Now I’m really worried

Twenty year olds are a strange breed. They order home-delivered hamburgers at 11pm after you’ve fed them a substantial dinner at 8pm.

They try to be thoughtful and put “DO NOT ring the doorbell” on the order, but the Uber Eats driver doesn’t read the instructions and rings it twice anyway.

When I was their age I rarely ate burgers after 11pm and I had to pick them up myself. The only takeaway joint open late in Newcastle in the 80s was Hamburger Haven on Darby Street. But you would normally find me doing more civilised things, like splitting melted cheese on toast with friends at Kurtz Coffee Shop, which was down a laneway beside the infamous Star Hotel.

These days kids blithely order burgers, fries and cans of soft drink to be scootered to their doorsteps on a whim.

I don’t even have the Uber app. Old school.

I was just drifting off to sleep when the doorbell rang, so I was a little weary yesterday. I was also a bit weighed down with worry about the eldest’s horrendously infected eye. They are quite ill too and have a terrible cough. The doctor was so panicked about the eye situation that the illness was sidelined.

There is another appointment with the specialist today. Fingers crossed for better outcomes.

And I am fretting about the youngest being booked on a flight home from Paris via Ho Chi Minh City with a 13-hour layover and no visa, so she will be confined to the airport the whole time.

Can you imagine anything worse? That would be my idea of hell.

Speaking of hell, I’ve become a little more disenchanted by apartment living after discovering a convicted criminal has possibly been allowed to rent an apartment in the building.

He ran the engine on his unregistered car in the garage for two hours on Wednesday – I am presuming because the battery was flat – and almost asphyxiated everyone with the fumes. When someone had the audacity to knock on his door and ask him to switch it off or charge the battery outdoors he went a bit deranged.

Another neighbour Googled his unusual name and a newspaper article came up about a bloke with self-confessed “anger management issues”. He was convicted of smashing up a parked car under the influence of alcohol. The judge said his “previous criminal record did not help him” during sentencing.

Eeeek. Might just be a coincidence. Might also be a good idea to give him a wide berth.

Wow, it’s the weekend again already! I’m off to a party on Saturday night and borrowing a Ute on Sunday to drive a stack of household items to the youngest’s new share house. Busy, busy.

How about you? Have a good one!

Song of the day: Lenny Kravitz “Fly away”