Author: admin

Categories
Office Design

Office Building Site

‘Hey, what the hell are you doing on my site?’ I barked across the noisy din of construction.

A small man in a suit looked at me and then rushed over with a grin.

‘Mister Andrews?’ he asked, when he got within shouting distance, not quite as practiced at being heard over construction equipment as I was.

‘Who’s asking?’ I frowned. ‘And where’s your hard hat?’

‘I, uh,’ he stammered, patting his balding head. ‘Oh, golly, I don’t—’

‘Hey, Joey,’ I tapped the arm of a passing builder, ‘go and get my new lawyer friend a hard hat, would ya?’

‘How did you know I was a lawyer,’ the man frowned, as Joey rushed off with a nod.

I raised an eyebrow and looked him up and down.

‘Fair enough,’ he grinned, slightly too widely. ‘I’m here to talk to you about this job.’

‘What about it,’ I said, picking up my clipboard and starting my rounds.

‘Well, we understand that the office design is a bit… dated.’

‘Excuse me?’ I stopped in my tracks, the lawyer almost running into my back. ‘We’re carpet installers. We’re doing exactly as we were told.’

‘No offence,’ he quickly stammered. ‘There are just some more – slightly more! – interesting commercial office designs around Melbourne that we’d like you to take a look at.’

‘Buddy, I’m not in charge of the design,’ I scribbled something down. ‘You gotta chat to the office designers.’

‘Ah, but the office designer is out of town this whole month, and you’re the next in—’

‘Listen, pal,’ I stopped again, turning around. He’d learned his lesson apparently, and didn’t bump into me this time. ‘I’m not your guy.’

‘I’m afraid this is coming directly from the client. Would you at least look at some of these commercial fitouts? Melbourne offices look so great nowadays.’

He opened his briefcase, pulling out a pile of blueprints before I could protest.

‘Not my department,’ I repeated. ‘And if you’re not going to wear hard hat, I’m afraid I need you to leave my site.’

Categories
Office Design

The Office Exchange

‘I cannot believe this,’ I groaned, sinking back into my desk chair and rubbing my temples.

‘It’s not that bad,’ Yoshido rolled his eyes, picking up the stock report I’d just tossed onto my desk. He frowned as he skimmed it, pushing back his thick-rimmed glasses. ‘Oh, my mistake. Those numbers are terrible.’

‘You truly are my guiding light,’ I said, dryly.

‘Look, we can fix this,’ he said, rolling the paper up into a tube and tapping it against his palm as he paced my carpeted office floor.

‘How? I have a meeting with the shareholders tomorrow.’

‘Maybe you’re too sick to go? Buy us some time?’

‘That might be fraud.’

‘Then we’ll tour you through a hospital and wait for someone to cough on you,’ he rolled his eyes.

He paused and looked down at the carpet.

‘Is this new?’

‘What?’

‘The carpet.’

‘Oh,’ I grumbled. ‘Yeah, just got installed recently. Part of some new interior design to make offices more comfortable. Melbourne branch organised it.’

‘You don’t say…’ Yoshido stroked his chin.

‘Why do you look like you’re getting an idea?’

‘You don’t want me getting ideas?’

‘No, your ideas just tend to scare me, is all.’

He did another lap of my carpet, stroking away. Suddenly he snapped his fingers.

‘We expand!’ he exclaimed.

‘What?’

‘We expand!’ he repeated. ‘We embrace a new corner of the market, give the shareholders something to talk about that isn’t… y’know.’

He threw the abysmal stock report back onto my desk.

‘What are you thinking?’ I asked, curious.

‘Picture this,’ he said with a grin. ‘Office fitouts. Melbourne will need to be told, obviously, or they’ll want a cut.’

I sat back in my seat, steepling my fingers.

‘That could work,’ I whispered. ‘What’s the market look like? Is there anyone who can be trusted to do a good job?’

‘I know the perfect company,’ Yoshido said with a smile. ‘Just leave all the details to me.’

Categories
Aluminium

The Ute Charges

A terrible hum filled the air as the beast of a ute drove right toward us. On instinct, I pressed Gollo’s head into the sand, burying my own at the same time. I felt the rumbling as it tore towards us, over us, felt my hat get torn off my head by the torrent of wind.

Then it was past us. I stuck my face up, wiping away the grit so I could see clearly again. The ute had sailed over the top of us, barely missing our tucked-up forms, judging by the tread patterns in the sand. I grabbed Gollo and pulled him to his feet, watching the monster as it spun itself around to face us again.

‘It’s no use,’ Gollo cried, clutching my arm as ute revved its engine. ‘We can’t outrun it, not on the sands.’

‘I’m thinking,’ I snapped at him. ‘Come up with something!’

Without warning, the ute was off again, tearing towards us like we were bowling pins.

Gollo and I dove to different sides, and the ute sailed between us, unable to make up its mind in time.

‘Could we break it open?’ Gollo called to me.

‘No,’ I shook my head. ‘Not with one of those high quality aluminium ute canopies – we’d never make a dent.’

The ute made its choice and charged – at Gollo.

He let out a cry and dove behind a small dune, barely his height. The ute powered up the side of the dune, ramping over it and twisting in the air above Gollo. As it did, I saw the latch on its tray slide out, ever so slightly.

A plan began to form behind my eyes. I smiled, even as I calculated the odds in my head.

Not great.

I just had to grapple with the back of the car, like I’d see them handle the ute trays near Melbourne. That’s if I could remember their technique.

Categories
Shoulder Surgery

Shoulder Surgery Recovery

I’m currently recovering from shoulder surgery. It is a slow process and I’m getting a bit frustrated spending all my time on the couch. I just want to get active and play sports again, which is my favourite thing to do. I’ll be starting recovery in a few days, which is almost two weeks after my surgery, and I’ll be doing rehab weekly after that for the next 4-6 months. It’s a long road to recovery, but I’m looking forward to about three weeks’ time when I get to start doing light exercise again. 

Even though I wish I didn’t have to have the surgery, I’m really glad that I chose to go to one of the most experienced shoulder surgeons Melbourne has to offer. She was really good before and during the surgery and has really informed me on what to do for my recovery post-surgery. Seeing as I didn’t want to have the surgery in the first place, I probably wouldn’t have followed this recovery regime so strictly if I didn’t have such a good surgeon explain to me why it is important. I’m naturally an impatient person. It’s not that I don’t respect people who have spent several years studying and practising their craft. It’s simply that I can’t sit still for more than twenty minutes at a time without feeling like I’m going crazy. You can imagine how stir crazy I’m going after almost a week on the couch recovering from shoulder surgery.

Even though I’m complaining about having had shoulder surgery, I do need to thank my lucky stars that I didn’t need a full-scale shoulder replacement. It seems like the recovery is similar to the surgery that I got, but in some instances, it can take up to a year for a person to get their full range of motion back. I would really struggle if my range of motion was limited for that long.

Categories
Community Nursing

Living in SDA Housing

I feel calm for the first time in a long time. I’m finally getting the care that I need – care that it has been clear I’ve needed for a long time. I think everyone knew that where I was living before wasn’t working. As much as I love my family and they love me, I needed support that they just weren’t trained to give me. That wasn’t their fault.

No one expected them to become qualified disability service providers overnight. I certainly didn’t. Especially because I wasn’t born with a disability. I was born completely healthy and then got into a huge accident when I was twenty years old. It didn’t impact my cognitive abilities, which is both a blessing and a curse, instead, it left me paralysed and unable to do anything for myself. It has been extremely hard on my loved ones.

The accident not only ruined my life forever, but in a sense it also ruined theirs. I could tell that they were ready to give up absolutely everything for me. They were going to dedicate their lives to looking after me, which I just couldn’t allow. For the first few months after my accident, I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I didn’t want their help. I couldn’t bear it because they had already given up so much for me. 

I remember the day that I told them that I wanted to go into SDA housing in the Adelaide CBD very clearly. At first, they were shocked and then a little offended. Then, after I asked them nicely, they started to actually think about it. It took them a little while to come around to the idea, because they said they felt like they’d be abandoning me, but I assured them that was not the case. I assured them that moving to SDA housing full time was what I needed. It would be what was best for me.

Categories
Cars

Things Will Be Okay

So six months on from my last update and things are starting to look better. I hoped and I prayed that this would be the case and I’m very happy to say that it is. It hasn’t been all sunshines and roses these last few months, in fact it’s been completely the opposite a lot of the time. But life can’t always be perfect and there are always going to be bumps in the road that we need to get through. I’m slowly but surely getting through them and hopefully I’m finally coming out the other side.

I’m really glad that I took my car into the mechanic when I did. When I last spoke with you all I was in a really bad place physically, financially and mentally. Because of my medical condition it was a struggle to get out of bed in the morning. It was even more of a struggle to go to work every day and even more of a struggle when I realised that my car was in need of a car safety certificate to be able to drive each day. To make matters worse, I would have to pay a lot of money to get it repaired so that it was in a roadworthy condition. They don’t just give out car safety certificates to anyone who wants one, which makes sense because they have a duty of care to ensure that a car is as safe as possible. As much as I understand that, I just wish it wasn’t the case in my situation because it did cost a lot of money that I didn’t and don’t really have. But alas, I had to do it. 

You know what’s funny? I can actually pinpoint the moment that everything changed for the better. It’s when I drove away from the mechanic after my urgent car maintenance. Raceview looked stunning, the sun was shining and my favourite song played on the radio. Even though I was struggling very hard, I knew at that moment that things would eventually be okay.

Categories
Buyer's Advocate

Property Mogul

I’ve flown to Melbourne to celebrate the purchase of my first Australian property. I’m incognito while I’m here. No one knows that I’ve come here or that I’ve bought a house here. When you’re as famous as I am, it can be absolutely detrimental for anyone to find out where you are at any given time. Not only is it a massive privacy concern, it can also be dangerous. Even the people who are just die-hard fans can be dangerous, as they get up way too close and personal for it to be safe. 

Yesterday I met with my buyer’s advocacy agency. In the Melbourne CBD, there really isn’t much to do, at least not in comparison to L.A. and New York City, so once I had popped into the buyer’s advocate and signed what needed to be signed (including a couple of autographs), I was on my way. I had my driver drive me past the house that I had just purchased and I am very impressed with it. The buyer’s advocate did an excellent job finding this property for me. I was always going to win the bidding, due to the sheer amount of money that I own, but she did a great job on the ground making sure the property fit my portfolio.

Now that I’ve explored the area, I think I might make this my place of residence when I’m in Melbourne. I will tour here in about a year for my next album release and this will be where I stay. I’ll have it decorated so that it feels like my other properties in America. It’ll be very easy to stay here going forward.

I’ve asked the buyer’s advocate servicing Brighton (who I worked with for the purchase of this Melbourne property) to put me in contact with a buyer’s advocate in Perth. I assume they would know their equivalent in Perth. Australia is a tiny place. I mean… what’s the population? 26 million or something? Australia may as well be a small country town.

Categories
Gardens

I Love Flowers

I love flowers. I love everything about them. I love how vibrant they are. I love how they all have their own fragrance and how they perfectly complement each other in a garden. Heck, I even love bunches of flowers dotted around the house to add colour and style to a room. Pretty much, I love flowers and anyone who knows me even slightly well would know that’s the case.

The best present I’ve ever received is from someone who decided to give me flower seeds. They said when they realised that they could buy flower seeds online they just knew that they had to get me some as a present. I was absolutely blown away. It took me a few months to sort through all the seeds that they had bought me online. They had bought me a nice variety of seeds that would blossom (or bloom) at different times of the year. I had to plan out my planting schedule accordingly, to make sure my garden looked beautiful year-round. 

My garden is flourishing one year after my friend bought me flower seeds. You should see it. I’ll post a photo with this blog post so you can see just how stunning it is. I think my favourite addition to my garden has been the climbing roses. They’re growing all over the back fence, which makes it look like my garden is even bigger than it actually is. They add such a much-needed pop of colour to an otherwise dreary looking back fence and I’m really glad that my friend added them to their carefully selected gift of flower seeds.

Anyway, I’m going to go and admire my garden for a while. Every day I like to sit on the small table and chair set that I have positioned right in the heart of the flower garden and just admire the beautiful flowers around me.

Categories
Podiatry

Orthotics for Lacey

‘Lacey!’ I called up the stairs, for the third time. ‘Your breakfast is getting cold!’

‘Isn’t her breakfast just ceral?’ Mark frowned from behind his newspaper. I shot him a shut up or I’ll divorce you look, and he shrugged and went back to his article.

‘Lacey!’

‘I’m coming!’ my ten year old daughter grumbled from the top of the stairs. As she stepped her way down them, I noticed her wincing.

‘Is everything alright, honey?’ I asked her, concerned.

‘I’m fine,’ she shrugged, exactly like her father.

I sighed and followed her to the fridge, grabbing the milk while she reached for her cereal in the pantry. She winced again as she stretched for the box.

‘Lacey, what’s going on?’

‘It’s just my feet,’ she rolled her eyes. ‘They’re a little sore.’

‘Is it your arches?’ I asked, concerned. ‘Mark, your daughter has your arches.’

‘That’s nice,’ he nodded, crunching into a piece of toast.

‘Mark!’ I yelled at him. ‘We need to get her to the best foot specialist around Cheltenham, and quickly!’

‘Why?’ he frowned, crumbs in his moustache. ‘Is there something wrong with her feet?’

‘No,’ Lacey rolled her eyes again. Internally, I swore vengeance on whoever made me believe I had until she was a teenager before the eye-rolling started.

‘This is important!’ I cried out, looking between them. ‘If we don’t get on top of this now–’

‘Then what?’ Lacey looked at me.

I blinked a few times, trying to remember what I’d read about unsupported arches.

‘Uh, you’ll be… look, I’m not the specialist! That’s the point!’

‘They’re just going to give her those children’s orthotics to wear. Cheltenham podiatrists all seemed to study at the same place.’ Mark shrugged. ‘It can wait.’

‘It can wait?!’

‘Wait is this happening today?’ Lacey asked.

‘Yes, it is!’ I glared daggers at my husband.

‘So no school?’

‘No, of course not, we have to–’

Lacey was already running back up the stairs.

‘Let me just change my clothes!’

Categories
Cars

The Service Plan

We zoomed past the border sign for the edge of District 11, and the resulting ding from my toll card woke me up. I yawned and stretched, and saw that Savii was watching me in her rear view mirror.

‘Morning, sunshine,’ she said, grinning widely. ‘How’d you sleep?’

‘Like a fugitive,’ I grumbled. ‘How are you so chipper? Haven’t you been driving all night?’

‘I don’t need as much sleep as– as you,’ she finished quickly.

‘Right,’ I frowned at her, pulling my jumper on and rolling down the back window for some fresh air. ‘Where are we anyway?’

‘Heading into the UV District,’ she told me. ‘So I’d close that window if you don’t want a nasty sunburn.’

‘The UV district…’ I murmured, doing as she said. ‘That means we’re close to the edge of the City!’

‘Don’t get too excited,’ Savii said, locking eyes with me in the mirror. ‘We need a game plan for when we get there.’

‘Why?’

‘Because they’ll be running vehicle inspections, for safety.’

‘Whose safety?’

‘Not ours,’ she said with a tight grin.

‘Do you think they’ll be suspicious?’

‘Of this car? With all its damage and/or missing wing mirrors? Can’t imagine why.’

‘Alright then,’ I grumbled, sliding into the front seat. ‘What’s your plan, abductor-mine?’

‘You’re a very dramatic person, do you know that?’

‘What’s the plan?’

‘Simple,’ Savii said, with a sly grin. ‘We get her fixed.’

‘Fixed? Fixed how?’

‘We find a place close to the border that does detailing work and can make her all pretty again.’

‘You can’t be serious. That’s your plan?’

‘I think we’ll also need someone to do a full car service near Morayfield – she ain’t sounding so hot right now.’

‘Colour me unsurprised,’ I muttered to myself. ‘You know I loved this car, right?’

‘Yessss,’ Savii groaned. ‘You bring it up every time I mildly bump into something.’

‘It was a wall!’

‘Not a full wall!’