Now, I don't want to say this is typical of public servants, nor would I want to simply play on the stereotype of roadside construction workers, but the following has amused me this morning.
On the main road just near my workplace, there has been a sign in place for a week or two now saying that some work is to be carried out by the local council starting today and that it would last 12 weeks. This morning, I have noticed that the sign has been updated. The work is still scheduled to start today but the estimated duration of the works has already increased by a third to 16 weeks! And that's before they start! :)
Monday, January 30, 2006
Thursday, January 12, 2006
London Marathon
Good news! I have been accepted to run in the London marathon in April this year. Most runners enter via a ballot (there are substantially more entries received than places), but due to my Gold Coast marathon run time, I was able to get in via the 'Good For Age' entry system.
Eager to lose some of the pounds gained over my year at LSE, I hit the gym in August, beginning a serious marathon training program in late December. At the moment, because of the weather, I am restricting my training to the gym, i.e. a treadmill. I never knew how boring it could be to run on a treadmill!
Suffering severely from a lack of motivation to run anything more than 5km on the treadmill in December, I was lucky enough to receive a tiny MP3 player for Christmas, from Peter. It came with an armband holder, which I can easily strap to myself wherever I am running. I promptly set about filling the player with boppy tunes to keep me going, and so far, it has been a success!
Nonetheless, I am looking forward to the weather warming up, though that's unlikely for another month and a half. By then, I hope to be able to relish the joy of running outside :) Till then, I have my MP3 tunes.
Eager to lose some of the pounds gained over my year at LSE, I hit the gym in August, beginning a serious marathon training program in late December. At the moment, because of the weather, I am restricting my training to the gym, i.e. a treadmill. I never knew how boring it could be to run on a treadmill!
Suffering severely from a lack of motivation to run anything more than 5km on the treadmill in December, I was lucky enough to receive a tiny MP3 player for Christmas, from Peter. It came with an armband holder, which I can easily strap to myself wherever I am running. I promptly set about filling the player with boppy tunes to keep me going, and so far, it has been a success!
Nonetheless, I am looking forward to the weather warming up, though that's unlikely for another month and a half. By then, I hope to be able to relish the joy of running outside :) Till then, I have my MP3 tunes.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Precious water
Well, for the past week, we have discovered just how precious running water is. Our downstairs neighbour began complaining of a damp patch below our kitchen in early December, so we informed our landlord who got plumbers in to look at it. Indeed, there was a leak but it was hard to see where it was coming from. A few more visits over the coming weeks, but no solutions.
Finally, on Friday (30th Dec), after repeated calls from us and from our neighbour, the plumber turned up to find the source of the leak. He began by digging into the wall below the kitchen sink, and then proceeded to the tiles in the kitchen. Luckily, the leak was easy to find and so the damage limited. Unfortunately, the leak was in a pipe connected to the mains, so the plumber turned off our connection to the mains water.
On Saturday morning the plumber turned up again to put in a small hose under the sink so that we could access mains water via a tap. However, with the mains still disconnected from the kitchen sink, washing machine, and from the water tanks up in our loft (which feeds the bathroom and toilet), we had a few issues. But the plumber promised he'd be back on Monday morning...
Monday came and went with no plumber. We had to re-fill our two 227-litre tanks in the loft by filling our plastic bin with water from the hose under the sink by hand in order to keep using the toilet and shower. But, boy, does the toilet use water! A lot. So we avoided taking showers as much as we could. Several hours of re-filling the tanks each day was not our idea of fun!
Tuesday came and went also. By this time we were getting extremely frustrated! After harassing the landlord about it all day Wednesday, FINALLY the plumber arrived shortly before lunch to fix the pipe and re-connect the mains (and the washing machine!).
However, the problem didn't stop there. Apparently the tanks up in the loft are not clean, and some of the sediment that is at the bottom of them found its way into the hot water pipe. So we now have trickling hot water, and sometimes none. The landlord has promised to get the plumber to look at it today, but in the meantime, we will be filling the bath with hot water from the kettle!
Oh, the dramas! When this is all fixed we will certainly appreciate our running water a lot more than we have done in the past....!
Finally, on Friday (30th Dec), after repeated calls from us and from our neighbour, the plumber turned up to find the source of the leak. He began by digging into the wall below the kitchen sink, and then proceeded to the tiles in the kitchen. Luckily, the leak was easy to find and so the damage limited. Unfortunately, the leak was in a pipe connected to the mains, so the plumber turned off our connection to the mains water.
On Saturday morning the plumber turned up again to put in a small hose under the sink so that we could access mains water via a tap. However, with the mains still disconnected from the kitchen sink, washing machine, and from the water tanks up in our loft (which feeds the bathroom and toilet), we had a few issues. But the plumber promised he'd be back on Monday morning...
Monday came and went with no plumber. We had to re-fill our two 227-litre tanks in the loft by filling our plastic bin with water from the hose under the sink by hand in order to keep using the toilet and shower. But, boy, does the toilet use water! A lot. So we avoided taking showers as much as we could. Several hours of re-filling the tanks each day was not our idea of fun!
Tuesday came and went also. By this time we were getting extremely frustrated! After harassing the landlord about it all day Wednesday, FINALLY the plumber arrived shortly before lunch to fix the pipe and re-connect the mains (and the washing machine!).
However, the problem didn't stop there. Apparently the tanks up in the loft are not clean, and some of the sediment that is at the bottom of them found its way into the hot water pipe. So we now have trickling hot water, and sometimes none. The landlord has promised to get the plumber to look at it today, but in the meantime, we will be filling the bath with hot water from the kettle!
Oh, the dramas! When this is all fixed we will certainly appreciate our running water a lot more than we have done in the past....!
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Happy 2006
The New Year is upon us and Natalie and I are back into the daily grind of the 40 hour work week, though this week will be a bit less, what with the holiday on Monday.
We had a great time welcoming in 2006. Natalie and I booked a place at an Italian restaurant in Paddington for a five course meal. I expected five small-portioned courses. Instead we received very healthy servings and neither of us could finish our meals.
We also danced our way into the New Year.
Afterwards, we stayed the night at the Hilton Paddington as we had got a special deal with our dinner. This turned out to be a great idea when the Tube staff decided to go on strike.
All in all we had an enjoyable 24 hours in central London.
We had a great time welcoming in 2006. Natalie and I booked a place at an Italian restaurant in Paddington for a five course meal. I expected five small-portioned courses. Instead we received very healthy servings and neither of us could finish our meals.
We also danced our way into the New Year.
Afterwards, we stayed the night at the Hilton Paddington as we had got a special deal with our dinner. This turned out to be a great idea when the Tube staff decided to go on strike.
All in all we had an enjoyable 24 hours in central London.
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