Monday 9 July 2007

Stereotypes Need unblocking


The holidays are going well. I've been doing various things, even getting a bit crafty in an arty sort of way. My Scottish heritage won't allow me to throw out any half used candles that refuse to burn to their demise, so over the years I have kept them all with the thought of burning them down to make new ones. That was one of the tasks of this fortnight. I did go through a short candle making phase many years ago, so roughly knew what I was doing. So ventured into a craft shop to buy wicks, out with the old saucepan and down with the old candles off the top of the kitchen cupboard. Now I had no fantasies of these candles looking any good, as long as they burned, but I did try to melt the wax in similar colours so they wouldn't look totally hideous. All was going well until I began to pour into the plastic mould. I hadn't let the wax cool enough, so it was all too much for the yoghurt container which buckled under the pressure. This resulted in wax making it's way down my kitchen sink.
Now this was too much for my kitchen sink. I think it was the last straw with probably many years of gunk (yes I know it's not in my Aunt's dictionary, but I like the word) not allowing the wax to make it's way through the pipes as one would normally expect! Now I'm not the handiest of men, but I thought I should be able to fix this, so I borrowed a wrench from my very handy father (from whom these particular genes did not pass to this particular son) and attempted to unscrew the piping under the sink. To no avail. I called in the services of son as apprentice, but to no avail. I rang a friend who is a very Handy Man, but even his expertise over the phone could not make it budge. So having felt proud that I had even tried, I decided it was time for a professional. This decisive moment was on Friday evening, so with my Scottish heritage coming to the fore again (by the way I ended up making some very functional candles!) I decided to wait until Monday to call a plumber as it would be cheaper. So this morning I rang soon after 9.00am and he was here soon after 10. It ended up being a bigger job than I think even he thought as he was here for an hour and a half. He told me I would never have been able to unscrew it myself as all the rubbers and thingys (not the word he used) were shot. He ended up replacing all the piping, so $200 later I have a nice new clean plug hole. What more could a boy want?
Now this plumber was your typical tradie, a real ocker bloke, but as part of his departing salutation, he told me to 'Take care'. The judgements I make in life never cease to be challenged - and long may that live.

7 comments:

Tales of the City said...

Hmm - I'll know what to get you if I ever come visiting to your shores. Which may be soon enough as my friend L, is moving to Sydney and my other friend P has had baby No 2 in Melbourne. Yep good moral of the story.. never judge a book and all that... just have a good leaf through it first!

Volacious said...

Oh dear god.. the carnage!!! heheh

Y'know... big candles are only $2 each at the discount store. You could have bought 100 of them for all your trouble ;-)

(I know how it is... Adam is half scottish. Getting him to throw away anything is excruciating!)

Anonymous said...

And thus the water flowed freely...

Doesn't sound as if handyman skills would have been of use to you if you did inherit them... :D

Monty said...

Love it Campbell! Makes me feel soooo much better about my errr occasionally frugal Scottish ways! :-)

Was the plumber cute???

CCTG - you may be visiting our Antipodean shores soon???? You do realize that you'll have to visit both Sydney and Melbourne! ;-)

Litzi said...

Hi Campbell,
In the U.S. we refer to what this gentleman, or ocker, is displaying as “plumber’s crack”. It’s become rather a standard joke…

How wonderful that you attempted to repair the sink yourself; a lot of people couldn’t/wouldn’t be bothered. Reward yourself with a Gold Star for effort.

So, are you going to continue to horde away candle stubs and try making them again in a few years or are you going to succumb and purchase new ones from here on out?

altraeis said...

Oh Campbell, I could almost picture the whole scene as I was reading it...

You could turn that into a good comedy sketch.

Yes you could go buy cheap candles, but there is a certain satisfaction in actually making them yourself and then setting them alight.. lol

Campbell said...

Yes I do like being able to burn home made candles, they somehow create a different light!! I think I might end up doing it again, hopefully without the resultant call for a tradesman.
Cute is not how I would describe the plumber, although I have to say he did not look like this visual, didn't display any 'crack', too rugged up for the cold I think!