Stuff I did Last Week

In the week from last Sunday morning to yesterday evening, in no particular order, I:

• Went to the park with my six year old, Connor, to make a map. We raced up and down the hills, and he won every race.
• Read the Bible in church – part of the story of Jeus resurrecting Lazarus. Public speaking worries me at the best of times, but I find reading the Bible in public especially challenging.
• Stayed up to 2:30am drinking Guinness and playing Canasta.
• Got up at 7:30 the next morning.
• Drove my eight year old for a sleep-over with his friend down at Mulgoa, then drove back to pick him up the next day.
• Spent a public holiday writing a letter for on behalf of my wife, appealling an important, wrong and unfair decision against her by her boss. This is the price of working in the public health system.
• Did the design and layout for this term’s CEBS program. (b&w scan here)
• Had the first night of the term for CEBS. Coincided with first day of school, and only only six boys turned up. One brought his dog, so that made seven. Was a great evening anyway.
• Clutch started my Holden Barina by rolling backwards down the driveway.
• Clutch started the Barina in the train-station carpark. A kind stranger gave me a push.
• Took the Barina for a long drive to recharge its battery that evening.
• Conceded that the Barina was dead until it got a new battery.
• Listened to my wife tell me how our Ford Falcon stopped working after she drove into a water-filled pothole out the back of Panthers. NRMA towed the car home. Friends came and picked up the kids (thanks, Necia!).
• Pulled the distributor cap off my Falcon and sprayed in some WD-40. The distributor is tucked right under the air inlets and behind the throttle. Took two hours (thanks for the great design, Ford) and made no difference.
• Walked to the train station three mornings, mostly on account of having no working cars. Walked home two of the evenings, too. A brisk half-hour each way.
• Paid our mechanic $300 dollars to replace the distributor, which had self-destructed. Bits of wire and metal everywhere. He reckoned it was nothing to do with falling in a pothole. Car idles more smoothly than it has for the last seven years.
• Told Karen how to get a new battery for my car. She went and bought it, then bolted it in, too (!) Amazing what Karen can do when the alternative is walking :)
• Had a talk with my boss about salary-sacrificing for a laptop. Turns out that it’s easy for him and cheap for me. Hope to get one in the next week.
• Had drinks with an old friend. Talked for hours.
• Took the family to Canberra and back, to see my aunty’s production of Annie. Jenny was the musical director. The show was brilliant.
• Got a total of 43 hours sleep. By my calculation, I am only a night-and-a-half’s sleep behind.

Oh, and I almost forgot:

• Spent three or four solid hours flying Qantas’ 747 simulators.