Time Out

It has been some time since I last wrote my blog. A lot has happened along the way which I will endeavour to unfold in small readable chunks to bring you up to date.

The day Kat was arriving, Thursday 21 June, I started to develop a sore throat. I haven’t been ill for years so was hoping to ward it off with prayer and a load of herbal remedies: Echinacea, Olive Leaf Extract, Vitamin C, throat lozenges, raw garlic, honey and to help me sleep and dry up my runny nose: Phenergan and Fess nasal spray. I felt a bit like a walking chemist, it’s surprising I didn’t rattle! Unfortunately, due to the great night sleeps on Phenergan, instead of improving my sleep, once I stopped I had worse sleep than before I caught the cold. My sleep had actually started to improve so that I could go back to sleep quite quickly. Not anymore! I was now waking around eleven or twelve and staying awake for three to four hours! Not at all what I needed during my recovery! I don’t think the hot chocolate drinks in the evening helped either! With the head cold I was glad I didn’t need to see Mum as I was concerned she might catch it off me. During this time I stayed away from Church and the Bible study group and of course no early morning jogging! But I must admit I did enjoy the sleep-ins.

Before picking Kat up from the airport that Thursday afternoon, I wrote her an email full of all the things I might forget to tell her regarding Mum and her schedules and the like. As an x-nurse I’m used to handing over before going off shift. Unfortunately Kat doesn’t always take this as it’s meant which means it can look like I’m trying to tell her what to do, which is not my intention. When she leaves I’m often having to ask her things so that I know where to carry on.

In the week leading up to Kat’s visit and in anticipation of the free time I had ahead of me, I ordered interlocking bricks to make a raised garden bed. I had previously thought of digging out all the rubbish sand, which is unsuitable for growing anything, other than Perth coastal natives, and replacing it with lovely rich soil to make a veggie garden. Then as time passed and the overwhelming task of removing the sand dampened my enthusiasm. I thought instead it might be easier to build a raised garden bed. This way I could kill two birds with one stone, or maybe three. My plan was to build two raised garden beds. At the bottom of these I would put the yellow sand that I had accumulated from holes dug for my fruit trees. On top of this I would fill the beds with a trailer load of rich soil. God willing there wasn’t going to be too much yellow sand as I needed the beds to be at least three quarters full of proper soil. Firstly I would get rid of the unwanted soil, secondly I’d have a contained place to grow vegies in good soil and the third attraction was future looking to when I no longer find it easy to bend down. I will be able to sit on the side of the wall and tend my garden.

With the blocks ordered I still needed to remove the excess yellow sand. I had advertised it both on Gumtree and Facebook. There had been a few people interested but, at the last minute all had pulled out, usually without notifying me. One of my neighbours took three wheelbarrow loads but there was still a heap to get rid of. I was just about to give up when Brian, a guy from Thailand, contacted me through Gumtree to say he was interested. I wasn’t going to put my hopes on him as I’d already been let down but he did turn up one evening although a little late. He brought with him a heap of plastic bags into which we shovelled the sand, digging out even more than I had hoped. I was thrilled. This saved me from carting it away to the tip.

The next job was to bury the retic hose which I wanted to come up inside the garden walls. I also flattened the soil around the edges, piling the excess sand inside the planed garden area to make way for blocks. They were to go 50 cm under the ground level to give them stability as the blocks are not mortared together but sit in a tongue and groove one on top of the other.
While waiting for the blocks to arrive I had another job I wanted to get done. I had found some wooden planks on the side of the road which I thought would be ideal for a shelf outside me kitchen window. This house like the last was not conducive to growing plants indoors. The only place they seemed to get any sun was on my kitchen window. In the summer when I was opening and closing the window or blind, the plants were in the way so I had put them on the sill outside. One of the pots was a little too big for the sill which was my incentive to extend it by building a shelf. The planks of wood were the exact size. Another trip to Bunnings to purchase brackets and screws before putting it all together and fastening it to the wall. I ran into a bit of a problem when I couldn’t screw the screws all the way in. In the end I waited for Ian, a friend from church, to assist when he came to help with the blocks.

With my blocks ready to be delivered on the Friday, I hurriedly contacted one on the neighbours, who had parked her car at the top of the drive where I had hoped to have the blocks dropped. Praise God the council had also left eight bright orange cones from their work along the footpath. Using these I sectioned off the spot ready for the delivery. I had wanted the blocks to be unloaded into my carport but as the machinery used to unload them was too heavy Ian, from church, had offered to help with his wheelbarrow, later Friday afternoon.

After waking at 5 am and hoping for a bit of a sleep-in to help with the sore throat, I must have dosed off till brought back to reality at the sound of a truck. Was this my truck? Oh no! The blocks had arrived! I hadn’t expected them till around midday! I threw my dressing gown around myself and rushed out the door. The guy delivering them had just finished unloading and was putting the cones around them. All was well he hadn’t needed my help.

Now up, I decided to make the most of the beautiful sunny day by ferrying the blocks down the steep driveway in the van which I’d collected from Jan’s after picking Kat up at the airport. I usually try to give Kat Mum’s car while she is here and on most occasions Jan has been able to lend me her daughters van. With builders gloves on I started with the heaviest, 16 x 21 kg corner block followed by 8 capping stones at 15 kg each, before starting on the smaller face blocks which thank God weighed only 21 kg as there were 143 blocks. I moved all bar about 80 of these over the period of the morning with breaks in between. It took about six trips down the driveway before Ian arrived to help finish the job in the wheelbarrow. We stacked them against two walls in the carport leaving room for me to park the van undercover. I returned the three pallets which Ian had helped load into the back of the van. Job done and completed! Thank you Ian for all your help.

The next couple of days I decided I’d better take it easy and allow my body to fight the head cold. During these days of convalescing I stayed away from Mum as well as church and anywhere I might pass on the bugs. I did finally manage to have some amazing sleep-ins which really surprised me. I think the Phenergan definitely helped. By Tuesday I wanted to start tackling the wall. I measured the distance from my retaining wall where I wanted to start the raised garden bed, dug a trench for the blocks and then realised trying to get the trench level and the block all at the same height was harder than I thought. Ok, time for an expert! I called Ian to see if he knew anyone who might be able to assist and phoned my builder. Both said they would get back to me. A day later, Ian called around to see what I needed and suggested I get in touch with another guy from church. In the meantime it bucketed down with rain. I was very surprised Wednesday morning when I saw the wheelbarrow half full of rain water.

Then there was a week of missed communications with my next helper. He said he had sent me SMS messages but I had not received any. That’s the problem with messaging and not calling people. Unfortunately when I call people they often don’t pick up as I have a silent number due to the complications of having two phones for different things. Anyway in the end I gave up and called my builder Glenn who arranged an afternoon to give me a hand. By the time he had arrived I had finished one wall and partly the second wall both of which we pulled down to redo the levels. It was then that we realised there were too many standard blocks, 65 in fact! They had also miscalculated the corner blocks which meant I needed to order an extra 5 as well as 12 more capping stones.

I called Midland Brick to explain I would need to order more capping and corner stones and return the excess blocks. They said I was responsible for ordering too many as I’d signed off on the job. I explained I had come in and personally requested help to order the right amount of stones as I was unable to work out how many I needed. The guy said he was partly responsible but as I had changed my mind on the measurements I should take full responsibility for the second order. One thing I really dislike is being taken advantage of. I now had to take back the extra blocks undamaged otherwise I would not get a refund I was also asked to pay extra for the paperwork! I was not impressed as I would have to pay Glenn to take them back and pick up the extras and it wasn’t totally my fault!

Then I remembered Ian saying there was someone in the church who used to be the CEO of Midland Brick so I looked him up the next time I was at church. He suggested I contact someone he knew in Sales. That week I called and left a message twice. The secretary finally got back to me to whom I explained my predicament. She said she would look into it for me. I didn’t hear from anyone again so that Friday I called to Osborne Park depo to see if my order had arrived. The manager answered the phone and after talking to him while he looked for my order. I explained I had contacted head office and that I was needing to pay my builder to return the blocks so we would both be out of pocket but would appreciate if he could refund me for the excess and take the cost from what was owed for the new order. I prayed things would work out. I also explained I might be able to bring back some of the blocks in a van I could borrow as I didn’t have my own car. I knew the van couldn’t take too many as it would be far too heavy.

Eventually I took the blocks back myself in two van loads and collected the extra corner and capping stones so that my builder could return to cut them to size to finish off the walls. It was worth it in the long run as both garden beds looked very professional. I was also pleasantly surprised to receive a full refund.

By now we had passed the shortest day of the year, the sun was rising earlier and although I had a long break from jogging due to my illness it was lovely lying in bed waiting for the beams of light to slowly bring the colour into the day. Once I was well enough and when the weather was dry I was out jogging again but this time on a shorter route as I found I was quite out of breath having had so long away from it. On two occasions I was caught in showers, arriving home wet through. I don’t mind getting wet as it’s very refreshing but water mixed with salty sweat dripping into my eyes is not so pleasant. A few exercises at home before a cold shower then getting dressed in front of the heater.

It has been wonderful having Kat staying at Mum’s. I thoroughly enjoyed cooking for myself the things I like to eat, to be able to eat when I’m ready and doing the things I enjoy doing without being concerned about the time or if I’m needed by Mum. It has taken quite a burden from me. This time off gave me more time to do other things such as help out at church during the school holidays with barista duties for the children’s outreach, King’s Kids holiday programme.

I even tried going to the dentist for a check-up but it was cancelled then cancelled again due to a death and funeral where my dentist had to return to Malaysia.

In my next update I will fill you in on the changing and challenging events with Mum.

Photos:  1. Friendly Magpie    2. Clearing the site of yellow sand   3. Window shelf for pot plants    4. Neatly stacked blocks    5. Starting on the wall     6. My attempt at laying the walls    7. Raised garden beds completed    8. Helping at the church coffee shop during holiday for Kings Kids event.

Prayer & Praise Points:
Praise the Lord for His ever present comfort, ongoing strength and wisdom for all the challenges we face.

Praise Him for Kat’s help and support from late June till late Aug. It was great having her around to help with Mum and to give me a break so I could put my energies into other activities such as work in my garden.

Please continue to pray for Mum’s health and stability. She is now in full time care, all of which I will tell you about in the next update.

Please continue to pray for Trisha. Please pray for reconciliation and peace between us all.

I appreciate your ongoing prayers for the business, Senior’s Benefits and Rewards, which is getting closer and closer to being launched. There have been some new exciting developments which will soon be revealed.

Thank you to all my supportive friends and prayer partners; it’s such an encouragement know you are all standing with me.