Two days

This blog-a-day malarky is hard. It's wearing me out. I'm too tired and busy to think coherently, but in any old order this was my day, yesterday, and my day, today.

Mondays are my non-paid-work day, so many things that can't be done on weekends get scheduled on Mondays.

I went to the dentist to have a filling and a bit of tooth that departed my mouth with the filling, replaced. One of the many bad points about aging is that your teeth wear out. Mine weren't very good to start with and at this stage of my life I think there are more fillings than teeth. For several years I've not needed to schedule check-ups with the dentist because my fillings fall out at sufficiently regular intervals to serve the same purpose.

Plumbers and electricians (the 'tradies') came to see and quote on the renovation work for the apartment to which I'm moving. The builder came to survey the scene and measure up. The designer had a meeting with me and drew up another draft plan of the renovation to be considered by the Executive Committee of my Owners' Corporation.

If all goes well, demolition of the bathroom and kitchen will start in the next couple of days. Wow! very whizz-bang.

One of the plumbers swapped the dishwasher in the apartment I presently live in for the one to which I'm moving. I thought I'd never recover from my affection for my dead dishwasher, but in the year I've had my present one I've grown very attached. Too attached to leave it behind.

I cast on for my next pair of 2010 Personal Sock Club Socks and knitted about 6 rounds between various renovation matters.

I went to see 'Lola' at the Sydney Film Festival. This is a Filipino film directed by Brillante (Dante) Mendoza, whose previous film 'Kinatay' (Massacre) won the 'best director' award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Mendoza's films are very much in the social realist tradition. 'Lola' is the Filipino term for grandmother, and the two grandmothers at the centre of this film are linked through the murder of one grandson by the other. Money, and the financial transactions necessary to bury one grandson and save the other from a life in prison, tie the film together. But the role of the grandmothers in holding their vulnerable families together is also vital. Like 'The Last Train' that I saw on Sunday, this film, with its daily struggle to maintain life with some dignity, is painful to watch. I loved that it was filmed in the rainy season when the claustrophobia of the downpours heightens the intensity of interactions and when the flooded streets of certain parts of Manila have a dreamy, ritualistic appearance. A 4 out of 5.

Today I've been at work. There's nothing much more to be said. Pleasant enough, but unremarkable.

And this evening I've chaired a meeting of the Executive Committee of our building's Owners' Corporation. I like the idea of living in a building that's managed by a group of its residents, where we all have to cooperate to ensure that our common interests are well met. Sometimes it's difficult to agree on just what our common interests are and on the best actions to take to serve these interests, but so far we've had a relatively amicable community. Just now we have a huge building maintenance project under way that's posing some difficult decisions - but even so it's going well and is nearing completion

And yes, the Executive Committee did approve my renovation plans. Now the work can commence.

I'm going to knit for a few minutes and go to bed.