Friday night rolls on – one of only two late nights I get at the moment.
I stayed up pretty late, but, not as late as I wanted, I was tired and knew that he had ONE job lined up for Saturday, although there was no time we had to be there. He’s an early bird and likes to get going as early as possible, I’m a night-owl and like to get there as LATE as possible – can be a sore point.
I woke up about 0400, feeling that something was WRONG! Finally managed to go back to sleep. Woke up again at 0930, and heard him talking on his mobile – I knew from the tone of his voice that we were going Somehwere.
By the time I left the bedroom, he was halfway up the passage to wake me up – we now had THREE! jobs to do. Not bad for a short work day!
So, after breakfast, off we go, leaving about 1030. Well, the day just degenerated from there.
To get to the first job, we used the GPS thingie, as he hadn’t been up there for about 3 years. A WORD OF WARNING FROM THE WISED UP TO THE WOULD_BE WISE: Don’t take a GPS up into the Dandenongs. She got lost and some of the roads we travelled were lucky to be wide enough for one car, and they were dirt roads, too. I said to him that I could have done a better job of getting us there than that silly Englishwoman. We were travelling down a road she told us to when, all of a sudden, she tells me to make a U-turn! A U-turn? On that road? She told me to go here, and it simply wasn’t possible to chuck a Uie on that road. After several more ridiculous choices of road, we decided she was LOST, big time!!! We all know how bad I am, but, I think she must be a typical dumb blonde. (My apologies to all the blondes who don’t get lost!)
The first job, instead of taking about ½ half, took nearly 1½ hours. Okay, I can live with that, they had a nice garden and gorgeous cat.
Next job is quite a distance away, in the opposite direction we had come from, so, with our tongues between our teeth, and everything that could be crossed, crossed, we decide to use the talking box again, just to get us to somewhere he knew . . . shouldn’t take long, he’s been everywhere, man! With ohly a couple of minor hiccups, one of them mine, we get to a road he says he knows and now knows where he is, and I do too! Huh? Just a bit further down the road, I’ll come to an intersection that I mucked up on a few days earlier! Oh, great,, that was days ago, and I hadn’t travelled on THIS part of the road before!!!!!
Finally, we get to the next job. The answering service wrote the equipment details down wrongly! After sorting through his box of “old” bits, he comes up with a couple of parts he can modify to fix the problem, then comes the task of making them fit the available space! He’s muttering dire words by this time! Another half hour job, but this one takes TWO hours to fix!
We’ve been on the road for nearly FIVE hours now!
Next job is vaguely in the direction we need to go to get home. Yippee!!!!
This one takes another two hours but, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. While he’s working, I’m sitting in the car, listening to the radio, as the CD player in his car doesn’t work. Also while he works, he gets a break-down call.
This gent wants his heater fixed NOW!
When he comes back to the van, I took one look at his face and shut my mouth, firmly and VERY quickly! He gets into the van and writes out an invoice in stoney silence. When he’s finished, I ask very meekly, “Where are we going now?”
THAT way!, trying to be polite ‘cause it’s not my fault, and he knows it.
We get there and this job ONLY takes ¾ of an hour!
By this time, we’re both starving, not having eaten since we left the house ALL THOSE HOURS AGO. We pick up some dim sims, about the only thing ready to go, and head for home. I was half expecting another call from the after-hours answering service and had decided that, if such a call came in, I was going to refuse to go. Where were all the other technicians? They can do their share, too!
By the time we get home, we’ve been gone over eight hours, he’s thoroughly fed up, I’m tired, and we’ve driven nearly 200 kims!
What did I do to deserve this. I think Mr Murphy decided I had had enough reasonable days recently and was punishing me in anticipation of the possibility that I might actually enjoy a day soon!
