buildinggracelands: 2nd December

Today was not a routine day. Lester had a little appointment at Warners Bay Hospital, so we were up early, so early in fact that I rang Steve (just) before 7am. He was up and going! I had had a few things dawn on me in the depths of the night which I felt I should chat with him about - hard wiring fire alarms and other security matters. Of course, Steve had dealt with each one of my concerns days before and I need not have worried. He is, of course, excellent at his job. These days the young'uns who do construction management have to go to university for three years before they can embark on that career. Steve learnt it "on the ground". I'm not sure if Steve regards it more as a job than a career, but it must be that Central Coast blood which makes him so good at this job. Steve grew up in Bensville, a little backwater on Brisbane Water between the then slightly larger backwaters of Empire Bay and Kincumber, where I grew up. (It's all out the back of Gosford.)

Here I will digress in the manner of a pick-a-path story. If you aren't interested in a digression but want to keep focused on the build, then skip this paragraph. Steve is a few years younger than I am and he went to Erina High. I didn't ever know him until about twenty years ago when he started working on the Stockton house after the earthquake. His company was, and still is, based in Maitland. Earlier this year we were discussing the fact that I was thoroughly enjoying my retirement. He said something like..."I hated my English teacher. His name was Daggy!" At which point I replied,"That wouldn't have been Daggy Price would it? I remember him. He was my friend's father!" There was only one Daggy and I know several blog followers will remember Daggy too. (The name derived from the fact that he had bunches of hair that stuck out at odd angles, like the cartoon character, Dagwood.) So, apart from demonstrating, once again the three degrees of separation, my point in relating this story is this. Just as well Steve did not love his English teacher because then he may have chosen another career and not become the master builder he is today. Thank God for Daggy!

While I was waiting for Lester I had a few hours to fill in at Warners Bay shopping centre. After indulging at the coffee shop and the dress shop, I wandered into a second hand book shop. I consciously reminded myself that I was not to buy any books because hadn't I spent the last fortnight trying to get rid of hundreds books! However...I did buy two. One was a book of the Australian Forces' campaigns in the Middle East which amazingly followed the path of my father's war experiences (with some great photos) and the other was "Photographic Acquisitions of the Lake Macquarie City Gallery 1997". It was way over-priced but it actually had one picture in it that my purchase imperative. It was another one of 59 Hunter Street in about the 50's or 60's. This time it has the sign Queensland Insurance on it.

This photo was taken by Milton Merrilees at the 150th Celebrations. Out place has Queensland Insurance on it and the place next door was a coffee Shop. Looks like a regular mosh pit!

On the way home we called into the surgery to turn off the server as John will be attaching the new line downstairs tomorrow and will need to turn off all the power. We checked out upstairs and noted progress: the windows are in, the power board is in position, the hole through the floor where the wires will go through to the surgery is obvious, and the part of the ceiling which will be boxed in is rapidly filling up with the wires which it will hide.