No Rest on a Weekend (after the storm)
I cant believe the weather pattern these days. It was hot – high 30s hot – just about 3 weeks ago, then we had pretty cool conditions the past 2 weeks, with single digit mornings. This week, it’d be hovering in the mid 20s with Friday threatening to hit 28deg.
Maybe Al Gore isn’t that wrong and Andrew Bolt should look at other streams of evidence. Are these weather patterns irrefutable proofs of global warming or are these wild fluctuations really just cyclical?
We spent almost the entire Saturday cleaning up after last Wednesday’s storm. We had also booked the Nissan in for a 20 thousand kilometre service, so Saturday was pretty flat out for us.
That morning I woke a little after 7, got into the car service centre around 8, and back at home, after dropping off my suits at the dry cleaners’ and a quick breakfast, started to work on the fallen tree around 9.
The pine tree on the front lawn had a couple of branches snapped off but did not break cleanly. A branch was just hanging off while the other was just sitting on a combination of phone and electricity cables and other branches. We only had a tiny little handsaw, probably around 8-10 inches long and maybe 3-4 inches wide. What we had going for us was that this miniature saw was still very new so it was very sharp. I cleaned up the pine tree with this tiny saw. The blower vac came out next and I attempted to tidy up the driveway and lawn by blowing or vacuuming the twigs and leaves. The larger branches and twigs had to be picked up by hand.
The leaves and pine were really all over the lawn so the easiest way to tidy it up was to actually mow the lawn. After that was done, the front of the house looked like it had been cleaned up and the effects of the storm erased. The side lawn however was another story and that was where the main challenges lay, in a most literal way.
The tree must have been 25-30 feet high (see picture in previous entry). It looked like a perfectly healthy tree so the branches were solid and all in one piece. They were so strong that that they were crushing our hedges and piercing holes in our lawn. Those branches had to come out quickly, and could not wait for our neighbours’ insurance company to fix. So I painstakingly sawed off the offending branches and negotiated them through the door on the driveway, onto the nature strip between the neighbours’ house and ours. The tiny saw worked but it required focused and prolonged manoeuvring. Each branch was maybe 5-6 inches in diameter and was heavy with lush leaves and clusters of pods. Tress said it was a eucalyptus tree. The wood was a nice clean light yellow colour with what appeared to be very fine grain. I’m no timber expert obviously but the wood felt hard. Or maybe it was the size of my tool (the saw la). The sawing took a big effort before the branch could
As we were almost done working on that tree, the car service people called. I finished off the last branch, dragged it out, blow-vac the driveway and little deck next to the side door again, and put the tools away. The side lawn looked clearer and as a result, brighter. We could now see clearly, which hedge was wrecked and how badly damaged the fence was. Tress then dropped me off at the car service place, and went to get some lunch. I waited around, picked up the car, stopped at Dan Murphy’s to pick up some staple and headed home.
Tress bought a packet of nasi lemak from our usual grocery store and it tasted better than at most past weekends when we bought it. After that was done, we went to pick up my dry cleaning, went grocery shopping (stopping at our favourite café in the mall for our fix) and got home to do some more work, this time inside the house.
The storm had not only wreaked havoc outside the house but had also blown in a lot of grime, dust, bits of leaves, and dirt near and around the windows, doors and various other spots. The vacuuming had to be heavy duty and thorough…A couple of hours later, I realised I stink. I said out loud that I thought I smelled terrible and Tress said yes you do. That told me I had to finish off fast and hit the showers.
It was about 5.30pm when we were done. A full day’s full-on work with very little respite. All 3 of us just sat down, knackered. Kiddo put on the Hairspray DVD, we enjoyed it and I only started to prepare dinner closer to 7pm.
Just as I was about to start on dinner, I thought it’d be nice to get some friends over for a chat and for their kids to come and play a board game or two with kiddo. After all, it’s the last day of daylights saving and we’d be getting an extra hour. A couple of families agreed to come over.
After dinner, I sat down to watch “Top Gear” and just as it about to finish, the families arrived. We caught up and chatted over a few glasses of wine and though I was tired, I thought it was a day well spent. As our guests left close to midnight and I went out to their cars, it was nippy again. I felt like I could really use some shut eye and thought it’d be fantastic if I had a short break from it all. I have just been exhausted from the things going on around us at the moment.
No rest on Sabbath
After church last Sunday, D&L invited us to their place for lunch. When D called me in the morning about it, he said it would be a simple lunch. That simply doesn’t happen for a get together amongst Malaysian Chinese – Tress and I brought some ice cream for dessert but D&L treated the whole thing like a mini banquet. They had noodles, pasta, oriental style soy chicken, roast duck, as well as KFC for the kids. They even bought beer for us. After lunch we sat around and talked and later, a church leader came over and joined us. We only left close to 6pm. On the way home we stopped to have a quick look at the house D&L had looked at the day before. It looked nice and Tress and I joked about getting it for ourselves.
We got home, I got some ironing done, started to prepare lunch for the next day, packed my gym gear and work stuff and frankly, was ready for bed by 8pm. Kiddo and Tress wanted to catch their favourite TV program so I stayed up as I stretched out my lunch making process. Tress and dozed off mid way through TV, her favourite program didn’t help. Kiddo wanted to stay up for the program after that but I said no. I rally wanted to go to sleep. Just then however Tress woke up and decided she wanted to watch that next one. I stayed up to accompany her but I took over the dozing-off role. I thought again, especially in the train the next morning when it was a little cold, the train was crowded and I was starting to think about the work waiting for me that week, that I really would enjoy a short break from it all.
No rest for the Weary
We last had a break early this year, in the middle of January. We were in Malaysia. It was time off work with plenty of free time with friends and relatives. However it wasn’t pure time off in terms of R&R, if you know what I mean. It was hot and we had nothing to do most of the time except stay home and watch television or go shopping and eating. Where we lived (with Tress’ parents) there were 2 little kids who were constantly seeking our attention. We loved them, loved the time we got to spend with them but we didn’t get the R&R we wanted. What I would have really liked to do was relax by a pool for a few days, with nothing to do except read a book and drink beer during the day and watch football (preferably United) and drink wine at night. I guess we didn’t go to Malaysia for R&R strictly but to spend time with family and friends. I especially wanted to see my mother again since the last time we were there was when my father died.
Now though, I am starting to feel the need for some R&R. I need some time to do nothing except read a book or watch something nice on television or in the cinema. The long days at work and busy weekends with housework and eating and chatting with friends and church people either in our home or some other person’s, means I have hardly had any time to really relax. Maybe I shouldn’t worry – all these are good for the person as a whole. I may be physically and mentally tired but this is a better alternative. As is often the case, sweet spot of balance is the Holy Grail. Maybe for now it is swinging a little too much the other way but the pendulum will be back. It is just that for now, I am tired. And for at least this weekend, there is no respite. Home group is on this Friday, dinner on Sunday night with a mate and another family. Meanwhile there was the Legal Comedy Debate on Monday night and dinner with a mate and a couple on Wednesday. All these, when it continues to be busy in the office. I have to get enough sleep to get through this period, I think.
Ante 