My old phone died last week so I went out and got another one. Its pretty small which is a bit annoying but there wasn't a huge choice because in my line of work a flip phone or a slide phone wont last long because of the dirt and dust so I have to get a pretty standard sort of phone. The one I ended up getting is pretty cool though and it has a better camera than my last so that is a bonus. I put up a few photos I have taken so far from work and stuff. They are over at The Spud Photo Blog so check them.

This weekend was relaxed. The weather has changed dramatically from being over 35 degrees for 16 days in a row to being quite cold, around the 20 degree mark and it has taken it out of me. We relaxed Friday night and watched some movies and after working Saturday I wasn't keen for a huge night Saturday night. Even though it was the lovely Nicole's house warming the girl and I only stayed for a few hours and were home before twelve to take on some well needed rest. Today was like our normal Sundays with us just chilling out and relaxing. We watched a bit of TV including the new series of Gladiators. Now Gladiators used to be on TV in the nineties and it was a average show involving contestants taking on Gladiators in different challenges and games. The show is much the same and still hilariously ridiculous. It was slightly entertaining but I don't think it will last long. Byes

My Working Week

This week was a weird one. I worked for the first three days with a bloke named David. Now the best way to describe David is that he is a 57 year old chain smoking, alcoholic who works as a concreter. The problem is that he is a really good concreter. A really good concreter who only wants to finish concrete. I had to do all the work like wheel barrowing and shoveling all of the concrete. I then had to work to finish the concrete and then clean all of the boards and tools before setting up for the next day by my self. It sucked. What sucked even more was that I was the boss but its so hard to tell someone who is over 30 years older than you to do the job that you want them to do.

Its so hard working with people like David because he is such a good concreter its just he doesn't want to do any hard work. I found myself doing everything after about 2pm because he would just stop and smoke. We got the job done but after three days I was glad to be working with my old man again.

I feel sorry for David because as I said before he is a chain smoking alcoholic and that is all he has in his life. He asked me if I could pay him because he was worried he wouldn't get paid and he told me he only had 55 cents left. I could pay him and he was relieved. I didn't realize it until after that he really only had 55 cents left, to his name. I had to drop him off at the bank so he could cash the check and catch the bus home. David lives with his parents, who are in their 80's and drinks and smokes away every cent of his pay. He owns the clothes on his back and nothing else. Its sad because he earns good money but has absolutely nothing to show for it. He is a nice guy but he is a challenge to work with sometimes. I guess you have to feel sorry for him though.

My Update Post

God its been a long time between posts. Its been hard lately. I don't know why but I have found it really hard to find the time and to get motivated to blog. I want to but just don't get around to it. Its weird.

God the weekend was massive. I didn't eat any easter eggs but I did eat a lot of Toblerone and I drank a shit load of beer. The fun started Thursday after our plans to go down to Callums shack at Port Elliot were canceled. Our closest option was to head to Calvins to play poker and drink beer. It was a good relaxing night and even though I lost poker I managed to, after Shoana fell asleep, put a whole bunch of Doritos on her head. It was funny.

Friday I decided to have a few people around at my house for a few drinks and a bit of fun. It was just a few of us but it was a good night and then girl and I were very drunk by the time the others left.

Saturday was a different story. I decided to have a bit of a party and rallied people to my house for a big night. It was a big night too. It ended up being the girl and I, a lot of usuals as well as Shoana and some of her friends. Its always good to have a few people you don't know because it makes for a good party. It was. We drank and played drinking games and sang and drank some more. The girl and Calvin's girlfriend Eliza crashed at about 2 when a few people left and at 5am when I went to bed there was still a few kicking on. It was a really great night, it was a bit crazy but it was such a good night but I paid for it Sunday. We all payed for it, we felt terrible. We got Fasta Pasta for lunch because it was the only thing open on Easter Sunday and then sat on the couches in my living room and watched Family Guy. It was a good end to such a huge night.

The girl and I relaxed that night and Monday went the same. We had to pick her dad up from the airport so stayed at mine that night.

Its amazing though how after four days off you lose interest in work. Tuesday morning I did not want to be at work. I made it through and but today was a bit the same. Its been a bit of a shitty job and I'm working with a guy who is useless so that makes life hard. I cant wait for the week to be over because that means its the weekend again. Woot.

I put up a few photos the other day on the Spud Photo Blog of an event the girl and I went to the other night. It was called the Northern Lights. It involved some of the government buildings on North Terrace in town being lit up by different lights and images. It was a bit of a pensioner event but it was really amazing to see and I'm glad we went. They lit up the old buildings with different colours to make then look quite amazing. So check those out. I will put a few photos up of work things and a few party photos so look out. Check them here The Spud Photo Blog. Byes.

My Massive Easter Sale

Oh my god was it a big week/weekend and I know I forgot to write in this here old bloggy. I cant do it now either. I'm stuffed. Work today was so tough. I had a terrible day and had a huge head ache which I never get and it almost killed me. I wish I could write now, I wish I could but I'm stuffed. I will update tomorrow k. Byes

My Heat Wave

Well the heat wave that Adelaide has been going through has finally broken. We have had 15 days straight of over 35 degree heat! Its the hottest March ever on record. The weekend was 40's and yesterday was 42. Today only hit 30 degrees and it was bliss. It was still hot but it wasn't 40 which was so so nice. It is going to cool down even more during this week so after such a heat wave a 25 degree day will feel like below zero.

The past two days at work have been good. We have poured a small pit in two stages, the floor Monday and the walls today and will strip all the form work down Thursday as to give it some time to cure. It was so much nicer working today in the cooler weather and I actually have energy now that I'm home. What a crazy world we live in.

My Taquila Iced Tea

Wow, so the weekend was massive! Started Saturday night at Kristen's house warming/birthday party then went along to the lovelovelovely Cat's 21st at the British Hotel. It was a good night. Plenty of old faces who I was happy to see again and plenty of friends to have a few drinks with. The night was ticking and once the speeches were finished the party started. Cat was hilariously drunk and the girl and I were ticking on too. The girl and cat bought Long Island ice teas and sipped. Cat didn't need any more alcohol but the girl wanted another so I got the next round. The dude behind the bar was new and didn't know what a Long Island ice tea was so I'm guessing he made it up. I ended up with two tall glasses half filled with vodka, the other half with tequila and a splash of red bull on top. I took the first sip and just about fell over. It was nasty. The girl mixed half of hers with a glass of water and struggled to drink it while I took tiny sips and kept pouring red bull in. After about a half hour we had finally finished them but we both quite intoxicated at that stage.

The party slowed a little and we got kicked out of the British because they were closing so the idea was put up to go to the Woolshed. Now for people who don't know what the Woolshed is, its a bar in the middle of Adelaide that everyone who is from the country goes to. They love it but it doesn't have the greatest reputation among us city folk so keep it down that I went there. We got there and hid our faces as we walked in. There was country music cranking and lots of bogans and flannel wearers. We did have a good time which I am embarrassed to say, lol. After a few drinks the girl and I were gone and ready to leave. A taxi home and we were out like lights. A really good night though. It brought back memories of the old days at school and some crazy times at the Goody pub so it was all good.

Sunday came too quickly and neither of us were ready for it. We awoke with heads a banging and more sleep needed but had to shower and leave the girls house to pick her car up, which was left in town the night before. After some McDonald's we drove up to Flinders Uni to watch Steve's band The Lost Show play a set at Scorchfest which was a huge event with 56 bands on 4 stages. We got there to see the first band who were four of the skinniest white guys with long black hair, black makeup and loads of studded jewelery. They played some crazy heavy screaming music and then left, the crowd wasn't really into them so their set couldn't finish quick enough. The next band was a band called Dark Horse. The had an older sound a bit like Led Zeppelin and were really really good. They had some really good songs and the crowd really liked them. Next up was The Lost Show and even though it was so hot they put on a really good energetic set. The crowd got into them and most people were nodding by the end so that was good. We didn't stick around for long after they finished playing and headed home to relax on the couch and watch the F1 Australian Grand Prix. The girl fell asleep for a few hours and a snoozed on the couch so it was a good day. Byes.

My Week Alone

This week has been a weird week. My olds went away for the week so I have been working by myself. Its been good but just weird because I don't normally work by myself so much.

I did a few jobs this week but the biggest one was to fill in a fiberglass pool. I smashed up the fiberglass mold and carted it our through a single car garage and then removed all of the concrete that surrounded it before filling the pool in. The worst part was that because its been so hot the dust was shocking. I came home one day and was covered in dirt head to toe. Not good. I washed it off in the shower and there was so much dirt on the floor, I felt like I was outside in the winter time.

showI had an interesting day today. I had to take our 5 tonne excavator out to the other side of town to get one of the hydraulic valves fixed. It took me almost an hour to get out there but once I was there I learnt that the guy I was supposed to see about it didn't up for work today and no one else there knew anything about it. I wasn't very happy about it but in the end I had to leave it there and he was going to have a look at it on Monday. It sucks though because its means I have to make another trip out there. I thought the service was pretty poor from a registered Caterpillar dealer.

Tonight is an event. Its my best friend Cat's 21st birthday. Her actual birthday was on the 7th but her party is tonight. It should be a good night and I plan on having a few beers, woot. Byes

My Long Job

For the last year or so we have been working at a house on Bloomsbury street in Hyde Park. The work there started as a small job of clearing the block and a small extension but now after 12 months we have finally finished. We started by clearing the whole block. There was endless over grown trees and bushes and in the end we took four truck loads of vegetation, fences and even a pond away. We put in a new sewage drain to incorporate the new bathrooms and a new kitchen and took it out to the street. We then poured a slab for a bathroom extension which is the part of the building that sticks out in the sixth photo. I then put up the colourbond fence which runs the whole length on the block on one side, photo 1, and poured the slab that the front door and entrance way sit on, photo 6. We then poured the slab under the verandah for the stone tiles to be laid on, photo 6,and knocked out two walls and cut in a few doorways inside.

We then moved on to site works and dug out tonnes of bricks and rubbish that was buried in the ground outside and brought back truck loads of rubble and fill to bring the levels back up to what they were.

We were then back into concreting and put up a retaining wall for the brush fence along the other side of the block, photo 8, and a concrete plinth for the rendered wall at the back to sit on, photo 3. Our concreting did not end there though. We dug the footings for the car port pillars to sit on and a pad for the electrical box to sit on, photos 7 and 8 and then I poured another plinth for the front brush fence and repaired the curb outside.

With the concreting down we re-ran all of the storm water from the whole house into a huge soakage pit in the front lawn area. The pit was 5 meters deep by 5 meters long by 1.5 meters wide and had a holding capacity of about 20000 liters plus its soakage, so it would easily take all of the roof water.

We then started on the paving. There was 280 square meters of paving which is a lot. It took us a while because of the heat we have been getting but we got it done and it looks great.

Once all the paving was down, grouted and edged we dug out all of the gardens 500mm below the paving level and put 25 tonne of loam in for the gardens and lawn to be planted in.

It was a long, strung out sort of job but it was good because it didn't get tedious because it was so varied. I am definitely thankful it is finished though.

I guess its off to the next job for me now. I hope I don't drive there in the morning out of habit, lol.

My Long Weekend Heat

Its been so hot. This has been the longest stretch of over 30 degree weather in March ever. It hovered around 40 degrees all weekend and barely cooled down at night. We had a lot planned for this weekend but because of the heat we barely managed to get out of the house.

We fizzed Friday after a long week of work and heat we decided not to go out and just relax. We were supposed to head down to Henley to the Ramsgate to celebrate one of our friends, Groke's, homecoming from his world trip but it was a 45 minute drive from the girls house and neither of us wanted to make the trip. We ended up just chilling at hers, watching movies and falling asleep by about 9:30.

This weekend the V8 Supercars were racing at Eastern Creek in NSW so during the day Saturday I watched the first race while the girl chilled out. We got all dressed up and headed down the bay for Ash's 21st at the Backpackers. I was looking forward to having a good night and there was a great crowd there but it was just too hot. Everyone was just dead because of the heat and after a few hours and a few beers and a lot of water the girl and I headed home pretty early. Ashley seemed to have had a good night so that was a bonus.

We had talked Saturday night about going down to a friend of ours shack down at Carickalinga which is a beach side town near Yankalilla. We found out Sunday that we couldn't go down because it was being used so the girl and I decided to head down to my farm. We let in a bit of a spur of the moment decision but it was so good to go down there. On the way down I showed the girl a few different places we had worked lately and we stopped at the RSPCA animal home to look at the dogs and cats. It was great to see all the animals but bad because both of us wanted to take about 12 dogs and cats home.

We got down to the farm and it was hot. We unpacked and cranked the air conditioner to cool the house down and after trying to think of something to eat for tea decided to head into Victor Harbor to get McDonald's for tea. The food was average but we went down and eat it by the beach and it was great. We didn't watch the sunset but it was still perfect. We got back to the farm and cracked a few beers. In the end we got pretty drunk just for the hell of it while we watched TV and it was a good night. We came home today and enjoyed the drive home.

I took some more Super Nintendo games that I had bought from EBAY down to the farm and played them for a bit. When I got home I bought a heap more so they will be fired up next time we go down there.

My parents left to go on holiday yesterday so this week I am working by myself for a few different people. It should be good because I don't mind working by myself and it gives me a bit more freedom so that should be interesting. Byes

My Underbelly

There is a new TV show on Australian TV called Underbelly. It is based on the true stories of a gang war that happened on the streets of Melbourne between 1995 and 2004. The TV show is a bit more dramatic than what it was in real life but it is still pretty crazy. I didn't really get into the first episode but now I'm really enjoying it.

The series follows a few different families who were involved in the drug trade in Melbourne and it shows how they betrayed and were betrayed. In the end the only reason the war ended was because they killed and were killed. Most of the major drug dealers at the time were wiped out by the war. The crazy thing was that most of the killings were done in broad daylight in public places. They had so much control and people were so scared of them that no one testified and most of the cops were in there pockets anyway so up until the very end none of the killers were charged. The way the just shot one another in parks or on the streets is just so hard to believe.

There was huge controversy over weather the series should be shown because one of the trials is still happening now but it was shown everywhere but Melbourne as to not sway the jury. It so hard to believe it all happened out in the open but I guess these sort of things cannot be stopped when you are dealing with people who are that daring and careless.

Today was a long day. It was 37 degrees and no matter what I did I was in the sun. I worked by myself and took it easy but it was hot. We laid about 80 square meters of paver's yesterday so today I did all the cuts around the edges and straightened them all up so they can be grouted tomorrow. It was a pretty slow day but I got through it.

My Accent

This is unbelievable! I struggle to just talk normally sometimes let alone in another accent. She does the Aussie accent so well too.

My Poker Night

Tonight was an interesting night. The girl was working a late so I put the idea out that we should have a poker night. Calvin came up with the idea of going to a pub and playing in the APL. The APL is a free poker league that is played in pubs. There arn't any real prizes unless you win and go to nationals and all that crap but its still pretty good fun, or so I had heard. Tonight was my first APL night and it was a weird experience.

We ended up at the Challa Hotel which is on Torrens road and the nicest way to put it is that its not the nicest suburb. On my table was Calvin, an asian guy who kept cracking jokes but no one could understand, a women who weighed about 160kg and had maybe 4 teeth, a women who was mid forties and dressed like a teenager even though she definitely shouldn't have a few other randoms and me. They were all really nice people but just a bit bogan. Calvin and I were wearing shorts and T shirts but managed to look like a million dollars, lol.

I did pretty well for my first time. I was all out with about 15 people left in the competition which almost got me to the last round but I didn't mind. Calvin did a bit better and would have made it to the final table but got put out in a crazy draw. I am a member now so I think we will be playing more often. Maybe at a classier pub next time. It was a good friendly night though so I'm sure we will play there again also.

Another highlight of the night was driving to Calvins. I saw a red Mitsubishi which had something written on the back window. When I got closer I could read that it said "I'm a slut" in big spray painted writing. As I got even closer I realized that someone had hit every panel on the car with a hammer. It made me chuckle a bit because I would hate for that to happen to someone I know. Obviously she made someone very unhappy. That is an extreme way to deal with it but a bit funny none the less. Maybe I'm sick, I don't know. Byes.

My Weekend Away

Last week was an up and down week. My day Thursday was terrible. I rang for concrete at 10:30am and they told me it would be there at around 12. I waited and waited and rang them four times. Every time I rang them they told me it was on its way. It didn't come until 3pm. I was not happy. I didn't finish until 7pm so I was not a happy chappy. It should have been a pretty easy day but it turned out to be a terrible one.

Friday was a better day. I did an easy job up at Lonsdale that involved me holding using one of our excavators all day so it was good to have an easy day and to finish early. The girl and I just relaxed Friday night because of the big day and weekend we had ahead of us.

Saturday was the start of a road trip up to Wirrabirra. Wirrabirra is about 3 hours north of Adelaide and we were heading up there for the weekend for Luke's 21st. Luke is a country lad who lives in Adelaide while attending university. I met Luke through a friend, Calvin, a few years back while I was still studying at uni. He is a top guy and so we were all very excited about the road trip and a night in Wirrabirra.

We got up there at about 7pm, just in time for the festivities to start and after such a long drive we sunk a few beers pretty quickly. A few people from Adelaide made the drive but it was mainly Lukes friends from the country so we mingled and talked to everyone. After way too many beers and a bit of punch that Calvin made me scull I had had too many drinks and crashed to bed. The girl and I slept on the fold out couch in Lukes room where as a lot of the others slept in swags or just on the ground. Calvin's room mate Jason managed to pass out on the ground at about 12 and didn't wake up until 8am the next morning, crazy kid. It was an awesome night in the end and I felt it in the morning. I felt shocking. After Calvin and some girl called Chloe dragged me out of bed I finally went outside and wasn't very happy about it. The girl gave me no sympathy but Lukes sister gave me an egg on toast, so I ate it and felt a little better. After Calvin and I drank about two litres of lemonade we were ready to head home.

The drive was pretty good. The car ride back was the same as up there with the girl and I, Calvin and his girlfriend Eliza and Eliza's friend Courtney who on the way up was quiet because she did not know us but turned out to be an absolute crack up and a really nice chick. We made it home but didn't get to productive and I ended up falling asleep on the couch watching the cricket. Not a bad weekend though.