Thank you for all the emails, it was great to get such a response.
Yes, I do know how lucky I am to have Doc. Though his exes might disagree. We “deserve each other” is the phrase I heard on a number of occasions – and I don’t think they meant because we are both so wonderful!
And for those of you who wish your partners/boyfriends/husbands were more like him – be careful what you wish for.
As wonderful as he is, there is a reason he does so much around the place. It’s because he can’t sit still.
My idea of a summer holiday (or a holiday at any time) has always been lazing on the beach, reading detective stories or other trashy novels, jumping in the water when it gets too hot, and then back out in the sun again. Of course a full day like that has to be followed by dinner & a couple of drinks at the pub with friends.
So where am I now? Western NSW with not a beach in sight. It’s after 7pm, and Doc is still working away, a generator running the cement mixer so he can finish concreting whatever has to be concreted in the holes for the ‘country shed’.
Don’t get me wrong – I love it out here. I love the peace and quiet, I love the photo opportunities, but most of all I love the RELAXATION.
Doing nothing is how I relax. Doing stuff is how Doc relaxes. So yes, I am quite content to lie in my hammock with a good book and a glass of wine while he works his arse off. It keeps us both happy.
The only time I have seen Doc not do anything was when he had depression brought on by his workplace. And that wasn’t nice. I used to have to ring him up from work just to remind him to get out of bed. Even then he’d only make it as far as the lounge. That went on for months, so now I am very, very happy to see him working so hard.
Like any “idyllic country cottage”, our place needs work, so as much as I like to relax there are also things I like to do around the place.
Decades of shooters using it as a permanent tent has taken its toll. Sometimes they haven’t even shown the respect they would a tent – there are bullet holes in walls, including internal walls, and multitudes of muddy boots have left the floor in a condition where even the 3 second rule doesn’t apply. If food goes anywhere close to the floor it gets thrown out, just in case. In addition, somebody seems to have lit a plastic fire in the laundry fireplace which left thick, black greasy, smoke grime on the walls of the bathroom. Nobody can remember it happening, or remember when the grime wasn’t there, which means it’s been there for over 10 years.
But we are getting there in making it truly idyllic. Doc has already made lots of functional improvements, and I’ve started on the inside. The bathroom is clean and painted and the kitchen walls are cleaned ready to be painted, probably on our next visit. You – or at least I – can’t rush these things and do too much at once!
Right now it’s time for a drink on the verandah while I contemplate my next job.
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