Planes, trains and automobiles.

Have you ever lain awake at night listening to the hoons race up and down your street? First they roar one direction, then they roar the other. I often wish they'd run into a tree or a pole, but the unfortunate thing is that type of driver never seems to take out themselves. It's usually a mate or an innocent driver minding their own business.

I think every idiot on the road went past at some point last night.

It's been a slow quiet week this week.

Monday evening, Zman went to a Metallica concert at the entertainment centre. You'd better catch a bus into work tomorrow - I've no idea what time I'll be home says he. So I do. This morning I decide to walk up the hill to the other bus stop. I have two to choose from. I usually pick the closer one, being the lazy thing that I am. This morning I'm feeling a little more energetic, so I take the 15 minute walk up the hill.

I'm daydreaming and I hear a bicycle bell ring twice behind me. It gives me warning and without turning I move to the left. He goes past me without rushing - an older gentleman, not some fool who thinks he's a car. Wish they were all that polite.

Whoops. I had a travel information session for work today I was supposed to attend. I'd forgotten to put it in my calendar, and I'm reminded by Admin2. There is still plenty of time to attend as it hasn't started yet; I've used the system plenty of times so there is very little that I would be learning. And it's not the coffee session where they hand out some freebies. I don't end up going.

Zman decides to leave work a little early. We're dropping the car off at the service centre tonight as they'll want it early for service tomorrow. He's hoping they will give him a decent car for a loaner. He gives me the directions and says I can navigate. Oh lovely. He has no street directory and only something he's printed from the web which contains some limited directions and a couple of small sections of map that show only the corner where he needs to turn. Luckily, it turns out that Zman has some idea of where he needs to go already. I'm off the hook.

The loaner car turns out to be a ford Mondeo. It's very comfortable. Zman declares he hates it. It starts with a key! I think it's because it's not Zippy. Yes, he's named his car. I tell him that'l like calling a rottweiler Fluffy. He disagrees. And they've given it to him with the fuel light on. He has to put fuel in it to even get home.

The following morning he concedes that if he were looking for a nice family car, the Mondeo would do very well. But he still hates it.

That afternoon we leave early again to collect Zippy. All seems fine. But then Zman notices a white patch on the guard - THEY'VE SCRATCHED HIS CAR!! He's FURIOUS! They try to tell him that it was already there, but he's having none of it. I'm standing a short way off and I'm not sure of the outcome, if any. We get in the car and drive off, Zman cursing. Took it for a test drive. Yeah he says, A 30KM TEST DRIVE! He's a quiet furious though, so I spend a fair deal of my time quietly laughing to myself. I can tell he's so angry he can barely articulate it. Although he articulates well enough to flip the bird at a tailgaiter.

He's busily apologising.

Thursday morning he's still apologising. And still vowing he'll never take it back there again. If they don't cough up and fix the scratch - it means a full recoat of the special finish on the entire guard - he'll escalate to Ford Australia.

Friday morning and I decide not to go to work. I seem to be taking a lot of sick days lately. I'm feeling very run down, lacking motivation. Being dissatisfied with my job doesn't help with the motivation either. I'm stuck there because I think I want to move on, but I would like to stay with the University. They pay well, conditions are pretty good and the super is great. There is very little on the job board though to tempt me to apply. I want to finish the conference project I'll be working on till May 2011. So I stay where I am.

Friday night is fish in a garlic cream sauce. It's divine. The fish is perfect, light, white, flakey and just cooked. The sauce is the same one I used for the garlic prawns and again is rich, but not enough to overpower the fish. Which may be why MOTH isn't as impressed as I. It's fish, he says. Not his favourite dish but he eats it because he knows he should. Next time we have fish it will be in the form of fish fingers so he had better like those - they're crumbed....

Inspection is coming up next Tuesday so this weekend is spent tidying up the yard. Well, MOTH did that. I've been taking a duster to the cobwebs in the ceiling corners. Not an easy task, I'm short and the ceilings are 9 feet high. Thank heavens for extender handles! There is still one corner I can't reach above and behind MOTH's television, so I've left that for him.

More of the same today, but this time the fans. How dare they collect so much dust!