Tarpeena Tales 6
You have to have some bad days to appreciate fully the good ones in fact
if you only had good ones you wouldn’t even know they were good until you had a
bad one, I think.
Today is a bad one that reminds me of the good one I had yesterday.
Yes Malcolm Turley, whom I used to work with, had his 30th
birthday party yesterday and a good time was had by those who attended.
Well Nuran and I did so I suppose the rest did too although that is an extension
of thought that lawyers would frown at. I left the camera behind so there are
no pictures of the frivolities for the “Tale”, which was held in Young Mal’s
backyard in
A typical Aussie do with loads of
meat and drink and loud music. But we were a well behaved crowd that knew the
signs of when we had had enough and when to leave to go home. 
I do sometimes have trouble reading the signs but Nuran was there to
interpret them for me. Fortunate that she WAS there as we or actually she taxied
a couple of guests back home before heading north to Tarpeena and our home.See
picture at left.
Young Mal is called that because of our long term association in the
Mill store at Nangwarry when the two Mal’s ran the show. No prizes for guessing
that I was old Mal.
It was a more relaxed time then
and the store was a meeting place for jobless maintenance men who wanted to
stay jobless until knock off time.
We were a team Mal and Me, I the bad “cop” him the good one. I used to
try and send the customers
back to work, unless they got me talking about football, and they
would talk to mal and get him to serve them when they should have been serving
themselves. Since the store is about service, it worked well as they got it and
I didn’t have to provide it. A lot of banter was the order of the day back then
but we have both moved on.
Young Mal is an electrician now as the store was never the same once I
left- and there is a better career in the trades. The store may not be the same
but young Mal is and it was a pleasure to be at his 30th and to give
a little speech in his honour.
This speech making is getting to be a habit for me.
We went around the 
-a lovely sight as you walk or drive around it, just in time for the Christmas
tourists. That was a good day, Thursday, shopping and spending Nuran’s money
ready for the Christmas family meals. Less than a week to go.The weather was
brilliant and the car had received it’s once a year polish. I don’t know why
they invented a once a year car polish as it would seem to be a self limiting
marketing strategy but I’m glad they did. Nuran did her obligatory slide down
the bonnet on the car to prove how good the polish was and we headed off to
town.See picture at right
Friday the septic tank was cleaned out. They call it de-sludging and the
council does it on a regular basis for health reasons. I don’t think it’s that
healthy to empty some of it onto the back lawn but that is what happened when
the hose broke open at a connection. Lovely smell and healthy for the lawn I
guess but not we humans. Anyway the apologetic and apoplectic contractor
cleaned up the mess and hosed down the lawn and the rain which pelted down that
afternoon was just what was needed. But no picking up dropped chops on the back
lawn for a while.
Next door wanted to know where their tank was so the contractor could
clean it too and after a couple of hours digging we found it!
The lids exposed now ready for the contractors visit and I bet it doesn’t get covered again! Once you head into
retirement spending two hours digging is not what the body is used to! A few
home brews afterwards helped restore the fluid levels and the humour. It’s
great having a neighbour that makes fine home brew too! That was a bad day that
ended up a good one.
Let’s hope the good ones keep ahead of the bad and this day is not that
bad as vitamin B in the form of vegemite on toast has set me on the way to a
full recovery.
You got to go through the bad ones to get to the good ones!
18.12.05
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