Kids off to school. I worked on a bunch of disconnected issues and bugs. Feeling down; the usual thing. Did three repetitions of the seven minute workout, and ate a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich while watching The West Wing for lunch. Did some laundry. Walked Jack home from school, then did some groceries at the IGA before collecting Eliza. Pretty run-of-the-mill day, all up. Leftover oxtail soup for dinner. Watched a few more episodes of The West Wing with Dzung once the kids were asleep.
Very tired. Got the kids to school, then drove to take the car for a service (and to have the recalled airbag replaced), but they lost the booking, so rescheduled for Thursday instead. Pity, I had looked forward to the long walk home; I need time to think about work and projects and life and stuff. So, once home, I packed my bag and headed out the door, rambling down through the streets towards Bullcreek, which I followed around to the other side of the river, walking slowly, deep in thought, wending back up First Avenue towards Eliza’s school, then back home via the traffic bridge. Covered over seven kilometres in ninety minutes. Feet very sore. Quick shower, then eggs and toast and strong coffee while watching The West Wing.
Worked through the afternoon, then picked up Jack. A girl asked me for money for food as I walked past the chemist. She looked zonked out, and was possibly homeless. I literally was carrying nothing, so I apologised. As I walked away, and older guy (who turned out to be her father) started yelling abuse at me. I stopped and turned towards him, and he stormed towards me, saying I insulted his daughter and did I want to fight and screaming to me to fuck off. I was dumbfounded, standing on the pavement between the butcher’s and the cafe, and tried reasoning with him. No point. He walked away, and I noticed that all of the shopkeepers had come to their doors with looks of concern on their faces. A lady on a bicycle asked me what had happened, and suggested that I should call the council’s security team. She said she’d give me the number. We were both on our phones when the guy started screaming and coming towards us, asking whether we were calling the police. He was extremely angry. The bicycle lady had told me earlier not to bother trying to reason with “them”, but I was feeling very sorry for their plight, and although the guy was being very aggressive and loud I realised that I didn’t feel afraid for my safety. Again, I calmly explained that I was on my way to pick up my son from school, and that lots of young kids would soon be walking home along this path, and he seemed to accept that I was being genuine. He then held out his hand and apologised, saying I was a good bloke. We shook hands and went our seperate ways.
Later, walking back with Jack, the police arrived. One of the shopkeepers had called them, no doubt. But, by that time, daddy and daughter had disappeared.
Picked up Eliza, then home for a rest. We all had a late night last night, and we all had short fuses. I got annoyed when Jack wouldn’t do as I asked, and Eliza didn’t answer straight away when I called her, to the point where both kids were crying in frustration. Bad mojo. But we started to cook dinner together, and Dzung arrived home, and we ate and everything was well again. Kids had an early night, I read to Eliza. And will now retire myself; too worn out to consider HackTile, or to do anything else, but I am keen to finally get back on the wagon and continue this project; the walk decided that for me.
Dzung took Jack to North Shore, and Eliza to tennis. I got the washing on, then Brendan and Finlay over for a cuppa with some banana bread they’d made. Chatted for a while—Fin is doing great at footy and Brendan is working with The Wall Street Journal—then they took the old TV and DVR. Quick shower and Dzung back home to pick me up to go to Van and Kiet’s for oxtail soup. Lingered after lunch chatting while the kids played. Home via Mt. Lawley to pick up a box from Get Chunky to take to dinner.
Brief rest to hang out the washing and pack for the walk over to Faith and Yoshiya’s house. With ten minutes to leave, I called the kids to get ready, only to find Eliza and Jack had started to tidy up Jack’s room, meaning they’d taken all the junk from all drawers and surfaces and piled them on his bed. I barked at them to hop in the shower and hurriedly tidied things, then got ready myself. We left a little bit late. Great evening; Yoshiya made about eight courses of Tapas, which we ate with beer and sherry, then chatted while sipping whisky afterwards, leaving the kids to play. Walked home about nine thirty or so, and tried to get the kids straight to bed with varying levels of success. Dzung crashed out; I stayed up in a half-drunken stupor and watched a few interesting shows before finally calling it a night at half twelve.
Dzung has to work so I took the kids to karate, and stopped by Garbo on the way home to grab some pies for lunch. Crystal dropped Eli over and I took the kids into the Earth Sciences Museum at UWA where they had a great time looking at minerals and chatting to the lady there to help identify the rocks they’ve been digging up in the school playground.
Back home via mum and dad’s for an afternoon tea of banana bread and crackers. Made Malaysian curry with potatoes, carrots and pork for dinner, along with grilled eggplant and roti. Curry too spicy for the kids, but delicious with a beer. Kids to bed and I cleaned up, then watched “The Death of Stalin” with Dzung.
Casual day. Rainy morning. Did some shopping while kids at school. Good progress at work. Made lamb cutlets and pasta for dinner (mum and dad didn’t get the kids due to poor weather). Glass of wine with Dzung to break the drought of dry July. Watched “The War on Waste” with Eliza after dinner. Quiet night, very tired.
Blindsided. Spent yesterday scoping out urgent work that needed to be finished for the customer by Sunday, ready to work on it today and tomorrow. But had another very long meeting today to cancel that, and return to previous work, which I’d put on hold, to modify requirements that were written months ago, which requires existing implementation to be changed. And this piece of work is now super-urgent. This wiped me out; the lack of sleep overnight didn’t help. Spent the day in a daze, thinking about life and career and the things I want to be working on. Just fixed bugs and did some work that was blocking a few things, but otherwise dropped out mentally.
Lack of sleep because it was super windy overnight. Hail at 2am. Worried about the bins on the kerbside. Kept getting out of bed to check on them. At 6am I went outside in the dark to find the lid of one of the bins was open, and the bag that was on top had disappeared! It was full of foam that had been used to pack the desk that Dzung bought a while ago, which I’m gradually disposing of, so it would have been very light. Walked up and down the street but couldn’t see it anywhere. Terrible way to start the day.
Spent the evening in a depressed funk. Watched the last of Handmaid’s Tale, which didn’t help. Need to start on a skunkworks project to show my boss how we could be doing things differently, and need to get back to HackTile!
Busy day at work. Early morning meeting, and heads down all morning. Dzung and I to Kitchen Inn for lunch (after trying somewhere else that ended up being closed only on Wednesdays). They got my order wrong, so I only ate half of the plate. Working all afternoon, then cooked dinner with Eliza; steak, cous-cous, baby carrots. Turned out quite nicely.
Kids to bed, finished “Magician’s Gambit”. Then watched a couple of episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale” before sleep. Stormy outside, worried about the bins. Jack had earlier spotted a crow making a mess of our neighbour’s bin, which we tidied up, but it’s the wind that worries me.