Today, I went to get the hair cut (as they would say in Ireland) Why is today so different from any other haircut day? Well let me tell you. Everything started out as usual, make an appointment, turn up on time, wait for ages, then get asked to go and get your hair washed at the sink. Only thing that was different today was the junior who drew the short straw and got the lovely job of washing the hair of every total stranger who came in the salon. Does this dialogue ring a bell; 'Hello sir, is the water warm enough' no it's fucking freezing. Don't know why they ask you because by the time the girl has got halfway through washing your hair it's too hot. Then after you've had the shampoo, 'would you like conditioner sir?' to which I replied 'does my hair need it?'
She said 'only on the ends'
I said 'don't bother then, I am going to get them cut off in in a minute'
She doesn't even smile, meanwhile, I am splitting my sides laughing to myself and my mind starts wandering......
......when I was working for the local council years ago, I decided one day to go to the barber and get my hair cut. It was just after lunchtime when I sat in the chair and told the barber how short I wanted it cut. I looked around the salon and bugger me, there was the Chief Executive of Stafford Borough Council sitting in the chair next to me. I nodded to him and he nodded back as we knew each other, then he had the audacity to ask me what I was doing in the barbers shop in the middle of the afternoon. I told him that I was getting my hair cut and he said I can see that but you are getting it cut in work's time. I thought, that's a bit rich coming from you mate as we are both in work's time so I said that it grows in work's time so I am getting it cut in work's time. The cheeky bugger was obviously looking for a fight because he said it doesn't all grow in work time, to which I replied, I'm not having it all cut off.
When I got back to work, I told the other guys in the joiners shop and they found it very amusing. Frank, one of the wags told me about the time when he went into a barbers shop for a haircut. Now, being rather thin on top and sporting a moustache he said to the barber after he had cut his little bit of hair, can you trim my moustache please. The barber said 'no, it's not on top of your head'. Frank duly put his head right back and looked up at the ceiling and replied 'it is now'
Friday, August 25, 2006
Brisbane: After Dark, August 2006
Temp today 30c, will somebody remind me that it's still Winter.
The sun went down behind Mt. Glorious two hours ago, it's after 7.30pm and here I am sitting outside next to the pool writing my blog. The warm weather has brought forward the plethora of insects that we get from living on acreage. I have put some jungle gel on my arms and legs for some protection and filled the citrus lamp with paraffin which is burning on the table top. Frogs are coming alive with their sound of mating but the cicada's won't be heard until it really warms up. The lights on the pool create an ambient lighting under the cloudless sky filled with stars. My music of choice is a Cafe-del-Mar double chill out album playing through the flyscreen from the media room next to me.
How far have we come in the last 10 years? I did have a computer way back then and felt like the man who owned the first color T.V in the street. The internet was in it's infancy and here I am today using wireless broadband on a laptop, sitting outdoors, listening to cool music, drinking beer and feeling really chilled out and the weekend has only just begun.
Can life get any better than this?
The sun went down behind Mt. Glorious two hours ago, it's after 7.30pm and here I am sitting outside next to the pool writing my blog. The warm weather has brought forward the plethora of insects that we get from living on acreage. I have put some jungle gel on my arms and legs for some protection and filled the citrus lamp with paraffin which is burning on the table top. Frogs are coming alive with their sound of mating but the cicada's won't be heard until it really warms up. The lights on the pool create an ambient lighting under the cloudless sky filled with stars. My music of choice is a Cafe-del-Mar double chill out album playing through the flyscreen from the media room next to me.
How far have we come in the last 10 years? I did have a computer way back then and felt like the man who owned the first color T.V in the street. The internet was in it's infancy and here I am today using wireless broadband on a laptop, sitting outdoors, listening to cool music, drinking beer and feeling really chilled out and the weekend has only just begun.
Can life get any better than this?
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Last post I said that I was on a roll, so what's new? Well I sold two pools today and that brings my total to 4 pools in 6 days and that's worth £13000 in commission.
Not bad for a weeks work eh. When I was a carpenter I was lucky to make $1200, so If I don't sell another pool for a while it doesn't bother me as I have my garden to keep me out of trouble.
Not bad for a weeks work eh. When I was a carpenter I was lucky to make $1200, so If I don't sell another pool for a while it doesn't bother me as I have my garden to keep me out of trouble.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
On a Roll
August is nearly over and things are hotting up in more ways than one. The overnight temp is warming up and the daytime temp is like living in paradise right now.
Last Saturday I sold my first swimming pool for the month of August and today I got a call from a lady who wants me build her a pool with an in-floor cleaning system. I am delighted to get this job because it means that I have broken into the local market and only have a 5 minute drive to work. If this job goes well then it will open doors for me and the recommendations will start to come in. The local pool shop is already handing out my business cards and yesterday I priced for a 9.0m x 4.0m pool in the village which is only 10 mins from home.
Watch this space..........
Last Saturday I sold my first swimming pool for the month of August and today I got a call from a lady who wants me build her a pool with an in-floor cleaning system. I am delighted to get this job because it means that I have broken into the local market and only have a 5 minute drive to work. If this job goes well then it will open doors for me and the recommendations will start to come in. The local pool shop is already handing out my business cards and yesterday I priced for a 9.0m x 4.0m pool in the village which is only 10 mins from home.
Watch this space..........
Sunday, August 20, 2006
The Perfect Day
Today is Sunday and almost to an end. It started out with a beautiful warm morning, progressed to a lovely hot afternoon with blue skies and ended up with a mild evening. We had planned to spend the day together as a family(including the dog) and decided to drive to Sandgate on the Moreton Bay Coast. The tide was so far out it was hard to see the waves, the ground was dark in colour and completely rippled from the outgoing movement of the ocean. There were large holes everywhere dug by the many stingrays that inhabit the water and strangely so, they were like quicksand in the middle and the kids found it very amusing jumping in them and sinking up to their knees. Meanwhile, the dog thought he had died and gone to heaven, so many sticks, water and open space to run and burn off that excess energy which he has so much of.
We walked along the promenade for half an hour or so and left the girls in the playground to amuse themselves. Walking is boring for young girls so they stayed behind and we walked the dog for an hour. He must have covered ten times more ground than us with his constant game of fetching the stick and he never slowed down or tired of it. We looked at the houses along the sea front and commented on the way that they had been done up; for an area that once used to be very cheap it has sure gone ahead and become trendy and unafordable for the average person. I am going to look into finding a run down place to fix up and work out if it could be a good investment.
We set up camp next to the playground and found a table in the sun. I cooked a bbq lunch and Deb made the salad and prepared the table. A perfect meal for a perfect 27c sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. After lunch I lay down in the sun and fell asleep for a couple of hours whilst the girls played sand castles on the beach and the dog played at retrieving the frisbee. When I awoke the skin on my face was all tight and I realised that I had caught the sun. We packed up the car about 3.00pm and got an ice cream from the fish shop on the main drag then made our way back home. On the way we made a detour to drop in on a mate in Albany Creek. Unfortunately she was out so I let the girls have some more fun in the playground before my last port of call (the pub). We sat outside the Samford Pub on the balcony and had a few glasses of wine and watched the sleepy village grinding to a halt and the sun set behind Mt. Nebo. Life is really in the slow lane here and so relaxing that I can't imagine living anywhere else.
We walked along the promenade for half an hour or so and left the girls in the playground to amuse themselves. Walking is boring for young girls so they stayed behind and we walked the dog for an hour. He must have covered ten times more ground than us with his constant game of fetching the stick and he never slowed down or tired of it. We looked at the houses along the sea front and commented on the way that they had been done up; for an area that once used to be very cheap it has sure gone ahead and become trendy and unafordable for the average person. I am going to look into finding a run down place to fix up and work out if it could be a good investment.
We set up camp next to the playground and found a table in the sun. I cooked a bbq lunch and Deb made the salad and prepared the table. A perfect meal for a perfect 27c sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. After lunch I lay down in the sun and fell asleep for a couple of hours whilst the girls played sand castles on the beach and the dog played at retrieving the frisbee. When I awoke the skin on my face was all tight and I realised that I had caught the sun. We packed up the car about 3.00pm and got an ice cream from the fish shop on the main drag then made our way back home. On the way we made a detour to drop in on a mate in Albany Creek. Unfortunately she was out so I let the girls have some more fun in the playground before my last port of call (the pub). We sat outside the Samford Pub on the balcony and had a few glasses of wine and watched the sleepy village grinding to a halt and the sun set behind Mt. Nebo. Life is really in the slow lane here and so relaxing that I can't imagine living anywhere else.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
How To Stay Off The Grog Until Sunset
What another excellent day it was today. Woke up at 6.30am to the sound of three one week old chicks sitting on my 11 year old daughters arm. She brings her guinea pig in every morning to say hello and today the new additions to the family also.
It's middle of winter and there isn't a cloud in sight. Mornings are a bit warmer than last month and the morning mist sitting in the valley waiting for the morning sun to burn it off is clearly visible from my en-suite window.
The water pressure has dropped again and I can't have a shower just in case it goes altogether when I am covered in soap. We are not connected to the mains and rely on rain to keep the two 5000 gallon tanks holding enough water to keep us going until the next time it rains. Being in the middle of the longest drought in over 100 years doesn't help much so it's a good job that I have my own bore at the bottom of the hill. Alas, even that is dry this week as we eagerly await some more rainfall. It doesn't rain for weeks so we have to be careful how we use it. Anyway, I rang up the local rural plumber to come over and fix the drop in pressure. He said that he will come over tomorrow and take a look at it, in the meanwhile he gave me some instructions on how to prime the pump from scratch. It helped a little and will keep me going until he can fix the problem for good.
My mate Henrik who lives in London, was sitting up late last night as usual, so we chatted for an hour on Skype with the webcams. It's great to catch up with mates with the latest technology. I can hear and see him in real time and it is free, how many people take that for granted these days?
Had a few dramas on one of my jobs this morning. The bobcat that arrived to move my 3 cubic meters of 20mm gravel refused to go down the hill that I created for him so I had to send him home and arrange for one with tracks to go there tomorrow morning.
The hardware store wasn't too happy when I rang him to cancel the delivery of stones as the driver was just leaving the depot with my delivery. He called the driver back and told him to tip them out and deliver them again tomorrow at 7.30am. My labourer wasn't upset though, it's a public holiday here and everyone has the day off to visit the Ekka without having to ask the boss for permission. The Ekka is a big thing here and they get hundreds of thousands of visitors over the week or so that it runs for. I would compare it to a Royal Show in England with a fairground, it you have ever been to one..........
As I am not going to go to work today, then it's time to play catch-up in the garden.
Out came my new 18" chain saw and down came three 30m high slash pines. I cut them up ready to dispose of them when I can get my mates trailer back off him. Maybe I will let some of the logs dry out a bit and burn them, that is a sure fire way to piss off the invisible neighbour who writes nasty letters about my lovely fires and shoves them in my post box. One night I was laying down in the woods with 3 little fires going simultaneously, minding my own business whilst drinking my 4th stubby, when flashing lights woke me from my pleasant dream I was having under the full moon. It was the rural fire brigade on a training night, called out by the invisible neighbour who rang them with a warning that Dawsons Creek Rd was on fire.
Somebody doesn't like me and I can't imagine why.
Later on today I cleaned out the swimming pool and added some chemicals to kill the mustard algae. The roof temp was 36c today so I ran the solar heating for a couple of hours and planned to go for my first dip since Easter. Alas, I could only raise the temp from 16c to 18c and my nuts disappeared when they got wet.
Took the fork out and started digging to burn off some energy. It is something I do from time to time when the soil conditions are just right. When it is very wet the red soil sticks to my fork, when it is very dry I can't get the fork into the ground so today it is just right and I set to work getting rid of the weeds before they set seed and spread with the high winds that blow through the mountains every August.
As I watched the sun setting behind Mt. Glorious my body clock sounded an alarm and off I went into the kitchen for a nice cold beer.............. back to work tomorrow.
It's middle of winter and there isn't a cloud in sight. Mornings are a bit warmer than last month and the morning mist sitting in the valley waiting for the morning sun to burn it off is clearly visible from my en-suite window.
The water pressure has dropped again and I can't have a shower just in case it goes altogether when I am covered in soap. We are not connected to the mains and rely on rain to keep the two 5000 gallon tanks holding enough water to keep us going until the next time it rains. Being in the middle of the longest drought in over 100 years doesn't help much so it's a good job that I have my own bore at the bottom of the hill. Alas, even that is dry this week as we eagerly await some more rainfall. It doesn't rain for weeks so we have to be careful how we use it. Anyway, I rang up the local rural plumber to come over and fix the drop in pressure. He said that he will come over tomorrow and take a look at it, in the meanwhile he gave me some instructions on how to prime the pump from scratch. It helped a little and will keep me going until he can fix the problem for good.
My mate Henrik who lives in London, was sitting up late last night as usual, so we chatted for an hour on Skype with the webcams. It's great to catch up with mates with the latest technology. I can hear and see him in real time and it is free, how many people take that for granted these days?
Had a few dramas on one of my jobs this morning. The bobcat that arrived to move my 3 cubic meters of 20mm gravel refused to go down the hill that I created for him so I had to send him home and arrange for one with tracks to go there tomorrow morning.
The hardware store wasn't too happy when I rang him to cancel the delivery of stones as the driver was just leaving the depot with my delivery. He called the driver back and told him to tip them out and deliver them again tomorrow at 7.30am. My labourer wasn't upset though, it's a public holiday here and everyone has the day off to visit the Ekka without having to ask the boss for permission. The Ekka is a big thing here and they get hundreds of thousands of visitors over the week or so that it runs for. I would compare it to a Royal Show in England with a fairground, it you have ever been to one..........
As I am not going to go to work today, then it's time to play catch-up in the garden.
Out came my new 18" chain saw and down came three 30m high slash pines. I cut them up ready to dispose of them when I can get my mates trailer back off him. Maybe I will let some of the logs dry out a bit and burn them, that is a sure fire way to piss off the invisible neighbour who writes nasty letters about my lovely fires and shoves them in my post box. One night I was laying down in the woods with 3 little fires going simultaneously, minding my own business whilst drinking my 4th stubby, when flashing lights woke me from my pleasant dream I was having under the full moon. It was the rural fire brigade on a training night, called out by the invisible neighbour who rang them with a warning that Dawsons Creek Rd was on fire.
Somebody doesn't like me and I can't imagine why.
Later on today I cleaned out the swimming pool and added some chemicals to kill the mustard algae. The roof temp was 36c today so I ran the solar heating for a couple of hours and planned to go for my first dip since Easter. Alas, I could only raise the temp from 16c to 18c and my nuts disappeared when they got wet.
Took the fork out and started digging to burn off some energy. It is something I do from time to time when the soil conditions are just right. When it is very wet the red soil sticks to my fork, when it is very dry I can't get the fork into the ground so today it is just right and I set to work getting rid of the weeds before they set seed and spread with the high winds that blow through the mountains every August.
As I watched the sun setting behind Mt. Glorious my body clock sounded an alarm and off I went into the kitchen for a nice cold beer.............. back to work tomorrow.
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