Driving Eye Test
I nervously got behind the wheel, not sure where to look as my driving instructor slid into the passenger seat next to me. He turned his head, looked me up and down and scribbled something on his clipboard. ‘What was that?’ I asked, panicking. ‘Did I forget something already?’ ‘Just your name, Ms. Jones,’ he said with a sigh. ‘And I was checking the box for you not requiring glasses. You don’t, do you Ms. Jones?’ ‘Don’t what?’ ‘Require glasses?’ he repeated. ‘No, no I don’t,’ I said, avoiding the black spots encroaching at the edges of my vision. He arched an eyebrow and jotted something else down on his clipboard. ‘Have you ever visited an optometrist, Ms. Jones?’ ‘Uh, yeah, I guess,’ I said. ‘You guess?’ ‘I mean, not for a few years, not since I was a little kid,’ I said. ‘My eyes seem fine.’ ‘Only seem fine?’…
Procrastinating The Gardening
I don’t think I’m ever going to catch up. I’m well behind on all the work I had to do in my garden today and I don’t have time after work to get back out there and do any gardening. That means that if I want to get my gardening done, I’m going to have to do it during work and hope that either no one notices or that I do it really fast because of the time pressure that I’m under. They say diamonds are made under pressure so hopefully, that helps me work faster. Looking back on my decisions over the past few days, I probably shouldn’t have purchased the hybrid tea roses for sale online until I was actually ready to plant them. I’ve caused myself quite a bit of unnecessary stress and put myself under some serious time pressure which isn’t helping my general anxiety levels.…
Be Careful Installing Solar
Now I am in hospital, so you can say that it’s been a pretty interesting week so far. Managed to fix the ute by myself on Monday, trialled a new type of low-fat peanut butter on Wednesday, and now I’m in hospital. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m getting anything done for the rest of the week, but I was due for a break anyway, so…yeah. Don’t play with wires, kids. Even if those wires are connected to solar panels, which you wouldn’t think would be dangerous. But they DO generate electricity. That’s why people have them installed, usually by commecial solar installation companies, and not amateurs such as myself. But I just had to jump the ship and say I could do the wiring myself. Apparently my heart stopped for about twenty seconds, so…wow. That sure is interesting. Not many people can say that they’ve ever been legally dead, even…
The Knowledge Gap
I’ve owned my car for a couple of years now, and sometimes I still can’t believe that it’s mine. I know I bought it, and I know I drive it almost every day, but I feel as though I am so ignorant about even the most basic parts of cars. Nobody ever taught me, but that’s not really an excuse. I’m old enough to do my own research if I need to know something. I guess that’s why the internet is there. For example, the other day I looked up how to schedule a log book service in Lockleys since that is apparently something I have to do as a car owner. I didn’t realise I had to take my car in for services at scheduled times throughout the year, or when it reaches a certain number of kilometres driven. The previous mechanic even put a little sticker on the…
The Office Liberation
I sighed and wiped the sweat from my brow, dropping into a crouch behind a convenient bush. ‘What are you doing?’ Gaspar, my guide, hurriedly whispered at me. ‘We need to move, now.’ ‘I’m just catching my breath,’ I lied, frowning at the path behind us intently. ‘I told you at the start,’ Gaspar growled, shifting nervously, eyes darting around the treetops, ‘if we stop moving, we won’t make it.’ ‘I know, I know,’ I said. In truth, I wasn’t paying attention to what Gaspar was saying. I was too busy looking. I wanted to see them. ‘Then you’re on your own,’ Gaspar shook his head. ‘Good luck, stranger.’ ‘Gaspar,’ I called out after him. He flinched at the noise, reflexively dropping into a crouch. ‘Gaspar, do you know what I used to do for a living?’ His only response was to glare.…
Car Repair Riposte
‘Wish that I could cross blades with you,’ the man in the hood called to me from the other side of our impromptu tourney ring, the village crowd encircling us with morbid fascination. ‘But alas, I have no wish to die today.’ ‘A coward as well as a liar?’ I asked loudly. ‘Who would have thought such knavish traits could fit in a cloak so tattered?’ That elicited a smattering of laughter from the crowd, who were whipping themselves into a state of excitement. ‘You have not proven me a liar!’ the man cried, and I saw the flash of gold under his hood again. ‘I promised you a mechanic to perform a car air con regas near Milperra, and it is you who has not seen fit to test my word!’ In truth, he was correct – I had given him no chance to prove himself a man of…
Desert Tyre Mishap
‘Again?!’ I hollered up at the night sky, kicking the rapidly-deflating tyre of my four-wheel drive. I let out another yell, hearing it echo across the sparse desert road. ‘Problem?’ a voice asked behind me, and I almost jumped out of my skin. I whipped around to find a kindly older man, strapped to the nines in a hiking backpack and leaning wistfully on a walking stick the same height as him. ‘My tyre,’ I grumbled, gesturing half-heartedly at the deflating rubber. ‘Ah, yes,’ he nodded gently, ‘the desert has claimed another one.’ ‘It’s claimed two, actually,’ I sighed. ‘What are you doing out here, anyway?’ ‘Walking,’ he said simply, like it was the only answer that made sense. ‘It’s nearly eleven,’ I frowned. ‘Oh, I only walk at night,’ he said, glancing up at the stars. ‘How boring the day sky is!’ ‘Right, fair enough,’ I said, rapidly losing…
Find a Mermaid
I really want to see a mermaid, but nobody else seems to be interested in doing this. I’ve asked all of my friends whether they want to come and visit the ocean with me, but none of them have agreed. They all told me that mermaids don’t exist and that I am wasting my time by looking for them, but I don’t think so. I am just in high school, so I don’t have a lot of money or a big budget, but I want to commission a marine fabrication company in Melbourne to help me look. There are mermaids everywhere, I know because I have read books about them. They look just like humans but they have scaly tails like fish on their lower half, and they can swim for so long underwater because they have gills that let them breathe underwater. It’s really cool. I wish I could…
Hiring a Conveyancer
I am planning to buy a new home with my husband. We’ve been looking at what is available to us, such as which properties are within our budget and within our desired area, and we have narrowed it down to a few really good options. The main problem is that the housing market is very competitive at the moment, and I am personally concerned about my rights as a buyer. I want to hire someone who specialises in property conveyancing to ensure the property transaction goes smoothly. One of the houses we want to buy and are looking at is this beautiful modern townhouse that is close to schools and parks and has the perfect floor plan for both our wants and our needs. It’s also within our budget, which means at auction there isn’t going to be anybody who can compete with us. I was the one who really…
More Hardware Later
Lorenzo could see the Mornington Peninsula bubble up ahead, rapidly approaching as he drove toward it. From the outside, it appeared almost like a giant, black void with only a pinprick of bright light exiting from the single entrance. He drove for a short while longer, before heading off the dirt track and making for a nearby cliff. Trying to find the car while driving his own would be too dangerous and take far too long. What Lorenzo needed was a good pair of night-vision binoculars and the high ground. It took the better part of half an hour for him to find the perfect overlook – longer than he’d expected but still quick enough that he could get to a hardware store open in Bayside before they all closed. It might not end up being the one he had in mind, however, the quality of the hardware wasn’t likely…