Personal catch up

Just a bit of personal stuff. I employed a window cleaner last Tuesday, to clean the lounge room and balcony glass. Superficially, his work seemed ok, but after he left, I noticed he hadn't cleaned down the outside window sills, and the next morning with the sun on the balcony glass, the window cleaning was obviously very poor.

 I explained to him that the window tinting was old and ready to decay if not treated very gently, and so to be careful. He managed to damage the window tinting. This could have well happened if I cleaned the windows, so I am not so annoyed about that, but the basics of window cleaning should have been brilliant, and it wasn't. Window tinting now costs a fortune, but I guess I will get it done. Three windows in my apartment have already been redone. 

I'm trying to live up to Ray's mantra, shrouds don't have pockets. I've spent a lot of money since Ray died and the inheritance came through from my mother and then Ray, mostly on home improvements, and I will continue to do so. I have no one to leave money to. My siblings are fine for money. Phyllis and Kosov may get some money from me, but hey are already treated generously. 

Last Friday was my neighbour HH's 80th birthday. She said she would be away and had made a plan to catch the train to Adelaide, a city she knows reasonably well, but then decided she would stay home. In conspiracy with her son, I helped him on the day to have delivered to her a bottle of Baileys, and later flowers. Her daughter surprised her by taking her to a show about Don Lane, presented by his son P. J. Lane. After the show, she got to chat to John Michael Howson and newsreader Peter Hitchener, I think. Victorians of a certain age will remember these people. 

Thinking she may be away on the day of her birthday, two days earlier the three of us trooped downstairs to give her the gift I had bought. She showed Phyllis and Kosov around her apartment and we chatted for a bit. I gave her a notebook with the cover of local silo art, as she had taken a silo tour earlier this year, and knowing she drinks peppermint tea and lemon and ginger tea, I bought her an advent calendar that has a different tea bag for each of the 24 days. She adored it and the photo doesn't do the interior of the box justice. She said she would mount the box on her wall after she finished the teas. 

I had lunch with HH yesterday and caught up on her news. She is very social and outgoing. We walked to the lunch venue and on the way back she chatted to a postman, who I can't remember but he used to deliver to our building. They each asked other about respective families, and one day when all her dividend letters arrived and nearly filled her letter box, he called her on the intercom to tell her. There is much kindness in the building where I live, and I know people who I can trust. HH is going to feed Jass while we are away at the end of the month. 

Anyway, here are some pics of the T2 gift. It is quite large.