Today’s Sunday Sesh is brought to you by Matilda Bay’s Fat Yak, an American-style pale ale. Matilda Bay is currently one of my favourite breweries, bringing you crackers such as Beez Neez honey-infused lager, Dogbolter Dark Lager, and Big Helga, a Munich-style, Oktoberfest-inspired dry lager.
As you can see, it’s a nice golden colour – darker than your usual run-of-the-mill pale ale. Smells crisp, and it’s a refreshing drink, especially after a day working on the house. A great pub beer when it’s on tap (it’s my beer of choice when we go out), and great with a counter meal. I always try to have some of this in the fridge (if not, I normally have some in stock in the cupboard).
A question to start off the session today – are Wifey and I the only two people in Oz who don’t give a toss about the outcome of Bathurst? Sorry Brocky and Dick Johnson (yeh, I know who they are) but Ford v Holden? Meh! Even the fact that I could plant myself in front of the telly with an esky full of beer couldn’t make me sit through a car race.
If I wanted to see motor-enhanced action, I’d just sit at any of the main roads in town on a Friday or Saturday night, and watch the heroes dragging each other off at the lights. Come to think of it, I can just watch out my bedroom window at the clowns racing down my street, leaving their tyre-rubber on the corner up the road.
Or I could just get out the scalextric set, and drive the cars myself.
So if we haven’t been watching the Big Race, what have we been up to? This weekend is the first we’ve had in awhile that was free of visitors and commitments, so we decided to work on the house. Wifey has been doing the yard work, and I’ve been doing bits and pieces of painting and prep-work for more renos. Wifey even got excited and started knocking down the brick back steps in readiness for the new deck. Three hours later and she’s only half-way done.
We’ve also been looking at open houses, as we’re hoping to get our house on the market by Jan/Feb, and buy our second house. We’ve decided on another renovator, but we’re hoping to buy up into a better area, so we’re looking for a “worst house in the best street” kind of thing. It’s been awhile since we’ve really been looking, but it’s nice to know that the real estate jargon hasn’t changed.
“Original condition” means nothing has been done on it since it was built – this, funnily enough, is what we’re after. Although there is a huge difference between a house that’s been looked after, and one that’s falling down around itself.
“Entertaining area” is a pretty ambiguous one – a few pavers out the back does not an entertaining area make. Neither does a bit of cement that used to be the old outdoor laundry.
“Lush gardens” usually means overgrown and unwieldy, meaning a complete overhaul.
“Newly renovated” means some stuff has been done to it in the last ten years. Usually badly.
After having a look around this weekend, we’ve settled on a few areas we want to concentrate on, and know what we definitely don’t want. Finding it will be the problem, but we’re hoping that starting early will mean we have a better chance. We’re also using it as a chance to narrow the field of agents we think we might use. So far, we’ve been pleasantly surprised and haven’t had too many hard-sellers. They tend to leave you alone when you tell them you’re currently renovating and just keeping an eye on the market.
There’s just over three weeks to go before Nano starts, and apart from cleaning the study last weekend in readiness, I’ve also been doing some plotting and characterisation on my chosen Nano idea. After working on it for the past week, I’ve come to realise that I seem to have an obsession with death. It shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise, since I do work in taxes, but I didn’t realise how obsessed I was until I looked back over a few of my other ideas that have been percolating in my brain.
In the process of cleaning the study, I also organised my notes and paperwork, and no less than five of my WIP/ideas have a whiff of death about them. Some of them more than others, but it’s there. I’m not sure why entirely, although when you kill a character off, that’s a pretty good plot point. It’s also a great way to get rid of a character you thought was alright when you started, but they turned into a whiney, self-obsessed pain in the ass. The story is not all about them but they take it over, so you know, as God, I get to drive them off a cliff, or get some horrible disease. Or I can just make them disappear – you really shouldn’t mess with someone who knows some badass characters……
It’s time for another Fat Yak methinks. And to see how the Wallabies went against the Springboks. Rugby isn’t something I normally watch, but if we make the final, I’ll make sure I support them with a beer or three in front of the telly. Much better than watching cars go around a track all day.
until next Sunday’s Sesh,
Cheers!