MWNews 178

Sitting in front of the computer I find myself with nothing to do. Then it occurred to me that I could type in here. So here I am. Hope this will be a short one because I don't really want to type right now. It is kind of hot and more importantly, humid, so I want to go back into the other room with the fan. Plus, this is the computer and I am not used to the keyboard so I am making a constant stream of mistakes that I have to go back and correct. Rather annoying. But lets get into it. 

We went to Dreamworld yesterday. Dreamworld and Whitewater water world. It was raining. Most of the day. Sometimes really hard. But we went anyway. We could have changed it to today and missed most of the rain, but they had the Street festival yesterday and the park was scheduled to be open until 8 pm. Every other day, it is only open until 5. So we thought it would be a good day to go even with the rain. Probably a big mistake, but lets see where this takes us.

We started at Whitewater world. Or, actually, we started at the brand new Coomera mall. I think I mentioned it before but on one of my trips on the train to the Gold Coast, we go to a station at Coomera. I saw there was a big shopping mall there. Never seen that before. I think I have mentioned the ability to take the train and then the bus to Dreamworld in the last entry. You can see Dreamworld from the station.

Turns out, we left way too early and got to the park at 9 am. It does not open until 10 so I decided we would go have a coffee at the shopping center. It is just around the corner but not really walking distance. Maybe if you are really energetic. It is about 3 kilometers away. I don't really know how far but it is not far but not exactly close either. When we go there, we had adventures in parking as they apparently do not know how to drive in that part of the town. Several false starts and waiting times as people would just stop in the middle of the driving lane and wait for the perfect parking space to open. No room to drive around them and lots of others waiting behind us so we just sit there until the person in front decides to move on. I was pissed. But, determined not to start the day off wrong, I was patient and waited. Had the same problems getting back out but that's enough about the parking.

Turns out the mall is pretty big and has a lot of shops and stuff. Biggest advantage I saw was there was no McDonalds, which is always a plus. We didn't actually drive all the way around the mall, so it might have been outside somewhere. The problem I have with McDonalds is that if there is one there, we usually end up going to it. Kids like it and William is a picky eater so there are only a few places he will go that he actually likes. The kids wanted breakfast as they ignored me when I told them to eat before we left. Juanita and I both had breakfast but we had to find something for Maeghan and William to eat. Normally, it would be McDonalds but since there wasn't one, we had to find something else. They walked past all the places I wanted to try and ended up getting Subway sandwiches. For Breakfast. That's just weird. 

Juanita and I had coffee and a cookie from some cookie place. Not what I wanted either but she ordered it while I was getting the Subway so I had no choice. It wasn't bad but a soft gooey cookie was not what I had in mind to have with my coffee. But it worked out. While we were waiting, Maeghan took a tour of the mall. She has her chair so she can scoot around really fast, especially when it is not that crowded. She came back and reported what she had seen. Nothing special but there are a lot of shops so we will have to plan on going there next time as part of the trip. They decided we they had to go to Kmart to get William some new shorts because he said the ones he was wearing were too small. He hates wearing shorts. I have no idea why. Once we had the shorts, we were set to go. Already mentioned the frustration of getting out of the parking lot so I won't go into it again. 

It was really raining as we made our way into Whitewater world. We had umbrellas but they were not working well and the parking lot was one big puddle so it made the walk a little uncomfortable. Once we got to the gate, everyone kept telling us they have water wheelchairs, basically, wheelchairs that can go in the water. We had to explain a dozen times that we did not need one as Maeghan can walk and she cannot push herself around in one of those so it would not have done her any good anyway. But each person asked about it and we had to explain each time.

We kind of walked through the park first. I did not really remember anything but William insisted it was exactly the same as he remembered it. I remembered what was there but it seemed to be in different places to me. Not sure how they would have moved anything so I guess William was right but it just seemed backwards to me. The biggest issue was the chairs. Since I or Juanita were not going swimming, we just wanted to find a place to sit and wait. All, or most, of the chairs are under cover but the cover either leaks or it is so high that the water just goes around it. None of the chairs were dry and it was getting wetter all the time. We used one of the towels to dry a couple off and it was not raining too bad at that time so we could sit there and watch. Then it started raining hard again and we had to move Maeghan's wheelchair somewhere our of the rain, so we ended at the back of the little kiddie area where it was relatively drive but there were only benches to sit at. I knew from the start that this was not going to last long.

We were there for about an hour, until about 11:30 and then decided to make our way back to the front of the park. The kids eventually found us and they were tired so we decide it was time to switch parks. Plus, it was lunch time and we wanted to get food from the festival and not the water park. So we left. William and I took all the swimming stuff back to the car. When we got there, it really started pouring so we waited in the car for a while until it slowed enough to allow us to walk to the other entrance for the other park. We were actually closer to that entrance than to the water park entrance so it wasn't far. Maeghan and Juanita had just arrived at the entrance when we got there. They had waiting in the exit building while the rain was so heavy.

First thing we did was they all sat down at a dry table and I walked around in the rain to find out what they had at the booths. A lot of it was under cover but a lot of it wasn't, so I had to run from cover to cover trying to see what they had. They had some fairly decent stuff but they wanted a lot of money for it. $17 to $20 dollars and that was without a drink. And, of course, everyone wanted something different so I had to make four trips to get everybody fed. William wanted a hotdog. I got him one that had fries on it and bacon and cheese and tomato sauce. He said it was cold. Maeghan wanted chicken wings so I got her some with teriyaki sauce on it. I got the big order, $22, expecting her to share them. She didn't and she said there was hardly any sauce on them.

Juanita said to just get her something. She wanted calamari or a hotdog. I got her a Cubano sandwich, or an Aussie version of one. It had beetroot and egg on it. She said it was good. I didn't look, it had beetroot on it. I had a BBQ Brisket sandwich. The brisket was delicious but they used what they called a damper roll and it was not suited to the sandwich basically because it was not a damper roll like they advertised. I was just too soggy and the sandwich fell apart. But the brisket was good.

All up, it cost around $100 dollars for lunch. Not too bad for a theme park but not that great either. It rained most of the time so we sat at our dry table. Other people were having to run around in the rain to try to find a dry spot. At one both, they had what I think was real ice tea but it was $7.50 a glass and I did not want to take the chance it was just the stuff they serve out of a bottle and they call ice tea. That's the problem with trying to get ice tea over here. First, they think you are weird and then they try to give you Nestea in a bottle and call it iced tea. That stuff is so full of sugar that I don't think there is actually any tea in it. I try to avoid it whenever I can. Another place had dumplings but I didn't try it. Lots of good food around but too expensive to just try things.

I am trying to think what we did while we were there. The first ride we went to was the Sky Voyager. Think Soaring from Disney. I have been on some cheap copies over here at other parks, Movieworld has one, but this was the real thing. Strap you into the chair, lift it up in the air towards a giant screen and fly around like you are really doing it. They also have a wind machine that blows you around and they spray water on you while you are above the ocean and rivers and they tilt and swirl the seats around so it feels like you are about to fall all the time. I was scared. It was too high and to far tilted forward and it looked like we would fall out of the sky at any minute. We definitely wanted to ride that again. Juanita did not go on it with us and that is a good thing. It would have been too real for her. It was too real for me. Maeghan loved it. Not sure how much William liked it. He was probably bored. In all, it took about half an hour but only because we missed out on the first group by one person. We were three and they only had two seats left so we had to wait for the next turn. It was worth the wait though. I would have liked to go again but we will mention why we did not get to later.

Next we went to the candy store. It was right around the corner. I sat outside. We were going to ride the train next but it was not running and we were told it had not been running all year. No idea why. So we walked down a long, long walk, around the Big Drop and past one of the roller coasters trying to find the old timey cars to drive. It is all the way back behind the animal pavilions. Don't remember it being so far away. We did walk through about half the animals to get there. We saw dingoes, and kangaroos and emus and a wombat and a giant eagle. That was all pretty cool. They were all walking around and not just sitting on a rock on in the cages so it was interesting. The eagle was just sitting there on a branch, about two meters away. We have no idea why it did not just fly away but it didn't just sat there and looked at us and it was huge. Biggest flying bird I have ever seen. The wombat was walking back and forth from one end of its enclosure to the other. They were walking the dingoes by while we were there and you were allowed to pet them. They all brought them over to Maeghan in her wheelchair so she could pet them so that was good.

We finally made it back to the old timey cars. We were just about to get on when they halted the ride. I couldn't see what happened but one of the cars, we think someone was sick in it. They closed down the ride so they could get a cleaner to come down and clean it. That was about a twenty minute wait. Since we were at the front of the line, we did not want to leave so we stayed until they got it clean. The guy running the ride kept telling us he did not know how long it was going to take but we waited. Only a couple of groups left. 

Once we got on, it was the typical car driving experience, except that I seem to recall that there ride, you can actually steer the cars. Not off the track but you could affect them going from side to side. Now, the steering wheel does nothing. The cars are attached to a track and they cannot move at all. The wheels do not even turn. It was disappointing as Maeghan wanted to drive but it was really just a sit in the care and hold the gas pedal down. I still acted like we were going to crash around each turn but they didn't think it was that funny.

After that, we went and saw the rest of the animals. Maegan and William got to feed the kangaroos by hand. As we were sitting there watching this, Juanita and I noticed something strange. They were closing the gift shop in that area. It was around 3 and we though that was a bit early to be closing. We thought maybe it was just closing the part where you could get your picture taken with the animals but they were closing the whole thing. There is a bird sanctuary area behind it and it was closed off too so we didn't get to go in there. We thought it was strange, especially when they started telling everyone to leave. Just a bit weird.

It was a long walk from there along the other side of the park to get back to anything. We passed what used to be the buffet restaurant back there. It was closed and looked like it had not been open in a while. It comes out in the kids area where they have all kinds of rides for little kids. Normally, Maeghan and William will get on them but as they are much older now, they are really too big and not really allowed to ride on them. This is where the Big Red Car ride used to be but now, it is just the big red car sitting out the front so you can get in and take your picture. It is not a ride anymore and it was one of the good ones. Think Mr Toads Wild ride or something like that for kids.

You come out of there into the medium thrill rides. This the area where there are several rides that Maeghan can actually ride. She is too big to fit in most rides that have the overhead cage system to lock the rider in. I am way too big to fit in them and William is generally too tall to fit. They did ride them the last time we were there but that was many years ago. There is one, not sure what it is called, but you sit in a car like vehicle like a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car. There are several of them all on different huge arms. What happens is, they whole ride spins around but the cars are then spun upside down on the huge arms. So as you go around in a circle, you are swinging up and around in the air. Both Maeghan and William said they did not want to do that. But the ride has a tame version where the cars to not go upside down but only go about halfway up and then back down to the other side. Maeghan wanted to try that and William went with her. The problem was going to be whether Maeghan would fit under the bar and would it lock in place to allow her to ride. We asked but all they could say was they would try.

She managed to get into the seat ok and the lap bar did pull down over her head but for some reason, they had to call someone to ok her riding on the ride. I am not sure how it came up but they asked her if she had back problems. She said yes, a mistake I guess, so for about fifteen minutes the operator talked to someone on the phone. Eventually they approved her going on the ride. I am not sure what the conversation was or what they were asking Maeghan during it but she was allowed to ride.

They loved it. William complained the whole time as he said the bar was crushing him on the shoulders, he was too tall. He said he would still ride but he is still complaining about it today. Maeghan said the they were almost upside down most of the time. I didn't tell her they weren't but she said she wanted to ride that again too.

There are some other rides in the area, specifically a kids roller coaster that they had been on the last time. Oddly, they rides were closing. It was around 4:30 at this point and we were confused. The ball pit/ball fort was open but I told William it was for little kids to play in. He went in anyway and took turns throwing and shooting balls at all the little kids. He had fun while Juanita went into another shop where she had bought a mug before. She still drinks coffee out of the mug. 

I didn't mention the tiger exhibit we went past on the way from the kids area to the ride area. It is a big deal at Dreamworld but we had just missed the last show which was at 3:30. We thought we could come back for a later show but there wasn't one. We thought maybe it was because they do not do it at night. I only mention it because I remember I had to buy Juanita a stuffed tiger at the gift shop. We did see the tigers and they were playing but we did not see the show.

Anyway, we are back to it being 4:30 and all the rides are closing. By this time, we were back at the food trucks but we had not been to the big thrill ride part of the park yet. Juanita waned something to eat so we stopped and had some more food. When we got to the area, a lot of the food trucks were closed. We asked about it and they said they usually close during the afternoon but would open up again after five. Fortunately, the calamari truck was open and the chips truck too. Juanita had calamari and William had chips with cheese and bacon on them. Maeghan went around the corner and came back with mine pancakes with Nutella on them. I didn't have anything except a piece of the calamari and some chips. Maeghan wouldn't give me any of her pancakes because she said I did not like Nutella. She is probably right.

While we are sitting there, we noticed they were putting ropes closing the paths to the rides. We thought this was strange. We walked over the the Sky Voyager ride and it was closed. We went to the coffee shop next door and asked why the paths were closed. We came that day just because the park was supposed to be open until 8.

Turns out, the park was not open, only the food trucks area was open. This upset me greatly. Again, we had only come that day, braved the rain and took our time going around because they were open until 8. They didn't seem to see the problem. They said it was understood that the park was not open, only the food area. I showed them their own advertising that said come on April 9 when the park will be open until 8pm. They said that is not what it said. I showed them that is exactly what it says. I think I was close to being banned from the park at that point so I stopped complaining and we left. Nothing I can do about it but I am not happy. We missed a whole section of the park and we didn't get to ride our favorite rides a second time. Not happy, Jan.

Anyway, I am really tired of typing. I might even make this two separate entries, but I doubt it. My fingers hurt. I am going to go to bed. It is after nine and I have to leave for work at 4 in the morning. But I am not going to get started on that story.

So, until next time

Later

 

MWNews 177

 

Been two weeks. Had to work at another job last week so I skipped this one. Now that I am here, I have not done anything except catch up on paperwork. Maybe I can type, maybe I can't. I will try to type quick before someone notices that I am not doing anything.

Been doing a night time install in the city the past two weeks. From 5 to midnight, although we have yet to work until midnight. Usually leave around 10. One of the good things is they provide dinner. rice paper wraps mostly, along with some type of sandwich. The rice paper rolls are very good. The sandwiches are hit and miss. First night was ham and cheese, wasn't bad. The next night was some kind of sandwich that had beetroot on it. I do not eat beetroot, so I missed out on those. I did take one home to Juanita. Should have taken more as there were several left. Then we had roast beef sandwiches with the rice paper rolls. They were very good. Last night, we had sushi. I do not like sushi and it would appear no one else did as there was lots left. I don't like it because I do not like the nori (seaweed, they can't fool me by changing the name). I like all the stuff in them but not the wrap itself. And I think they all taste like they have nori in them even if they do not. Not that it is too bad, I will eat it if I have to, but not my favourite.

Have to go back again tonight, after working here all day. Doing a new building where they have a lot of old equipment so I expect lots of problems over there. We have a list of allowed equipment to upgrade so any that do not meet the requirements will not be done. No one seems to have any idea how many of each so we will find out when we get there. The most we have done in a night is 40 but they think there are 100 at the new site. We were supposed to do them on the weekend but since we have gotten through them so fast, they cancelled the weekend work and will try to get them all done in one night. I worked all of last weekend, all day during the day, so I was glad to see them cancel it. I have made plans for the weekend so if they change their minds again, I am not sure what I will do.

By the way, last week was our anniversary. 21 years, I think. It is disputed as to when the wedding took place. My calendar has always said the 5th but Juanita insists it is the 7th. The wedding certificate says the 7th so we go with that but I am not that sure about it. I thought it took place two days after Anna's first birthday, which would make it the 5th. I guess it doesn't matter but I secretly am still holding out for the 5th.

We didn't do anything. I had to work that night and if I don't work, we don't eat, so I never turn down work. I have to reschedule several doctors appointments in the next two weeks and they were supposed to be heart scans so it is not good to cancel them. I have an appointment after the scans to see my new heart doctor but will probably have to change that one also.

I think I might have mentioned that I got us all Dreamworld tickets. Ostensibly, I had to make that our anniversary present as I spent all my extra money on it. I don't know if that was accepted as a present or not. Juanita got me a whole bunch of cooking things which I really like. Not sure how often I will use them but I have always wanted something like what she got. I needed a bigger pan to cook pancakes on and she got one that sits across two burners. It is big enough to cook three small or two large pancakes at once, so that is good. She also got me a new spatula for pancakes because she said I wanted one. I didn't but it is good to have. She got me a tortilla press which I had apparently said I wanted some time ago but I had changed my mind about that as how often will I make my own tortillas but she got it anyway. The best thing she got was my bacon smasher. It is one of those heave weights with a handle that you put on top of the bacon so it cooks evenly and with less shrinkage. Gamma used to have several of them and I told her I had always wanted one. She found them somewhere by mail order and got me one. It is nice. I can also use it for smash burgers, which I told her was another reason I wanted it. I have been using the bottom of a small pot to smash the burgers but now I can use this.

I have been making smash burgers lately. I always poopooed the idea but I tried it once and it does make a better burger. I have no idea why but they just seem to taste better when you do it that way. I think it might be just the toasted buns I make when I do this and any type of patty would do but now that I have the proper tool, it will be much easier, and since I have the new long pan, I can make them all at once and not have to make one or two at a time. You see, when you make smash burgers, it only works if you eat it immediately. You cannot make the patties and leave them on a plate while you make the others. You have to take them off and give them to someone to eat as soon as they are ready. So we do not all get to eat at the same time when I do this. I can make three at a time so it is not that bad but with the new pan, I can make five or six at a time and then most can eat while I make another batch for people to have seconds. And everyone wants two, some want three. I usually only have one, but I make it a double so I get a big burger out of it. Sometimes I have two but only one is a double.

I used to make extra balls of meat so I can easily make one for breakfast in the morning or for lunch the next day but since I only have a couple of extra, everyone wants one the next day so I would have to make a lot of extra for that to happen. So I miss out on the early morning burger. Since I do them inside, it creates a lot of smoke and smell so there is no sneaking one when I wake up. I still wake up several hours before anyone else so I have time to cook for myself in the mornings and not worry about what everyone else wants. Lately, I have been making migas, or what I call migas and yes, this is telling me I spelled that wrong but I don't know how to spell it or even if its the right word so I suppose it doesn't matter. Basically, it is just potatoes, eggs and whatever meat I put in, usually bacon. It also has pieces of tortillas in it which depending on when you put them in the pan, some are fried and some are just warmed. I then put whatever else I have on hand, cheese, hot sauce, onion or leftover vegetables. I like it but no one else does. They think the tortillas are weird. Since I get up early before they get up, I can make what I want.

A recall to the smash burgers, the secret is to not put anything in the meat before you cook it. No salt, no worsteshire sauce, no egg, nothing except meat. Once they start to cook, I put salt and pepper on them. You can then add anything else you want but only after they are half cooked and not before they are cooking. It makes them not fry correctly or something, I am not sure what. I normally put all my spices and stuff in the meat before I cook it. Like onions or garlic or whatever, but I have seen lots of people say that it is a mistake to do that and I have to agree. It just works out better if you do it while they are cooking. I have no idea why.

Now that I have gone on about food again, it is a food blog, I will get back to this weekend. We are planning on going to Dreamworld tomorrow. It is the annual street food festival. Actually, just a bunch of food carts they let in for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow, they are open late so it is the best day to go, I think. Might be that everyone else thinks the same thing and it will be very crowded but since we have season passes, we can just leave and come back another day if it gets too bad. Our tickets include Whitewater world and the sky tower on the gold coast so we can go there if we have to. Whitewater world is right next door and the sky tower is on the gold coast near the beach. Not a lot to do at the sky tower, it is just a observation deck but it is worth going at least once a year. Coffee shop at the top so you can have coffee and look out over the ocean. I don't go near the railing but I can sit in the middle and have a look.

We plan on being there all day, from 10 to 8 at night. Might not make it at 10 but we will probably stay until late. They normally close at 5 on other days but for this, they are open late. I did just read a review of the parks on the Gold Coast and they said Dreamworld was beginning to show its age. They did say that it is probably because of the Covid and no one is visiting any of the parks, but they said there are never any lines there and everything is old and dated. They did open a new roller coaster but since I don't fit on them, that is not an advantage. They took out the big red car ride, Wiggles. No one seems to know why. We used to ride that all the time but that was when we had Sydney and she enjoyed it a lot. We would still enjoy it but it might look strange for a group of grownups to be on the ride so maybe it is best they removed it. 

Dreamworld has a built in animal park and the tiger show is always a highlight but from the review, they have let the back of the park where the animals are fall into dis-repair. The animals are still there but there are leaves and branches and other clutter everywhere and it is just not as nice as it used to be. We will still go back there but maybe it is not as good as it used to be.

Dreamworld took out all of their water rides back when they had the accident. There were only a couple, log ride and raft ride but when they had the accident a few years ago, they took them out and have not replaced them with anything, so it feels kind of lacking in the number of different things to do. When I looked the other day, the train was closed but I think it was just for maintenance. Not a real fun ride but it did take you around the park so it was worth riding a few times when you are there. They still have the old timey cars to drive but Maeghan said she thought they had closed it. When I looked, it was still open so that is something she can do. They took out one of the shows that used to show old cartoons and replaced it with another soaring type ride. It would have been nice if they had both but we will see what they have when we get there.

That is one of the complaints about the park is that they do not have any shows anymore. Just the Madagascar show which I am told does not run all the time. They said there were street performers and they were really good but nothing where you can go sit down and watch something. I think there used to be three or four shows to watch and rest at when you are there but they must have taken them all out or they do not have the performers after the covid stuff. I guess we will see when we get there.

I am thinking we will do what we used to do, which is go to Whitewater world in the morning and then go to Dreamworld in the afternoon. The problem with that is Whitewater world closes next week. Won't open again for six or seven months so that plan is not good for us. It works out well when the weather is really hot but we will have to wait to do that again.

We will probably only go a couple times during the winter, they have a couple of shows during that time. Winterfest and something else. Have to wait until it all opens up again to take advantage of what we like to do. One thing I have found is that we can get there by train. I took the train to that area the other day and found that there is a stop with a shopping mall that is about 5 minutes from the park. You take a train to the mall and then a bus to the park. You can see the park from the train station. You can't see the station or the mall from the road so we never knew it was there. The good thing about that is we can just take the train whenever we want and save a lot of money on petrol. It is less than $5 to take the train and it cost about $60 to drive the car. Since there are four of us, it only takes about $10 to get there. It is a long ride, about two hours, but the drive is an hour and a half so that's not too bad. We will definitely have to do that soon. Tomorrow, we are taking the car but that kind of savings is worth the extra time.

I have just scrolled back and noticed that I have typed a lot of stuff and not really said anything once again. It was fun though. Not funny, but fun. I think I will have to be going now. Have to do some work while I am here and before I leave for the other job. Since the kids are on vacation, I might have lots to report next time, but I wouldn't count on it. I will try to take more pictures as we have not taken any in a long time. Don't know why but we just don't take pictures anymore. But I am out of here for now.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 176

Hello there. Is anyone home. Surprise, surprise, I am posting on a different day. Although I might not but I am starting on a different day and hope to post this soon. Not that I have anything extraordinary to say but at least you can waste your time while I waste mine.

I am working at Morgan's Financial today. Doing a laptop rollout. My part is easy. I have one of the Morgan's IT guys here and he is doing all the se
tup which I would normally do so I just wait for him to finish and go plug it all in. If the desk is neat, then it takes me five minutes. If not, it takes longer.

I have also been doing my Tursa job but this one came up and I am the only one trained in how to do it so they pull me off Tursa and put me on Morgan's. Tursa is a lot of physical work, Morgan's is not. They only replace the computers and all the peripherals stay the same. So a lot less lifting. Tursa can kill you because as I have said before, or maybe not I forget, Tursa printers are heavy. I'd say around 30 kilos each. It takes a lot to carry them around. One guy I work with has a trolley so when I work with him, we can wheel them around and do not have to carry them. It makes it much better. But since I am on the train, having a trolley would be difficult to haul around. 

Right now, the guy I am working with from Morgan's is making this process take very, very long. He is doing all the things they would do once I have the devices installed. Normally, I just do some updates, have them sign in and set up their accounts and then plug it in. Since we are doing all the things they would do after I do that, it is taking up to three hours per computer. So I do not think we are going to finish on time. I have explained what I do according to my instructions but he insists this creates a better user experience as they do not have to wait for slow updates from IT once it is installed. I suppose we have to do it his way but I am hoping he is not here tomorrow when I am supposed to finish so I can get it all done.

I have decided we will never finish.

I haven't seen the kids in a few days. I see them but with me working, I get home and go to bed so I only get to see them come in and tell me good night. It's getting kind of hard to do that all the time but these projects only go for a couple more weeks and then I have no idea what I will be doing. Hopefully, I will have more work but there is no guarantee of that. I will be taking the kids somewhere next month and it is my birthday so we will get to do some things together then. I am really starting to miss them, or miss doing things with them. Not that I did a lot before but they were always there if we wanted to do something. One of the problems is, on the weekends when I do shopping or go to the shops, I like to leave early enough so we do not waste the whole day on it but they don't get up and ready until around 10 or 11 so most of the day is wasted and then I have to come home and make dinner so I don't see then either. I always say I will make the time but it never seems to happen.

I plan to buy season passes to Dreamworld this week. It is supposed to be a present for our anniversary but I am not sure I can get away with that. She will probably want something personal but these passes are expensive and I have been working hard and saving up the money for them so I think it is a good present. Probably not. I was going to do it last night, but was too tired and went to sleep. 

Dreamworld is the bigger theme park here. We had passes to the other three last year, Sea world, Movie world, and White Water. They are all the same pass but the parks are much smaller. Movie World is mostly roller coasters and I or Maeghan cannot ride them. William will ride sometimes but he doesn't like riding by himself.

Hey, guess what. It is now Friday and I never got a chance to get back to this. So now I am going to try to finish it. Not that any time has passed for you but it has been a couple of days for me so I will probably forget what I was talking about and either repeat myself or forget where I was going with it. But I am sure the quick witted among you will be able to follow along with no problems. As for anyone who gets confused, now you know what it like to be me, always confused and not sure what is happening at any given moment.

I told Juanita about the Dreamworld tickets. Not sure if she thinks it was a good present but it did cost more that what I would have spent on her if I hadn't bought them so it will have to do. I told her because the tickets are already active and we could start going immediately. I thought it would be a good idea to go this weekend to the water park. The water park closes for the year in a couple of weeks so we only have a few opportunities to go until the spring. Not that it is cold here but these are Queenslanders and they think everything is cold. It will be at least 20 degrees for the next month or so but that is cold around here. It is a warm day in Tasmania but try convincing anyone of that and they look at you funny.

We might not go as I am really really tired and I need a day off. Seems I have been going and going for at least a month now and I need to just sit at home and play Xbox for a day. I don't do that very often and I don't really enjoy it but what I need is a day where I don't have to do anything. I will do things like cook and go to the shops but only because I want to and not because I have to. I will have to cook dinner but I mostly enjoy that so it is not a real chore for me. I do have things that need to be done, like mowing the lawns or cleaning the BBQ or any number of things that need to be done but if I don't feel like it, I just want to be able to sit.

Now, you would think with all these grown men living in the house, one of them would do this for me but it usually ends up either I do it or Juanita does it and they just sit around and ignore us. Not a lot of good thoughts around that arrangement. The only thing they actually do is sometimes, they wash the dishes but they have to be told to do that and when they do, I usually have to rewash them as they are not very clean. I guess if you get them wet, that constitutes washing them in their minds. And one of them is a full grown man in his 40s. You would think he at one time or another would have learned how to wash dishes, but no, he never does the washing, only drying if it comes to it.

I'd also like to complain about another thing that just came up but since I have taken all this time complaining I might only complain a little more. We just got the power bill. Almost double what it was last time. Juanita said she mentioned it to the people living there and they all said, 'we don't use that much power so its not their fault'. One of them even said they had been staying with someone else for a couple of days and they should not have to pay rent for those days. By the way, we charge them rent to stay with us. No where near what it costs for them to live there and they are poor so they end up not paying most of the time anyway, but to suggest because they were not in the house so they should not have to pay has really set me off. I was not there when they said it but if I hear it directly from them I will suggest I should use that strategy with the real estate. That if we go on vacation, we should not have to pay rent for those days we are gone. I am sure they will be real accommodating.

But enough of that.

If we go, we will go to the water park this weekend. We spent a week doing that a few years ago. We came up here on vacation for a couple of weeks and bought passes to Dreamworld. They are basically the same park or two parks right next door to each other. We would go to the water park in the morning and then leave for the main park in the afternoon. We would just take our things to the car and then walk in to the other one and ride some rides. It was great. I might have mentioned it at one time or another in this blog but that was several years ago and I cannot recall if I did. Not that we will do that this time, but we might. They both close at 5:00 so it is a pretty good deal. Swim for a while, ride the water rides and then walk next door and see some shows or ride around on the train or something. Nothing majorly thrilling, but we enjoy Dreamworld more than the other parks we had passes for last year. We thought about it a long time last year before we settled on season tickets for the three park deal but those parks are just not for us. They are not close together, or two of them are but not really walking distance, so you have to get in the car to drive to a new park if you want to do more than one a day. Sea World is pretty far from them so it is a standalone experience and a destination in itself. It is good but once you have seen everything, not a lot of re-visit value. They do have three or four special shows each year and those were good, although one of them was strictly for little kids and we did not enjoy it much. Or now that I write that, that was at Movie World where the Halloween show was pretty bad and not something designed for anyone older that six.

Now we have a problem. I am tired of typing already. I still have a couple of hours where I am supposed to be here at my job but I think I am not going to type anymore because I am tired. Been tired for a few weeks, months, years, decades now. I just never seem to get enough rest and always fall asleep when I shouldn't. Most of the time, while sitting watching TV or if I go lay down for a minute, I fall asleep. I wake up at 3 in the morning almost all the time. Mostly, I get up because if I don't I am afraid I will oversleep when I need to get up for work. So I am in bed by 9 every night, sometimes 8, sometimes 7. I think it means something but there are no doctors here that will agree with me, so I keep plodding onwards. And, by the way, that will start another rant on my part so I will stop writing about that. Terrible health care system here. Better because it is free, worse because it is free.

Maeghan and William are desperate for me to spend time with them. I can feel it with every breath. Juanita is even more so. I am not sure what I can do about it. I am just spent, both mentally and physically. But again, a tale for another time. I am tired of typing and if I get started, not only will it be all about me but I will go on and on. So I am stopping for now.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 175

 

Back for another day. Was hoping to not work so hard today but everyone seems to be having problems and I am just not up to fixing any of them. There was supposed to be an outage today so I am just blaming it on that. Problem is, the outage is over now and I can't blame it on that for the rest of the day. Maybe I can just sneak out and no one will notice.

I am talking about Prinz Willem, the nursing home although I don't think they call them that here. Not sure what they are referred to but I don't really care so let's not talk about it. I have someone coming in soon to have me set up their printers. It would seem that they lost all the printers during the week and some people are still having trouble getting them back. Since I only work on Fridays, it is up to me to fix them all and they have to bring their laptops in for me to do it. But again, I am tired of talking about this place so let's move on. Although I was just ask to set a printer as the default printer for someone in this office so I had to show them how to do that.

Now for more good times. I have never sent William's thing into the army for him to attend this get to know the army camp next month. I have until tomorrow to do it so guess I will be doing that when I get home. I am not sure he is keen on doing it but we will send it in and see what happens. It should be ok and I think he might even like it but he is building stuff in his construction class and he seems to enjoy that. Not that he is building anything useful but I think they are just giving them access to the equipment and they can build what they want. He built some necklaces for Juanita and Maeghan and he built a tool box last week. I have not seen it up close yet but it looks ok. He still likes going to school but I think it is only because it is so easy for him. He is taking reduced requirement classes which seems to mean they do the minimum of what is required to pass the eleventh grade. He says it is so simple, he has done all the work required already and has nothing to do when he is at school. But he likes that.

He doesn't like having to take the bus and the train and then another bus to school and then again to get home and will find any excuse to not have to do that, which means he misses as least one day a week. His usual trip is to take a bus from our house to the train station. Then take a train one station further on and get off there to wait for the school bus for his school. He says it is a 45 minute wait for the school bus but if he takes a later bus from home, he will miss the school bus. There is nothing to do at the train station, although there is a small shopping centre across the street, so he has to wait with nothing to do. If he ever discovers he can go over to the shopping centre I am sure we will begin to hear about him missing the school bus because he was across the street. But so far he has not done that.

One of the reasons he has to take this trip now is the ever rising price of petrol. Even at Costco, it has risen to $2 a litre. That makes a tank of petrol around $150 to fill up. That is a significant expense and one we can no longer afford. Taking the train and bus only costs about $3 a trip so it is way cheaper. I am sure they will be raising the price of that soon but for now, it is the only option.

I am trying to find ways to only work jobs that are close to the train stations. I get lost on the bus systems but trains are ok. Most of the time, it is not too far off track for me to take a train and then walk to my destination but in some cases, I still have to drive. Since it takes a half tank of petrol to get to the other side of town, where most of my work is, that is something I cannot afford. It cost me more to get there and back than what I am getting paid. In some cases, they will pay mileage but in most, they do not. I have told them, if it over 100 kilometres, then I expect them to pay for it. So far, they have done so but even then, what they pay is not the full cost of traveling to some of these places. It just gets harder and harder with no end in site.

Now I am moving on to other news. Maeghan seems to be enjoying her classes also, but I think she is getting bored with it. She goes in and does different art classes each day, except Wednesday, and creates something in a different media each time. One day they do painting and another they do clay and then etching and something different each time. I am not sure what the point is but she is graded on them and works really hard each time. I just don't know how they grade art. That seems very subjective to me and is not a pass or fail type of thing. But it is a college level class and I am sure it means something to someone. She likes it but I have noticed she is missing more days this year. Generally just not feeling like going in as she takes a bus and then a long train ride into town each time and that is not the most exciting thing to do. She used to like it but now it takes so long that she is getting bored with all the travel. Next year, the plan was for her to go back to her original child studies but she will need to apply for assistance or a grant to get that as it is no longer free. The only reason she did not do that this year was she was too late when she tried to apply for assistance and she decided to pay for this class herself out of her car savings. At one time, she had over $5000 saved for a car but that is no where near what it will take to get one and she has not saved a lot since then to improve on it. I think she still has the original $5000 but has not added to it lately.

Let's talk a little about the horrifying home life we have. We now have eight adults living in the house. Not full time but at some points, all eight are there. We have me, Juanita, Maeghan, William, Adam, Leslie, Anna, and Anna's new boyfriend. I have no idea what his name is but I think he works with her, but I am not sure. He doesn't actually live there but he is always there. So far, they stay in their room and I do not have to feed them but I am sure as he gets used to us, that will change and he will be in other rooms and doing other things, like eating our food and watching our TVs and playing our games. He never comes out now, but I know that will not last long. I have actually only seen him once. Not a pleasant experience but who am I to judge. They are adults and I have no say in the matter. But he is not the sort I would like to be living in my house if I did have the choice.

Of course, we still have the dogs and the cat and the bird and whatever else wanders in. The cat smells, the big dog is too big to be in the house and the little dog chews his fur off so he is not pleasant to look at with his patchy fur. We have thought it was flees but we use all the flea stuff and he still chews his fur. Can't really explain it. The bird is loud and messy with feathers and bird seed all under his cage all the time. The big dog wants to get the bird out of the cage and we have to constantly watch it to keep it from jumping up on the cage. The cat used to watch the bird but the cat lives almost exclusively in the garage with Adam now so he never sees the bird anymore. It's a real menagerie. If it weren't for the cat smell, it wouldn't be so bad but that cat stinks and no one seems to care except me. I keep the door to the garage closed all the time but no one else seems to close it so I have to constantly keep closing it myself.

I had to do some work so I have forgotten my train of thought. I think I was complaining but that doesn't sound like me so I was probably doing something else. I think I am going to hang this one up. I am pretending to write a note to my employer about the accident I had this morning. Briefly, I will go into that because I have a few minutes before I can sneak out.

I fell out of a bus. I have said we are trying to take public transport now and I usually take it to this place on Friday's. This morning, I was getting up to get off the bus and trying to do too many things at once, get my card out, put my bag on my shoulder and walk down the stairs to the bus exit. I missed a step getting out of the bus and went flying. Fortunately, I grabbed a poll and spun myself around to fall back into the bus but it caused a great deal of ruckus and a lot of people were trying to get off at the same time. All of them tried to help me and a couple of people who were waiting tried to help also. No one actually touched me, COVID and all, but they all kept asking if I needed help or asked if I was alright. I wasn't that big of a deal but in hindsight, I probably should have stayed down a little longer as I have been woozy all day and now my back hurts. My back always hurts but I made the mistake of telling these people at work what happened and they started noticing me limping and being in pain. They said I had to report it to my work as it was part of going to work and would be covered by something or other. Since my back has hurt for years and I have not made a secret of it, I was not going to report it to anyone but they said I had to. So now I am pretending to write my work and tell them when I am actually typing this sentence you are reading now. It all works out.

But that's enough for me. I want to go home and make dinner or something. Maybe I will take a nap. I have to walk the twelve miles back to the train station but I am sure it will pass quickly. Maybe the ducks with knives will attack me. Only Maeghan will get that joke so we will see if she ever reads this. I know she doesn't. But that's it, I'm done, I am outta here.

Until next time, 

Later

MWNews 174

 

I have noticed that I have used the same picture over and over again in these. I need some new pictures but it gets complicated as I cannot tell what I have copied from my phone to my computer and vice-versa. It is all a jumble of photos, several duplicated in many places so tracking down where any new ones are is difficult. Plus, when picking a picture for these entries, they are very small on the screen and I cannot tell who is in them. It could be the kids and it could be the grandkids, it's hard to tell. And, the kids do not take pictures together anymore. I have to catch them off guard so I can get them both in. I have several of each of them individually but not so many together. I need to find a better way. Consolidating them all in one place would be a good start, but who has time to do that. I have to do a picture by picture comparison to delete the duplicates and that will take years. Best I save my time for the riveting entries I try to keep up with. That way, everyone wins. This picture, I have no idea who is in it but I used it anyway.

I think I have lots to say but can't recall what I have or have not already talked about. Let's start fresh and see what happens.

Kids are back in school, although they keep warning us that it is about to flood again. No rain at all but they keep saying it will so people panic. The other day, we were coming back from some place they sent me to work. It was a Wednesday and Maeghan does not have school on Wednesday. We left William home to catch the bus and the train and then the bus again to get to school and get back home but I knew if no one was there to make him go, he wouldn't. He didn't. But Juanita and Maeghan came with me. They said they would visit some places while I worked. I have no idea what they ended up doing but I was working less than a block from the beach, so they ended up sitting there waiting for me.

Anyway, we were coming back and stopped for petrol. It's been many years and yes, I now say petrol all the time. I rarely say gas, the proper term, anymore and it pains me no end to realise that. But I digress. While we were stopped, we could see in the far distance a huge lightening storm. It was a constant barrage of lightening. We could not see individual flashes but the clouds were flashing all the time and it lasted the whole time we were there, about 20 minutes. It was very far away but towards our house. I think it was way too far as we never did find out where it was even after we got home. They said they had not seen anything at the house. But it was impressive. Constant flashing from one cloud to another. But we did not see rain, again.

A really strange phenomenon has occurred. McDonalds has closed. Yes, I said that right, McDonalds has closed over half its stores. It is hard to find one that is open anymore. They say it is because of the rain and floods and they cannot get supplies through but there are some that are open so are they consolidating their supplies to a few stores or is something else going on. I think the latter. No other stores are closed, only the McDonalds so why can they not get their supplies and everyone else can. But this whole thing is just a phenomenon too strange too believe. McDonalds closed. Never have I seen that before.

Since McDonalds is one of two fast food places in Australia that sells hamburgers, it puts a crimp in getting something fast and cheap on the go. Hungry Jacks, aka Burger King, is the only other option. You can get burgers at other places but they are really inconsistent and normally not part of a chain restaurant. Each of them is their own place and they tend to charge a premium for their burgers. Say in the $12 to $18 range, where McDonalds are only $6 to $8, the same at Hungry Jacks. I always said I hated there being a McDonalds every 5 miles or so but now that they are gone, I might start to miss them. A $2 hamburger is always good, no matter what it tastes like.

Have I ever mentioned my philosophy of ordering McDonalds hamburgers. I think I might. I always tell the kids how to order. They don't like it and they think it is weird but I think it is the best way. You see, a McDonalds hamburger is $2. A cheeseburger is $3.95. So they are charging $1.95 for that slice of cheese. You can order another hamburger for that. I tell them you can get one cheeseburger or two hamburgers. They almost always want the cheeseburger and that is just weird. If you go to the quarter-pounder, it costs $6.50. You can get three hamburgers for that. Once again, to me a no brainer. I'll have the three hamburgers. But the kids want the big burger so they get the quarter-pounder. Weird. It goes for any sandwich you can order, it is always more economical to get the $2 hamburger. So while they are ordering their quarter-pounder or chicken sandwich, I am getting three hamburgers and I steal some their fries so I don't have to order it in a meal. Another price ripoff if you ask me. Yes, ordering everything separately costs more that ordering it in a meal, but basically, you are getting half an order of fries if you order it in a meal and I just don't think that is worth it. I drink water, so I don't need the coke and stolen fries are always better than ones you order for yourself so its a win-win for me. Three hamburgers, some stolen fries, and a bottle of water I filled up at home and I am out of there for $6 total. And if they have an apple pie on sale for a dollar, then I have desert and a meal for $7. I think its got to be the best bargain around. Unless we are driving by Costco, then all bets are off. You cannot beat, anywhere or anytime, a large drink, a huge slice of pizza and a giant hotdog for under $5. That is worth the trip no matter how far you have to drive.

Speaking of Costco, they also have the best price of petrol around. It is always 30 to 40 cents cheaper per litre at Costco. I don't know how they do it but it is well worth the price of an annual membership if only for the savings on petrol. Now that petrol is over $2 a litre, as much as $2.20 at one place I saw, getting it for $1.66 at Costco is a real bargain. I suppose it doesn't work if you do not live near a Costco but still, it would have to be a long way away for it not to be worth the drive.

Let's get off of that and talk some about the floods. I was watching some of the videos people had taken from drones and walking around. They were showing a lot of the places in and around Brisbane that had been flooded. I knew there were places that were bad but unless you have seen it before and after, you can't really tell how much it flooded. There are typical pictures of the streets and houses that were underwater and some of the businesses that were flooded but if you just look at the swollen river, it just looks like a river with a lot of debris in it. You have to know what it looked like before to notice how high the water is and what used to be there but is now underwater. Most of the piers where the water taxis go are gone or were underwater for a while. There are restaurants along the river that when you look at the flood waters, you don't see them but then you think, there used to be a restaurant there and it is gone. I was in someplace where I caught a water taxi up to where Maeghan was at Southbank and that place is now underwater to the second level. The pier and the restaurants on the first floor cannot be seen in the pictures and I was there a couple of days before that. Since it has been a week, most of the water is gone now but they have shown pictures of those places and all the damage that has to be repaired before they can re-open. I don't know if the water taxis are running again, but I doubt it. I know the trains have re-opened where the tracks were flooded but they have to rebuild most of the those docks and piers before the taxis can run. They showed pictures of Southbank, where Maeghan goes to school, and the water came all the way up to where the giant Ferris wheel is, The walkway up to it was underwater although the Ferris wheel itself looked ok. It is built up on a platform but all around it was water. And the worst part is, Brisbane did not get the worst of it. There is more severe flooding north and south of Brisbane and down into NSW (New South Wales). Of course, those places always flood but it get pretty bad down there when it does.

It comes up in my work as the IT department for the job I am doing is located in Lismore, in NSW. Lismore was evacuated and was under water. It might still be but when I have issues with this rollout, I try to call them and there is no one there. One guy has access to everything from his home and he is basically supporting all of this company from his house. He doesn't even answer his phone as being part of Tursa, the company, anymore. He just says hello and does not identify himself. I think he is hoping you will think you have called the wrong number or something will leave him alone.

By the way, I am at the nursing home right now. Just a few days after my last post. I have to leave early from here to go to another job that is an hour away. Hopefully, I can sneak out in a few minutes before they discover some problem I need to fix.

In other home news. Adam is still with us, living in the garage. We have an inspection this week and they will discover someone living there and will probably terminate our lease. So I could be homeless the next time I talk. Leslie lives with us but is with his mother right now. Not sure when he is coming back but he has been gone for a few days. Anna has made herself a home in our extra bedroom. She has bought furniture for it and gotten her mattress off the floor. It looks like she wants to be permanent. Another reason they will cancel our lease. The worst part of Anna being there is she thinks she lives there. To the point that she has a new boyfriend and he has been staying most nights. One more reason we will be kicked out.

So, if you are counting, there are now eight full grown adults living in my house. Plus two dogs and one cat. We signed the lease for just the four of us and only one small dog. There is no way they renew this lease under those arrangements and if they do decide to break the lease, there are no other properties available. We know because we have looked. Everything has gone sky high and they do not accept pets or large families or anything that we have going for us. Plus the rents are double what we pay and for smaller places than what we have. I am fairly upset about it but no one else seems to think it is a problem. Just writing about it now is making me angry enough to go home to night and kick everyone out. That is probably not an option so it will be me that has to leave and since I no longer have a car or any savings, I will be on the street and homeless. Basically, if I stop entering into this for a while, the reason is I don't have any electricity to run my computer. How depressing is that.

Guess I should stop talking about it and do something around here. It is almost noon and I wanted to leave at 1:00. I can hear the boss talking out in the hall. I hope he is not headed here to hand me another problem. I need the day off and came in here to have some peace and quiet from work and home. Doesn't seem that that is going to work out.

I think tomorrow I need to get William signed up for the army. I don't recall if I have mentioned that but they have a camp he can go to that is supposed to show them what it is like to be in the army. To see if they like it or not. I need to send in his application and will have to do that this weekend. I also need to get him his own Medicare card as he is no longer eligible to be on mine. That stopped when he turned 16 and we are just now finding out about it. I am sure he has all the information he needs to do that. So wish me luck. For the army thing, he has to explain why he wants to be in the army and what he is currently doing to prepare himself for it. I don't think he has an answer for either of those questions.

Maeghan wants to meet me at Strathpine mall when I finally go home. I am not sure when or where I will be but it is sort of on the way home. Problem is, it means I cannot finish early, which is what I was hoping but she won't get there until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, so I might as well stay at work.

I've talked enough now. The boss went away, so I can't hear him anymore. I didn't tell him I was leaving early but hopefully, he won't notice. Plus, I haven't been feeling well today. So if he does ask, I can tell him that. They don't want any sick people here because, well everyone is old and they don't need to be sick too. No covid again. We have to be tested every time we come in. I was negative again. So whoopee.

I am going to go now. Wish me luck with everything, especially with the inspection and losing my home. It happens next Thursday so we will see what we will see.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 173

Finally back at work, so I can goof off and write into this blog. It's been an adventure and I am not loath to tell it. Where to begin, where to begin.

I guess pandemic is where to start. I was locked out of my job here at the laugh academy for about a month. They were in lockdown, no one in or out as they had a number of cases of the fever and unless you were here to take care of someone, you were not allowed in. Computer work was apparently not essential, although I did manage to get in one day but left early when they found out I was here. Seems I got here before the bosses and no one on staff wanted to tell me I was not allowed to be here, so I worked for a couple of hours until they saw me and then had to leave.

Good news is, I did not catch it. Bad news is, I did not catch it. But I suppose, overall, that is a good thing. I wanted to spend some time in isolation but with my robust health and cheery attitude, it was not to be. None of the kids have had it either, or anyone else that is living with us. Although, Anna claims to have had it for a week before she moved in but I have not verified that story and did not care enough to look into it. I am sure it is all true and she suffered greatly but let's just say, I have drawn a different conclusion. But not to worry, not to worry. It's all good.

I got a lot of other jobs in the meantime. I can't remember most of them but I have been working non-stop for a couple of months now, up until this past week when the floods came and swept everything into the ocean. But I am getting ahead of myself and will address that later, if it doesn't start to rain and I have to swim for it.

I do recall the Petbarn job. A nightmare. The first day, they told me to be there early, around 7:30. I said no problem. When I get there, the building is still being built. I am there to install some servers and cash registers and all kinds of new equipment. The building is still be wired for electricity. No networking stuff has been run, no cables, no ports, no desks to put anything on. But, that is not the worst part. In addition to that, no equipment to install. I looked around, through all the building materials and workers putting up cross beams and walls, and could not find anything resembling computer equipment. I asked the foreman. He said there wasn't any. I called the contact number I was supposed to work with. He said he was in charge of building material and had nothing to do with IT equipment. I called the people who sent me to the job. They said the equipment has been delivered on Friday and was there somewhere. 

Three hours later, still no equipment. It was finally decided that it was a waste of my time to sit around and wait for them to find the equipment. I agreed. I did find out later that they never did find the equipment, and I am tired of typing that word as I misspell it every time, and they had to ship a whole other set to the new site. I was put on hold while they did this and it screwed up several other jobs I could have been doing waiting for them to decide when I needed to go back.

And as a final paragraph on this job, this was the worse planning for IT work I have ever seen. They want me to run all the cables for the sales positions through the desks they had specially designed to be trendy and functional. These are where the customer pays for everything. A normal task you would think but the desks were designed in such a way that you could not run a cable from the monitors on top to the computers underneath. The computers were designed to attach to the monitors but someone decided that did not look good, so they put them underneath. Again, normal operating procedure, but the desks were in three parts. There was the main part with the monitor on it. The computers did not go into this part. That is where the cash drawer went with no access to anything except the cash drawer. The rest was hollow but with no doors or holes. Attached to this, was an angled piece. Hollow but with no access from the top or sides, just basically a square, or triangular box. Attached to this, another cabinet. This is where the computer went, but this was at an angle to the whole setup. What it means was that you had to drill holes in each part of the desks to allow cables to be run from one to the other. Again, not unusual. But the people that drilled the wholes were the people who put the desks together. They were not computer people. They drilled a hole in the top for the monitor. Another whole through to the cash drawer, but not in line with the monitor hole. They drilled another hole through to the triangular piece near the front of it, but the hole to the final cabinet, they put in the back of the cabinet. None of the holes were big enough to put your hand threw. They were barely big enough to fit all the cables through. What it meant was, you had to run the cable from the top of the desk, to the front of the cabinet into the triangular piece and then back to the back of the cabinet to get it to the computer cabinet. They suggested I use a cable puller to route all the cables through so they would fit. A cable puller does not make two right hand turns in one length. It did not work. I gave up. They had to take the desks back apart so I could run the cables through them and then put the desks back together with the cables attached. It was a long three days to get it all together. I was sore, tired, and with cuts all over my hands trying to push cables through.

I have to go now, one of the nurses is screaming. And, I have to go home. So hope to get back to it soon.

I'm back. It's now Wednesday of the next week. Turns out the nurse was screaming because someone found a mouse behind the printer. Not sure if it was alive or dead. I ran out of there because I had to get to another site to pick up a hard drive. Long story, but not that long. I had installed it on a server a few weeks ago and now had to retrieve it and send it to headquarters. Stupid job but it pays well.

I think I spent way too much time on the Petbarn story. I should go back and edit or delete it but that would require me to go back and read it. Not going to happen.

The Petbarn story does lead into what I am doing today. I have been working on a project to upgrade all the hardware for an employment agency called Tursa. Supposed to take a month and a half but looks like it will go longer than that. Its steady work for that time, although I am exhausted by the time I get home each day. I do the Tursa project Mon - Thur and then do Prinz Willem on Friday. Prinz Willem is the nursing home and yes, that is spelled correctly.

I am at a Tursa site today. And like Petbarn, no equipment. Have spent all morning trying to find out where it is. I am told it will be delivered within the hour, which means I have half a day to do what I was supposed to do in a full day. I don't see how it can be done but I am told to get it done. 

Have to go again, so probably will not get back to this before Friday. So it will be more time between entries. And I have not even mentioned the kids or the floods or the pandemic. I have a lot to cover. We will see when I get back to it.

I am back again. It has only been 5 minutes. I have about 30 minutes before the equipment arrives. I'll see what I can do.

We have had floods in Brisbane. They also had floods everywhere else on the east coast but I live in Brisbane. All my work was shutdown for a week as you could not go anywhere. Most of the roads were flooded. We were at the shops when it was beginning to happen and we had already seen the creek behind the mall was flooded all the way up to the road. While we were in there, they announced that everyone should go move their cars out of the parking lot as it was beginning to flood and the mall would be evacuated as soon as possible. There was water across the roads on our way home. Nothing very deep so we could make it home but in some places, it was too deep to cross. 

The Brisbane river which runs through the CBD was flooding. We saw all the news about boats washing down the river from north of the river and they were taking out docks and piers all along the way. Several of the city cat water taxis were destroyed by debris floating downstream. Maeghan's school was closed as well as William's. Most of the trains and buses shutdown. The trains were down for almost a week as several tracks were underwater and then they had to ensure there was no damage before they could open them. I have not been on a train since then but I am told they are back to working as normal. Maeghan takes one into town for her school.

It was a fun week and now, I am reading that they expect more rain tonight. Of course, they have predicted that every night for two weeks and we have not seen any but they keep telling us there is more flooding coming.

I went across a bridge yesterday that one of the rivers runs through. There used to be expensive docks and boats along the river but seeing it yesterday, all you can see are the posts that the docks were built on sticking out the the water and the metal stairs and paths that led down to them are all twisted and washed away. There was not nothing left and I am wondering where the actual boats went as they were big expensive ones.

I think I will leave any other news for another time. Probably Friday when I am at the nursing home. Too much about to start happening and I need to make an entry so people don't think I gave up on this.

So, until next time

Later

MWNews 172

 

Let's see what I can find to complain about today. I was thinking I would try to write an entry that did not have any complaints in it but as I thought more about it, I assumed it was impossible. Besides, what would be interesting in a post like that. So expect the worst and hope for the best. I'll try to amuse and entertain but there is little hope of that, especially since the first thing I am going to complain about is the inability to type. I'll work through it.

I am back at work, or what passes for work. At the care centre for old people. They are still in lockdown and I am told most of the buildings are not accessible. I am not sure why I am here yet as none of the bosses have shown up to tell me what I am supposed to be doing. I have heard most of the nurses stations are complaining about their printers but as I am not allowed to visit those sections of the buildings, I am not sure what I can do about it.

By the way, as short side note complaint, I hate the fact that I have to go back and correct the spelling of center in these pages. I don't always do it but it always tells me to change it to centre and I hate that. but that a minor inconvenience I suppose.

I was asked when I walked in the door to go see someone down in the lunch room about not being able to sign in. When I got there, the person making the complaint had left and gone home due to the lockdown. The other's in the room said she had locked herself out of the computer and since I cannot reset passwords, there was nothing I could do. That is just a typical thing I deal with on this job, little complaints that I cannot fix but it makes them happy that I visit I suppose.

Had a job south of the city yesterday. South of Surface Paradise to be exact. Probably does not mean anything to you but you could look it up. It's kind of famous, on the Gold Coast of Queensland, south of Brisbane. Anyway, it takes me two hours to drive there. I said I would only do it if they payed for my time to drive there. They agreed so I headed off and spent 15 minutes figuring out that the printer was broken and they needed a new one. Of course, I spent two hours on the phone trying to explain that to the head office that had called me out. They kept having me repeat things I had already done and told them I had already done but they insisted I try them again while they were on the phone. A complete waste of time. In the end, they ordered a new printer.

I only mention it because I talked Juanita and Maeghan into taking the ride with me. William did not want to go so he stayed home. After I finished, we went to the largest shopping center in Australia, or I think it is the largest. I looked it up once and forget whether it was first, second or third. It's somewhere in there. You would expect it to be that high in the rankings as it is on the Gold Coast. I think Bondi in Sydney might be bigger but I am not sure. This one is called Pacific Fair and is an indoor/outdoor shopping center with a large area in the middle that has fountains and sitting areas and a little river running through it. It might be a nice place if it wasn't so hot in Queensland this time of year. Plus, I was not feeling well, heart problems you know, so we had to stop every hundred yards for me to recover. Wasn't ideal but it was pleasant none the less. Maeghan has her wheelchair so she doesn't care. She just rides around and isn't bothered by the walking. Juanita had gotten a bad phone call while I was working and she was not happy but we soldiered on. I think we got around the majority of the shops but there were a couple that I would have liked to go in but was not feeling up to it. They have the really expensive shops there and the really cheap ones as well. Not mixed together but it depends on what part of the mall you are in. 

We were going to have coffee in the outdoor area with the river and fountains but the so called coffee shop that was there was actually a very high end restaurant. They servers things that started at $35 and went up from there. I could not see a coffee machine anywhere and it was not on the menu so we decided to move on. I can't imagine they get a lot of business in that place and an actual coffee shop would be a better fit but it is what is was. There were kids swimming in the little river and lots of people sitting around on the lounges and tables. It is a pleasant area but too hot on normal days. We will have to come back when the weather cools a bit in six months.

We did drive by the beach for a while and it was very tempting to get out and go sit in the water. There were several areas that looked very nice but since it is school holidays, they were all packed. No places to park so we kept driving. It did look nice though. We generally don't go that far when we go to the Gold Coast. We stop at Surfers Paradise and stay in that area. Surfers Paradise is where Sea World is near and we actually thought about stopping there since we have season passes but decided against that as well. We had to go shopping at Costco on the way home so we just drove on by, on our two hour return home trip.

This all really comes up in that fact that I just received a call about taking a six month contract in an area that is about 30 minutes inland from where we were. I am just being nominated for it but as I am normally over-qualified for these types of jobs, it is just a question of them wanting to work with me. I am old and experienced and they usually want someone new and younger. I am expecting a call from them for an interview at any minute.

It will be a long way to travel each day. Two and a half hours on public transport, about an hour and a half in the car. Since we only have one car these days, it will present a problem but once I figure out the train and bus route, I will probably take that instead of driving. William still has to go to school and Maeghan has to have her wheelchair anywhere she goes so they need the car. Don't know much about the job yet, I just got a call to expect an interview. We will see how it goes. If they are paying me minimum, I will not take it but if it is worth my time, I will take the job as it is a more steady job than the one offs I am doing now. 

Back to the home life. Adam and Leslie are still living with us. Leslie is more permanent I suspect but I am beginning to wonder about what Adam's plans are. I don't feel that great about a 40 something year old man living with us, who seems to have no plans for the future. He does not seem to be looking for anything in the way of work and spends 90% of his time in the garage watching TV or sleeping. That used to be where Leslie spent 90% of his time but now he sits on the couch in the lounge room and plays his phone all day. Only getting up occasionally to make himself something to eat. Leslie is 18 now but I have no idea what his plans are or what is expected of him. He has a speech impediment that makes it very hard to understand him when he talks. His mother is useless and has done nothing for him so he just lives with us for now. Maybe he will decide to do something or maybe not but I don't know how long this arrangement can last. He'll need help from someone and I have no idea where to even start. It's a tough life with little hope coming up for the future for all of us. Maybe something will change and maybe it won't. I'll explain why in the next paragraph.

I just got the call for the interview for this new job. It would seem they require me to have a car everyday. As explained earlier, I cannot do that, so that job is out of the question. I have called to tell my person that I will not be taking the job but he was on the phone and has not called me back yet. So, no long term commitment for me. My worry is that if I don't take this one, they will not offer me any more. I already have one person at the agency that no longer offers me jobs since I turned down her factory work opportunity. That job is where you spend 8 hours a day standing in front of hundreds of computers putting them together and imaging them. It's easy work but I cannot stand for 8 hours a day doing it. I have done it in the past but can't do it anymore. Plus, it doesn't pay very much so it is not worth my time. She was offended when I starting turning her down for the job so now I never hear from her again. Hopefully, this will not be the same result for this new job. Since I turned it down, he may not offer me anything else and then I am really screwed, pardon the French.

So on that depressing bit of news, I will move on. 

William has decided to sell his old Xbox games. He has some he bought at reduced prices over the years and now has decided to try to sell them. I have told him no one will give him any money for these but he is set on trying it. I have no idea why. Since we have five Xbox machines in the house, and only four TVs, I think he just wants to buy new games so he can have something the others don't or get some of the games they have. Did I mention we have five Xbox in the house. Adam brought his own so in addition to mine, Williams, the new one I got Maeghan for Christmas, Leslie's, and we now have Adam's. I am the only one with an Xbox account, so when they want to play the games I have, which are online, they have to sign in as me and download the games so they can play it. Not that I have a lot of games but I have been an Xbox Gold member for a long time and I get free games every month. I have over 300 titles, none of which I play, but I have them available to download anytime I I want. It's a huge catalogue and there are some decent games out there, even though they are old games, so occasionally, the others want to play them. It means they have to be signed in as me to get access to them but once they have me signed in, they can use their own ids to play the games. I won't say they do this a lot, but last month my internet downloads on my ISP were over 5 terabytes. I think that is a lot. Most of the time, our internet connection is non-existent as everyone is signed in and trying to play or watch things on TV. I had to buy an extender so the connection reaches my bedroom where the computer is and the garage where the other TV is. We lose signal in the bedroom a lot and I do not know what it is like in the garage but it is slow everywhere most of the time. Telstra tells me they are upgrading the system but they have no idea when that will happen. I was paying for the faster connection but they told me it was not possible in my area so they gave me a refund and put it back down to normal speed. The problem with that is, when it does go to the higher speed in our area, I will not know it so I can start paying for the faster connection unless they tell me, and I do not see that happening.

I am tired of typing and I have not said anything. Just complained the whole time. I am sure there are lots of things I should be talking about but this has mostly been about work or the lack thereof. Sorry about that. I think they are about to kick me out of here anyway as they are now putting up barriers to all the doors to keep people out, or maybe it is to keep people in. I am in an office out of the way but I am sure they will get around to me eventually so I probably should go out and find out what is going on. These entries have been too long lately, anyway. I just wish I had gone into the kids more. Not that they are doing anything special but this about them and not me and my job situation. Ok, we know that's never been true, but I can keep saying it as long as I keep trying. But, I think I am going to wrap this up for now. I keep planning on taking out the laptop and making some entries at home but I never seem to do it. I will make a more concerted effort, although I have no idea what a concerted effort means. Is that even a phrase and have I used it correctly. Who cares. Not me.

So, until next time,

Later