Hump Day At The Salt Mines

Nathan Cirillo

I got to work at 8.20am, just in time for a cigarette sitting on the front platform out the front of the building. It is nice to sit in the fresh air and luxuriate in the fresh breeze and watch the people go by. It’s almost my favourite thing to do, the only thing that would improve it would be a big, fat doobie. 

Cute Ian and the old chick arrived around the same time and headed upstairs. I watch the sliding glass front door close again behind them. And I am still on the outside. Again. Well, it was sunny, and warm on my morning skin. I had the rest of my cigarette to smoke. I know, I know, a peculiar habit for a non-smoker to have. Sure. I take a big puff on it. 

Kirin was inside when I finally got inside. She’s always inside when I get inside. Sometimes, I think she lives at her desk. Does she really do all that driving she claims to do? Does she really endure the traffic on the Mulgrave freeway every morning, as she says she does? Does she? Should I check for a sleeping bag and pillow under her desk? That would imply that I care, which I don’t. That’s what went through my head as we said good morning. I had to suppress the smirk it engendered, as Kirin is not the type to, shall we say, appreciate random smirks.

I was tired at work after 2 late nights. Not 21 anymore. Sad but true. Boo hoo. 

I sign on to my computer and we don’t really speak for the rest of the morning. 

Kerin is in soon enough. Often with a tale of inadequacy to match her tardiness. (You know, it is the reason Kirin claims to be the only one in the place who knows what she is doing. I suspect, I may just be the only other person Kirin thinks the same of. Nyr? I could be wrong.)

I had fried rice for lunch, in my lunchbox. The two of them still, if I said marvel, it would be overstating it, marvel at Sam packing my lunch for me every day.

Roz sent me the Vendors Statement to sign for the sale of some of mum’s assets. It looks like we have missed the peak of the house prices and now they are cooling. Bugger!

I left at 4.30pm. Out the door I go. A quick exit before Kirin asks me to do some stupid thing that she doesn’t know how to do.

We ate cream pasta for dinner.

A gunman shot and killed (the handsome) Canadian Forces corporal Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial before moving into the Canadian Parliament buildings where he was shot dead.

Rescue operations continued after an unseasonal blizzard and avalanches in the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri regions of Nepal (14-15 Oct) killed at least 41 trekkers and climbers.

The Swedish military continued a high-profile, six-day intelligence-gathering search for a suspected foreign (Russian) submarine in its territorial waters near Stockholm. The fucken Russians. Don’t we all hate the Russians? (Okay, not the Russian people, obviously)

Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) made an extremely close flyby of Mars, passing just 140,000 kilometers from the planet and safely observed by orbiting spacecraft and surface rovers.

Tributes poured across Australia following the death of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam at age 98, which had been announced the day prior.

All goes to show, if the home grown loonies don’t get us, climate change will, or the end will come from below, or above. And can we all expect to live to near 100 years old? Can we?