Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Cakes and chainsaws

We are trying out a new fly killing product from Baygon. It's a baited sticker for the inside of windows. The flies land on them, have a taste, and then it's off to fly heaven. The stickers cost about $6 for a pack of two, and are supposed to last two months. We've already seen one fly try the new fad. Somehow it flipped on its back and stuck to the sticker, but it certainly wasn't feeling too well when we flicked it off. 59 days of sticker life to go - I'll try to remember to do a fly bait report on 1 January 2007.

We had good news yesterday. Our 17 year old daughter has landed an excellent job with a firm on chartered accountants near here. My wife spotted the position on the internet a few days ago. "Junior Administration Assistant - Traineeship." My daughter dropped her resume off Tuesday. The company had been interviewing applicants for a few days. They called her in for an interview yesterday. Then she was then introduced to a senior partner and he offered her the job on the spot.

As well as a fair wage for a young person, the job has perks. They will pay all her bus fares and feed her cake. They apparently eat a lot of cake at this place and look for excuses to eat more. One of the first things they did was enter her birthdate in a computer's "cake alert." They are also going to cover her tertiary education costs for as long as she wishes. She is enrolled for business administration at TAFE next year and can do the course in-house with them and get the same qualification at the end. The business has an unassuming facade, but our daughter said that inside, everything was ultra modern and importantly, everyone she met had a kindly outlook.

So it looks like four days after finishing school she has landed on her feet running. She starts work Monday. But there's more. Today is her audition for the Army Reserves band. There shouldn't be any conflict with her new job if she gets through it.

There was unreported news from the plumbing section of our family last week. Son number three has long been into adventurous things with the Scouts. He's still a Rover Scout. For some time he has been hankering after a kayak and last weekend wandered into a local kayak factory. Some world class kayak designs have come from Western Australia. The factory had three of an older model on display, the last three of a design that has previously won the Avon Descent. They were new, but being quit at a special price to make way for the next design.

They were $500 with everything included. This was about a third of the price of the newer design, which is almost the same as the old one. My son shelled out 500 bucks. He had a mate with him who bought the other two - one for him and one for his girlfriend as a surprise Christmas present. I recall I once bought my wife some flippers, a snorkel and a face mask. We men sure do buy neat presents for women. The Kayaks still had to be finally fitted out for delivery and they will be ready for collection this weekend. I have a suspicion the "Christmas" present is going to be stored here.

There was some really sad news too. Two weeks ago my number two son borrowed my Stihl chainsaw to do some work at his girlfriend's parents' house. I hate my best tools constantly being borrowed to do freebies for people who have more money than me.

Well there must have been plenty of stuff to cut because he said he went through two tankfulls of fuel before the saw died. He had grabbed my can of unleaded fuel I use for the lawnmower - the four stroke lawnmower. The chainsaw was a two-stroke and needed special oil added to the fuel. Sadly two tankfulls of unleaded fuel without oil was enough to destroy the engine beyond economical repair. It was a six hundred dollar chainsaw - a once-in-a-lifetime purchase. Now its cactus. The local Stihl dealer confirmed this after an autopsy.

My son, bless his heart, bought a new one yesterday as a replacement. I feel a bit uncomfortable. I hadn't asked him to. I think his girlfriend's parents should chip in something for it, but I don't suppose they will.

© MMVI Paul R. Weaver.

About the writer

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write a couple of million words.

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