Just a day

It was on my list 'to do'. That is have the smoke alarms replaced. The one nearest the kitchen is set off at times by Phyllis cooking, and it only makes a soft cheeping noise. Not enough to wake anyone from a deep slumber. The other is partly hanging loose from the ceiling. I assume it still worked, although I haven't checked it since I last replaced the back up battery. They are hard wired to the electric, with a battery backup.

I called the electrician this Tuesday morning to replace the smoke detectors. It is pointless asking for a quote. I know they do go a good job and charge a fair price by the hour. I s'pose I'll wait a week or two for someone to do the job.

I caught the tram to Prahran for a pedicure. I decided to speak up about the pedicure. I always say to cut my toenails short, but they are cut like I am a young woman who shows off her feet. No one sees my bare feet, so I am not concerned about appearance, so I told the woman to cut my big toenails shorter and more square. She stuck a very sharp blade into a hand held device and stripped away any dead skin on my feet. My skin fell like confetti. That was followed by abrasion.  

As my feet were being attended to, the electrician sent me a message, would I be home between 1.30 and 3.00. I will be, and the sparky arrived around 2.00 and half an hour later, the job was done. In days of old, I would have done the replacement myself. 

It is a bit hard to get excited by smoke alarm replacements, but they do look very nice and clean, unlike the 28 year old units.

Phyllis and Kesav were out having fun while this was happening, and once home forgot about the smoke detectors being replaced. After a couple of hours and Phyllis plating up a meals on wheels for me to heat in the microwave, went out again.

Quite a satisfying day really.   

The rent reduction

I reduced Phyllis' and Kesav's rent with a few conditions, the major one being that if either or both of them are home at my dinner time, they are responsible for heating it or cooking the meal. This worked well for a while until they weren't so often home at my dinner time, being busy working. 

Two days ago Phyllis did not tell me he would not be home, as he went straight from one job to another. Kosov left for work early, over three hours before my dinner time. Had I have known, I could have prepared something myself, one way or the other, mentally at least. Similar happened a couple of days earlier. I was not happy. 

I mentioned to Kosov that the recycling needed to be taken down, ages before he left for work and he did not. I noticed Jass' water fountain was nearly empty. I sent him a one line message, 'Recycling and Jass water'. 'Sorry Andrew, as soon as I am home'. 

At dinner time, Phyllis called and I ignored the call as I was picking up some takeaway across the road. He called again and I answered and he said he told me he would not be home at dinner time to fix my meal. He did not tell me such in advance.

They both arrived home from their jobs before I went to sleep, and my displeasure must have already been guessed about and discussed. In summary, I told them that they had to act like responsible adults, and real life was not all about Japanese Animae. Taking the recycling down to the basement is their responsibility, it used to be mine, and ensuring Jass has water is also their responsibility.  

They were both home the next day and after I went shopping for staples, we all went out in Perl for a Kosov driving lesson, and he drove on a motorway for the first time, to Williamstown and back over the Westgate Bridge. I am still not happy with his traffic checking at roundabouts, but he is improving each driving lesson.

As an aside, and I can't imaging why, but Coles supermarket in Williamstown is absolutely fabulous. What a wonderful variety of food, fresh and packaged.

I picked up some heated chicken drumsticks to eat sitting outside. Onnndrewww, you are hungry. Eat the the drumsticks. Kosov, I do not eat food while walking up and down supermarket aisles. I sit down to eat. Here Onndreww, eat. I did. I am so ashamed by my consumption of chicken drumsticks in the Williamstown Coles Supermarket aisle. I just thought no one would notice one, but then I ate another.

But we three had a lovely weekend away, which I will of course tell you about.