Displacement

Fragment of an email to my sister, currently in New York:

"Things here getting worse. Lots of moving and displacement. Dad is going to repaint the foyer cream on mum's incessant nagging (boo!). Can't do any work til the floorboards are laid, which has been postponed til next week. At the moment it is cold and noisy. Chi'na has started a spiral of destructive boredom ie pouncing on the carpet rolls and shredding the underlay that was previously piled by the side gate."

Since when did banks close at 4pm? Was I the only one who thought that standard business hours were 9am to 5pm? I went to deposit a cheque last week, got to the bank at 4:30ish and the bank had closed. So I used the deposit function at the ATM. I won't be doing that again in a hurry - the money hasn't turned up in my account. Luckily it was only for $11.34 and not a $700 pay cheque but it's still ruddy annoying. $11.34 is two off peak train trips to the city and a soft-serve cone at McDonald's (I think like that now - this is what happens when you're self-employed).

This week: bickering with my parents about getting a job (I even explained all the roles in a magazine publishing company and they still don't really get it) and also sharp complaints about this stupid floorboard business. For the record, I haven't touched the stuff in my room yet. I'm supposed to pack everything up so it's easy to move around but I really don't see the point in doing that until about 1-2 days before the dudes are going to come because otherwise I can't do anything for a week. Or two weeks if I'd taken their advice last week.

Amanda had her wedding on Saturday morning. I found out later that her reception wasn't 'just for relatives' - I just wasn't invited. Not that I really care about being invited or not being invited (I mean, I've been friends with her for ages but I'm not close to her) but I do care about being lied to. I mean either way she's guilty about not inviting me or she doesn't think I can hack not being invited. Anyway, the ceremony was a bit of a bible bash with Hillsong elements imported, even though it was Geoff's church. Few too many 'raising the hand' songs and bible readings and prayers for my liking.

Maybe shouldn't have bothered with the housewarming gift - I'd spent the earlier part of the week carving up a cool print I'd bought in Edinburgh to fit a frame I'd purchased because the framing shop was going to take a week and cost $89.95 and neither time nor money did I have. Well, my DIY was a disaster - the glass on the original frame that I bought broke so I went and bought another, more expensive frame that was slightly bigger. Which meant I also had to buy mounting cardboard. You know they don't cut that stuff for you on the spot with special tools like I thought? They send it away to be cut. Anyway, by this point it was Friday so I didn't have time to send the mount away to be cut precisely so I bought a large Stanley knife and cut it myself. Let's just say I literally can't cut corners. Friday evening - shops closed, nowhere to buy cardboard. More disaster; wonky corners it is. Note to self: this should never be my vocation.

After Amanda's morning tea, which she had for the non-reception invitees, I drove down to Victoria Park for my sister's farewell picnic, which was okay, though I was a little tired by that point having not slept much due to wrestling with knives during the Great Framing Fiasco of '06. I went home at around 5pm. She didn't come back til around 9pm still running around packing and doing last minute itinerary related things. We had to wake up at 6am to go to the airport the next morning and I had to drive. Unfortunately mum came too, which meant that the whole ride was all about how dangerous the big, bad world is and "don't do [insert obviously stupid action here]". Came back by 8am and slept another 3 hours.

Hrm. Got a commission for a new custom mag for the gift/homewares market by word of mouth, which is good. Sold lots of stuff on eBay for a decent amount of money, finished up on a website job, so some cash coming in. Oh yeah, the rellies left on Friday leaving $150 worth of ang pow.

Usual crud on TV, though I managed to stick to just House, Nerds FC and Hotel Babylon. Is it just me or is 'Australia's Funniest Home Videos' mostly made of American footage? I can't stand that show but it's the only thing my mum watches at that timeslot, which is when I'm usually fixing myself dinner and they're on their way out somewhere.

Spent the day at Stuart's place yesterday (no ANZAC spirit for this chicky... once again I forego making the biscuits) and then went to see 'The White Masai' at the Chauvel in Paddington with Assumpta, Aruna (Ass' sister) and Aruna's friends. Yesterday I discovered that Paddington is a long walk from the city. I think I forget that Oxford St, Darlinghurst and Oxford St, Paddington are two completely different entities.

Am doing volunteer work for the Sydney Writers' Festival again, which is where I went today and where I will be tomorrow. Tomorrow will try and pop in at David Jones to buy Glo's wedding present from her registry. Apparently they don't have the thing I want to buy at my local DJs so I'll need to go into town at some stage anyway and I thought I better get it over and done with after the Great Framing Fiasco of '06.

Next week is writing group and I'm also due to give blood. And I'm helping Jade move out on Saturday.

P.S: Sorry this entry is late. You must understand the difficulties of this floorboard business. The moving knocked out my internet connection upstairs (on my Mac) so I've had to re-commandeer the PC. Ergh.