Friday, October 3

 A few weeks ago we bit the bullet and decided to buy Marilyn another tablet.  She had been using an 8-inch one which was a hand-me-down from me and it really wasn't suitable for the jigsaw puzzles and other games she likes to play.  As I've mentioned before, we're becoming much more sedentary and need to keep our brains active while we are confined to our chairs.  We bought a very nice 10-inch Lenovo tablet from Officeworks and she is delighted with it.

Reading through the details of the Kogan sale the other day, Marilyn noticed a similar tablet with the Kogan brand at a greatly reduced price.  Being the generous soul she is , she ordered one for me.  It arrived a couple of days ago and I couldn't wait to install a few activities, among them a BIG crossword.  It's so big that it doesn't fit on the screen and only small sections are displayed at one time.  

The instructions tell me that the puzzle has 1284 clues.. I can't resist a challenge but I'm getting to the stage where I need to move on.  I haven't managed to finish it but, apparently, I have successfully completed 1019 answers (which is 79%) and have been working on the puzzle for 11 hours, 33 minutes and 36 seconds.  Has my life come to this?  It seems I can work out each answer in an average of 88 seconds.  I'll count that as a victory.

THE BOARDING HOUSE

It was a big step for me, taking a job in the capital city and having to find a place to live.  PeopIe would say I was old enough (and ugly enough) to cope but I had lived a sheltered life, looked after by a conscientious mother and a father who made no demands on me.  I suppose I had expected that I would stay at home with my meals provided and all my washing done until I found the right young woman who would marry me and cheerfully take over those responsibilities.

But now I had accepted this job away from home, without properly considering the implications.  I would have to get my head around so many things: where would I live, what would I do about meals, how would I be sure I had a clean shirt each morning, and so on?  My fiancée thought it might be unwise of me to take a flat because there would be just too many things for me to think about and I might forget to eat or change my underwear.  She thought the best thing for me to do would be to go to a boarding house.  I know it makes me look like a wimp, but I found her confidence reassuring.

We found just the thing in Randwick, a short walk from where I was working.  It was a typical, 2-storey Federation House.  Two women were taking on this house as a new venture, hoping to tap into the potential market of young men involved in the racing industry: jockeys, strappers and so on.  I had the choice of a single room or a shared one, which was considerably cheaper.  I wasn’t sure about sharing, especially with a jockey, so I opted for a single room even though the cost of the accommodation was about half of my weekly wage.

The first few nights were difficult.  I knew there were other people in the house and I could hear noises from time to time but there were still several empty rooms and, in any case, everybody else in the house was a stranger.  I know I spent sleepless hours wondering whether I had made the right decision to change careers and whether I should have stayed in my previous occupation but continue to enjoy the sanctuary of familiar surroundings.

After a few weeks, I began to sense that this new venture was not proving to be the success that had been hoped for.  Apart from me and two other young men in another room, there were no other paying guests, and there was not a jockey in sight.  The two women who were the proprietors were starting to show signs of stress and I wondered how long this establishment could stay open.  Surely, the rents of the three tenants were not enough to pay all the bills.

One morning, when I awoke, the sun was shining through the window and I sensed it was going to be a great day.  I showered and dressed and presented myself at the dining room to be greeted by broad smiles on the faces of the faces of the proprietors.

“Great news,” one of them said to the assembled trio. “We’ve been approached by the owner of a local business to offer accommodation to a number of his staff.  There will be five guests coming within the next few days and perhaps a few more as time goes on.  You’ll be pleased to hear that the first group are all female; young women who work at various jobs in the club.  Most of them work in the evenings so you might hear them coming and going quite late at night. I know this is not what you expected when you came here and we would understand if you decided the arrangement would not suit you.  We won’t expect you to give notice if you feel you would prefer to leave.”

You won’t be surprised to hear that we all decided, on reflection, that we would stay.  It only occurred to me later that my fiancée might not be so keen on the arrangement.