What a day!
I have been going to the off lead park with Himself and the dogs this week and it's been lovely to see all the regulars. It has made me realise how bad my depression had become as I didn't want to leave the house. Going to the park has lifted my spirits and is healing my soul.
In typical Melbourne Spring style we are going from having to wear a hat and sunscreen one minute to ducking the hail the next. We are currently experiencing constant, steady rainfall. Hark back to the Great Earthquake of last week (5.9 on the Richter scale) and I recall thinking that it sounded as though someone was running across the roof. It was more likely the tin roof buckling and waving and today the results came in. We have a leak. A claim has been put in with the RACV* and someone will come out next Thursday to assess. Himself has been up in the roof and can see evidence of water entry but it seems to be away from electrical stuff so we aren't classified as urgent. I guess if the roof falls in we might get upgraded! But so far, so good. Just a bloody nuisance with a bucket in the middle of the floor.
This morning I was reading the paper and saw there had been a murder in a SE Melbourne suburb. As this is where we are I read the article and found it was in the street where my student lives (remember I volunteer with a program teaching English to migrants and refugees?). It's a long street. The stabbing was in the flat right next door to poor Annie. She was woken at 2am with the police pounding on her door. It made for an interesting conversation session. Sadly it appears to be another domestic violence situation but she was worried that someone might come back. How awful to leave a strife torn country to have this happen next door.
*RACV has always prided itself on being local and is why I stay with them so I was a bit taken aback when it sounded as if the claims department had been taken offshore. I was having a whinge to Three about this and he pointed out that noone wants to work in a call centre so even if they are based in Melbourne they are likely to be staffed by people from overseas. I hang my head in shame.
Yes, quite so about call centres. Just because they have a accent it does not mean they aren't Australian. As long as their accent is not not too pronounced and the phone line ok, I've never had a big problem with overseas call centres either.
ReplyDeleteBugger about your roof and so bad for your student to be so frightened in such a safe country. Today I was gobsmacked at the rising numbers of murders in the US.
In the early 90s I used to teach English to recent migrants. In the noughties I offered my services again and I was told there is really no one in your area who has asked for English language help.