Month: January 2011

Another bit of history bites the dust

My friend David used to have a thing for Standard cars. He and his brother Andrew (my boyfriend for a while) shared a massive Standard Vanguard painted with Hammertone Grey that we all called Chubb. It was a fabulous way to arrive at a nightclub, but leaving could be difficult, what with having to crank the beast in the pouring rain, etc…

So anyway…

David and Andrew, but mainly David, used to work on cars a lot. It was David that taught me how to change the oil on my Ford Escort Panel Van, and gave me the confidence to know my way around a combustion engine so that no mechanic could ever baffle me with bullshit. And one day, David was pulling apart an airconditioning pump, and on his workbench I found a gorgeous captured bearing, or “thrust race”, covered in motor oil, which I proceeded to work over my hand and onto my wrist. I was a lot thinner then, and luckily David didn’t need to put the pump back together, so I kept wearing it.

Over the years I got fatter, and the bracelet became a permanent reminder of those days, one I wouldn’t dream of removing, even if I could.

Unfortunately, when Inigo was about 6 months old, the metal strip joining the two halves finally wore away, and the bearings all fell out, and my gorgeous bracelet was reduced to a torture device that cut into the flesh of my wrist and ached off and on.

On Saturday night, thanks to Richard, I finally had the means, the opportunity and the temporary fortitude provided by gin to remove it.

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Before.

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In the vice.

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First attempt with the angle grinder.

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The hacksaw wasn’t much use.

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Finally free!

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The aftermath. You can’t see it here, but I have an injury on the inside of my wrist, I am not sure if it is a cut from the vibrations, or a burn from the steel heating up, but it will heal soon, and my wrist feels so much better. FOr the first time ever I have been able to cuddle my boy without worrying about putting an eye out or hurting him.

Connection

Just before Christmas, we took Inigo to carols at Pearl Beach. Just a small community event, run as a fundraiser for the local playgroup and the rural fire service.

We plonked down our blanket, opened up our (Lebanese) pizza boxes, and watched the show. Just before it started, some people put a blanket down beside us, and I was immediately distracted. It looked like my old friend John had married and had kids. But I hadn’t seen John in the better part of 20 years….

John had been a really good friend. One of my favorite people ever. A friend that had helped me to define who I was. What I thought was important. How awesome Pink Floyd was. That kind of friend. And 20 years is a long time. And recently, Ive been through some serious shit. And its really hard to initiate that conversation.

But John was a really good friend, so I stood up on my wobbly legs, and had the conversation, and met his kids, and his lovely wife. And we agreed to catch up soon. Soon took a while, but we did it today.

John and I worked out that we lost touch with each other some time around the early 1990s, maybe 1992 or 93. Around that time, I loaned him two of my favorite books, with an admonition that he MUST return them.

Today, almost 20 years later, he gave me my books back.

P.S. For those that needed to know, the books were Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson. Despite wanting everyone to think that I am an intelligent and literate bibliophile, I was WAY into Cyberpunk back then. Hmm… I still am. In another weird co-incidence, the book I am reading now is “Snowcrash” by Neal Stephenson, which many would say is the inheritor of the king of the genre. A lot has happened since Neuromancer was published, and many would say it is quite visionary. I wonder if the same will be said of Snowcrash in years to come.