How
An old Indian greeting I believe, but this wasn't the greeting we received today in the cafe, mostly it was "how long will my breakfast be?" Another crazy morning making breakfast, the difference today was there were 50% more breakfasts to cook in half the time as the motorcycle gang was heading off to Swansea. They couldn't have picked a worse day heavy rain, strong bitterly cold winds and even hail. Cleaning up completed, I headed to help Helen and Bob as the chanting gathering was at their place tonight.
After a good few hours I headed back along the "Back Road" so that I could post a letter for Helen and get a coffee for Simon from Lucky Ducks. The back road is gravel so the going was slow and extra slow on account of the weather, I had a scary moment on a hairpin 25km/h corner with a car coming towards me on the wrong side, while Grumbly (the Paj) was a lot bigger than his car I didn't want to explain any dents. Thankfully he swerved and roared past before I could blast the horn at him.
A little further down the road a fantastic view of the bay materialised, a picture postcard scene, and a must go location next stunning sunset.
Later I mooched about a bit waiting for Mr Vacuum and Mop to finish so we could have fish for lunch, and thoughts of a short walk before making blackberry pie for shared tea with the chanters, but the boss had other ideas..........
Simon says,
As mentioned yesterday I was on vacuum and mop detail for about 10 or so rooms today. The highlight was a hailstorm springing from nowhere when I was fetching the mop bucket. It was of such ferocity the stones were a metre inside the door I had left open. The first time I ever recall vacuuming up hailstones from inside a building.
The chief suggested, while I was on room 3, after prompting from his female assistant that the chickens urgently needed more shelter to protect them from the elements. My reply after viewing the torrential rain that was falling and considering I would be dragging sheets of iron around in the downpour to shelter the little darlings, was they were wild animals and they needed to harden up and returned to room 3. My diplomacy skills at work again.
I now know a few more things about Indian Motorcycles. They look very retro, have a hand operated gear change, they use 50 grade (40W70) oil, they have very loud exhausts, they need to be started and revved up for about 30 minutes before you ride them and you need two men to push start them,
Although I had completed my hours I accepted the job of driving to Hobart airport to pick up a new helper. Of course at the last moment complexity. Can you go the hardware store and buy no more gaps and 8 metres of 200*35mm permapine.
I actually timed my arrival perfectly and greeted Tatiana as she was awaiting her baggage. Pleasantries exchanged we proceeded to the carpark where once again my diplomacy skills came to the fore. Funny how sometimes words just jump out of your mouth and you can't stop them. I was at the parking machine where you insert your ticket and pay before you leave. The amount was displayed but every coin i offered fell straight through to the change slot. I tried the card option and that would not work either. I ejected the ticket and tried again for the same result. Of course being an airport carpark people arrive in batches and there was soon a goodly queue to whom i relayed the bad news. Bearing in mind the exit gates are unattended and no other machine was in sight. I hit the help button which of course did nothing and then the suggestions started to flow.
Lady "Try putting a note in". Me shakes head no and thinks the way this machine is going the note will be lost and since my fee was the minimum $2.50 I didn't like my chances on getting change.
Then a male American voice from back in the queue "Here let me try my ticket yours might be faulty" I don't know why, maybe it was me being annoyed or the tone of his voice but I replied to the approaching figure "Oh you are an expert are you?" which was apparently an invitation for him to shout "you lot are so effing defensive here" He put his ticket in and then his money which fell straight through to the change slot, twice. I said nothing, I didn't have to, but maybe I might have smiled a bit which caused him to leave ranting and muttering many F words. As luck would have it he was parked in the same aisle as us and he was still cursing to his companion when I was loading Tatiana's bags into the boot. Thankfully my lips didn't unpurse again and we left without incident. I managed to pay at the booth with my mastercard. I don't know how people with cash only would have got out but I am guessing there would be more than one machine to take money.
We detoured to the Mitre 10 store where they hadn't heard of Permapine. Apparently they only have treated pine here and getting someone to cut it 15 minutes before closing was impossible so we sped back to Nubeena.
I arrived and soon Susan and i were heading up the road for a sing song and shared tea. The tea was good with another excellent blackberry pie from Susan.
It is our day off tomorrow which we found out at 6pm. I can't say I am overjoyed at the short notice as one, the weather is really dirty at the moment and two it doesn't give us any time to plan to do something. Maybe we will go see the snow which should be falling on Mount Wellington. One person at the get together tonight was hoping for an Indian summer in March. I advised him if he wanted that he better go to India.
I carried three Optus phones to Hobart today two of ours and one from another helper to receive messages as there is no Optus service here or in much of the rest of Tasmania. I can't let pass the message that was left on my message bank from someone purporting to be a Telstra representative complaining that I called them bozos in the blog. I didn't recognise the put on voice until they identified them selves. You will keep Jeffrey.
Cheers from the northernmost state of Antartica
Simon
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