New carpet

The Carbon Tax

How can the abolition of the carbon tax be a winning policy for Tony Abbott? I just don't get it. It must mean that most Australians don't believe in Global Warming. The only conclusion you can draw from that is that the majority of Australians are complete morons.

The Carbon Tax is working and we will be the laughing stock of the world when we regress. Oh yes, there is Australia going backwards, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

In the next fifty years, this will be considered an ill-conceived action by an illogical government and future generations will raise their hands in disbelief... Actually, what is left of the population, what is left of the current generation and their children and their children's children, who haven't choked to death on poisonous air, or died of increased atmospheric temperatures and shortage of fresh drinking water, will raise their hands in disbelief.

The National Broadband Network

I think deciding who to vote for is really easy, and I can decide on one issue and one issue alone. The party that gives me the best broadband network is the party that will get my vote. It is the thing (maybe sadly) that I use most in life. How can Tony Abbott's policy of offering Australians a second rate, out of date, broadband system be a winning policy for them? How can people vote for a party that offers them that?

Driving home into the sunshine

The Labor Party is Doing a Good Job of Running the Country

I think that most people believe both major parties are, pretty much, the same, that all politicians are the same, but it is not true.

I think that people have decided to vote for the Coalition because of Labor's leadership battles and the perceived deficits ... "they seem to be making a mess of it, we might as well give the other team a go!"

But... our economy is doing fine under Labor ... but we're led to believe it is not. Our economy is the envy of other Western Nations. Our cost of living has risen less under Labor than it  did under the Howard Liberal govt.

AND... the Abbott led party would be the most conservative, right wing government in a lifetime.

They use racism to appeal to the lowest denominator in the voting public by using refugees as political pawns. Human rights will be diminished and the appeal process disallowed.

Abbott doesn't believe in Climate Change as it really is an inconvenient truth for him... when the carbon tax is, actually, working. We will be the laughing stock of the rest of the world if it is scrapped.


Abbott is giving wealthy women money for nannies. He is scrapping the school kid's bonus for all the others.

There will be no protection of Marine Parks as the Coalition believes in the mining business above environmental issues. Say good bye to The Great Barrier Reef.

They'll give us a second rate broadband to appease those business interests who have competing business' to the NBN.

The Murdoch press has been disgraceful with their coverage of this election.

The much beloved ABC? Who knows what that will look like once  private enterprise Tony and Joe finish with it.

The Liberals continue to peddle the budget crisis lie, so they can cut the likes of education, health, jobs, penalty rates...

Do you want second rate education? Do you want a broken medical system? Do you want the lowest paid workers paid even less?


Again... our economy is doing fine ... but we're led to believe it is not. Our cost of living has risen less under Labor than it did under the Howard Liberal Govt. Our economy is the envy of nearly every other western country.

If you are unhappy with Labor, voting for the Liberals is not the answer.

Governing for the rich and implementing policies that widen the gap between rich and poor only makes for a more divided and unhappy society.

Vote Green. Vote Independent. Vote for any, vote for all of the minor parties first.

There was a bright flash of light, and a loud sucking noise, after which the world fell quiet, deadly quiet. Who was left to witness the change, the devastation, the new reality? Who? Anyone? At all? Who was left? As the world fell silent.

The only noise to be heard, if in fact, there was anyone left alive to hear it, was the sound of cockroaches scuttling about.

Sore Calves

I woke up at 8am. My calves ached as I walked across the bedroom to get my dressing gown. How old am I, I thought? as my calves moo’d with every step I took. I guessed it must have been from moving all of the furniture. Of course, my mind always goes to thrombosis, immanent death, you know the fear. I’d be a hypochondriac if I didn’t keep it in check. Laugh. If I wasn’t so goddam lazy. Who has the energy to spare to be worried about every minor creak and groan and the imagined sickness that accompanies it? Oh no, not me. I’m not that energetic.

So, the lounge room and the third bedroom had to be complete dismantled for the carpet layers, everything had to be removed from each, except for the couches in the lounge and the bed in the bedroom. It meant that every other room had stuff moved into it. We’d put the two sideboards back into the lounge room and the coffee table and the ottoman and rearranged the three couches, so all the hard bits, the big bits, were finished. We just had to move the minor stuff back, you know, all the fiddly, time consuming stuff. My two big metal and ceramic dishes on to one sideboard, my floral ceramic bear without eyes that disturbs some of the people so. All my little dishes. All the ornaments... the oil burners, the child’s antique clacker, my coral ball, my ivory box, (I know, I know) my inlaid music box, my carved round wooden box, which I always imagine may have contained someone’s ashes once, I’m not sure why, my square wooden boxes, the couple that were moved, the rest stayed in place on the mantel piece. And whatever else.


I had to replace all of the books into the book case above the other side board, which is really an antique desk, but it is one of those upright kind of desks, so everybody just thinks it is a sideboard. And as we… Sam had thrown away my video collection completely, that had taken up considerable space in the old desk, I could now move all of my excess books, which had been hanging about in various places in the house, into the desk. Lovely.


I looked at the new carpet from the lounge room door. The light was gentle, as the lounge room faces west, and it was quiet and still and a complete picture. Nice. The Persian rug is still bunching around the legs of the coffee table, which is annoying. How do you stop that? Someone suggested silicon spray on the underside of the rug.

It is nice that the room is now complete again. It just seems like it has always looked like that as I really didn’t notice the holes in the old carpet… as amazing as that sounds.

Didn’t? Didn’t want to? Familiarity and all that? Anyway… it is nice none the less.


I left my car out the front, all night, I forgot to bring it in. Oops. I brought it in this morning. Oops. Oh, I don’t know exactly why I say oops, it is not as if I live in a ghetto, other than a gay one. We are convinced by marketers, most likely paid by security teams, or the writers of newspapers, that we can’t trust the world around us. It was fine, these things we are scared of, may, actually, never happen.


Sister Roz arrived at 9.30am to pick me up to go see mum. It was a sunny day. Mum seemed to be able to answer some basic questions, like how she was, which seemed to be an improvement on most visits. Whatever that means?

Lottie was pretty in pink, even if her hair was bothering her. It was lovely sitting in the sun. The wind blew a little, I got her a cardigan, also pink. She seemed happy. She laughed. Her hair still seems strange white.

Roz and I went to Bunnings on the way home. Roz wondered where one was, after (daughter) Louise called and asked her to buy Brother inlaw Grant a Father’s Day present on her way home.

I got home around midday.

I saw my first new format number plate in Abbottsford on the way home. I tried to get Sam to come back with me to take a photo, but he wouldn’t be in it. So, I drove back to Abbotsford and took a photo on my own. Being a car nut from childhood, I know when I saw every new number plate there has been.


Sam, Buddy and I walked around to Killiney to eat lunch. I ate Mee Goring. Sam ate lontong. We walked home in the sun.

Buddy sat under the table with his bowl of water. People marvel at him. Children want to pat him. Girlfriend’s made cutsey faces and looked like they wanted him. Boyfriends smiled and looked like they wanted him. He loves saying hello to everyone. He’s very social, is our Buddy.


I went to the supermarket. I fed another $20 of 50 cent pieces into the Woolies self service machine, of Shane’s. Thank you Shane. I didn’t care, I wasn’t self conscious, I stood there and rolled them in as if that is what one always did. Holding people up, you say? People should relax and learn to enjoy life more.

I made a banana cake. It wasn’t so nice. I used an American recipe that I converted to metric, that used no butter, just oil instead. I don’t know if I over cooked it, but it wasn’t very nice, to tell you the truth.

Banana Cake

New Carpet

The carpet layers arrived at 9.30am. Ralf and Jamie. Ralf the master carpet layer with the fucked back the carpet laying has obviously given him. Jamie the baby-faced blond apprentice in loose tracky pants, that looked good on him, on his curves, read his thighs and his arse, who had a penchant for smoking cigarettes.

“We’ve got a problem with parking?” said Ralf, straight up at the front door, the first words out of his mouth.

I don’t know what he thought I was going to do about it, if I had been one of those inner city dwellers who didn’t have a back yard and off street parking, as Fitzroy is Fitzroy. What was he thinking? Surely he has worked in the inner suburbs before?

But, I guess I did fix it. I moved my car out the front, which gave him two car parks for his car and trailer. He struggled to get the two of them in there, but he did, with Jamie helping, and I felt by giving him the carpark I had, in fact, done my bit, I felt no compunction to help him. I made myself coffee and signed into the internet on the kitchen.

Sam and I swept and the carpet layers worked all day. It all went smoothly.

They were finished around 3pm. The car, the trailer and the old carpet, the boy filling out his track suit pants and the old man were gone and it was quiet. The new carpet looked good and felt soft under our feet. I gazed at it from different angles.

Sam sang, “I feel good.” And suddenly danced around the lounge room like a go go boy.  He’s cute, adorable really. I love it when he gets that cheeky look on his face. “I knew that I would.” Tah da da, dah da dah da dah.

I started to put the desk back together again, but before I put the draws back in I decided that I should vacuum out the dust. With everything removed from the desk, I could see the debris of marijuana… from days of old. Just at the moment I was going to suck it all up I thought I could scrape it up and roll a joint. The next moment I was scavenging pot and I managed to roll two joints… possessed? I wouldn’t say that. Sam was having a shower. I shared the joints with him when he came down stairs.

We walked to Sunny and bought pork rolls. The sun was shining.

Jill came over with her failing father Lachlan, who kept telling me the carpet was a very neutral colour. She was very pleased and wanted me to tell her that I was pleased too. She had been encouraging me, in fact, she would say if it wasn’t for her it wouldn’t have been done now.

“Aren’t you pleased now it is down?”

“Oh… yeah.”

“Oh come on, you must be pleased.”

“I’d be pleased if it was an Alfa Romeo,” I said. “Not just replacement goods. These are just repairs.”

“The carpet is a very neutral colour, I think.”

I bought sultana cake and made tea. We sat around the ottoman with plates of cake on our laps. Lachlan had a tray and a good eye kept on him. He’s looking very frail.

Jill was all smiles.


We continued putting things back, things were everywhere, the rooms were full of stuff. As we were putting all the furniture back into the top floor bedroom, we found Shane’s change buckets. Two plastic containers of silver and two black tie bags of gold coins. The bags were heavy to hold. I never understand why people do that? It is why Shane will never have any money, he doesn’t look after the cents…


We ate dinner at Masak Masak (cook cook) in Smith Street. It was nice. Beef Rendang. Pork Spareribs. Nice. I drank chinotto. Sam drank longan.

It was a gentle night, not too many tourists in Smith Street. Who knows what it will be like when that terrible Banco development is finished. The Banco development will inescapably change Smith Street for the worse for the benefit of the developer and absolutely nobody else. Nobody wanted this development other than the developers. It is sad to watch Smith Street destroyed.

We went to the supermarket. It was quiet, not many people are out shopping on a Saturday night. The isles were almost empty, the fruit and veg was empty. It was nice, easy and quiet and it was nice to be together. We bought $50 worth of groceries with Shane’s collected change. I fed $20 worth of 50c pieces into the Woolies Self Service machine, without a care.

“Thanks Shane,” we both said.

Morris Minor

Tony Abbott

"Gather around girls, gather around," said Tony Abbott. He was at a girl's school. The girl's were dressed in their sports outfits.

"We're touching your suit," said one of the girls.

"Aaaaaa. That's okay. That's okay" said Abbott. He was looking around in that self conscious way of his.

"Aaaaaa aaaaa aaaaaa, a bit of body contact never hurt anyone... girls. Aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa," said Tony Abbott to the group of school girls, in the middle of which he was standing.

He laughed that creepy laugh of his and, as he did, you could see the extra drool covering his lips, they were all shiny and wet and glistening as he looked from one girl to the other.

Euw! He turns my skin into centipedes.

Paying Rich Women to Have Babies is Ridiculous

The top 3000 business’ get taxed a levy for the Liberal Party's expensive parental leave scheme and those business' pass that tax on in higher prices, so everybody pays for couples to have children. Outrageously, we all pay for wealthy women to have babies. 

What costings there are show that only half of this expensive parental scheme will be paid for by the levy.

This expensive scheme that favours the rich couples and disadvantages the poorer couples is really only being proposed to indulge Tony Abbot and his Prime Ministerial aspirations.

As many households don’t have children as do have children, so this is a scheme, that at best, only applies to 50% of the population. So, it is an inherently unfair scheme.

However, the biggest problem with this scheme is the fact that the world is now overpopulated. At 7 billion people on the planet we are now at a critical stage of over population where the planet is faltering, at best. The world population will, most likely, double in the next 50 years and at 15 billion people planet Earth is unsustainable.

I know politicians have their heads buried in the 3 year term sand bucket, but we, actually, should be discouraging couples from having babies. We should make it more expensive for couples to have babies, not paying them do to so.

Immigration will fix any problem with the short fall in the ageing population, as it always has in the past. The world population must be looked at as a global number, not a country specific number.

Driving home

What Is Next, My Friends? Don't They Always Come In 3's?

The Asko deliveryman arrived just after 8am. Sam had just left for work and I had just thrown the cat, little miss shitty pants, outside, when the doorbell rang. I thought it was Sam back having forgotten something, but when I opened the door there was the Asko man with the new machine, on a trolley, on a wooden pallet, looking huge.

Buddy raced through the door, I didn’t try to restrain him as I thought it was Sam.

“You’re not scared of dogs, are you?” I quickly asked. It is amazing how many people are.

Buddy jumped up to say hello. “Hello pooch,” he said.

I put the dog out. Sam left. The Asko man got to and installed the new machine.

The new machine looked far too big to fit into the space where the, dwarfed in comparison, old machine sat.

I opened the doors in front of the old machine to show him where it was.

“Interesting,” said the installation man. That only seemed to confirm what I’d been thinking, that the new machine was far too big and this was going to be a monumental disaster.

“It is full of water,” I said.

“They usually are,” he said.

“It made a terrible burning smell,” I said.

“That usually happens when the motors burn out on these things,” he said. He pulled it out of its safe place. “There is water in the base…”

“It tripped the power circuits…”

“That’s what happens when water comes in contact with electricity.” He laughed. “They don’t like it.”

He wanted towels. He didn’t want to spill water all through the house. He arranged the towels in a circle in the middle of the kitchen floor, as you might do with flour when making pasta. He tipped the old Asko up and it dribbled out water like a woman pissing. When the flow slowed, he set the old machine back down on the floor again and he pushed the towels in absorbing all of the water trapped in the middle.

I though, he has done that before.

I disappeared into the lounge and to my computer.

He didn’t say any more. And then he was done.


He was gone by 8.35am. I continued on my computer for a while before I had the realisation, “Oh yes, I guess I should be going into work. Oh damn!”

I think I got to work at 9am. Not bad really.


I ate lasagne for lunch. Lovely it was too. It is always nicer the next day. The overpowering herb taste seems to have lessened, as well. Lasagne for a week for lunch, it is great.


My car wouldn’t start again when I came out to it after work. A quick fiddle with the battery terminals got it going. But… what does it mean?

I tightened the battery terminals when I got home. Well, I attempted to, but they just didn’t seem to be that lose. I wondered if it could be something more sinister? I hope it wasn't going to develop into one of those slow, creeping, ongoing problems.


The new dishwasher washed its first load of dirty dishes. Sad isn't it when you are excited to come home and play with your new dishwasher. Not that I was excited, as such... I'll want to get married next. At least the last of the dirt dish backlog was cleaned away in one sweep of the cleaning arm. Um? Er? A new broom sweeps clean. The dirty dishes that had littered the bench since Saturday were all now cleaned away.


We ate hot potatoes. Sam, Buddy and I walked to Brunswick Street. It was warm, it is warm this week. It has got warm. It was lovely walking in the warm night.

The streets were relatively empty, being a Tuesday night. A woman stopped as we stood outside SpudBar and said, “There is that cute dog again.”

I looked down at Buddy. He continued panting. I wondered when the woman had seen him before. It crossed my mind to ask her, but she was gone and I didn’t really care that much.

Driving home into the afternoon light

Doing Stuff

There seems to be more warmth in the air. The days seem to be warmer and more summery, less wintery. It seems like the cold is drawing to an end. It is nice, an invigorating feeling. The world is expanding again, becoming bigger and more open and more vibrant.

Colour is slowly seeping back into our lives with every day that we edge towards the new season. Soon the buds will be on the branches and the sun will be high in the sky, lighting us well.

Sam swears it is because of the clean windows.


I bought in Sultanas to munch on as snacks for work. My snack of choice around 11am has been Twisties. I was surprised when I checked out the fat content, the other day, and I was taken aback when the fat content was high. Trans fat was listed in the ingredients. WTF? Sultanas are not nearly as satisfying as Twisties, or the odd chocolate bar, um… or the occasional cookie. Sad face. They are not the substitute I had hoped for them to be.

My appetite is still reeling from stopping the smokes a week ago. Nicotine takes away you appetite. When you stop, when I stop my appetite comes back with a vengeance for a short period of time, which is the last thing you want when you have quit.


Ah Monday, four days to go.

I called my sister Roz, as I haven’t heard from her since before I went away to Vietnam. I keep thinking she’d text me to go and see our mum, but she hasn’t. I thought she’d call to comment on the three postcards that I sent her while I was away, but she didn’t. She answered the phone with her customary greeting, “If you are calling me, I had better sit down.”

Really? I don’t think that is quite so true anymore. “I haven’t heard from you.”

The call broke up, I got every second word, every third word. She was in a Telstra shop and had to call me back. I was heating up my lunch in the kitchen, which is, actually, under three stories of building. I headed out the back into the sunshine and spoke to her as the sun gently warmed my face.

She said she has been working very hard and that the lambs are being born and she is up to her neck in them. (Up to my neck in Lambs, I reckon that could be a good title for a kids book)

It was nice outside, the sun was warm like a puppy. I could have stood out there for the next four days.


It is good leaving work at 5pm, out the door on the dot, everybody here agrees. They all leave on time. It is good. Too many Australian’s give their work free hours every day. Funny, that companies don’t work for their clients for free. However...

I went to Victoria Street, on the way home, and bought an OzLotto tats ticket for the $15 million draw tomorrow night. I parked in one of the blocked off side streets, the one that runs parallel to Nicholson Street, one street to the east. I always think of this area as the area Rachel lived in when she first moved to Melbourne, although that is a couple more streets to the east again. In the street I parked in, there were a few houses being renovated and there was a really awful circa 1960’s one for sale. If I win the fifteen million I’m coming back to buy it. It wouldn’t matter what you did to it, it could only improve it. It had quite a large front yard with quite a deep offset, you could build a big room at the front a la warehouse style and hide the original building altogether. My mind bristled with the possibilities.

There was a gentle ease and a slow swagger to Victoria Street at 5.30 on a Monday afternoon. Half pace, slowing down.


Sam was already at home when I got home. He was already in his pale grey track suit. He said his manager left early, and so he did too. He opened the back door and smiled at me as I got out of the car.


We stacked the wood, it still lay in a pile in the car park out the back. Sam insisted when I said we could leave it until the weekend, and good on him for that stance. Buddy was determined to play and get in the way, until he found his bone and then he lost interest in us altogether. There is already a longer amount of daylight at the end of the day… and now the wood is stacked. The evenings are becoming longer and warmer and bigger.


I cooked. I made lasagne. It turned out okay. We warmed the meat sauce just so the fat melted and it became more viscous? (Is that the word?) I made cheese sauce. The first batch wasn’t enough, as we had increased the size of the finished meal, so I made a second batch of cheese sauce. I thought it would look too small in the big glass pan? I always seem to have dishes that are too big. But then when we’d assembled it and it was threatening to over flow the edges of the pan, I thought, ha ha ha, will it actually fit? It was very full. It over flowed a little in the oven, just some drips and we had pans underneath to catch the drips.


The new dishwasher is coming tomorrow, which is a great reason just to worry generally. Will it fit under the benches? Will the cupboard doors covering it still function? Will the old one come out easily? Will the power point and the taps all work properly? Will the deliveryman arrive early, and work quickly and be finished in no time, so I can get to work?

So many factors to worry about. Stupid, really. I never used to worry about such things.

I Cooked Lasagne

It wasn't bad, considering I haven't cooked it for a while. I put a touch too much oregano in the meat sauce. Nyr! What can you do?

One Thing After Another

Late in the afternoon, the house filled with a terrible burning smell, like electrical wires were melting. You know, that acid, metal smell. Our first thought was that it was the open fire, it had been burning since I got up. We sniffed at it like two dogs may sniff at each other’s arses. I used to throw electrical wire into the open fire one when we were off our faces because it burnt as pretty colours, orange and blue, so I kind of knew what that smelt like. (Sorry planet) No, it wasn’t the fire. What could it be? We sniffed around the house like a customs Beagle might sniff at you and give you a fright at the airport, as if it was accusing you of being a drug mule, when in fact it was sniffing you for contraband fruit. We wandered the house with our noses in the air. Sniff sniff, sniff sniff. Eventually, all noses lead to the kitchen and, on our knees, to the dishwasher. It was switched off but it was definitely secreting an awful smell. It had been on, but it had stopped working. We were soon to find that it had tripped the circuit board and the power points in the kitchen had all been turned off. Not only that, it had stopped mid cycle and was still half full of water. Shit! We tried turning it on again and the circuit board tripped instantly.


It is going to be a long clean up in the kitchen this morning, I thought, as I wiped the sleep out of my eyes, as the coffee brewed. I was going to have to wash everything by hand. Boo hoo. Everything. By hand. I pride (well, pride isn’t exactly the right word, I don’t really give a shit. It is just nice to get through it) myself on being able to clean away the night before’s dishes in the time that it takes for my morning coffee to brew. Not this morning though.


It was cold and quiet. Pots and pans lay higgdly-piggdly on the sink and in it. Cold, congealed fat formed circles on the surface of the varying sized ponds, receptacles, of water. Plates were jammed in between the pots, scrapes of chicken skin and red chicken fat hung from the white porcelain like scabs. Ants covered the dishes like chocolate sprinkles, moving in lines, removing the skerricks of waste, packed in their backpacks, marching away. Tea stained cups were jammed in between the saucepans. Milky glasses were jammed in between them. Cutlery was scattered around the lot like pick up sticks. Food waste littered the chopping boards, falling off the edges onto the bench. A puddle of gravy sat next to the lettuce spinner. A squashed tomato skin slid under my foot on the floor.


I built a fire, but as it was only 9am, so I didn’t feel like I could chop kindling, so I gathered scrap pieces of wood from the back yard and improvised. I went out into the back yard a number of times and the only recognition I got from Buddy was his eyes moving as his head lay still on his pillow. 

The new delivery of wood was coming between 12 and 1pm, so there was absolutely no reason why I couldn’t have a fire (other than the early morning issue). There were only a few logs left as it stood it is true, but before they would have finish burning I’d have a lovely new ton to pick from.

I might as well be warm. There can’t be too many fires left for the year.



Sam came down some time later. I said, “Good morning honey.”

He pursed his lips and made the Buddy call sucking sound.

“Oh lovely," I said. "Buddy gets a hello before me.”

“Where is he?” was Sam’s only response.

“Oh charming, he’s not even apologetic about it.”

I guess he’s still cross (he wasn't cross... this is my mock outrage) about all the time I spent on my computer transferring my photos from my Mac Hard drive to my iPhotos, when he wanted to clean up in preparation of the carpet coming, next weekend. When I was finished, and all the photos had been transferred to iPhotos and I had deleted them from my hard drive and my trash bin, iPhotos somehow glitched and I lost half of them. I wasn’t happy. Sam wasn’t happy about my moaning about losing my photos. He got them back from back up and then he wasn’t happy all over again when I spent more time transferring them all over again.

“But it wasn’t my fault.”

Lovely isn’t it. I’m under no illusions who is more important in his life, me or the dog. 

I'm kidding, of course. It's not personal. Buddy is precious, as Sam says. He's Sam's first dog, we must remember  The first thing he does every morning is let Buddy in. Then he kisses me. This morning was no different.

I went out to the car to move it in preparation of the wood being delivered. I turned the key and nothing. No sound, no lights, nothing. Lovely, I thought. It all happens at once, now doesn’t it? One thing after another. How many replacement requirements can stack up one after the other, I ask? I guess I was foolish to ask, but I did. The carpet next Saturday, the dishwasher as of yesterday, surely it can’t be the car as of today. No, not fair. 

“Grrrr, I hate your world!”

I whipped open the bonnet, I whizzed the cover off the battery and I twiddled both connections. I got back in the car and it started first turn of the key. Just as fucking well.

I always think of that greeting card from my childhood at moments like these, with the elephants pissing on the cover and the caption, “It never rains but it pours.”

Muesli, coffee, crumpets, coffee.

I finished off my photos over breakfast, after Sam showed me how to retrieve the images from back up. How good is he, he didn’t really want me to do it, but he still showed me how to do it. He’s lovely, really. Still lovely, definitely.

Sam was still so pleased with the clean windows, and I don’t think he could sit with me and watch me continuing with my photos, so he decided to clean the windows again this morning. Apparently, I was to help.

However, the hunt for the new dishwasher had to proceed. It has to be done, sooner rather than later, otherwise it will be next July and people will be saying, “Is your dishwasher still not working?”

And the old one is sitting there half full of water. Yay.

We’ve been researching them this morning. I’ve always had Askos, my parents always had Askos. Mum and dad had one for 25 years with nothing ever going wrong with it. I had one for 17 years trouble free. The one I have now was probably a rather foolish purchase, as it was a reconditioned unit that the service guy talked me into buying, at half the price of a new one at the time. It has lasted for 6 years. But there is Bosch and Miele too. The forums and reviews say the pick is between these three makes. The Miele is too expensive, twice as much as the other two. So, the choice is between Bosch and Asko.

We headed off to Warrigul Road to the combination of The Good Guys, Harvey Norman and Bamboe Indonesian restaurant for food. Everything should be covered by that arrangement, and it was. The food was great and Harvey Norman is, quite possibly, Sam’s favourite shop.
   
I bought a new Asko, it is to be delivered on Tuesday.

There goes my new SLR camera. I wanted a Cannon 700D, but I am getting an Asko. I harrumphed to Sam on the way home.

“I am spending all of this money and all I am getting is replacement goods, just maintenance. I’m not getting anything new. I'm not getting anything nice for me.”

“Shut up and stop complaining, there are people on the planet who don’t have access to fresh water.” Don’t you hate it when people quote you back at you? I know I do.

Cleaning And Tidying For Something New

I was awake at 8am on Saturday, you've got to love it. Why is it at 8am on a weekday I feel like I can sleep for many hours to come and yet at 8am on a Saturday I am wide awake and wanting to get up? Why is that? Is it just my mind being perpendicular? I dreamt about attempting to test drive Audis and having the salesmen ignore me, like he didn’t care. I drove up in my A8 that I parked out the front. I wanted to test drive an A6, or as it was, a 5 series Audi. (Maybe that is why he ignored me?)

I dreamt about rummaging through shelves of army green and shiny bronze cameras, in Target, trying to find which one was an SLR. They were all sorts of shapes and amazing designs, with lenses and viewfinders of every proportion possible.

I shook my head and pulled on my tracksuit pants. The cameras were amazing, like retro, futuristic army space age. Actually, it was more your highly lacquered metal finish meets your Greville Street retro chic.

I came down stairs and brewed coffee as I cleaned up the dirty dishes, which I’d left from last night. They were all covered in ants. A steady line of black ran from the kitchen sink, across the bench top and up the wall and into the light switch. That is where they are left, bodies up the wall, as a warning the colony of ants that may be considering taking their place. We get them in the winter when it rains, it is as if they come inside for shelter.

Oh, the kitchen was a mess, where to start? Shrug? The coffee brews and the kitchen is tidy.

Vanilla fridge spray kills ants, if you hate fly spray as much as I do. It seems to kill them dead and leave the kitchen smelling lovely. Fly spray is just evil shit.

The coffee had just brewed and I was well into cleaning the dishes when Buddy started to bark. It was the first I’d heard from him all morning. I quietly walked over to the back door, just as Buddy ran out of his kennel and headed to the back of the yard. He stood there and sniffed at the wind.

The carpet man called. He didn’t need to come over and measure up, as the original measuring guy had passed on his measurements. He’ll be here at 9am next Saturday to start laying the new carpet.

We had a big fry up lunch. Sausages, eggs, spinach, mushrooms, toast. (Remember, I bought too many sausages the other night) I made the scrambled eggs, Sam made the rest.

We cleaned all afternoon. We have to move all of the furniture out of the lounge room for the new carpet to be laid. I have two big sideboards in the lounge, which are full of shit. Actually, one is a big writing desk with shelves above it, but it is still full of shit.

I threw away all of my treasures, things I haven’t looked at for years, true, but treasures none the less. There were three garbage bags of videocassettes, with everything on them. But, I don’t even have a video player any more. (I do in my bedroom, not that I use it, but not in the lounge room) There was another garbage bag of papers and interesting articles torn from newspapers and magazines and cards and business cards and scraps of things cut from newspapers that were mementos of… well, a life lived, I guess. And there they were being carried to the bin in a garbage bag. Lovely.

Nothing lasts forever. We must let go of everything in the end. Possessions are only temporary as we are, we all just gather together for a while. My new resolution, if I haven’t looked at it in ten years, I shouldn’t think twice about throwing it out, if the need arises.

The back streets of Richmond under a blue, blue sky