Well it has all finally come to a head at work. My favourite driver who speeds, demolishes the trucks, equipment, tools and I have had a couple of rather long and loud “frank discussions” as they say.
Wednesday morning started with me asking him to bring the grass cutter he borrowed to cut his grass, back on Thursday morning as Adrian had managed to get us a chance for a monthly contract at Don Bosco Training School, nearly $2,000 a month for one days work each month.
So I got accused of saying he’d stolen the grass cutter, it was written in the register, etc etc, and I’m trying to get a word in that all I was asking was that he bought it back so we could use it on Thursday. It did get a bit tense, in the end, he said he wasn’t going to do Don Bosco anyway, and if I insisted he would stop all the crew from working and they would sit there till I left and never came back.
I’ve had enough of all this, so I sent an email to K about it, and I refuse to work with him unless there was another person there as a witness to anything said or done. So that led to another “discussion” when he found out.
Thursday got even more heated, he arrived in the old truck, loaded all the crew up and was gone by 8.20, in the big truck. I thought ok, at least we have the old truck if we need it, but he’d locked it and taken the keys with him. So we had no vehicle.
They all got back about 12.30, I asked where the keys were which led into another “discussion” so I finally had enough and decided to go in to see K in her office, I couldn’t be bothered with emails and phone calls. So I got into the big truck and started to back out. There were a few words shouted, he tried to stop the truck by grabbing the rear mirror bracket, which caused the mirror to hit his head, so that got smashed off the arm, then he chased after the truck as I was backing out and wrenched the door open. I was wondering if I was going to get done over totally or just a lot of bruising by this stage, but he just grabbed the keys and we had a bit of a stare off for a little bit till he finally handed the keys back.
I told K that there was no way I am prepared to work with him at all, too unpredictable and erratic, so we have a meeting on Wednesday to supposedly sort this out. There are a lot of other issues as well, but until they are in the open I’d rather not go into them.
So, I have my resignation letter typed and printed if they keep him on, after that I’ll see what or where I go. Getting out of Honiara will be a good idea I think. 18 months here without being able to get out of the town is more than enough, plus the frustration level that is involved with trying to get anything done here.
I’m getting too old to be having to put up with threats and intimidation by anyone. I had 10 years of that in NZ with the TOPS courses, there was always some gang wannabe trying it on. I often wonder how the hell I never got done over in all that time, with some of the guys that I had confrontations with. Ok, my house got turned over a couple of times, and my van got trashed once, but they never tried it on with me. Came close a few times I know, but backed off.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Wednesday 6th October
I think I’m over yesterdays rant, well, over but still keeping it in mind anyway.
Added to my list of food I refuse to eat, it’s a short list anyway, only one item originally, it is now 2 things.
If anyone can give me a recipe for cooking eggplant/aubergine that can make it even almost palatable please send it along. I keep persisting in trying to find a recipe for it that can make it taste any different to partially rotted green waste in a compost heap, but so far it still smells and tastes like the most vile smelling rotting vegetation I have known.
And yes, I’ve tried slicing, covering in salt, dipping in batter and frying, making a vegetarian curry, that Greek dish that reminded me of what I used to feed the muscovy ducks, every possible permutation of steaming, frying, baking, roasting grilling that I can think of. It still tastes like crap.
Oh, the other thing I refuse to eat is tripe, so I don’t have a fussy type of nature. But Eggplant/Aubergine now joins the list. Finally, I have given up trying to find a way of making it edible.
Tiff is still away from work, she has a really bad dose of pnuemonia, the worst I’ve seen her, she is definitely not a well lady.
I mentioned Adrian bought me a dozen bottles for my home made ginger beer last week. I added in another bottle of my pineapple/pawpaw/chilli sauce as well to the 3 bottles of ginger beer I swapped for the shirt, I still have a few bottles of sauce in the cupboard.
He phoned about 5 pm yesterday. He could barely talk, his tongue had gone numb, his eyes and nose were watering, he was sweating from every pore in his body, and he’d made the mistake of rubbing his eyes with his fingers after dipping a sausage into the sauce then licking his fingers to get the last drop.
I’d warned him it had had a few months to cure, and was probably a lot hotter than when it was first made, but this is Adrian, he’d put about a tablespoon full onto a single sausage.
He came out to Ranadi today, he had recovered, but is treating the sauce with a lot more respect now. I find it spicy, but not excessively so, but I eat raw chillies at the market to find the hottest ones anyway, and I love vinegar cured chillies on a salad sandwich. Without a lot of that green stuff as well. Add more chilli is always a good motto.
I’ve been tracking my son Hayden in the Porirua Council elections, he seems to be holding his place well, and should get voted in when the voting is closed and the results are finalised next week, allowing for postal voting. He went to his first Housie night this week, commandeered the microphone for a couple of minutes and picked up 45 more votes, well they said they’d mark their ballot papers and post them in anyway. He didn’t say if he won anything at Housie though.
Employment still seems to be tight in Auckland, Stef is still unemployed, been a while now, and things aren’t looking any better short term. The whole economy is turned down, and I don’t think there will be a huge turnaround even with summer coming eventually.
I’ve been in touch with Computenz NZ, the training and assessment organisation in New Zealand. They feel I can slot back into their organisation if I go back, I’m still registered with them as an Assessor, I’ll have to do a bit of retraining due to a lot of the early Unit Standards having altered, but nothing that I haven’t been keeping up with thanks to being still on the mailing list for Horticulture Training Standards Moderation Boards.
It’ll be a good job at worst, and a good way to stay in the training and teaching field. It’s either that or chase down some contacts in BOC Gases and see about working for BOC as a welding demo person. Or find some small craft bakery and work there. Depends on how I feel I guess, One of the good things about having had a few choices at times, and making the most of them. Or find something completely different to learn. The last choice sounds good to me, but probably not all that practical, and as I’ve never let practical be a consideration, it may be the one I choose eventually.
Everything at work has slowed down this week, timber is delayed, the roof for the prop house is a bit behind schedule, as to be expected, with Tiff away there isn’t anyone available with all the contacts, so the sooner we get the nursery set up the better and we can increase the office staff and spread the workload a bit, and give Tiff more time to be a CEO instead of everything from office girl to Manager.
We’ll make it eventually.
Added to my list of food I refuse to eat, it’s a short list anyway, only one item originally, it is now 2 things.
If anyone can give me a recipe for cooking eggplant/aubergine that can make it even almost palatable please send it along. I keep persisting in trying to find a recipe for it that can make it taste any different to partially rotted green waste in a compost heap, but so far it still smells and tastes like the most vile smelling rotting vegetation I have known.
And yes, I’ve tried slicing, covering in salt, dipping in batter and frying, making a vegetarian curry, that Greek dish that reminded me of what I used to feed the muscovy ducks, every possible permutation of steaming, frying, baking, roasting grilling that I can think of. It still tastes like crap.
Oh, the other thing I refuse to eat is tripe, so I don’t have a fussy type of nature. But Eggplant/Aubergine now joins the list. Finally, I have given up trying to find a way of making it edible.
Tiff is still away from work, she has a really bad dose of pnuemonia, the worst I’ve seen her, she is definitely not a well lady.
I mentioned Adrian bought me a dozen bottles for my home made ginger beer last week. I added in another bottle of my pineapple/pawpaw/chilli sauce as well to the 3 bottles of ginger beer I swapped for the shirt, I still have a few bottles of sauce in the cupboard.
He phoned about 5 pm yesterday. He could barely talk, his tongue had gone numb, his eyes and nose were watering, he was sweating from every pore in his body, and he’d made the mistake of rubbing his eyes with his fingers after dipping a sausage into the sauce then licking his fingers to get the last drop.
I’d warned him it had had a few months to cure, and was probably a lot hotter than when it was first made, but this is Adrian, he’d put about a tablespoon full onto a single sausage.
He came out to Ranadi today, he had recovered, but is treating the sauce with a lot more respect now. I find it spicy, but not excessively so, but I eat raw chillies at the market to find the hottest ones anyway, and I love vinegar cured chillies on a salad sandwich. Without a lot of that green stuff as well. Add more chilli is always a good motto.
I’ve been tracking my son Hayden in the Porirua Council elections, he seems to be holding his place well, and should get voted in when the voting is closed and the results are finalised next week, allowing for postal voting. He went to his first Housie night this week, commandeered the microphone for a couple of minutes and picked up 45 more votes, well they said they’d mark their ballot papers and post them in anyway. He didn’t say if he won anything at Housie though.
Employment still seems to be tight in Auckland, Stef is still unemployed, been a while now, and things aren’t looking any better short term. The whole economy is turned down, and I don’t think there will be a huge turnaround even with summer coming eventually.
I’ve been in touch with Computenz NZ, the training and assessment organisation in New Zealand. They feel I can slot back into their organisation if I go back, I’m still registered with them as an Assessor, I’ll have to do a bit of retraining due to a lot of the early Unit Standards having altered, but nothing that I haven’t been keeping up with thanks to being still on the mailing list for Horticulture Training Standards Moderation Boards.
It’ll be a good job at worst, and a good way to stay in the training and teaching field. It’s either that or chase down some contacts in BOC Gases and see about working for BOC as a welding demo person. Or find some small craft bakery and work there. Depends on how I feel I guess, One of the good things about having had a few choices at times, and making the most of them. Or find something completely different to learn. The last choice sounds good to me, but probably not all that practical, and as I’ve never let practical be a consideration, it may be the one I choose eventually.
Everything at work has slowed down this week, timber is delayed, the roof for the prop house is a bit behind schedule, as to be expected, with Tiff away there isn’t anyone available with all the contacts, so the sooner we get the nursery set up the better and we can increase the office staff and spread the workload a bit, and give Tiff more time to be a CEO instead of everything from office girl to Manager.
We’ll make it eventually.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Tuesday 5th October
Another birthday gone and over with. I’m starting to feel I’ll be 70 years old and still trying to get this whole project finished.
Oh well, at least it helps pass the time. Still, a decent beach, some surf and the chance to go fishing would make it a lot better.
Did anyone catch the own goal that the 10:10 lunatic fringe of the eco green fascists made on Friday? With their “be green or we kill you” video? I saw it Monday, they are the lunatic fringe that needs to be watched closely. Ok, real title was “No Pressure”
It lasted all of 3? hours up before it was pulled due to the widespread condemnation all over the blogosphere. So far most of their sponsors have pulled out, I’d like to think I was part of that, I spent a lot of Monday sending letters to their sponsors asking just where their brains were supporting a radical group that promoted killing everyone that disagreed with their agenda. So far Kyocera, Sony and Eaga have pulled their sponsorship, still waiting for O2 to wake up.
Franny Armstrong would have to be the most dangerous person around at the moment, apart from the more long term lunatics like Maurice Strong, James Hansen and William Connolley. Anyone who thinks we only have 4 years to cut the worlds population and stop global warming before we kill the planet is not playing with a full deck of cards. Definitely more than a few sandwiches short of a picnic as far as brains go.
What is next on the green fascist agenda? Armbands for non-AGW believers? Re-education schools? Concentration camps? Arbrecht macht frei? Any green party or organisation that doesn’t distance itself quickly from this lunatic group deserves all the oppribrium that falls upon them from now on. You would have to insane to think you could put out propaganda aimed at children and advocate killing people that don’t believe your ideology. Well ok, Nazi Germany did it, and I have no doubt so have other lunatic socialist/fascist/totalitarian groups, it still doesn’t make it right as a lot of the more strident AGW fanatic websites seem to think.
The black underbelly of the Green Party showed it ugly side finally, as I’ve thought for a long time. One of the reasons I dropped out of the Greens in New Zealand was because of their anti-everything that meant development, progress, better living, cheaper energy. And their underlying population control agenda so long as they were the ones deciding which population was going to be the one culled. Much as they have done with Africa, the middle east, Asia with malaria control, letting millions die from Malaria instead of controlling or eradicating the bloody mosquitos. And their blind refusal to let cheap electrical generation go ahead, instead pushing bloody inefficient, uneconomic windmills and pissant little solar panels. Like I’m so sure they can run an engineering shop with solar panels, or a million dollar windmill when there is no wind. But that is their whole agenda isn’t it? To stop any development, stop manufacturing, let people starve to death in the name of cutting the worlds population. Oh, and to save dear sweet Mother Gaia. Bloody Lovelock has a lot to answer for with his highjacked science fiction stories.
My Grandmother, may she rest in peace, travelled by stagecoach from Christchurch to Otira, cooked on a wood stove, used whale oil, then kerosene, lamps, then lived long enough to see people walking on the moon, 4 major wars, from the Boer war, to Vietnam, radio, movies, television, telephones, electricity, all in 94 years. Her mother spent 5 months sailing from England to New Zealand, it took me 25 hours to fly to Ireland.
And the stupid luddite loopy looney Greens think they can see into the future from here? As though nothing is going to improve, change, alter for the next million years? And using fudged, adulterated, adjusted data from so called “climate scientists” to try and prove the earth is going to fry, while all around them snow is falling.
Lunatics. Blind, unseeing, unthinking lunatics. And dangerous ones as well.
You want to cut the worlds population? It’s easy, provide cheap reliable energy, electricity to those countries without, and watch their population growth slow down and reverse. You want to cut carbon emissions? Although why I haven’t been convinced for yet, it’s easy, provide electricity so the people stop cutting down forests for firewood to cook on. It’s the biggest selling item in the Solomons, bundles of firewood, especially in Honiara, where we haven’t enough trees left to cut since the civil war, when practically every tree in Honiara was cut down for cooking fuel.
And if they were really serous about cutting carbon emissions from energy production, they’d be promoting Nuclear energy, no CO2 emissions, constant supply of energy, and good enough for countries like France to generate 80% and more of their electricity. Luddites. Lunatic fringe luddites. I admit I’m a bit wary of Nuclear in NZ, not enough stable ground that isn’t on, near or about to become an earthquake fault. But we have 500+ years of coal that we haven’t sold to China yet that we could use, and still places for hydro and geothermal plants.
And bloody stupid John Key goes ahead and cripples New Zealand with a stupid Labour Party leftover ETS catastrophe. And tries to talk about NZ becoming an Information HUB. Yeah, right John, you need cheap energy to become one of those, you’ve just made it uneconomic for any company to want to open up business in NZ.
And probably killed more New Zealand businesses as well.
Prat.
Having got that off my chest, I’ll have a coffee and find calmer things to write about.
Tomorrow.
Oh well, at least it helps pass the time. Still, a decent beach, some surf and the chance to go fishing would make it a lot better.
Did anyone catch the own goal that the 10:10 lunatic fringe of the eco green fascists made on Friday? With their “be green or we kill you” video? I saw it Monday, they are the lunatic fringe that needs to be watched closely. Ok, real title was “No Pressure”
It lasted all of 3? hours up before it was pulled due to the widespread condemnation all over the blogosphere. So far most of their sponsors have pulled out, I’d like to think I was part of that, I spent a lot of Monday sending letters to their sponsors asking just where their brains were supporting a radical group that promoted killing everyone that disagreed with their agenda. So far Kyocera, Sony and Eaga have pulled their sponsorship, still waiting for O2 to wake up.
Franny Armstrong would have to be the most dangerous person around at the moment, apart from the more long term lunatics like Maurice Strong, James Hansen and William Connolley. Anyone who thinks we only have 4 years to cut the worlds population and stop global warming before we kill the planet is not playing with a full deck of cards. Definitely more than a few sandwiches short of a picnic as far as brains go.
What is next on the green fascist agenda? Armbands for non-AGW believers? Re-education schools? Concentration camps? Arbrecht macht frei? Any green party or organisation that doesn’t distance itself quickly from this lunatic group deserves all the oppribrium that falls upon them from now on. You would have to insane to think you could put out propaganda aimed at children and advocate killing people that don’t believe your ideology. Well ok, Nazi Germany did it, and I have no doubt so have other lunatic socialist/fascist/totalitarian groups, it still doesn’t make it right as a lot of the more strident AGW fanatic websites seem to think.
The black underbelly of the Green Party showed it ugly side finally, as I’ve thought for a long time. One of the reasons I dropped out of the Greens in New Zealand was because of their anti-everything that meant development, progress, better living, cheaper energy. And their underlying population control agenda so long as they were the ones deciding which population was going to be the one culled. Much as they have done with Africa, the middle east, Asia with malaria control, letting millions die from Malaria instead of controlling or eradicating the bloody mosquitos. And their blind refusal to let cheap electrical generation go ahead, instead pushing bloody inefficient, uneconomic windmills and pissant little solar panels. Like I’m so sure they can run an engineering shop with solar panels, or a million dollar windmill when there is no wind. But that is their whole agenda isn’t it? To stop any development, stop manufacturing, let people starve to death in the name of cutting the worlds population. Oh, and to save dear sweet Mother Gaia. Bloody Lovelock has a lot to answer for with his highjacked science fiction stories.
My Grandmother, may she rest in peace, travelled by stagecoach from Christchurch to Otira, cooked on a wood stove, used whale oil, then kerosene, lamps, then lived long enough to see people walking on the moon, 4 major wars, from the Boer war, to Vietnam, radio, movies, television, telephones, electricity, all in 94 years. Her mother spent 5 months sailing from England to New Zealand, it took me 25 hours to fly to Ireland.
And the stupid luddite loopy looney Greens think they can see into the future from here? As though nothing is going to improve, change, alter for the next million years? And using fudged, adulterated, adjusted data from so called “climate scientists” to try and prove the earth is going to fry, while all around them snow is falling.
Lunatics. Blind, unseeing, unthinking lunatics. And dangerous ones as well.
You want to cut the worlds population? It’s easy, provide cheap reliable energy, electricity to those countries without, and watch their population growth slow down and reverse. You want to cut carbon emissions? Although why I haven’t been convinced for yet, it’s easy, provide electricity so the people stop cutting down forests for firewood to cook on. It’s the biggest selling item in the Solomons, bundles of firewood, especially in Honiara, where we haven’t enough trees left to cut since the civil war, when practically every tree in Honiara was cut down for cooking fuel.
And if they were really serous about cutting carbon emissions from energy production, they’d be promoting Nuclear energy, no CO2 emissions, constant supply of energy, and good enough for countries like France to generate 80% and more of their electricity. Luddites. Lunatic fringe luddites. I admit I’m a bit wary of Nuclear in NZ, not enough stable ground that isn’t on, near or about to become an earthquake fault. But we have 500+ years of coal that we haven’t sold to China yet that we could use, and still places for hydro and geothermal plants.
And bloody stupid John Key goes ahead and cripples New Zealand with a stupid Labour Party leftover ETS catastrophe. And tries to talk about NZ becoming an Information HUB. Yeah, right John, you need cheap energy to become one of those, you’ve just made it uneconomic for any company to want to open up business in NZ.
And probably killed more New Zealand businesses as well.
Prat.
Having got that off my chest, I’ll have a coffee and find calmer things to write about.
Tomorrow.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Weekend edition
We’ve started on Woodhenge finally, 4 of the main shade support posts are in place. Everyone apart from me was thinking this was going to be long day of hump and grunt, in the end it took us 45 minutes to get the posts in place.
10’ of 8” x 8” (3 metres and 200mm x 200mm for those in civilised places) of Vasa timber. It is incredibly dense and heavy, each post was a 4 person lift to get onto the truck. I parked the crane truck beside the holes, ran a rope and loops around each post, then swung them into place. It took longer to mix the cement than it did to get the posts in place.
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Friday 1st October.
Trying to stop everyone from wanting guide the post into the hole while it was on an ok, rather dodgy rope sling was fun. After the first one I managed to have everyone standing back while I swung the posts around, I don’t know what the law is here on workplace deaths, I think it involves me getting to Henderson Field ahead of the Police, and not coming back. Once I had the post centred all we had to do was hold a foot against the post and pour the concrete around. The guys thought it was terrific, if we’d had all the posts as promised I am sure we would have had them all in place before lunchtime.
Then we finished putting the weed mat down in the shade house area, and sat around wondering what to do next. Ended up sending them out to do a big clean up in Honiara for the weekend, and finished about 4pm.
I had Jacinta at the nursery all day, she usually works the roundabouts and parks, but a car ran over the roundabout yesterday while she was working on it, and she is now a little nervous about working on the roads.
Can’t say I blame her either
Adrian called out to Ranadi as well, he took one look at the posts and said I was bloody mad, how the hell did I get that size timber for a start, and Jesus Christ and his brothers, is this going to be permanent? He’s built a few nurseries in his time as well, and thinks I’m doing ok out here considering the difficulties we have with obtaining everything.
I’m still trying to find some eye bolts with a sufficiently long thread to use as wire strainers, I’m thinking I’ll have to get some made.
Saturday 2nd
I went mad at Wings this morning and bought some stewing steak, about 500gm (1 lb) for $30. So I’ve been fantasizing about what I’m going to cook tonight, well, later. It is looking like a beef curry, coconut cream, chillies, onions, garlic, and fresh made chapati to soak up the sauce. I had to throw out the rice I had, only a couple of weeks, and it was full of weevils again.
My rice container is a plastic bin, holds 10kg of rice, but the lid isn’t that tight a fit. I had a look around town this morning for some fridge seal stick on rubber but all I got was blank looks. I may have to go back to the expensive alternative and buy a kilo at a time, Tiff said they just skim the weevils off when they cook rice. I’m not quite to that stage of culinary expertise yet. I prefer my rice to be without the added protein thanks.
And yes, I have cleaned out the cupboards, frequently, and sprayed and washed with bleach.
It is more a container problem, as I said a while back, anyone wants to start selling Tupperware here, they will make a killing. Or decent click-clack containers. Well, anything with a good rubber seal. I’ve had weevils in my flour, rice, sugar, cockroaches in damn near everything, so I never leave anything out for them to find. Chinese sweet and sour sauce jars are great, all I have to do now is remember to write on them somewhere what exactly I am putting into them. The sniff and taste test gets some strange reactions, especially with dried chilli powder. And trying to distinguish between bread improver and chicken soup powder gets a bit hard at times. And some interestingly flavoured bread.
I mentioned Adrian called out Friday. He’s really at a lost end here, his wife works for RAMSI, he gets to come here as part of the package, but there is nothing organised for him so he gets to wander around trying to find things to fill his time in with. And yes, he does annoy me at times, in fact more than annoy, but I’ve learnt how to deal with that and we have a rather funny relationship. As I mentioned the other day, he turned up with a new shirt for me, ok, I can’t wear it when his wife might notice it, but that is how he is.
I had a bottle of ginger beer (my home brewed one) at Ranadi on Friday when he called out, so I gave him a taste, and asked him if he could keep me any soft drink bottles to bottle it into.
He went away, came back about an hour later, he’d been to Szeba Bottling Co. and bought me a dozen 1.25 litre bottles to use. I told him I didn’t want him BUYING bottles, the empty bottles after he’d had the contents were acceptable, but no, he didn’t have any left at home, his House Mary takes them for her Kwaso brewing, so he went and spent $55 buying me bottles to put ginger beer into. I’ll give him the money back when I get this months allowance, and a few bottles of ginger beer, and that is why I can’t really get annoyed with him, with all his problems, he really wants to help everyone.
Sunday 3rd October
All my intentions got dashed this morning, Emory turned up asking to borrow the truck to take his wife and newborne to #9, or somewhere, his pidgin is good, but the dialect gets a bit hard for me to follow.
Anyway, I’ve been home all day, so I have 10 litres of ginger beer bottled, pita bread proving for dinner later, no water again, as usual for weekends, but the floor has been swept and nearly everything picked up and put away.
We’ve had thunder most for the day, and some heavy falls of rain, it’s been considerably cooler than usual.
Some of the funny things that strike you at odd times. I was thinking today about something my cousin mentioned at Mums Funeral Service, about how he used to try to use me as an example for not having to tidy his room up. I admit, my room at home was a mess, it would get cleaned out a couple of times a week, all the clothes would go into the wash etc, but it invariably got back to a ruin quickly. It was always thus, even when we were living in the packing shed before the big house was built, and my sis and I shared an alcove.
Some of it was that Dad wasn’t concerned, as long as I was prepared to get up at 5am, and help load the station wagon and go into the markets with him, then be dropped off at school on the way home he wasn’t going to get worried if you couldn’t see the floor. When you think about it, being 6 or 7 years old, and going into the Markets at that hour was like a huge adventure. Watching the guys with the handtrucks handling stacks of cases of fruit and vegetables, waiting till our cases of produce were auctioned off, going to the little cramped hole in the wall café, that was full of gruff weather beaten men, having plates of fried eggs and bacon on thick slabs of toast, washed down with cups of over sugared milky tea in thick mugs. For a young kid it was brilliant, I loved it.
Working with Mum and Dad in the packing shed till 10 or 11 pm, the radio on the national programme, live from Parliament. With Dad muttering obscenities about various politicians, Mum winding him up with her own comments, as soon as I could see over the top of the grader I was put on feeding tomatoes through, probably about 4 or 5 years old, I have no idea how young I was, I just remember spending most of my nights in the packing shed. Standing on a couple of apple boxes to be high enough.
Winters were always interesting, getting up at 2am to help fill the kerosene heaters in the glasshouses , clear moonlit nights with a crisp sheer shimmer from the ice forming on the grass and glass houses. Clear spots on the panes of glass above the heaters. Trying not to spill the kerosene as I filled the containers, relighting the wicks, it’s no wonder no one was too concerned about being tidy, we never had time or the inclination, there was always something more important to be done. Spending weekends planting tomato plants in the glass houses, even when I had girlfriends call around wanting to go out, it became “ok, you help plant till we get to half way, then I can get some free time” and bargaining with Mum or Dad about how much further I had to plant before I could get away.
It is no wonder that any chance we had to get away we went as far as possible away from the glasshouses, every school holidays would mean a trip away. May was always for many years to the Crystal Springs at Matamata, August Dad would take my sis and I and just drive and we’d camp where ever we found a camp site. I think we saw most of the North Island before I was 12.
10’ of 8” x 8” (3 metres and 200mm x 200mm for those in civilised places) of Vasa timber. It is incredibly dense and heavy, each post was a 4 person lift to get onto the truck. I parked the crane truck beside the holes, ran a rope and loops around each post, then swung them into place. It took longer to mix the cement than it did to get the posts in place.
.jpg)
Friday 1st October.
Trying to stop everyone from wanting guide the post into the hole while it was on an ok, rather dodgy rope sling was fun. After the first one I managed to have everyone standing back while I swung the posts around, I don’t know what the law is here on workplace deaths, I think it involves me getting to Henderson Field ahead of the Police, and not coming back. Once I had the post centred all we had to do was hold a foot against the post and pour the concrete around. The guys thought it was terrific, if we’d had all the posts as promised I am sure we would have had them all in place before lunchtime.
Then we finished putting the weed mat down in the shade house area, and sat around wondering what to do next. Ended up sending them out to do a big clean up in Honiara for the weekend, and finished about 4pm.
I had Jacinta at the nursery all day, she usually works the roundabouts and parks, but a car ran over the roundabout yesterday while she was working on it, and she is now a little nervous about working on the roads.
Can’t say I blame her either
Adrian called out to Ranadi as well, he took one look at the posts and said I was bloody mad, how the hell did I get that size timber for a start, and Jesus Christ and his brothers, is this going to be permanent? He’s built a few nurseries in his time as well, and thinks I’m doing ok out here considering the difficulties we have with obtaining everything.
I’m still trying to find some eye bolts with a sufficiently long thread to use as wire strainers, I’m thinking I’ll have to get some made.
Saturday 2nd
I went mad at Wings this morning and bought some stewing steak, about 500gm (1 lb) for $30. So I’ve been fantasizing about what I’m going to cook tonight, well, later. It is looking like a beef curry, coconut cream, chillies, onions, garlic, and fresh made chapati to soak up the sauce. I had to throw out the rice I had, only a couple of weeks, and it was full of weevils again.
My rice container is a plastic bin, holds 10kg of rice, but the lid isn’t that tight a fit. I had a look around town this morning for some fridge seal stick on rubber but all I got was blank looks. I may have to go back to the expensive alternative and buy a kilo at a time, Tiff said they just skim the weevils off when they cook rice. I’m not quite to that stage of culinary expertise yet. I prefer my rice to be without the added protein thanks.
And yes, I have cleaned out the cupboards, frequently, and sprayed and washed with bleach.
It is more a container problem, as I said a while back, anyone wants to start selling Tupperware here, they will make a killing. Or decent click-clack containers. Well, anything with a good rubber seal. I’ve had weevils in my flour, rice, sugar, cockroaches in damn near everything, so I never leave anything out for them to find. Chinese sweet and sour sauce jars are great, all I have to do now is remember to write on them somewhere what exactly I am putting into them. The sniff and taste test gets some strange reactions, especially with dried chilli powder. And trying to distinguish between bread improver and chicken soup powder gets a bit hard at times. And some interestingly flavoured bread.
I mentioned Adrian called out Friday. He’s really at a lost end here, his wife works for RAMSI, he gets to come here as part of the package, but there is nothing organised for him so he gets to wander around trying to find things to fill his time in with. And yes, he does annoy me at times, in fact more than annoy, but I’ve learnt how to deal with that and we have a rather funny relationship. As I mentioned the other day, he turned up with a new shirt for me, ok, I can’t wear it when his wife might notice it, but that is how he is.
I had a bottle of ginger beer (my home brewed one) at Ranadi on Friday when he called out, so I gave him a taste, and asked him if he could keep me any soft drink bottles to bottle it into.
He went away, came back about an hour later, he’d been to Szeba Bottling Co. and bought me a dozen 1.25 litre bottles to use. I told him I didn’t want him BUYING bottles, the empty bottles after he’d had the contents were acceptable, but no, he didn’t have any left at home, his House Mary takes them for her Kwaso brewing, so he went and spent $55 buying me bottles to put ginger beer into. I’ll give him the money back when I get this months allowance, and a few bottles of ginger beer, and that is why I can’t really get annoyed with him, with all his problems, he really wants to help everyone.
Sunday 3rd October
All my intentions got dashed this morning, Emory turned up asking to borrow the truck to take his wife and newborne to #9, or somewhere, his pidgin is good, but the dialect gets a bit hard for me to follow.
Anyway, I’ve been home all day, so I have 10 litres of ginger beer bottled, pita bread proving for dinner later, no water again, as usual for weekends, but the floor has been swept and nearly everything picked up and put away.
We’ve had thunder most for the day, and some heavy falls of rain, it’s been considerably cooler than usual.
Some of the funny things that strike you at odd times. I was thinking today about something my cousin mentioned at Mums Funeral Service, about how he used to try to use me as an example for not having to tidy his room up. I admit, my room at home was a mess, it would get cleaned out a couple of times a week, all the clothes would go into the wash etc, but it invariably got back to a ruin quickly. It was always thus, even when we were living in the packing shed before the big house was built, and my sis and I shared an alcove.
Some of it was that Dad wasn’t concerned, as long as I was prepared to get up at 5am, and help load the station wagon and go into the markets with him, then be dropped off at school on the way home he wasn’t going to get worried if you couldn’t see the floor. When you think about it, being 6 or 7 years old, and going into the Markets at that hour was like a huge adventure. Watching the guys with the handtrucks handling stacks of cases of fruit and vegetables, waiting till our cases of produce were auctioned off, going to the little cramped hole in the wall café, that was full of gruff weather beaten men, having plates of fried eggs and bacon on thick slabs of toast, washed down with cups of over sugared milky tea in thick mugs. For a young kid it was brilliant, I loved it.
Working with Mum and Dad in the packing shed till 10 or 11 pm, the radio on the national programme, live from Parliament. With Dad muttering obscenities about various politicians, Mum winding him up with her own comments, as soon as I could see over the top of the grader I was put on feeding tomatoes through, probably about 4 or 5 years old, I have no idea how young I was, I just remember spending most of my nights in the packing shed. Standing on a couple of apple boxes to be high enough.
Winters were always interesting, getting up at 2am to help fill the kerosene heaters in the glasshouses , clear moonlit nights with a crisp sheer shimmer from the ice forming on the grass and glass houses. Clear spots on the panes of glass above the heaters. Trying not to spill the kerosene as I filled the containers, relighting the wicks, it’s no wonder no one was too concerned about being tidy, we never had time or the inclination, there was always something more important to be done. Spending weekends planting tomato plants in the glass houses, even when I had girlfriends call around wanting to go out, it became “ok, you help plant till we get to half way, then I can get some free time” and bargaining with Mum or Dad about how much further I had to plant before I could get away.
It is no wonder that any chance we had to get away we went as far as possible away from the glasshouses, every school holidays would mean a trip away. May was always for many years to the Crystal Springs at Matamata, August Dad would take my sis and I and just drive and we’d camp where ever we found a camp site. I think we saw most of the North Island before I was 12.
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