Things will be getting back to normal soon

This has been a strange month, and I'm glad that it's over.

I've been out of work for the past month. As an IT contractor I win and then work on contracts that generally run for a fixed period, and then when it's about to finish, I bid for the next contract, and so on. However, this time a contract finished and I didn't have the next one lined up already. So for the past 4 weeks I've been madly bidding for new contracts, not kicking back and enjoying myself.

So now that I've won another contract I actually have a few days to enjoy myself before starting work.

Matt is also away on "coasties". This is a Canberra phenomenon where the Year 12 kids go down to the coast to celebrate finishing school, by partying non-stop, I gather.

Matt being away means that the house has remained tidy for a whole week. I bet the utilities bills are much smaller this month because there's no teenager having 3 showers a day and staying up all night on his Playstation and Xbox.

Today we spent a day tidying up the yard. Even Missy wanted to get in the pool.

But next week Matt gets home and I start work. So things will be getting back to normal.

Good customer service

Thank goodness the heat has returned.

Today it was about 32 degrees and very pleasant.  I went swimming a few times - after gardening for a while it was good to jump in and cool down.

I experienced some good customer service today.  At least I'm scoring it that way.  Last year we had the last of our back lawn replaced by artificial grass because with the long drought here in Canberra most of the grass had died off and we're not allowed to water it to keep it alive.  The dams are slowly filling up again, but the government here is pushing its "water conservation" idealism so hard that even if the dams are full again I'm sure they'll have some other excuse for forcing us to save water.  They have increased the price of water already because we weren't using as much so they weren't collecting as much tax.

And this idiot Prime Minister of ours wants to add a new Carbon Tax to everything we buy or use in order to .... well, we're not exactly sure ... but it seems that we should be penalised for generating carbon dioxide and we should encourage all our manufacturers to relocate overseas.  But of course our largest polluters should be exempt.  Presumably the government will also impose a tariff on goods produced by countries without a carbon tax to keep a "level playing field".  But I bet they don't.  Should we plan to shut down a few coal-fired powerstations and replace them we non-polluting nuclear ones?  "Oh no", they say.  "Let's wait for 'clean coal' solutions to be worked out in the next 20 years or so".

Anyway, back to the good customer service story.

After my morning swim, I noticed that the artificial grass had become flattened in the main walkways.  The folks who laid the grass said that sometimes they add some rubber fill to the grass to help the blades remain upright, but that our grass was a new design and probably shouldn't need it.  So at about 9:30am I emailed them and asked if they could drop by sometime and give us some of the rubber to add to the grass.  I went upstairs and had a shower, and by the time I got downstairs, probably around 10am, the grass folks were already there lifting the grass pile and adding the rubber.

That's what I call customer service.

You can contact them at --> www.keepingitgreen.com.au

I think that they've earned a free endorsement.

I blame the French atomic tests

I can't believe that we've been suffering from a heatwave for the past few days and today I'm sitting here in trackpants and ugh boots because it's so cold.

I blame them French and their atomic tests in the Pacific.

At least the temperature makes it more enjoyable to drink red wine. Tonight I'm having a nice Cabernet Merlot.

PS. When I published this, the following ad popped up courtesy of Google. Clever people at Google - they knew I'd be more likely to buy wine rather than an atomic bomb.

Ads by Google

Buy Wine Online
Quality Wines, only $79 a case! Unbeatable Value, but be quick.
Cellarmasters.com.au/OnlineOffer

No luck at Adaminaby

Yesterday we went to the races at Adaminaby (about half an hour south of Cooma).

Adaminaby has one of those once-a-year racetracks that you sometimes think are really a pub with a racetrack attached. Adaminaby Cup day is a major fundraising day for the local community, so you expect slightly inflated prices, but Karyn and Penny were very happy with the price of Champagne. Being the designated driver, I just stuck to water all day. But we had a really good time despite not coming away with a win.


We got there early, and despite filling the boot with chairs, folding tables and the like, we decided to sit in the stand, just in front of the bookies. It made it easy to see the prices.


We had a few wins, and even more losses, but of course were slightly in the red by the end of the day.

Diamond Jay was in the last race, unfortunately. "Unfortunately" because the clouds were getting blacker and blacker as the day progressed, with showers increasing. I'm still getting the feel of my new camera, so I wasn't quite sure how far to go with adjusting the settings for the decreasing amount of light. I kept the speed at 1/1600 sec and increased the ISO 800, and hope that there would be enough light for a decent photo. There was, but only just. You might think that the colours are screwed up, but because of the drought, the grass was actually bleached white. Because of the light drizzle, this then turned an orangey colour that you can see below.

Here's Diamond Jay crossing the line in about 6th place. Just after the start, I heard the racecaller saying how DJ was doing it hard riding 3 horses wide, and I remembered that we had an apprentice on board to get a 3kg weight reduction. The downside of a lot of apprentices is that some of them have a lot to learn, and this guy seemed to run 3 wide for the whole race, which meant that we ran about 2,000m instead of 1,750m. The jockey came back and said that the horse was just too slow, but then how many jockeys would blame themselves. So given the circumstances, maybe 6th wasn't too bad. We'll just make sure we don't get that apprentice again.

Here was one of the "colourful" racegoers.



The funny thing is that you can have a really great day at country races. There's no need to get dressed up (if you're a guy). I like to wear my bright Hawaiian shirts. And everyone is just there to have a good time. What more could you ask for than a nice warm day, a few winners, and a steak sandwich in one hand? Apart from a beer in the other hand, of course.

You just have to be prepared to buy lots of raffle tickets for one fundraiser or another. The organisers are smart enough to have their cute children walking around all day asking you to buy them. I'm often glad not to win the prizes though - I kept thinking "what if I won that huge quilt?"

It's hot outside

It's days like today that I'm glad we installed air conditioning. It's 38 degrees C (that's 100 farenheit) outside and 25 degrees inside.

There appears to be a heatwave right across Australia at the moment and we seem to be getting the worst of it. Fortunately Canberra is a dry place so that evaporative cooling works a treat. And only a few cents a day to run.

I've been in the pool twice already, because every time I go outside I get hot and then I see that lovely, icy cold, blue swimming pool shimmering in the sun. I reckon I should just pretend I'm in Hawaii and wear my swimming gear all day and fall in the water occasionally. If I ask nicely I'm sure Karyn will bring me out a glass of cold champagne.



It just occurred to me that I should drop the temperature of the spa. Who wants to get into a 40 degree spa in Summer? It's been a week or so since I used it, and this hot snap has just hit us - I expect it to continue like this for the next 5 months or so.

I keep forgetting that it's still only Spring.

The dogs seem to be enjoying the heat. Here is Coco lying in the hot sun.

I'm getting tired of not working now. I seem to spend a large slice of every day applying for new contracts. It's actually easier just going to work each day. I've re-written my CV several times now with different perspectives for different types of job. I had an interview yesterday that seemed to go OK, but you never know what the opposition is like.

The contract job market is about to start slowing down for Christmas soon. I hope I've found something by then or I may have to get a job doing babysitting or ironing. Unfortunately Karyn keeps finding me things to do around the house.

Oh well, back to the next job application.

Oh no! The thermometer has just gone up to 26 degrees.

Maybe just one more swim first ...

Finally - my photos from Hawaii

I finally got my photos from Hawaii organised and loaded into Flickr.

You can see them here --> http://www.flickr.com/photos/apeyton/collections/72157622744234342/

Enjoy.

Another Win

On Melbourne Cup Day we drove down to Bega. Our horse was running there, and it's always a good excuse for an outing.

The only downside is the 3 hour drive to get there.

The upside is:



and