Hickam Air Force Base held it’s Open Day today.

Dayum!

Americans know how to entertain the masses.  It was incredible.

The highlight of the day were the Thunderbirds.

I’ve always loved aircraft,  I could watch planes take off and land all day long. Seriously.

Thunderbirds, unsurprisingly, turned out to be something frighteningly close to orgasmic.

Tomorrow… barbecue and football.  Stay tuned.

The boys are going to need a little more practice, methinks. 

We had a call from friends of ours recently.

It seems they are getting married in Hawaii next month.

Right about the time we are leaving the country for Christmas in Illinois before heading to settle in San Francisco.

Damn.

Looks like we have to make a slight detour.

I’m unemployed….

and dammit, I didn’t want to leave.

I haven’t been able to say that for a very, very long time.  I have never enjoyed a job as much as I have enjoyed ths one.

As it happens, it was under the best of terms.  I resigned a few weeks ago, as we are moving overseas, and today was my last day.  It was a very emotional day today.  I had work to finish off and a couple of clients to see, so I was kept busy, but at around 3pm I got ‘the card’.  Thats when I turned into a complete wreck.  Thanks S!

Did I tell you I have the best job in the world?

V and S, I love you, and sincerely hope we can work together again one day.

I wish for wonderful things for you and your family.  Tonight I’m having WAY too many Cruisers, listening to old vinyls and remembering the fun times we’ve had.

So, when can we expect a visit from you?

Recently a friend from Twitter asked me to do some work for her and for the job I had to use the ‘expertise’ of a second party to fulfill her needs.

I asked for sample colours of a particular fabric to be sent in certain shades for her to select from.

I received them and sent them on to her.

She was delighted with a particular colour, which I immediately ordered for her.

Insert Murphy here.

I took Brad to work with me the following morning and he was answering the phone while I was doing some paperwork.  I could hear this “I think you should talk to Kerri”….. “No, I really think you should talk to Kerri”… “No, no, you need to talk to Kerri”.

I took the phone and there was a very agitated man on the phone.

“I’m really sorry”

I wait for the bomb to drop.

“I’m really, really sorry”

Uh huh…

“I sent you a sample that wasn’t available.  That fabric is out of stock and discontinued.”

I’m sorry… WHAT??  I asked you for current stock and you went and cut a piece off a fabric that wasn’t actually there?  How does that work?

*eye starts to twitch*

OK, so what other colours do you have?  THIS one?

“No, it’s discontinued too.

How about THIS one?

“Um…. … can I call you back? “

Sure… why the hell not, I’m not getting any younger and I’m sitting here getting nowhere.

Ten minutes later I get the promised phone call.  It’s his boss.

“Hi Kerri, I’m really sorry”

Uh huh

“I’m really, really sorry”

Oh Jebus, here we go again.  Stop grovelling, get some balls, and find me the fucking fabric!

So, long story short, I lost the order, have probably lost a future customer, completely lost my sense of pride in my work and have lost a good chunk of my reputation with it.

All because of one incompetent nincompoop!

The picture at the top of this page was taken from this site.  I would like to stress that this company had NOTHING to do with the above debacle.

Memories are wonderful things.

I am on the verge of turning 50 and I have recently regained contact with a very dear friend after almost ten years. If you don’t count the twice I have seen her in the previous 5 years, we can count it as 15.

Rosie and I met when we were both living in Fiji. We had joined Fiji Women’s Club, as neither of us are good at being idle, and we were not allowed to work. We found in each other the same wicked sense of humour, an appreciation of the dark and ridiculous and we both loved to drink!

We spent a lot of time together laughing over a bad golf shot, and there were PLENTY of those (who could ever forget Rosie, her club and ball, walking to the next tee having a stern team talk *snort*), drinking at the 19th green, making bad hats for Easter, fabulous hats for Melbourne Cup Day and the interminable committee meetings which would always start AND end with a few drinks. When you can’t legally work and you have a wonderful Fijian lady looking after your kids and doing your housework, it’s amazing the shit you find amusing to fill in the time.

We had a common bond in that we were in a strange land, with no family or friends, and nothing to do, so we did nothing and everything together.

This week, I have been in contact with her again, and after all the years apart, it has been like talking to her over a beer on the balcony at the golf club in Suva. It’s been amazing. Things I haven’t thought about in years have popped to the surface and made me smile, cry and want to bury myself in a hole.

It’s good to be back in contact Rosie, I loves ya babe!

Oh, and spank that gorgeous husband of yours for me, will ya?

So, what does all this have to do with me turning 50, you ask?  For the last few months I have been stressing over the fact that I don’t have as much time in front of me as I have behind.  Then I am reminded that I have an incredible past, have lived an amazing life and have been blessed in so many ways.  I have done so many things that others may only dream of and I also have an incredibly bright future.  I have it all, at 50 

I love doing what I do, I visit people in their homes, play with fabric and colours and walk out with a handful of money. Cool huh?

The best bit is when a customer cancels an appointment and there is little to do. This morning is an example of that.

I work for a crazy, loveable couple (S & V) who treat me and my family like their own family. This could be an issue for a lot of people in the workplace, but for us it works like a dream, mainly I think, because there is so much respect on all sides.

S & V have a young family who I have seen grow since birth and have done the odd babysitting adventure for them. My son has helped S on a few jobs with some labouring work, and we have socialised with them, their friends and family. V makes her special Czech dumplings just because she knows my husband loves them. We are all pretty good mates outside the workplace.

So, back to today.. S arrives and I am playing on Twitter, he comments “ah, working hard already are we?” I grunt and nod while shoving a pack of chocolate chip cookies in his face. He responds “My turn to make coffee then?” I grunt and nod again, refreshing the Twitter page. He knows me too well, I am NOT a morning person!

My first appointment had cancelled the night before, so I had a couple of hours to kill.

S arrives with coffee (hazelnut flavoured today) and he gas bags without taking a breath we chat about the Real Estate he and V were looking at over the weekend.

I start to do some actual work and note with some smug satisfaction that this is the case and he throws me a shocked look “Hell, we can’t have that! More coffee?”

Gotta love the man!

V, I don’t know how you put up with him, you are a saint!

P.S. When the work is on, we all run around like blue ass flies…. REALLY! LOL

It sucks…. exercise is the only thing higher than renovations on my list of suckage.  Did I mention that I hate renovationg?

We are at the stage where only one room needs major work.  Funny, its the worst room in the house.  We wisely left this room until last so that when we are completely exhausted and TOTALLY over working, we get to tackle the hardest room of all.  Clever, huh?

Yesterday a few amazing friends came over and helped us get a lot of the hard yakka done.  The room only needs painting now.  Thanks guys, we couldn’t have become motivated without you!

So, why am I sitting on the bed this afternoon blogging, tweeting and watching episodes of our favourite shows that we’ve missed in the last month?

Because I couldn’t be stuffed!

Half an hour more… just half an hour more and I will get back into doing what needs to be done.  No really.  REALLY!  I promise!