Semantic Tic Tic Boom

Over the last few days at the centre we've had some workmen in who have been replacing the soft fall underneath the playground. The soft fall we'd had up until now was all warped and bubbling because of some tree roots that were surfacing beneath it. We also had some troubles with drainage, so hopefully those problems have now been fixed. In addition to the soft fall we had the men fix up the sandpit as well. The sandpit has had too much sand in it for a while, so it is kind of exploding outwards with sand, very slowly. What the guys have done is reinforced the barriers, so hopefully that problem was solved. Unfortunately they didn't quite do the job properly, so we had one of them come back today to fix it up. He did this by digging away the sand and laying a length of felt down to stop the sand from seeping out. We'll see how it goes.

Up until today I haven't really had too much to do with the guys. I wasn't there when they arrived, and they were going okay without me, so they didn't really require my assistance. I was pretty shocked on Friday though when the guys were having a beer down the side of the centre at 10:30 in the morning. That wasn't really okay, they didn't have any more though, so we let it slide. It was hot, but geez, I don't think that having beers at 10:30 in the morning when at work is ever okay. Anyways, back to today. I got the guy today a jug of cordial and had a bit of a chat to him. He was a pretty interesting guy. He actually looked a bit like Darren from the old Tivoli days. Just more muscular and tanned with some big tatt on his shoulder.

What he was saying today was that there's a worldwide shortage for people who lay synthetic turf. He's spent about half of the past 3 years in the states working there. He loved it. He says that there are many things that we can learn from the Yanks, but admits that they also have their problems. One thing that he highlighted was that they were generally very courteous, to the point that if you are driving and are two lanes away from making a turn-off, all you need to do is put on your indicator and they will make room for you. It certainly doesn't work like that here. You need to fight for every position.

He also said that he has traveled through 3/4 of Australia, and spent about a week in a lot of the smaller towns around the place. He said that his favourite place in Australia is Coffs Harbour. He reckons that it's got a great laid back vibe, you're near the beach, there's some great pubs and lots of pretty young girls walking around. He made it sound pretty good. He was saying how one time he was working down there on a job site when they needed a plumber. The foreman told him that he wouldn't be able to get one. The reason for the lack of plumbers was that the surf was pumping and they would all be down the beach. What he said to do was head down to the beach, find the nearest ute with piping in the back and write a note on the windscreen. He licked a finger and put it up in the air, then said that the wind was about to change, making the surf no good and that a plumber would be there within the hour. The fella who was telling me the story didn't believe that this would happen, but it did. Within an hour the plumber was there and got into the work. He said that was one of the reasons why he loved Coffs. He said that you can make plenty of fat coin down there too.

So yeah, he was an interesting guy. He told me how he likes the opportunities his job affords him. He also told me that working in childcare would be a good job, except you don't make fat coin. He also said that I'd go far because I'm a male working in a female dominated industry, and that when you get all women working somewhere and it's that time of the month then nothing ever gets done. I didn't pass comment as there was nothing I could say.

So that's about it.

I'm starting to get really excited about my trip to Japan. The snowfall hasn't been the greatest yet, but I hope that it will improve. There are some sweet videos on YouTube for Niseko. It's going to be a fat time.