Last Friday morning, as I was doing my usual exercise in front of the television, a loud noise droned away just outside the house. I couldn’t work out the source when I went outside to check it out, thinking at that time it was the air conditioning or the evaporative cooler, or even the hot water system. It was still dark when I checked and seeing nothing untoward, I left for the train station as I normally do.

When I got to the station, I noticed I had forgotten the phone, as I had been thinking about getting the big Maglite out to do the checking for the noise source. I went back home and as I said to Tress there’s a loud noise from the front and side of the house. I took the phone and headed out to the station again. Just as I was walking up the ramp to the platform at the station, Tress rang to say there appears to be a plumbing issue, and the side of the front lawn had flooded out.

I went home again. Two unsuccessful attempts to leave for work probably are signs I was meant to be home that day. Back home, a couple of tradies who had been working in a neighbour’s home stood next to Tress on the eastern side of the front lawn. It became obvious there was a serious plumbing problem.

Tress and I then headed to her office for a shower (for her) and toilet for the both of us, before I rang the water company to report the problem. Later, I suspected it was an “internal” plumbing problem so I tried contacting our usual plumber, who could not do the job on the same day.

Arjun then responded to my HiPages ad, and early in the arvo, he showed up and had a look around, discussed the problem and solution, and agreed to help us with the problem. A main pipe into the house had had a bad breakage – there were a few gaping holes – and Arjun had to decide on the optimal solution.

With the problem identified and solution worked out, I felt peace at last. It was late in the arvo then and a little while later, Tress and I headed to our usual Friday night dinner. We went to a place just across the Ringwood Lake.

Arjun worked on the problem the whole of the following day. I helped around and worked by his side to assist with whatever he needed, as his crew had called in sick. He was an affable guy. Originally from Nepal, his Gurkha father lived and worked in Singapore for many years before moving to New Zealand. From there, they moved to Melbourne. We chatted while we worked, and it made the problem far less unpleasant. Tress helped too, with just tidying things up and she also vacuumed the house, which at the end of that long Saturday, made it all so much more restful. The little fellow also had an appointment with his groomer so the house wasn’t the only clean element. He felt and smelled clean and fresh and he was therefore even more huggable.

The plumbing work cost us far less than I feared, but more importantly, we had water again and even tiny things we noticed before, such as intermittent hot water disruptions, disappeared. Putting our feet up at last on Saturday night, was blissful. Tired and with a sense of relief, we looked forward at last, to a long weekend that we were meant to have.

Sunday after St Alf’s we headed out to the local Bunnings and picked out some stuff to complement the relocated and new lawn tap, and I then also did some Steer work as well as some office work.

On Monday, we slept in like we haven’t slept in for a long time. I had woken up early to watch United beat City at home (doing a double over them for the first time in 10 years!) and had happily returned to sleep after the game, which ended around 5.30am. We only woke up around 8.30am. After coffee and toasts, I did a bit more work before we headed out to the Burwood Brickworks shopping centre for a look see, and then going back to our usual haunt for lunch and to also keep an appointment with a travel agent.

We ended up spending nearly a couple of hours with the very helpful agent, to sew up a package to visit the red centre and the top end. I told Tress that I haven’t been that excited about a trip, for a while now. We’d be visiting a part of Oz I had wanted to visit, for a very long time now.

It was an eventful long weekend, even though the events all took place in or near the house. Localizing stuff around me, is what I have come to appreciate. So the local dream holiday is sounding pretty good now.