Glinting

Lately I just can’t stop noticing the lovely golden colours of the sun when it’s low on the horizon. I think it’s one of the nicest things about winter here. In summer, the sun beats down so hard and straight in a way that is barely tolerable. In summer, I would lift myself out of bed to make the most of the cooler early hours with my habitual walk along the beach. Lately I have not felt that urge, and this morning I just snuggled up in bed. I took this picture out our bedroom window, from my comfy position under the doona.


















But I don’t think that the warmth of my doona is the only reason why I haven’t been springing out of bed these last couple of weeks. The awful truth is that I have been a little tiny, tiny bit bored. Everything has been too easy for me, and too pleasant. Ugh.

My job at the construction site is finally finishing up, and the way that that came about was a teensy bit icky, too. The company asked me and asked me to consider taking a permanent job there and they asked so many times that I finally felt that I should consider it properly. I have quite a strong aversion to permanent employment (well, permanent anything really) so that was a big step for me. So I thought about it, and I let them know that I would like the job, but I asked for a salary that was quite a bit higher than what they were offering. (Why? I don’t know. The money is really not that important in cheap-as-chips Townsville). So I wasn’t all that surprised when they gave the job to someone else. But I did get that unsavoury feeling of mixed-up hurt at being refused something that I didn’t want in the first place.

This last week I have been training the person who they found to take the job in the end. You’d think that that would be a bit awkward, but I have to say that it couldn’t have gone to a nicer person: a 40-year-old grandmother to be, with an ancient Ford Fairlane and a pack-a-day habit. I’m not going to say her name here, so let me just call her Shazza. Shazza looks a bit rough, but she has a heart of gold. On her arrival on site, she presented all the guys in the office with lighters featuring pictures of naked ladies. She said she would have got me one, except for that I don’t smoke. I said that that’s OK. She’s taken to the job like a duck to water, leaving me very little to do around the office. Today, Friday, is my last day there.

Now that’s finished up, and I’m wondering what next to do with myself? I’m really looking for a challenge, and, well, there is something in the pipeline but I can’t say what it is yet. All I’m going to say is that it is exciting, and probably difficult and a little bit scary. I hope it comes off!