Frantic Friday

Well, as those who know the Keenan routines are aware, Friday is clean up day. This means that in the morning everyone is flat out dusting and vacuuming and in the afternoon I go to the school and, as it happened ,John and Roxie went down town. Leaving Nuran at home by herself. But not this Friday as Don and Liz Mathys came calling. It turned out that the school was well settled and I was able to leave early just as Don and Liz turned up. Don has landed a contractors job at the Nangwarry Mill and wanted a safety vest altered. But Nuran's sewing machine is on the blink and in town for repairs under guarantee so the job will have to wait. However, as is normal, they stayed for a cup of coffee and we surfed the net for Satellite Broadband deals. This played havoc with my normal routine of going for a ride but it didn't matter as the weather was very showery and riding in the rain is no fun. It also gave them a chance to see how much better broadband is than their dial up connection. Luckily the house was finished or else they may have been handed a duster. Nah, they would have gone home without the coffee. Don's new saw sharpening machine has arrived and he will be starting his work from home contract in a couple of weeks and still going to work at Carter Holt Nangwarry as well. So from doing sweet f.a. at Tarpeena mill he will be flat out, just when the darts season starts too!
After tea of Salmon steaks home brew beer and wine ( Roxie had bought a bottle of wine in town but I don't drink wine) the Footy started and we watched it on TV. This will be the normal Friday night routine for a while! Perhaps not the wine!
The game was not that good but then its early in the season so mistakes will be made, not the least by the umpires! Anyway the footy tips are off to a good start though neither Nuran or I got the margin right. Actually Nuran has picked the Bulldogs against Geelong, as I have. Not often she goes against Geelong but has probably learnt her lesson from last year! I shall pick the Crows to win as normal! It's no wonder I don't do that well at the tipping.

Thursday

Now as I sit here I must say that not a lot happened today. It rained and between showers I decided to alter the downpipe situation at the front of the house as when a heavy shower came through the water gushed off the end of the carport roof. I had recently altered this downpipe as the water used to gush over the front porch roof! Therefore I extended the pipe so it actually reached the gutter and the water could flow directly along it. I did this using spare bits I had and of course the job took longer than normal but in the end it worked alright. We actually had a fair bit of rain and I couldn't go for my usual afternoon ride so walked the dogs instead. Anyway while I was doing this Nuran was in town and came back with a new ring.Don't know how many times she can spend Bill's birthday money! Incidentally you can catch Bill in a segment broadcast on national TV if you go to the following link and click on the video cast. He is in the last minute of the segment or so. He is certainly getting used to the cameras and doing very well in Melbourne Business circles .
Bill's TV
A good match of darts was played between John and I which ended in a draw when tea was called at 6-6. Then it was the Footy show on TV but this programme has gone down hill so I don't reckon I will bother next week. The Footy starts tonight and the tips have been put in and I didn't pick Geelong but I expect Nuran did. Footy means that winter has arrived! I must say the dogs like the cooler weather and so does Nuran but I like wearing shorts not trackpants. Still we have had a nice warm summer so I mustn't complain just be content!

What happened on Wednesday

Well in answer to your (or is it my) question, basically little.It was off to town with Nuran after breakfast as she had to have her sore knee xrayed and I wanted to get some softener salt and hose clamps to make up a better hose for the washing machine.Then while she had her hair cut I delivered the sewing machine to the shop for repairs as it wouldn't sew. The hair cut looks good don't it? Of course there was the mandatory bit of shopping that goes with any trip to town and home for lunch. Nothing better than fresh bread sandwiches for lunch, I reckon.
back home the new hose was made and fitted, this allows the washing machine to fill up a lot quicker as they only give you a small 1/2 inch hose which takes ages with the pressure pump we have supplying water for the house, whereas with the 3/4" one it fills in no time. My first attempt in which I used cable ties as clamps sprung a dripping leak so it was on to plan 2 with the hose clamps. I would have used them first if I had had a supply but I only had 1 " ones in my plumbing tin. One thing about being in the one place for a long time you acquire all manner of odds and ends, that's if you don't chuck the left overs away, but I must have used all my extra hose clamps on another job soI got a couple of extra clamps in case. Probably won't need them but you never know and living out of town you cant just pop down to the hardware shop when a job comes up. We used have a sort of general store here, especially when we first came to Tarpeena, in the local Caltex service station as the proprietor was an old storekeeper and had the same philosophy of not throwing anything out and buying one or two more than he needed so when you required something you could "pop over to Caltex" and most times he would get you out of trouble. Sadly old Miles Madera has died and since then the Caltex has degenerated into nothing more than a sandwich shop. What else would you expect when it is run by two (getting) old ladies.
Anyway the hose works and then John washed his jacket and I made sure there were no leaks.There aren't so the task is done. Nuran put on the roast and went for a walk and I for a ride. John and Roxy had taken the dogs out so everyone got some exercise! Darts before dinner and John pegged a good 87 to win lucky for himI missed my two darts at doubletop.So all in all Wednesday has been largely uneventful. Now it's the cricket on TV, world cup on two channels but I think I am for bed.

Ah Tuesday

You know every day you wake up is a good day. No matter what happens during the day if you then go to sleep then it's a good day.You know what the alternative is? A day in which you can't get up on a nice cool morning and belt through the Pines with the dogs, a day in which you can't go over to the school , help them build a box for the mulch chippings and hear a kid say well that was fun! A day in which a girl that has never hit anything learns how to drive a nail into a piece of wood and then enjoys that so much she belts in another three in double quick time! A day in which John comes back from Adelaide quietly confident that he has done well and is progressing in his quest to be an Officer in the Raaf. A day in which,as the evening unwinds and the cool change starts to come in from the south, you can sit on the back veranda and burp quietly away after Nuran's curry, which incidentally was made with a very very very very very very hot curry powder, whilst trying to quench the fire in your throat with a nice cool Lager. A day in which the Aussies will be on TV playing the host nation , the West Indies in a largely meaningless encounter of cricket. A day in which Ron phones up and you can shiack to him for an hour about darts and other things and challenge him to a game in the Mount which he declines so you know he is scared.... not of you but of his wife.... gardening he says....poo poo.Under the thumb I say.
Oh well what's the alternative.... doesn't bear mentioning..... No! I would rather wake up and have a day like this than never wake up and it may rain tomorrow and that's a different day and I hope I wake up to see it!

Monday washing

Monday the place is turned upside down, well the bedroom is, as it's "wash the sheets day", and what a nice day to wash them in with a warm breeze blowing.It happened that Nuran also decided to wash the mattress protector and that gave me a chance to see when I had last turned the mattress over! It was four months ago and you should turn it every three months ideally! So over the mattress went, and foot to top too, as there are four positions the mattress can be in and to get maximum wear I rotate those positions. It is all recorded on a label on the mattress, ideally I suppose it would now be recorded on the computer and come up as a reminder on the desktop, but since I have only just thought of that whilst typing this and have no idea how to set it up, then the old fashioned way of writing it on the mattress will have to do. So the mattress was rotated and then off to school for my voluntary work.This time it was helping kids write a story. Some are good but the one I ended up helping wasn't. Still he nutted a story out with my prodding him along and was quite proud of his effort. Don't know what the teacher thought though.Then a bit of darts practice as there was a fun competition on in the evening 15 darts.Highest scorer goes through. Needless to say I just lost out on the first round and got monstered out in the second round. Winless for the evening.Every one knows its not scoring that is my forte but pegging. Doesn't help when your opponent gets a 140 followed by an 85 and a 60 and you keep hitting 7 instead of 19 though!She was a nice lady though, as they are when they win!
Back home I helped Nuran buy a set of pearl earrings off the net, it is Bill's birthday present, then fired up by the thought of shopping she bought some Indian movie DVD's with the rest of his money! I hope she doesn't learn how to do this herself as it's addictive. I made a bid on a new dartboard which I don't need but looked cheap.... see what I mean about being addictive.I hope I am outbidded!

Sunday too far away

Ah daylight saving has ended and the clocks went back so when I woke at the usual time it was an hour earlier! Does that make sense? Well it turned out I had plenty of time to do nothing and that's what I did. A bright autumn day and I resolved not to waste it by going to the Mount and watching the rest if the cricket final, rather I cut the lawns. A little bit of rain has freshened them up and the back yard looked a treat. Ron and Mary came up to the local tip and called in on their way back. Ron just happened to have his darts in the car so under strict instructions to only play for a quarter of an hour, this from Mary who wanted to get back and fill up the trailer again, we played best of three which Ron won easily. Bummer but then it was down to doubles in each game and he hit his and I missed mine. Another day another result- maybe a better one for me. Then a nice ride and no dead 'roo on the road to break the train of thought. A game of darts, as tea was cooked, with John and Roxy and Sunday was nearly over. Time flies when you are having fun.
The only thing with daylight saving ending is that you are an hour late for bed! So it was an early night for me - leaving Nuran to watch an Indian movie on SBS.

Cricket Boring Cricket

I organised myself early on Saturday so that Icould go to The Mount and watch the cricket grand final. Saturday was windy and a bit showery but I was up early enough to take the dogs for a belt through the Pines where there were large mobs of kangaroos grazing on the wet grass. At last some rain after a long dry spell and the dogs came back soaking from the chase. The weather eased later in the morning and I went for my long bike ride earlier than normal so I could go down town. the only glitch in the plan came when I cycled pass the carcass of a large , very large 'roo. Now Roo meat is the preferred food of the dogs as opposed to stinking old pet mince, when cook in their Palua and I felt compelled to go back and salvage the rear legs and loin of this road kill beast rather than let the flies have it. This doesn't take long except I had to first make it home get the car and the various butchering tools. Nothing delicate of course just a knife and an axe. I am well practised in the art of retrieving the rear wheels of a Skippy and this monster must have only just been killed as the blood was still fresh on the grass where he lay. He was a heavy bugger and hard to turn over so the task took longer than I planned but still yielded kilos of lovely 'roo meat.So it was worth it but made me an hour or so late for the game. It turned out that cutting up the carcass of the 'roo was infinitely more satisfying than the game. The batsmen were frozen by the enormity of the final and in 67 overs managed only 125 runs.Boring Boring. The best part was the fact that the old Tarpeena gang pulled up alongside me, Aaron Ilsley, Jay , Wayne Little, Peter Durbridge and then the Tarpeena tennis team in B1 pulled up too as they had just won their Grand Final, this was the Thompsons and Fiona Anderson so it was like being home in the days of the football on the local oval opposite when this group along with Jim John and Tony would terrorise Tarpeena. I am glad they were all in Mount Gambier and not still terrorising our peaceful neighbourhood but they did liven up the cricket.
I came home disgruntled with the cricket and then played John and Roxy at darts. Everyone won a game but John won more than one so I was still disgruntled when tea was called.Lamb Shanks as you can see from the image. Very nice but John got two and I only got one, because of my cholesterol reading so I was even more disgruntled. The evening blurred into bedtime with not much to watch on TV except rugby. Football starts next week, Hooray for that. The clocks went back but I left that task until Sunday or else the others would stay up longer!