Counting the hours

I worked 54 hours last week as a contractor.

When I moaned that I was tired, my friends noted that at least I was being paid by the hour for my efforts.

Yeah, that’s true, I suppose.

However, being paid by the hour has put a very different spin on my spending. Every time I buy goods or services, my brain can’t help calculating how many hours I had to work to pay for them.

It’s quite the reality check.

I don’t want to think about how many hours I’ve worked to pay for my roof to be fixed.

Two blokes spent yesterday up there sealing all the cracks the terracotta tiles and spray painting them Ironstone blue. Today they are replacing all my rusted out guttering.

Fingers crossed I haven’t made a mistake changing the colour of the tiles from reddish orange to blue … I’m really hoping it adds to the resale value of the house rather than subtracting from it …

How it started … how it’s going …

I’m slightly worried that the roof is paler than the garage door.

Ah well, I’m stuck with it now.

In other blue Monday news. I was so excited to get a media release yesterday about the annual whale migration beginning.

I loooooooove whale watching.

The first of about 40,000 humpback whales have started their long swim towards tropical waters, with sightings of them off the NSW east coast.

Whales cover about 10,000km during their annual round trip from Antarctic waters, at a migratory speed of about six kilometres per hour.

Most of the whales that travel past the NSW coast are humpback whales, however other whale species include southern right whales, dwarf minke whales, tropical whales and even blue whales.

I see a few afternoons on headlands in my future, with a glass of pink wine in hand.

Song of the day: New Order “Blue Monday”

Comment about the awesome song on YouTube: “As a club dj in the eighties, my fondest memory was the moment I could drop this masterpiece into my set. People would freak out, nearly tearing their clothes in an effort to get to the dance floor. I have never before and rarely since seen dancers experiencing such moments of total kinetic bliss. The word “floorgasm” was coined just to describe that scene. One of the highpoints of my 25+ years working as a DJ.”