However... Jill had organised carpet samples and she had organised the carpet measuring guys to be here at 11am. She sprung it on me yesterday.
She, of course, would be here at that time too. She had been looking after my lap-top. It is backed up on two hard drives wirelessly, but if the two hard drives and the laptop are in the same place? Not best practice.
"Have coffee ready," said Jill.
Of course, she is a woman who will be late to her own funeral. (she was late) "You look so well."
"Thanks. I think it is beginning to fade now."
She smiled.
I smiled.
“So, where is my laptop?”
“Oh,” said Jill. I could see her mentally recalibrating the truth, as she spoke it. “We’re going to my house after this for lunch…”
We are?
“…and then to the carpet place, you’ll pick it up on the way.”
“You forgot it?”
“No I didn’t.”
“But that is why you came over here.”
“No, I didn’t,” said Jill. “I came to see you.”
“I’d rather see my laptop.”
“Charming.”
“Well.” Shrug. She had kept an eye on my place during the holiday, I guess I had to be nice to her. “You with the laptop.”
“Really?”
Jill had the key to my place while we were away and she was itching to do the repairs that she has deemed necessary for the longest time, that she has been nagging me about for years. (Oh, it can't be years) But, I made her promise she wouldn't do anything unless I was here. So, the carpet samples were all laid out on the kitchen bench when we returned home from Vietnam.
Most of them were awful, but one.
Then, of course, we were off to the carpet place, Jill and I, to look at carpets. I was going to make excuses and get rid of her after the measuring guys had been, but, of course, that didn't work. She was gung-ho, I was, literally dragging my feet. Rolls of carpet are ginormous, now aren’t they? The man at Fowles was nice. $20 a metre instead of $110, if we are lucky. (something like that, anyway) I wasn’t too tired to listen to that fact. Lovely! Secretly, I am pleased, my carpet is, literally, threadbare at the entrance to my lounge room. No, really, it is non-existent, there is a great big hole where carpet used to be. It is time to open the purse and let the trapped butterflies escape. (Is that moths?)
Fortunately, Jill had a massage appointment at 3pm, which meant I could grab my laptop and scamper home and catch up on my blogging, which was what I really wanted to do with the day, not look at stupid carpets. It was 2pm as we left Fowels.
“Can we go and get my laptop now.”
“I don’t think I’ll have time…”
“Sure you will you have an hour.”
We were on The Princess Highway, just up the road from Jill’s, we just had to pop in and get my laptop on the way.
“I really need something to eat, though,” said Jill. “Before my massage.”
“Oh,” I said. “We can still do that.” I looked at my Nike band. I don’t think I was really convinced that we could.
“There is a hungry jacks just here,” said Jill. “Let’s go there.”
“Sure.”
She was able to pull off an astonishing traffic manoeuvre, across two lanes, to pull in quickly to the Hungry Jacks.
“What do you want?”
I just had what she was having, a chicken burger meal deal.
“We’d better pull over here (in the carpark) so you can eat your burger…”
“Why?”
“You can’t eat a burger as you drive along?”
“What?” said Jill. “You can when you have as much experience as I do.”
It was getting on to 2.20 something as we pulled back onto to The Princess Hwy, with Jill behind the wheel chomping at the chicken burger, taking out a quarter of it at the time. She had fries in one hand, the drink in another and the burger in another, or so it would seem.
We now, in all reality, didn’t have enough time to pick up my laptop as well. Boo Hoo. “Don’t worry about the laptop.” I was crushed. “I’ll get it another time.”
“Oh, okay. Now if we shoot down Warragul Road and onto City Link, that should be the quickest, shouldn’t it?”
“Yes.” All I wanted was my laptop, that’s all I wanted from the day, like your front teeth for Xmas, but somehow it wasn’t going to happen.
Still, I shouldn’t complain, I still have my small laptop, the MacAir, to write on. But, my 17 inch MacPro is the mother ship, it is what stores all of the data, with its dual hard drives and huge capacity… and I wanted it back, to transfer my photos across.
Still, I believe, there are boys who don’t have access to a laptop at all. How awful.
We ate porkbelly and bokchoi. The porkbelly wasn’t quite as sublime as normal, something about a lack of fish sauce, or oyster sauce, or something.
I start a new assignment tomorrow, full time for the rest of the year. I'm exhausted.
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