Melbourne Cup Long Weekend of 2013
One of the joys of working in Melbourne is the Melbourne Cup Long Weekend. This can only be achieved if you are able to take an Annual Leave day on the Monday, in order to link the weekend to the Public Holiday on Tuesday, thus giving yourself a 4-day weekend.
I don't always remember to apply for leave on the Monday, and in fact, sometimes it is preferable to work the Monday on the basis that everyone else will be away and it will be a "quiet" day. That doesn't work when you have a national role, and the rest of the country does NOT have a Tuesday Public holiday, so instead I took the day off.
Saturday started at 7am when Ben the neighbour started digging up his backyard with a mechanical digger. Did you know that they 'beep' when in reverse gear? I do. Anyhow, as a neighbour, I offered him the chance to dump his excess dirt over the fence into my backyard, as we need to fill a sloping block. Before I had finished my cuppa tea, the fence was removed (Ben had several mates around to help him) and there was a growing mound of dirt ready to be moved to different places around my backyard.
This exercise kinda took the buzz of my relaxed start to a long weekend. We did as much as we could but were left with 50% of the dirt come the end of Saturday. I saved enough energy to watch a bit of the All Black v Japan game in the afternoon before realising that I needed to visit the shops for supplies.
Luckily for me, I wandered around the back way due to my muddy boots, and I noticed the the neighbour was flooding our garage, accidentally their child had turn on a tap, so with a but of yelling, I soon had Suzy (the neighbour) and Dee moving stuff around in the garage and sweeping out the water. After seeing that they had it under control, I left them to it and went shopping.
This was the start of the Tidy Garage Project of 2013. Long Weekend Buzz definitely gone now.
Up early Sunday, and while it was still cool, I quietly shifted the rest of the soil. Like God, in the afternoon I rested, really, sneaking in a 3 hour nap, and wakening in time to cook tea. Dee eyed up the mess in the garage, planning and plotting.
On Monday (my Annual Leave Day) I again awoke early, and went through my work morning routine, sans ironing a shirt, then in mid-morning, popped down to the $2 store to buy some more plastic boxes, as, once again, Dee had started to go through 'stuff' in the garage and had found all the old baby clothes in a non-mouse proof cardboard box, and while most of the baby clothes had not recently been turned into material for a mouse nest, stronger containers were called for. Dee set about washing, drying and ironing the old baby clothes, stopping often to remember earlier years when our big girls could fit into such time items, I returned with the plastic boxes and a new dog lead.
By mid-morning I was ready to take Gizmo for a walk, and I chose to go and inspect the ongoing Regional Rail Link works. this took me to the Shopping Centre at the End of the Universe, or Wyndham Vale Square as it is also known. I wandered along the fence line of the RRL and when I got to the shopping centre I was too tired to come home, so I called Dee to send a rescue driver. Casey turned up to rescue the dog and me.
Another afternoon nap set me up for an evening of TV watching, allowing me to catch up on the various shows I've been following.
On Tuesday, it was back into Dee's garage tidy-up program, along with a bit of minor garden tidy up stuff. At one stage, Dee made a request for a long Garden Hose, and knowing that I had been gifted with Australia's best garden hose reel, sadly still in it's box from Christmas 2011, I made the pledge to install said Garden hose Reel onto the side of our shiny new house. After carefully reading the installation instructions, and reviewing my current set of tools, I realised that I needed to make a visit to the local Bunnings Hardware store for a 12mm masonry drill bit.
I also purchase a Weather Strip for the garage door to reduce the risk of future internal flooding from the neighbours
It took me several hours of carefully measuring everything and drilling holes in my new bricks, but once it was done, I was pleased to see just how far a 30 metre hose went, and when it automatically re-wound back into it's casing, I must admit that I gave a bit of "whoop" and "air punch". Bloody marvelous!
Returning to the Tidy Garage Project of 2013, Dee finished off putting everything back into it's new storage place and seemed to be happy with the final result
Summing up the Long Weekend
One two and one half car garage cleaned and tidied
+
Part of backyard soil added, ready for more gardening
+
One super duper garden hose reel installed
+
5 hours of extra sleep stolen from daytime
+
1 dog walked once
=
Long weekend -sigh-
I don't always remember to apply for leave on the Monday, and in fact, sometimes it is preferable to work the Monday on the basis that everyone else will be away and it will be a "quiet" day. That doesn't work when you have a national role, and the rest of the country does NOT have a Tuesday Public holiday, so instead I took the day off.
Saturday started at 7am when Ben the neighbour started digging up his backyard with a mechanical digger. Did you know that they 'beep' when in reverse gear? I do. Anyhow, as a neighbour, I offered him the chance to dump his excess dirt over the fence into my backyard, as we need to fill a sloping block. Before I had finished my cuppa tea, the fence was removed (Ben had several mates around to help him) and there was a growing mound of dirt ready to be moved to different places around my backyard.
This exercise kinda took the buzz of my relaxed start to a long weekend. We did as much as we could but were left with 50% of the dirt come the end of Saturday. I saved enough energy to watch a bit of the All Black v Japan game in the afternoon before realising that I needed to visit the shops for supplies.
Luckily for me, I wandered around the back way due to my muddy boots, and I noticed the the neighbour was flooding our garage, accidentally their child had turn on a tap, so with a but of yelling, I soon had Suzy (the neighbour) and Dee moving stuff around in the garage and sweeping out the water. After seeing that they had it under control, I left them to it and went shopping.
This was the start of the Tidy Garage Project of 2013. Long Weekend Buzz definitely gone now.
Up early Sunday, and while it was still cool, I quietly shifted the rest of the soil. Like God, in the afternoon I rested, really, sneaking in a 3 hour nap, and wakening in time to cook tea. Dee eyed up the mess in the garage, planning and plotting.
On Monday (my Annual Leave Day) I again awoke early, and went through my work morning routine, sans ironing a shirt, then in mid-morning, popped down to the $2 store to buy some more plastic boxes, as, once again, Dee had started to go through 'stuff' in the garage and had found all the old baby clothes in a non-mouse proof cardboard box, and while most of the baby clothes had not recently been turned into material for a mouse nest, stronger containers were called for. Dee set about washing, drying and ironing the old baby clothes, stopping often to remember earlier years when our big girls could fit into such time items, I returned with the plastic boxes and a new dog lead.
By mid-morning I was ready to take Gizmo for a walk, and I chose to go and inspect the ongoing Regional Rail Link works. this took me to the Shopping Centre at the End of the Universe, or Wyndham Vale Square as it is also known. I wandered along the fence line of the RRL and when I got to the shopping centre I was too tired to come home, so I called Dee to send a rescue driver. Casey turned up to rescue the dog and me.
Another afternoon nap set me up for an evening of TV watching, allowing me to catch up on the various shows I've been following.
On Tuesday, it was back into Dee's garage tidy-up program, along with a bit of minor garden tidy up stuff. At one stage, Dee made a request for a long Garden Hose, and knowing that I had been gifted with Australia's best garden hose reel, sadly still in it's box from Christmas 2011, I made the pledge to install said Garden hose Reel onto the side of our shiny new house. After carefully reading the installation instructions, and reviewing my current set of tools, I realised that I needed to make a visit to the local Bunnings Hardware store for a 12mm masonry drill bit.
I also purchase a Weather Strip for the garage door to reduce the risk of future internal flooding from the neighbours
It took me several hours of carefully measuring everything and drilling holes in my new bricks, but once it was done, I was pleased to see just how far a 30 metre hose went, and when it automatically re-wound back into it's casing, I must admit that I gave a bit of "whoop" and "air punch". Bloody marvelous!
Returning to the Tidy Garage Project of 2013, Dee finished off putting everything back into it's new storage place and seemed to be happy with the final result
Summing up the Long Weekend
One two and one half car garage cleaned and tidied
+
Part of backyard soil added, ready for more gardening
+
One super duper garden hose reel installed
+
5 hours of extra sleep stolen from daytime
+
1 dog walked once
=
Long weekend -sigh-
Comments