Monday In The Rain

5.45am. I was up. I’m straight in the shower.

I drink coffee and stuff Vegemite toast into my gob in the dark on my own. It is quiet.

6.30am. I leave the house.

There is no 86 tram coming along Gertrude Street as I get to the tram stop, as there so often is. I look up at that point to see a a no 11 tram leaving the Gertrude Street, Brunswick Street intersection heading up Brunswick Street.

I walk to the Gertrude Street Brunswick Street intersection and look north down Brunswick Street to see if any trams are coming, there are not. The cars still have their lights on, and they sparkle in my eyes like diamonds. I turn and walk up Brunswick Street south towards St Vincent’s Plaza.

When I get to St Vincent’s Plaza there is an unusually large number of people waiting for that time of the morning. Then I see Gisborne Street is blocked off because of tram line works. I then see the tram diversion signs plastered all over the stop. A series of realisations so early in the morning when it is still dark. 

The trams were being diverted to Bourke Street.

I think fuck it! If I have to walk to Collins Street from Bourke Street, I might as well just walk down Gisborne Street and catch the no 48 tram down Collins Street. So, I walk to Collins Street from St Vincent’s Plaza. Albert Street is blocked off in both directions for a few hundred metres, so I have to walk all the way around, which displeases me a lot. 

It starts to rain half way down Gisborne Street, and I get wet. I’m really unhappy by now.

6.49am. I catch a no 48 tram at the top of Collins Street. This is ridiculous, the trams aren’t running, I’m now saturated, who the hell wants to come into the office I think sitting on the tram with my wet shirt sticking to me.

The no 48 is packed, of course, it is the only tram running down Collins Street.

It is pouring with rain when I get off the tram at William Street. I shelter under the eaves of 447 Collins Street, as best as I could. And pretty soon, the rain eases off and I make a run for it down Collins Street.

There is a couple running down Collins Street together in front of me. He’s got on tiny black shorts that are soaked and clinging to his sensational arse and muscular legs. I think lucky bitch and I just want to follow them (for the rest of my life) but they are going too slow and I run past them to my building.

In the forecourt of my building, a stranger smiles and says, “Good morning.” I rather snarkily quip back, “Who the hell wants to come into the damn office.”

I look back as I make the quip, our eyes follow one another’s eyes, he laughs.

I look like a wreck in the mirror in the lift at a few minutes passed 7am.

I’m cross that I have to put up with this shit, where if I was working from home I wouldn’t have to put up with any of it. I’d be in front of my computer with a coffee in my track pants dry as a nun’s.

My Big Boss comes in at 7.30ish and I say to him.

“How do I work from home permanently?” I say it too abruptly, too snarky to be taken seriously

“What?” he says.

“The trams weren’t working and I had to walk down Gisborne Street and it started to rain and I got saturated and I am sitting here in wet clothes and if I worked from home I wouldn’t be.”

He didn’t take me seriously and asked, “Where is Gisborne Street.”

Nicely deflected, I think.

I got my roof fixed, well part of it anyway. Josh with the very smackable arse (pattable chest and kissable face... oh... er... sorry... do you think they send the pretty ones to do quotes in gay suburbs? or am I being too cynical?) didn't show up. He sent some workers to do the job, which from all accounts they have done satisfactorily. I don't know, I'm not getting up there to check and what do I know about roofs anyway.

The only disappointing aspect of the whole thing is that what Josh said he would do to the rest of the roof as a part of the initial quote, you know to clinch the sale and get me to agree to the job, or am I just too cynical, has now been rolled into another quote worth quite a lot more. Hmmm? Scowl. 

Still, I'd like to see Josh in his undies... um... er... did I write that? I don't think I'll be using him again, because I have a very slight underlying feeling he is not 100% honest, you know, because of the promises made so easily to get the job, which his didn't come through with.

I need to get the rest of my roof seen to. Maintenance, Josh called it. I'll just have to find someone else to do the job.