September 14th 2005, 1650B
The little things can be so good for a guys’ morale. Ok, so perhaps getting paid isn’t such a “little thing”, ‘cause if I’d not received my allowances sometime soon I’d have been well fucked, not to put too fine a point on it. I was down to my last $15, and that wasn’t going to go very far I can assure you. Getting paid a day early, now that’s fairly “little”, but welcome all the same. I didn’t get quite so much as I’d thought I was going to, only $216, but it should be plenty to last me till next pay day.
But the “little thing” that has put such a beeeeeg smile on my dial, is that today I received the parcels Rob put together for me. There’s nothing essential in them, nothing I couldn’t really live without, but it’s remarkable how much my mood has improved because they arrived. That little contact from home, that small connection with the fond & familiar, makes all the difference.
Rob’s a really great guy, I must say. He seems to have forgotten, or not been able to get hold of some of the stuff I asked him to get for me, & some of what he did get made me laugh my tits off – for example he evidently forgot what deo I asked for, so he bought three different kinds. And still didn’t get the one I’d asked for lol
But he made up for that by putting in a bunch of stuff I’d not asked for, like coffee creamer, chocolates, biltong, & also a little note with news from home, which was very welcome.
And best of all, a bottle of whiskey :D
Even more so than coffee, whiskey is proof that God loves us, and that He wants us to be happy.
In fact, I have this firm belief that God is a whiskey drinker. On ice for preference, but failing that with a SMALL dash of soda water. He’s not too fussy when it comes to choosing between Scotch or Irish whiskey, and He’ll even drink bourbon at a push, but He’s reserved a special place in Hell for people who pollute whiskey with coke, or anything else for that matter.
Rob is a philistine, & he says that there’s very little difference between whiskey, brandy, gin, vodka, or any other spirit, but I’ll forgive him his heresy. I don’t know if God will, but he’s a good friend, so I will :P
But I digress. So I’m sitting here, munching away on a piece of some long-dead cows ass, & sipping on a nice 8 year old single malt while I type this up. And, all in all, I’m in a pretty damn good mood.
Ok, so I’m drinking the whiskey from of a plastic mug, & I don’t have any ice, so it’s cutting very close to sacrilege, but you have to make the odd concession to circumstance I suppose :P
Ahhh…. this is such a nice way to end the day.
Otherwise, that’s about it really. I had chance to call Ash a little earlier, & it was good to chat with her again, but otherwise about the only other incident that’s even remotely of interest is that today I again proved that perhaps electricity isn’t so much of a friend as I’d previously thought. This time it wasn’t me being dumb & careless though.
Well, maybe just a little, but only with the benefit of hindsight. In my opinion, at least :P
This time, what happened was that I was trying to indulge in my most desperate need & requirement of the morning – i.e. coffee - & I’d borrowed a kettle to boil water with. I’d plugged it into my extension lead - which wasn’t spliced or otherwise user modified in any way this time, I’ll have you know – and it was starting to bubble away merrily when all of a sudden it stopped boiling. Somewhat perturbed & confused, I made sure that the extension lead was plugged in securely & that the kettle plug was seated properly, but there still wasn’t any power going through. The aircon was still working, so there was obviously no problem with the supply, & at this point I was at something of a loss as to why there was suddenly no power to the extension lead. This is when I decided to pick up the multi-plug at the end of the cable… ouch. It didn’t take me long to let go, swearing a blue streak about my stinging fingers. In this instance, it wasn’t voltage that precipitated something of a religious experience – I certainly directed remarks AT God, if not necessarily TOO Him - but rather heat. It seems that the wire in the extension cable was of too light a gauge to handle the current, and as such the voltage running through it exceeded design specs. The insulation around the wires promptly melted, turning about 3 meters of flex into gooey sludge, though fortunately it didn’t cause a fire when it shorted out. There was plenty of heat given off all the same though, & I lightly crisped the ends of my fingers when I picked it up.
Bloody cheap ass Burundian piece of crap.
With hindsight, I could be charitable & say that maybe I should have thought that the extension lead couldn’t handle the power the kettle was drawing, but I prefer my interpretation of events, ‘cause it means I can swear at the locals that made the cable :P
And I’ve expressed previously just how fond I am of the Burundians lately…..
Anyway, I’ve had a fair amount to drink by now & I’m feeling just a little bit mellow, so I’m going to end off here for now. I’ll catch up again soon enough though, I’m sure.
Take care, & keep well ;)
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