renovation, Rowlf and wreck

renovation

Not a great deal of big-stuff progress on the renovation but some things of significance. We now have light downstairs. The hallway, bedroom, walk in robe and en-suite on the inside and outside we have lights either side of the entry door and a sensor-floodlight for the garden. These things make taking the rubbish out and getting to the laundrty after dark less perilous.

We've also had the en-suite waterproofed, the floor tiles are down and the wall tiles are going up. It is starting to look a lot like a bathroom. Upstairs the veranda has a ceiling and the inside of the half-height wall has been gyprocked and plastered. This week I get to swing a paintbrush again.

I did another small run to the lockup as we move completely out of our three upstairs bedrooms, sunroom, main bathroom and WC. Stuart has measured up for steel beams and other big things as he prepares to take the wrecking ball to the house again.

As for the curernt living arrangement, it is relatively comfortable. There are the sore throats resulting from shouting Harrie to sleep most nights: "go to bed" "I've been to bed" "go to bed and stay in bed!" "I no want bed" "GO...TO...B-E-E-E-E-E-E-D!" But other than that, pretty plain sailing so far.

Rowlf

The big fella is an OCD mutt. I think one of the builders once threw an empty chip wrapper into the skip at the back of our house and since, right after dinner each night, Rowlf trots around the house to rummage around in the skip. Luckily it contains nothing spiky and horrible at the moment. I am not sure what I can do (lie - there is nothing I can do) to stop him from being such an arch-scavenger.

And on that...Yesterday I got home to find Sal in the garden looking poised to kill. To kill Rowlf. He had eaten the just-cooked tuna bake Sal had made. No matter that she knows Rowlf is a scavenger and that simply shutting the kitchen door or putting food up high can prevent such a disaster. No, the dog is a bastard and someone this was also my fault. Yesterday I though this was especially harsh on me...

Wreck

...harsh because I was in the Harbour. Literally. I was 3km away and underwater. How I was supposed to keep an eye on MY dog or close the kitchen door was not made clear. Before I got home I had spent a reasonably pleasant 30minutes or so in the greener-than-I'd-anticipated Harbour.


Having not videoed the kingfish on either of my previous two trips I was keen to capture them today. Actually, rewind; I wanted to dive the Bower, but parking was impossible, so I went to Fairlight again, GoPro at the ready. It looked very nice from the shore, not bad from the edge, green from the wall. Nevermind. Basically the same as before - without kingfish - I went up and down along the wall, chased a Port Jackson shark and found the wreck. Eventually.

A few things saw me get out after a relatively short 30mins. The water was pretty green, I'd spent a bit of my free time trying and failing to park at the Bower and there was a reasonable amount of boat traffic about on Father's Day. I was on the wreck when I heard a boat that sounded quite close...but sound can be deceptive under water. but it was fucking loud. I headed back to the surface - no real option without a tank - to see the back of a speedboat a little way off. Not too close, but close enough. I had my videos so I bailed.

And got home to the murderous missus.

Ho hum and a happy father's day.

...I'll get in trouble if I don't...the girls got me things made at daycare, a photo book from AJ and a picture form Harrie. It was very cute. AJ had spent days waiting to give me the present and H just loves presents. We had breakfast in Manly, played on the beach and then Sal did the shopping while I took the kids to the local playpark. Post swim I went to the lockup with AJ, and that was Father's day with the family.

And yes, I know I should write more about the girls, but it is so much easier to to just quickly waffle on about general shit. So my blog, my rules.