Leave Coming

It’s not often that I get my boss pressuring me to take leave, but considering it is a year ago today that my trip to America ended I guess I am ready for some more [well more than the odd day here and there]. At the end of this week I get two weeks off, interrupted by a two day trip to Wellington to attend a meeting [I even consider this to be leave]. I have nothing specific planned, apart from increasing the frequency and distance of my walking and enjoying an escape to a variety of coffee shops to tap away at the keyboard to publish some posts on my blog.

I also plan doing some major housekeeping on the computers, my wife's, daughters and mine. Checking the anti-virus software and making sure the security features are current. I should also be able to get a Skype session in with my brother and find out what’s happening on his side of the globe.

The eldest is fooling us that he is diligently going to his ‘go nowhere’ marketing job each day, living the pretense, rather than just admitting that he has quit it [or walked out never to return]. I have been asked to give him a lift to an interview this afternoon. The recruiting agent is meeting him at a cafe just north of where we live. The photo was taken while I was waiting outside for him to appear. Check out the Twitter from the same time [if they are still available].

Sunday Break

The weather this weekend has been pretty crappy and Saturday was a day when I ventured out alone to get a few forgotten bit and pieces from the previous days excursion. A blokes shopping trip plans for the weekend meals, although my wife chose Saturday traditional American fare of pork chops corn and creamed potatoes [mashed for the Brits]. Bought a leg of lamb for Sunday’s dinner and it’s in the oven as I tap the keys on this post. My daughter is not home for dinner and as it turns out neither is the eldest son [but who cares]. Roast lamb, spuds, Kumara and Butternut pumpkin. A few green vegetables and gravy, the meal of champions.

I bought some breakfast pork sausages for this morning and tomorrow I have chicken for a Tika Masala curry. Probably the best shop I have done for a long time.

Today we headed out to one of the main shopping centres and we had a great old time at the sales, which seems to be endless nowadays. I bought some compression tights for walking in and if I say so myself I have a hot pair of legs [I am wearing them while I wander around the house]. Bought some track pants, three long sleeve tee shirts and half a dozen pair of socks.

Just polishing off a glass of red wine now and about to nosh down on the roast dinner.

Sociopath

The week has been interesting to say the least. The eldest had his motorcycle repossessed last Sunday and has been catching a lift with a friend since Monday. I picked him up from work Monday night but he has managed to get back and forth for the rest of the week. Thursday [payday] he decided that this was going to be a hard job to make a living at and decided that looking for a job with regular pay would be more profitable. I of course had pointed all this out at the outset. Friday he took the day off and was seen by my daughter friends, consequently the drums had spread the story across town in a heartbeat and I was also aware of the day off he had taken. To be honest I have gone beyond caring, but I asked anyway and he told me he had earned enough money for the week [how can you ever earn enough]. He even went to the extent of writing me a heartfelt email saying he appreciated me and would try and do better [yeah right].

On Wednesday his former landlady phoned me and we spoke for some time about all the hassle she had experienced with him. He owes her about $1200 and she only got two weeks rent out of him. He wasn’t kicked out he just left after he was hit up for his rent for the last time. The story is typical and it ended with her feeling threatened by him, to the point where she changed all of her locks. I have arranged to meet her for coffee next week, so that we can go over the story. I told her that I wasn’t going to pay her any monies owed, so that was dealt with up front to start with.

Bottom line I am convinced he is a Sociopath.

More Complications

This weekend seemed to be going well until earlier this evening when my eldest announced that he did not need anymore petrol money from me. I thought that he had been paid for a home job he did the other night, I couldn’t be that lucky. Turns out [or so the story goes] that he has blown the ignition computer [or whatever it’s called] on his motorbike. He pointed out that it’s going to cost him $400 to fix it and that until then he has no transport. He has been texting my daughter already asking to use her car. It goes without saying that I have hidden all the other car keys in the house. Getting to work is going to be a problem and I suspect if he manages it one day it will not come without some penalty to the rest of the family.

Another bloody hurdle to cross, not for me, but you can guarantee that the repercussions will spill over into our lives.

Right 1, Wrong 1

We have had a small reshuffle at work, one of my colleagues starts on the street for his twelve month front-line commanders role. This means that I revert to my former role, which he has been doing for the last year and the original holder of my present position returns from secondment next week to take up the position again. Confused, you might well be because our current management structure is as fluid as thin syrup. I get to change office, luckily I travel light and apart from a few paper files I have everything on my laptop. I will need to revisit my to-do list and start again though. It's appraisal season and I have to put some effort into working on those. Well that's work, not much else to report, but watch this space as I am sure things will change again soon.

The eldest seem to be working a some mystery job and after telling me he could pay his first weeks board when he got paid, surprise, he never got paid and will have to wait another week before he gets anything. I don't say too much but every time I catch him out on a lie I give him a verbal, why, because he hates it and this will drive him out quicker than if I don't say anything. In the meantime the petrol money investment keeps him out of my way. I was right this time so this put's me 1 ahead on lie detection for the week. My suspicions over his property have been proved wrong, yesterday he borrowed Linda's car and brought home all of his furniture and the rest of his belongings. The garage is cluttered but at least when he moves out he will have some crap to take with him. We have discussed hiring a bin and doing a massive and brutal clean up of the garage. Hard to believe that we can accumulate so much trash in such a short time.

My youngest son gets his drivers license back in two weeks. His car, which as been sitting idle in the driveway for six months needs some work, least of all it needs to have the original wheels put back on, which had been borrowed by his mate. It then needs a WOF and registration. Once this has been achieved he can move the car and that will be more crap gone.

My daughter has been sick with the flu over the last few days and as decided to stay home and work on getting rid of it. Plenty of Codral and bed rest will hopefully break this infection.

My exercising has been religious this week and apart from continuing problems with my knees I have been keeping up the commitment.

A Trip with the Army

One of our senior sergeants is presently on secondment as Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the 3rd Auckland Northland Battalion (3 Auck North), Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, a Territorial Force (TF). Take a breath after that mouthful. We had been invited to check out one of the army's light armored vehicles. We have been offered the use of their Pinzgauer as a tactical option in the event of a critical incident involving an armed assailant. In a recent incident involving the fatal shooting of a police officer and the wounding of two others the police and army worked together making use of an army LAV [Light Armored Vehicle] to evacuate neighbors from the fire zone. The ride was noisy but this vehicle is not designed for comfort, it is designed to protect the occupants from small arms fire, ideal for any tactical firearms situation where we need to get close to the action.

Transformers | Revenge of the Fallen

Sunday was a typically miserable day and another delay on the walk that I so crave. It was foggy, wet and not a day that you feel like venturing out regardless of the reason. I have another altercation with the eldest, who after five weeks is still avoiding the subject of his belongings, which seem to be mysteriously absent. When I ask him for the truth, so that I can just stop asking him to explain he gives another variation of the lies he has been telling me. His clothes have been decimated compared to what he had. His nice stereo, television, laptop [that I gave him], guitar and a plethora of other good stuff have just ceased to exist. When I challenge him he hangs around for about ten minutes and disappears [the only good thing to come from this].

Rather than spend the day in the house I suggested to my wife that we take in a movie. We opted for the latest Transformers film and were not disappointed one bit. It was edge of the seat escapism and we sat transfixed for the two hours that it took to watch this action packed movie. When we arrived him mid afternoon we immediately settled in to watch the first Transformers movie [I have it on my DVD Hard Drive]. It was around five in the afternoon when we finally emerged to even consider having some food. A great day just doing stuff all.

The eldest finally arrived home, made himself some food and disappeared into his cave. My daughter arrived safely home around eight and went to bed.

Must start walking again tomorrow, it helps with the stress.

The Transition Course

This post is a little late coming this week, but without a decent internet connection and endless appointments with the Police bar I was otherwise engaged. There were 24 fellow Inspectors on the course and we all congregated on the Sunday afternoon to be allocated our rooms. It was freezing cold and the heaters took three days to take enough of the chill away so that we could sleep without our clothes on. Some seasoned veterans brought hot water bottles and blankets, but I forgot even the basics, such as a track suit to sleep in.

Day one was all lectures on various topics and most of them were relevant and informative. At the end of day one we had dinner and did some networking in the bar. It was an early night and true to form another freezing one.

Day two we were split two groups and had to present on our own fields of expertise for twenty minutes. I volunteered to go first and rabbited [ranted] on for 40 minutes. If the guy timing me hadn't interrupted I would have easily covered another 40 minutes and more. The end of day two it was back to more networking in the bar. The night was still cold but not as cold has the first two.

Day three we had a full day with a guy called Sven Hansen, he delivered a presentation on health, diet, fitness and self awareness. It was excellent and there would not be one amongst us that did not benefit from his delivery on several levels. I learned some relaxation techniques and will be using them. Wednesday evening was the longest we spent in the bar and the most beer I drank this week. In fact I think I drank more beer than I have in the previous twelve months.

Thursday was media day and we all had to deliver individual video interviews and group interviews. We were given a scenario and had to be grilled in front of a camera by representatives from the media. Believe it or not both of my interviews went remarkably well and I had an answer for everything [no surprises there]. I wasn't even sarcastic. That night most of us went out for dinner, yes we drank more beer but did not have a late night because Friday was our last day.

We finished off on Friday with two sessions on command. After lunch we were presented with a certificate and given a group photo that we had taken on the second day. The day would not have finished well without a few more beers at the airport before our flight home. I made some new friends and caught up with some old ones.

I went straight from the Airport in Auckland to join my wife at her works mid winter dinner. It was not entirely a success from my point of view. I was really tired and finding it hard to focus. I must have been tired because I never even had a beer, back on the orange juice and the beer drinking is behind me once again.

Saturday morning was pretty much back to normal except my daughter was away for the weekend and had left her car interior lights on. The eldest had made his first appearance since I left last Sunday and I ended up taking the youngest to work. Grocery shopping and that was pretty much the day.

One thing after another

The week has been filled with mixed events some good and some not so good. More revelations about my eldest son’s enigmatic lifestyle. Some days I feel like kicking his ass and others I feel like giving him a big hug. I took leave this week, three days to work on an assignment for my course and catch up with The Blotter and talk computers and drink coffee or in my case tea. I managed to get in three good walks this week and feel better for it each day, even though I suffer with my knees for at least an hour or so afterwards, well until the medication kicks in.

The eldest was actively looking for work and managed to secure an interview on Thursday. On Friday he learned that he has a half days training session on Monday and after that he will learn if he has a job or not. I’m not convinced that this company is anything other than a commission only one and highly unsuitable for someone who needs to earn a wage [crap, he just does not think things through].

Last night my wife and I went to the movies and called in to a Chinese Restaurant to have dinner before the movie. We have been here before and allowed a good 75 minutes lead in to have a bite and walk across to the theatre. People around us were eating within 15 minutes but we did not get out entree for 45 minutes. We managed to polish that off and the soup before we had to leave. Conspiracists among us may have believed that white europeans got served last while family, friends and regular Chinese customers received instance service. Anyway after making sufficient none racist complaints we left the restaurant without paying the bill.

The movie ‘The Proposal’ was a great escape from the pressures of family life and Sandra Bullock [one of my favourites] was brilliant [as usual] in the romantic comedy. The only drawback to the evening was a cackling female sitting on my right [no, my wife was on my left] she cackled and guffawed all the way through the movie and at times I was almost sure she was the only voice in the theatre I could hear.

At the end of the movie I checked my phone for messages and had received one from the eldest. He had been in an accident [not that I believe there are any] and although he wasn’t injured he had damaged his bike. That’s all I needed to round the evening off. When we arrived home I saw his bike parked behind a van in the neighbours driveway and called my son. When I asked him where his bike was he said he had it with him. Not a good time to lie [but then there never is a good time] when I said I was staring at it. Another pointless lie.

Going out with my wife this morning, we will have a walk then get the weeks groceries. The eldest has been tasked with cleaning the bathroom and some credit to him he does the jobs he’s given without complaint. He cleaned the car inside and out yesterday and did a damn good job.

It’ll be packing for me later this afternoon and completing my assignment for the course.

The photo today was taken of my son’s motorcycle post crash. The split in the fairing will be patched with the universal ‘Duct Tape’. The shocks will need to be re-aligned and he is lucky to have a mate with knowledge of motorcycles. Another delay in picking up his furniture, now this is a mystery, luckily one that I could really care less about.

I will write the next post from the college.

Things Get Worse

I was contemplating starting my assignment for my course last night but it never happened again. I have all the notes but getting my ass motivated to prepare the Powerpoint is waning a little. While I was doing this my daughter happened to encounter one of my eldest sons friends [well maybe ex friend]. I learned some more disturbing news about him. Apparently the biggest lie we have all fallen for this year was his alleged redundancy from the job he had at the call centre he worked for. This friend claimed that my eldest had been sacked for sexual harassment, something which I am not the least surprised at. He added that he [eldest] was also on the verge of being trespassed from the local shopping centre for trying to chat up every girl that ventures into the place. This made sense because he seems to be fixated with talking about girls he knows or how he has been chatted up by some female. I've thought about this and my initial thoughts had me thinking he might be some lecherous sexual predator, but I have switched my thinking to the fact that he simply lacks social skills and has not learned that engaging every female only makes him appear creepy. He obviously craves female companionship and at 23 I can possibly understand this. What he does not see is that with no job, prospects or the ability to come across as a genuinely nice guy he will just turn people off him. I have considered investing more capital in having him seen by a shrink, because he is clearly living in some alternate dimension.

I also discovered that the last job he had with the home services company was terminated when he just stopped going, this was in favour of riding around on his motorcycle all day. In the end the boss had to go and pick the van up from his house. Transport is the killer distraction every time, it happened with the BMW he had and now it's the bike. The story of the electrical apprenticeship was just that, a story. Still without his property he has applied for a few jobs and has been staying somewhere over the last few nights. He cannot get any dole yet and I fear the next step will find him locked up for some petty crime.

Time will reveal other startling revelations about his secret life, until then I am constantly on guard and have become almost obsessively compulsive about checking my banks accounts.

I am comforted by having a very supportive wife and daughter. My youngest son, although in debt still has good work ethics and has a job and some good friends.

Hopefully will get the chance to catch up with my brother and his wife on Skype this weekend.

On a good note, my walking has been maintained and I have lost sufficient weight around my gut that my work trousers are hanging loose and will need to be adjusted before I go away this weekend. I feel incredibly guilty when I miss a session.

Dealing with Stress

Last weekend prompted me to write several posts which documented the problems I had at home with my eldest sons return to the home. I discovered another cheque that had been cashed and after several denials that he had the cheque book he finally coughed it up on Wednesday. He was given some work around the home this week in preparing for the final painting of the lounge, dining room and kitchen. Credit to him that he did a good job and everything is ready for painting. He is still cagey about his belongings, although he did get his clothes. The truth about his situation comes in installments and not without some grief along the way. He has been proactive looking for new jobs and has registered himself for the benefit [dole]. He also sent away for the Navy recruitment pack and that arrived in the post on Thursday.

My daughter has been very supportive this week and even took the time out to take me for a coffee the other day when I had a couple of days off to make up for working this weekend.

The youngest seems to be cruising along in his job, he has another month to wait before he gets his driver license back and he needs to spend some time working on his car to get it roadworthy.

Another week before I head off to attend my course at the Police College. I'm glad I only have to spend a week away and would have dreaded the three week courses that used to be run a few short years ago. Some years ago these same courses were 12 weeks long, not good on the family life especially if one of your offspring is untrustworthy.

The rest of the week was fine, I managed to catch up with 'The Blotter' and have a coffee or two and always enjoy the banter we have around technology, especially now that he is a MAC user.

I finally gave up on my saving scheme for the first half of this year and used some of the savings to clear up some outstanding accounts. I've decided to start again from July 1st and see if the second half of the year is a little better than the first half. Health issues played a big role in the first six months and now I want to concentrate on improving fitness and health in the second half of the year.

Tradition

I was looking back over the beginnings of my blog this morning [Sunday] I found a post on this day in 2006 that reflects what is happening in my life today, check out the link here . The pattern seems to continue throughout the years and some mention of his nefarious activity is mentioned at this time of year.

A lot of posts on my blog equals a lot of therapy to clear my head. On top of this that bloody medication I stopped yesterday has definitely affected my legs, the muscles are throbbing. I hope the bloody things wears off, not that it has stopped me walking but it is certainly aggravating, especially now that I am feeling the benefits of the exercise.

The image once again is courtesy of Despair.com

Happy Birthday Mother Rest in Peace

Today marks the first anniversary of my mother 90th birthday party at my sisters house. It is also her birthday and she would have been 91 today. I guess it is appropriate that I remember this day and dwell on the opinion [and a strong vocal one] she would have had on my recent situation with the eldest. Mum had an opinion on most things and annoyingly right on many. Wherever you are Mum have a good one.