure pot, as they don’t taste as good, and/or don’t burn as well. But, Sebastian, to his credit, hasn’t touch tobacco since he gave it up cigarettes a number of years ago.

Loli got smashed on booze and said she wanted a cigarette, but we kind of talked her out of it and she didn’t end up having one. Good for her.

So, I should have quit last Monday, but I managed it on Tuesday. Not bad going. I’m feeling okay. I didn’t want to kill anyone, and that is always good.

Come on Australia legalise pot, it is the sensible thing to do.

To all those people who feel pot should be legalised, tick the box for Legalise Cannabis Party in the Senate in the next election.

Dealing with Chuggers

I took the dogs for a walk in the morning. It rained a little, the sky looked like it was going to rain even more as we walked along Johnson Street, so we headed to Smith Street so we could walk under the cover of the shop verandas for the last bit of our walk. 

But just before Smith Street, one of those annoying 'chuggers' collectors for the environmental street chicks stops me. I can see her catching my eye before I am even near her. 20 years old and still idealistic. Oh spare me.

“Do you think it is important to look after the environment?” she asks. Loaded question, of course.

Oh, here we go, I think. “Yeah, sure, but we’re not, are we.”

“But we can, we can make the environment important.”

“I think it's too late, I think we are doomed.”

“No, we’re not doomed…”

“But no one is doing anything meaningful about the environment, in fact, the most meaningful thing being done is fighting against doing anything.”

“But we can do something, let me tell you how?”

“Why? What are we saving?" I ask. "Half of us hate the other half. We're always at war with each other, somewhere. At any given point 50% of the population doesn’t have access to food and water while the other half is eating itself to death. I’m not sure why we want to save any of that.”

“I’m sorry I don’t agree with you, there is a lot we can do,” she says.

“I am very comfortable with the demise of the human race, to tell you the truth.”

“Oh, okay, you have a nice day,” she says. 

"As collectively, we seem too stupid to take the concept of climate change seriously, you have to acknowledge that." 

“What if we all think like that?” she attempts.

Most of us do, I think. Are you not paying attention? “And you know something, I’m older so I might just make it through, fingers cross, but you’re young, so you are fucked.”

She turns away.

There you go, she gave up easily, they usually won’t leave you alone.

And that’s how it’s done, dealing with those annoying 'chuggers', street fund raisers. Usually, you can’t shake them.

Otto pulled ahead with all his puppy enthusiasm. Bruno and I followed.

It is a shame that as a group we are not taking caring of the environment seriously. What hope does the planet have, and the human race, when we have amongst others, conservative forces, sometimes actively, working against measures to repair the damage we have done.

I don’t understand where those conservative forces who deny the problems with our climate think how they are going to go to survive? I mean Mars really isn’t an option

It is a shame as humans are some of my favourite people, capable of amazing things. But, you know, if they have never been able to solve inequality, and hate, and greed, what hope do we really have?