A cool southerly

This morning I awoke early to the alarm, set the previous night, because the girl had asked me to do her laundry as soon as possible today. She had a hairdresser's appointment this morning but wanted her sweaty dance clothes from the night before to be cleaned beforehand. So I got up and put the laundry on - including both my own clothes and hers - then went back to bed to sleep a bit more. I got up again about 90 minutes later to put her clothes into the tumble dryer, then later still - watching the clock, as it happened - I went to her room and woke her up.

We didn't have time for breakfast but instead soon enough got in the car for the short drive to Newtown - where her preferred salon is located - and so made our way through Glebe and onto City Road before we made it to the address on King Street. After dropping her off, I drove down to St Peters and turned left into Sydney Park Road, then up Mitchell Road and home.

Back at the apartment, I made a couple of phone calls in order to try to get someone to come out to have a look at the air conditioner in the bedroom - there is only one air conditioner in the apartment - because it had not worked on the really hot night we had had in January, when it was needed. I also called Medibank to inform them of mum's death - although it turned out that I had already done this in October - and emailed The Department of Human Services to let them know too. The girl came home bearing a container full of vegetarian Thai food, which I started eating as soon as she had sat down to a cup of tea. I didn't finish the container but instead stopped eating when I felt full.

The air conditioner repairman arrived not long after and I showed him into the bedroom where the wall unit is mounted. He told me that it had cut out on that hot night because of the cooling load imposed on the compressor. It seems the ambient temperature had just been too much for the machine to cope with, because today it ran quite happily, cooling the room efficiently as it is designed to do. There is a problem with it however and when the business owner called me back later to take my payment over the phone by credit card for the service visit he told me it wasn't worth fixing. I would need a new machine, and he would send me a quote by phone.

I helped the girl with a translation she was working on for a client, because the original translation from Chinese was quite hard to understand, being literal rather than logical for English speakers. She had to go into town later on and I was about to go with her when my psychiatrist's receptionist called me to remind me of an appointment made for today. I made my way down to his office and paid, before going into his room and sitting down. We talked for the usual 45 minutes and covered a lot of ground, but mainly dealt with my wish to lose weight and the dietary regime I had started. He though that my plan - to reduce calories and do light exercise with walking - was a good one and that I should stick to it. He was also pleased I had cut down most of my alcohol intake.

I got back home and the girl returned not long afterward, just before the southerly appeared and changed the outside temperature. I paid a couple of bills having checked the mailbox. I made more tea for her and we ate the Turkish takeaway food she had brought with her, talking between ourselves until it was time to take her home. I drove her home and came back to eat some cheese and crackers. Later, I had an avocado and an orange.