Today saw the house become a little less full. Two Iraqi chaps, Qusay and Annan, managed to denude most rooms and fill their truck to the brim. It was a mammoth task, particularly with the awful three seater electric monstrosity that Bob bought a while back. “But it was very comfortable,” said Mirinda but, as I said, if only he’d bought two independent chairs rather than a massive long thing that weighed a ton, life would have been so much easier for the removalists. Still, after a lot of heaving and hoing, the boys managed to get it out and into the truck.
And, by midday, the house was full of echo and empty space.
The space above has always had a big, beautiful dining table in it. It was made at the family factory as a present to Bob & Claire when they built the house. There were six chairs around it. I really hope it goes to someone who will cherish it as much as it was here. It really was a gorgeous piece of first class workmanship*.
I’ve just realised my walking stick is in the photo above. As I said to Mirinda, now the rooms are largely empty, I need to use my stick because there’s nothing to hang onto. It’s very odd using it inside, but it can’t be helped.
In the TV room, we’ve resorted to using three armchairs, one of which will be going to Budgewoi tomorrow. And, given the ugly three seater lounge, it was a vast and cosy improvement to the seating arrangement. The three of us had a lovely dinner of takeaway Indian, each on our own armchair, watching Clickbait.
We’d ordered dinner from the New Delhi in Dural near the gross food dumps (KFC, McDonald’s, etc) and Fi and I had gone up to collect it. The food was delicious, though Mirinda had ordered enough for us, the removalists, Tony the handyman and the two electricians who visited in the afternoon to fix the now half working cooker. Given they’d all long gone by the time we set out the food, I did wonder why. Mind you, we now have enough food to last for the next few weeks.
Speaking of the electricians, Jake spent a while on the cooker before determining he had to order a couple of parts and would return. He also determined that the smoke alarms were out of date and needed replacing. I told him it was a shame because they worked really well when the power went off, deafening us extremely well. He said they were not compliant given they were ten years out of date. What a funny world we live in. I’m not sure that I’m compliant, given the rules.
Kenny carried on with replacing the light shades in the bedrooms. He had one to complete following his hard work the other day. He completed it quickly and left us alone in the rapidly furniture diminishing house. Tomorrow it will be even emptier.
Not so furniture empty was the New Delhi Indian restaurant. It was full of furniture.
There were quite a few tables and chairs, but with no bottoms to place upon them. Mind you, there was a strange little group of people standing around, looking a bit sheepish. Fi reckoned they were staff trainees, though they could just as easily have been English as a Second Language students. We shall never know. I just thought it was amusing to have a restaurant full of tables and chairs while our place has none.
* I don’t know how to make ‘workmanship’ gender-neutral. Mind you, in the case of the table referred to, it was, exclusively made by men. I know because that’s who were working at the factory at the time. Still, it does make me ponder the linguistic solution. In a legal document, the word would be defined, but that’s no help when it comes to everyday usage. I admit, I’m stumped.
