Monday, September 22, 2008

SPRING IN MELBOURNE

Only two weeks before daylight saving and I've still got one clock I didn't turn back.

I left home this morning in a north wind and warmth and came home tonight in freezing cold and soaking rain.

Spring means hard rubbish collection. I grabbed a nice little bentwood chair that just needs sanding and a coat of Estapol. The cars have been trawling all weekend so I was lucky to get that home.

My office chair caught a fatal case of metal fatigue so I put that out in its two pieces. The chair part went but the legs and expensive wheels are still there tonight. I tried to take the wheels off but no luck but they look good holding down three items that aren't mine. That's the best thing about HRC, the migration of objects from one end of the street to the other.

And it's Brownlow Medal night which nobody watches after the red carpet. I'm not a football fan but I did catch the last quarter of the Bulldogs and the Cats, good fun but enough for the year.

13 comments:

Brian Hughes said...

"The cars have been trawling all weekend..."

Trawling's usually a job for boats, on account of cars sinking when they're launched. You were, indeed, lucky to get yours home under the circumstances.

Anonymous said...

But will said chair ever get a sand and a coat of Estapol? No matter, I am pleased you picked up something bent.

Jayne said...

I like the sound of your find, tres pretty!
Someone made off with the old cork/particle board ceiling tiles we had out for our HRC, gawd knows what the heck they'll use them for!?!

R.H. said...

The solemn medici of Hobsons Bay Council have decreed there will be no more hard rubbish collections. They do not want old mattresses, fridges, ect in their streets. Too lowering. Therefore removal of such items is now by individual appointment only, and you must keep the stuff inside your fence. That's why residents in our neighbouring and more sensible Maribyrnong municipality -which has continued it's hard rubbish collection, wake to find it added to by people like me.
At the same time mind you, these terribly august and dignified Hobsons Bay twerps allow fools to sell their backyards for houses to be built in them thus packing in more ratepayers whilst destroying amenity for everyone. How thoughtful.
Well it does advantage local shopkeepers of course, who are a council's main concern after all: residents (as usual) can get fucked.

River said...

Are you sure you don't live in Adelaide? I also walked to work in a warm wind and walked home through freezing rain.
I love/hate hard rubbish collection. I love wandering around looking at other people's stuff, but I hate hubby dragging home bits and pieces that he thinks he can use, only to have it sit in our yard for a year and get put out again the following season.

JahTeh said...

Fleetwood, honest to Goddess they were big enough to be ocean going trawlers, some had trailers on the back filled to the top.

Andrew, you know how I love bent things and it will be sanded and estapoled because it's in great condition. Label on the bottom says it was made in Cechoslovakia. That's not the right spelling, don't be picky.

Jayne, it already has a cushion on it and not a bit IKEA looking. I'll bet you'd find those tiles made up into notice boards selling at a craft market.

Rh, it's one of the institutions of suburbia. Kingston Council said there'd be fines for scavangers but I think they gave up on that. I like to think my upholstered half chair went to make a very classy billycart.

River, there was another dining table chair just around the corner but I didn't get to it before the rain. I was trying to measure it by eye to see if it would go in front of the computer but the rain came first.

Miles McClagan said...

The Brownlow Medal was hilarious though - Gary Ablett spat it when he didn't win and a woman got a plaque for her work boiling sausages at the ground. What a treat!

R.H. said...

I'm sorry Ablett didn't win it, and I'm sorry they've turned it into a hairdo parade: an australian idol, with suspense, pauses, and adverts every eight minutes.

R.H. said...

I'm sorry most of all that M. Richardson (son of Bull) didn't win it.

Lad Litter said...

I have to put the blinkers on when driving home during HRC weekends. But our old couch and a couple of bent clthes horses went well before collection day. One man's trash...

JahTeh said...

Miles, one should always honour the cooks especially them in charge of the snags.

Rh, the wives and girlfriends might as well have a moment in the spotlight but it must be hell if you're an average looking bird.

Lad, It kills me because I haven't got a car and anything good I have to throw on my back so I've had to leave some good junk behind. One was a china pedestal with matching planter, but I was miles from home and it weighed a ton. I sobbed, I tells ya.

R.H. said...

Why didn't you get a taxi?

Middle Child said...

Much to my kids embarassment I get all excited when rubbish collection furniture days are on