World News

Man - my toe is STILL a problem! I know you needed to know this...

During the week, it morphed from a stunted purple kumara, to a yellow one. With a purple grape growing off it.

One week down the track the grape is a bit smaller. So progress I suppose. Oh... and its a lot less painful. Pity, I was getting fond of the limp.

And so the Lion's tour is history. Saw no red jerseys or jackets on the street today. I miss those guys already.

Spent the weekend profitably - cleared as much as I could from the front section, in advance of a digging machine coming on Wednesday to clear what's left. I moved bricks, terracotta pots & plants. A huge camellia, and a lot of decorative native grasses. What's left can be scraped now, I'm done.

Extended my trench - part of which already has phone, power & a redundant Saturn cable sitting in it ready to be cut over tomorrow - down beside the house where the gas line diverges from the rest of the utilities.

Goodness knows when the gas company will be moving the meter... a very grumpy man came up (the builder was on site & he & I made faces behind the gas man's back) to tell us all the problems & obstacles involved. Fortunately, another gas man came along a few minutes later, took a quick look & cheerfully announced "Easy". Yay! We'll take that guy's second opinion thanks.

Have I mentioned I'm a landlord BTW? Got another house down the road, which is home to 5 young "professionals". A TV reporter, two lawyers (to keep a landlord on his toes), a PR company something... and someone else, whose vocation I can't recall. That last guy though, seems to travel in the company of an ever changing selection of quite attractive young women. So maybe he's a racing car driver (wild guess).

Actually, they're a nice bunch, some of them are cute even. Although they are DIY impaired. I know it's a landlord's job sometimes, but I think the first person on the scene can probably competently press the button to reset the circuit breaker... but apparently not.

And changing a lightbulb did actually involve a small rewiring job (I lived for 5 years with only one of those bulbs working.. now I no longer live there, I finially mounted ladder & fixed it...). SO I can't really complain about that.

They are amusing at times though. SO I'm up a ladder, and one of them comes home & says hello & tells me how cute Wilma (waiting outside) is. She enters the kitchen. A few minutes pass & there is a conversation heard. I call out for someone to try the light switch. There is sudden silence. Then the one who just recently passed me says, with a note of mild panic, "Whose voice is that? Is someone here?". On told it is just me, completely blocking the hallway, and she just clambered past me... "Oh yes... I forgot." (Patent lawyer).

And so lots accomplished this weekend. Sore & tired again. I need some time off...