What made you feel good today?

[DFB FGXR6]

When you have a lot going on to deal with, its the small things that make me feel good.

Today it was making myself a amazing espresso coffee to get me started for the day. I'm sure anyone who does the home barista thing knows that it can be a black art, so when you nail the perfect coffee, nothings better to start the day.

Picked up another job contract today and this one provides food and accommodation so that made me feel good.


I also am rebuilding my Barra for less than $500 where as in the past i would have just handed over $5000+ and not batted an eye.


Not any more and that really makes me feel good !

[.:4:.]

I was working with a bloke who was my apprentice but now is a 1st year tradesman today. Havent worked with him in a while, he was not the sharpest as an apprentice, but now he is responsible for his own jobs he has learnt a lot. Still learning, as when youre a 1st year tradesman you learn more in a year then the prior 4. Anyhow we are pulling in new cables in a vacant tenancy and he saying how neat and well done all the cabling is and all the surface duct is done super well etc. He says its way better then what our projects guys would do. As a side note, our projects guys do great work, however if its not visable, they get in trouble for using any more then the bare minimum of cable ties and other incidentals. I run my own jobs when i do projects, but thats not very often because i prefer service work. Anyways this bloke was saying he wonders which company did the job. So i said our company did the job. He didnt beleive me and asked then who ran the site (because things were tied in to the 9s, not what he is used to)? When i said i ran the site and did most of it, he was confused and said but i dont do fitouts. All i said to that was its not i cant do fitouts, there is no challange so i choose not to. His response was he knows im the service guru, but didnt know i also was the project guru. Im no guru, i just like to take a bit of pride in workmanship. It was a nice compliment, but i just want this bloke to do the same with his work.

[Vekgib]

Quit my job as a taxi driver today. Worked 10 hours last Saturday night, had 2 fare evaders, was assaulted by a drunk who I refused to allow into the cab and took home the grand total of $85 ( $77 after GST taken out ).
$8.50 per hour. Bargain !
Was rostered on to work tonight, but rang up and said I wasn't going to be there. Manager ended conversation with "see you tomorrow" but I pointed out that for $8.50 an hour, I wasn't coming back.
No other job to go to. Very depressed. But glad I stood up against what's been going on.

[Citroënbender]

You've got to have skills that fetch better money, that wage is an insult.

[Vekgib]

Couple of weeks back, I did a 12 hour shift on a Sunday night and took home the grand total of $51.
Good thing there's no Uber here. I'd hate to have been on less than $4 an hour !

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Vekgib

Couple of weeks back, I did a 12 hour shift on a Sunday night and took home the grand total of $51.
Good thing there's no Uber here. I'd hate to have been on less than $4 an hour !

Wow, that is bad.
When my apprenticeship finished in the Public Works I tried something different as an owner driver courier in Sydney for 2 years. The outgoings didn't match the wage but at least I didn't have to put up with drunks and fare evaders.
Live chickens was probably the worst job I accepted.
Loved the job but couldn't survive the repair costs.

[XR.1967]

Hearing my car run for the first time in 7 odd months..

[Tonz]

had your hearing aid repaired at last?

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by Tonz

had your hearing aid repaired at last?

When my grandpa goes deaf i write on a notepad 'grandpa, change your batteries'.........
Anyrate, how good is it coming into the weekend after a solid week at work that was very productive. I only have 1 job that i need to return to but its a job that takes more then a day to complete. Pretty pleased as it being the end of financial year no clients are left annoyed that things ran over into next years budget.

[Citroënbender]

It's been a day of dealing with loaded Depends, so a nice diversion was in order this evening.

I'd got a car back from the panel shop a few years ago with a plastic cover "Mystery Part". I'd never set eyes on exactly such an item before, I was dead set baffled. The car is fine to use and nothing appeared missing. Two experts in the model, had no idea either. It was far from beyond the panel shop to play a joke on me because they knew I was super-fussy about getting details right. In other words, they might have just chucked it in there from another car, confident it would send me nuts.

I knew some things:

• It was definitely a French car part from a left front door or guard (because, it's marked AVG in the moulding)
• I could tell which way up it went by the dirt deposits
• It was not a complete assembly (no part numbers on the piece)
• It hadn't come from the engine bay or radiator support area (the dirt deposits weren't sooty)

Somehow, I'd got it into my head that tonight, I was going to nail the ID of this piece, or it was going in the rubbish.

First clue, I recalled the anti-theft plastic covers inside modern Alfa doors, that deflect and thwart RACV type door unlocking tools. I could see some similarities. Fleabay was next. I started hitting up the UK domain for pictures of various locks from the front doors of French cars made in the last 30 years.

Nothing quite matched. I went to another reference site and looked up the part numbers of the repaired vehicle's front door locks, and did a Google image search. Paydirt - it was the anti-theft shroud off my car's front passenger door lock. Yes, I could have found this out by dismantling the door tomorrow, but was hoping to not need this step.

[Syndrome]

Hearing Collingwood lost

[Tonz]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

Hearing Collingwood lost

again

[roKWiz]

CB, At least your one of the lucky ones to get all the pieces back from a panel beater.

[.:4:.]

My mum had been on my back for ages about changing the lamp in a light in her dining room. Id been on her back for ages about changing the whole fitting to an LED fitting because 100w r7s are inefficient these days and its a light she has on all the time. So i begrudgingly drove over today to change it because mum really likes the look of the fitting. 100w 78mm r7s are getting harder to find at bunnings and are getting more and more expensive. 150ws are easy to get but in that fitting they burn the glass. But we found 100s for $9 each. Didnt pull the trigger on those. At work i havent seen an r7 fitting in years, but i noticed osram sell an led retrofit r7. They are $16 each but i made mum meet in the middle, in the sense she can keep her fitting and i get my way using an 8w led lamp. They look good too and are brighter. I swapped out 3 for her. So a combined 300w down to a brighter 24w im happy with. Mums very eco conscious so shes happy too. So far thats the only LEDs shes had to pay for. Ive done the rest of the downlights a few at a time over the years for free, so she has noticed her bills staying even when power prices are going up.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

My mum had been on my back for ages about changing the lamp in a light in her dining room. Id been on her back for ages about changing the whole fitting to an LED fitting because 100w r7s are inefficient these days and its a light she has on all the time. So i begrudgingly drove over today to change it because mum really likes the look of the fitting. 100w 78mm r7s are getting harder to find at bunnings and are getting more and more expensive. 150ws are easy to get but in that fitting they burn the glass. But we found 100s for $9 each. Didnt pull the trigger on those. At work i havent seen an r7 fitting in years, but i noticed osram sell an led retrofit r7. They are $16 each but i made mum meet in the middle, in the sense she can keep her fitting and i get my way using an 8w led lamp. They look good too and are brighter. I swapped out 3 for her. So a combined 300w down to a brighter 24w im happy with. Mums very eco conscious so shes happy too. So far thats the only LEDs shes had to pay for. Ive done the rest of the downlights a few at a time over the years for free, so she has noticed her bills staying even when power prices are going up.

I could never understand why all those city apartments use those hot, power hungry halogen down lights in all the public areas. When they can swap over to LEDs. In my old mans building they're still in use even after recent renovations to the foyer, lifts etc. LED downs have been around awhile now, use the bl**dy things.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

I could never understand why all those city apartments use those hot, power hungry halogen down lights in all the public areas. When they can swap over to LEDs. In my old mans building they're still in use even after recent renovations to the foyer, lifts etc. LED downs have been around awhile now, use the bl**dy things.

An 8w led fitting, to replace the old dichroic fittings, at work we get them for $8. And they have a selector switch for colour. So they can be 3k, 4k or 6k. Its a 27w saving over a 35w dichoic and even more if you have the old 50w dichroics (they havent been made in years). Just changing 1 fitting if your place has say 16 like my house, you wont see a difference in power consumption, i saw a saving when i swapped out all 16. Took me under an hour too. Everything was surface sockets in the roof. So plug and play. Even if they were hard wired, im an electrician so it still wouldnt have been difficult.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

An 8w led fitting, to replace the old dichroic fittings, at work we get them for $8. And they have a selector switch for colour. So they can be 3k, 4k or 6k. Its a 27w saving over a 35w dichoic and even more if you have the old 50w dichroics (they havent been made in years). Just changing 1 fitting if your place has say 16 like my house, you wont see a difference in power consumption, i saw a saving when i swapped out all 16. Took me under an hour too. Everything was surface sockets in the roof. So plug and play. Even if they were hard wired, im an electrician so it still wouldnt have been difficult.

Yes, I reckon at 35 storey's above ground, 8 basement floors x 4 apartments per floor with 10 lights per floor in the common areas it would add up to quite a saving over time, not to mention the safety aspect of using these current hot lamps.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Yes, I reckon at 35 storey's above ground, 8 basement floors x 4 apartments per floor with 10 lights per floor in the common areas it would add up to quite a saving over time, not to mention the safety aspect of using these current hot lamps.

Didnt you know the easy way to heat a house in winter without a heater is to have halogen downlights on all the time and never turning off your old plazma screen?
In all seriousness, my mums unit is the top 2 stories and since most people below have also gone LED, in summer her place is slightly cooler in general because being on top, people below get your noise from hard floor areas and you get their heat from whatever theyre doing.

[Citroënbender]

Apparently my name has honorifics following it. RACT, RACV, NRMA

Based on the places I’ve been domiciled where someone has said “I know who can help us!”...

[.:4:.]

I just called my mum to see if she is still happy with my anti eco terrorist solution for her rediculously inefficient lights and she is. Because i had been arguing and refusing to fix the 100w fitting for months turns out she was going to get her boyfriend to do it. So it worked out well. The 150w r7s is probably what he would have put in as they are the same physical size, a lot easier to get, way cheaper too, but in a weeks time mum would be blowing up at the burnt glass diffuser. Her place when we moved in back in the day ( i lived there with the then mrs and the kid when he came along) had 150s in these fittings and cleaning the burn off the glass was a pain. But, the sticker that says max 100w isnt in an easy spot to get to. But its my job to find these things. Also, regardless of 100 or 150w lamps, being linear halogens, you cannot touch the glass on the lamp as the oils from your skin make the glass heat up unevenly and they crack after a reduced life. So the LED solution has already payed off. The other thing was her boyfriend wasnt keen on putting a ladder on the stairs. Fair enough, i wasnt either, but an insulated working platform on the landing (milk crate) was my simple solution for that. And also i tidied up the last few sections of edges with the little red ripper my brother gave me. After hours of running flat stick the snipper yesterday the thing was heat soaked and didnt want to start. It started fine today so i did the last few spots i didnt get to yesterday and now i have deffinition between where my concrete stops and grass starts.

[Lunch]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

Hearing Collingwood lost

Being there to watch them lose was even better

[.:4:.]

My mum was annoying me at work today. Not that she was being annoying as such, but im at work, leave me alone. Granted when i did her lights it was day time so i could see a difference, but the real test is at night. She is happy as larry. She told her boyfriend i did the lights but that was it. Apparently he saw a night and day difference, then mum told him how we were arguing and i wanted to change the fittings to something more efficient, then we stumbled apon the led lamps. Shes happy i was stubborn and the end result was the fittings she likes and the 92% energy saving with more light output. I wasnt being stubborn for no reason. It takes 30 seconds to change a light, i was looking out for mum. Changing the fittings would probably take 10 minutes each but i would do it for her to save a coal eating whale or 2. But hey, a decorative fitting like that in led id imagine would for the same output be about 19 watts. So happy days and 8 watts is a better outcome. And she called me the usefull child. So im the useful one and the good looking one....

[CoupeKing]

Just had some Buffalo wings and I smothered them with Tabasco Habanero sauce = awesome.

[Citroënbender]

That habañero sauce is just awesome, I love it on a peanut butter sanger.

Mister Four will appreciate this one; the highs and lows of contract maintenance.

Waited over three months to resolve a failed tap washer. Needed access through one strata lot to shut off the water in another lot. Seriously, what sort of tightwad developer forces you to access your own water shutoffs via a stranger's bathroom? My repeated polite efforts to make contact went unheeded, while another tenant was literally suffering water torture, they couldn't stop the flow from a basin tap that runs noisily.

Finally, I sat down and drafted the most forceful-yet-polite letter I could muster, put in an envelope, taped it over the offending unit's keyhole. (If this didn't work, I was going to get a bit more crafty and less by the book.)

96 hours later, RESULT. Everyone locked in to a date, time and scope of works.

[Tonz]

how do you make peanut butter sangers

[Citroënbender]

Peanut butter by the tub from The Peanut Van, fresh pide sliced up the guts, optional to lightly toast it. Spread the peanut paste on thickly and close the slice up again. Hot sauce optional.

[.:4:.]

Today i got told by a lady who is showing a lot of interest in me, even after ive been honest about a few things not to lead her on, that she thinks myself driving a ute is sexy. Clearly she hasnt seen the ute. But ill keep that one to myself for the moment.

[Citroënbender]

Has she seen you in a mesh vest?

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

Has she seen you in a mesh vest?

Not happening. The whole having been married and having a kid thing is something i cant hide, its like dirty laundry, it comes out in the wash. This lady didnt care at at all and is both easy on the eyes and a great person to talk to.