A night at the races

Posted on Saturday 7 July 2007 at 07:06 - Post Comment

Friday night saw T and I pay the local trotting course a visit for a race meeting there - only this time it was from the wrong side of the bar!  Yup - T and I were all decked out in black and whites, complete with bow ties, and serving!

So the question is: 'Which idiot let an alky like me anywhere near the business end of a beer pump?'   The answer my friends, is me!   To cut a long and boring story a bit shorter and slightly less boring, it kind of goes like this.  Are you sitting comfortably?  Then I'll begin.....

Friday was the day poor little Oscar was unknowingly getting done.  You know - the chop, the snip, the good old bollock whippage.  I tell you I did - and still do - feel sorry for the poor furry fella.  I'm wincing as I type.  Anyway, I digress.  Off to the vets we went, and we left a crying Oscar there for the day, feeling like awfully bad parents for luring him out of the house with catnip and double breakfast rations.  I had a standard day at work until around about 1pm when 2 of the temp staff I'd arranged to do bar work at Addington Raceway called to say that something had come up and they would not be able to make it.  Not good, with just 5 hours to go till the shift was due to start.  Still, nothing that I haven't had to deal with before so I got busy trying to get cover arranged. Shortly after this bombshell Toni called to say that the vet had called to with the news that Oscar needed his flu shot, some worming tablets and an oil change or something.  Well the upshot of this was that the bill had jumped from $40 for the snip, to close to $100 all in. Ouch!

'When it's raining lemons - make lemonade' goes the saying, so the genius in me saw the opportunity to open an R. Whites factory.  A quick chat with the T soon had her convinced, and 4 hours after that there we are, behind the bar with a bunch of other casuals serving a bunch of pissed up Kiwi's free drinks at their company function.  The 'Happy Christmas' banner in the room threw me for a little while, but apparently the celebration was for a midwinter Christmas party - something that's quite common down here!  They had crackers, party hats, and stupid drunken dancing - the lot!  Anyway, after we'd done our 4 hours we had effectively paid the vet bill after tax so there we go.  A bit of fun, a bit of a scenery change, and a bit of dollar to boot.  Can't be bad.  Did I get a free drink though?  Nah.  Still, I've saved it for tonight - more of which later...

So what else is going on?  Well it's now Saturday, and we've had a bit of an epiphany regarding the whole house ownership thing.  The focus so far has been on getting the funds together to build this big old house in Rolleston.  But - and it's a big but that I've spoken of before now - we like living here in the city.  With regards to which, we are going to have a chat to a mortgage advisor about our borrowing power, and tomorrow we are off out and about to look at 2 bed flats, houses and apartments here in the city centre.  Seeing as the big house isn't essential until kids come along, and that may well be a couple of years from now, why not keep the city dream alive?  In our opinion, paying a mortgage beats paying rent any day, and the sale of anything we buy will finance the house build - if and when that ever happens!  Don't ask how we can finance this new dream, as I myself have no idea, but hey - dreaming's free right?

Toni - as is her wont in periods of excessive free time, as she has now during the kids holidays - has been planning a bit of flat improvement.  As well as convincing our landlords to replace the fridge and the oven, she has now got them to agree that we can decorate our flat but that they will pay for the paint.  Toni has said she will paint the kitchen, so that has left me with the lounge ceiling, She managed to bagsy it first. Any painting is too much in my book, (which pretty much tops my list of Things That I Hate Doing - also up there is 'Washing' and 'Spending Money on Stuff That Isn't For Me') I'm not sure who has the sweeter end of the deal, the land lord or our good selves, but ultimately it means that our disgusting lounge ceiling...

And 'interesting' kitchen wallpaper...

...will soon be a thing of the past.  A nice yellow will be taking over in the kitchen, and the ceiling will be a spanking white.  With all of those beams the edging work on the ceiling is going to be a complete bitch but then at least it will look white and not 'tobacco stain brown'.  Will report back with an update as and when we get it finished.

We are just in the process of getting ready to go out to Olly's birthday party (Olly used to work at Select Appointments as their receptionist, which is how we know her) and so are really looking forward to that as that girl and her friends really know how to party.  Again, will report back - complete with hangover - tomorrow.  Oh, and also tomorrow we have some flat viewings lined up so wil take the camera and show you what kind of stuff you can get around here at the moment, 

Right, my turn for the shower...  a tout a l'heures mes amis!