Whirlwind Week And Winter Wonderland
It’s been a whirlwind week, not because of the speed that it has passed, but the tumultuous time it has been.
That’s not to suggest it was a torrid affair.
In fact, it was anything but.
Work was a generally great time.
Monday I had been expecting to receive notice that my trial period was over.
It didn’t happen.
But I was informed on Tuesday!
I’d forgotten that Monday was a holiday in Australia for Australia Day.
My boss is based in Melbourne.
Moreover, my employer bent the employment rules.
Instead of giving me a contract to the end of the current fiscal year, which will finish on March 31, my bosses convinced the human resources people to extend my terms through to the end of March next year!
Delightfully reassuring for an old man.
Work is giving me immense pleasure.
A huge part of that is my colleagues, who are not only extremely talented, but tremendously generous with their guidance and time.
It’s a thrill just to be able to work with them.
With the company supplying me with a new computer, I arranged my work schedule around the IT staff being available.
This meant an extra day turning up to the office.
Leaving the company PC in the office for three consecutive days enabled me to ride into work.
It was a glorious time with a pleasantly warm winter day a great time for riding.
My laptop still needs to be set up, and I have a dental appointment next week, so I will roll up for another three days again next week, too.
And that will mean another ride.
Provided, of course, that the forecast snow on Sunday holds off and we don’t get the icy roads that I avoid at all costs.
I didn’t get to ride much otherwise for this week.
I was only on the bike every second day.
But it was enough to carry me over the 1,000 kilometer mark for the month.
Having had a fairly unimpressive year in cycling terms in 2024, I’m hoping to get back on the bike a bit more this year.
I got a couple of beaut rides in today, the afternoon jaunt in particular coming after a trying period where software wasn’t performing as expected.
It was sunny and comparatively warm, so I could hit the Tama River Cycling Road in shorts!
This year’s winter has been something closer to what I feel is more traditional for the season.
Although still cold, this winter has been bright and sunny for the most part, which is a comtrast with the past couple of winters that have stood out for me for being dark and bleak, though comparatively warm.
I reckon this has had a wonderful effect on Kanageroo Corner. Having left for work in the dark and returned home after the sun had set on most days this week, I got my first daylight view of the garden this morning and was delighted to see huge patches of yellow standing out in the glow of the early morning light. It was our thriving grevillea tree, now entering its fourth year as the undisputed star of our plot of top performers. There are almost a dozen flowers in full bloom even now, the middle of winter.
The tree has been in constant bloom since the early spring of 2024. It’s an unimaginable delight and great surprise that the tree just keeps on producing. It’s first winter had me worried that its innate weakness against the cold may not get it through. It somewhow managed to hang on, but has since thrived vibrantly. It’s hard not to be thrilled by seeing the exotic flowers. Today was even better because bright sunshine got the Fountain of Strewth and our second bird bath fountain spraying lovely jets of water.
The weekend ahead sees more riding, a chat planned with my sister, looking after the dinosaur, studying the Certified Financial Advisor Foundations course and, most delightfully, the loo. After almost 40 years of living in Japan, one of the great delights of life in this country has been our washlette. The funky toilet seat had become an indispensible part of my life. Ours has been broken for the past month or so, basically taking my spirit with it.
But our new toilet seat equipped with a shower and heater arrived today and will be installed on Sunday. Life really doesn’t get much better than it is now!
