Tradies have rhythm and soul

At this moment all is quiet. It is late afternoon. I am enjoying the quiet. It won’ last long. I work in a kindergarten which is pretty noisy. For the last couple of weeks at has been quite a bit louder as i have a construction site right next door (1 metre away to be precise). They are madly building a couple of new classrooms. This is all thanks to our fearless leader who gave out LOADS of cash for school works. It helps with the economy because you spread the money around (rather than have it sitting some where) and also employ people (who spread the money around more). It is fantastic. Except we had a lot of rain over autumn so now phase one of building has caught up with phase two....and everyone is very, very busy.

I don’t normally talk about construction (although my dad is a carpenter so i am use to it). In this case i am bringing it up because it is the musical component that has got me intrigued. That’s right. Music. Imagine i work in a school. You have quiet times and noisy times but lately we also have rockin’ times. The workmen (and they are all men on this site) have a stereo blasting out rock tunes all day. Now i am not complaining ‘cause it is quite a good thing while i am on duty at lunch/recess to have something to drown out the sounds of little voices yelling for me (or more often at each other, but more annoyingly AT me).

Now this is not an isolated instance. This music thing. My dad always has music when he works. He has some portable generator thingy to make sure that he can have (a) a cup of coffee and (b) music all the time while working. The painter who does our work likes VERY old vintage crap and the electrician likes soft rock. When they arrive to get a job going it is one of the first things they do – get their music on.

My dad is the worst though. He likes country music *pause* not that there is anything wrong with that. Just he is a bit deaf (all that heavy machinery i’m guessin’) so it tends to be loud. Now i know that he could use an ipod (he has one) but apparently that is a health and safety thing. You need to be able to hear someone yelling at you at all times. Apparently. Safety thing (probably more important reasons but i think yelling “stop that is going to fall and kill you” is right up there – i just need to be able to tell ‘em that coffee is ready).

[BTW he uses his ipod while he watches tv. Just watches it. No tele-text or anything. I am often amazed he even knows what goes on with some programs. Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe the shows are better that way? Anyway. It’s his thing. Yes. He does have a hearing aid but he just prefers it this way. *sigh*]

I only bring this up because my neighbour is doing a reno at the moment. Every night when he gets home he starts work. With a musical accompaniment (and lots of sanding). So this two hour window before he gets home is my only quiet time. I like to fill it by locking myself away in the study and writing a little (rough drafting) before it all gets too much. Actually it is starting to get on my pip really. Can you tell?

Anyway. Only got another half an hour. I think it is going to start raining again tomorrow....and he has to work inside. But then so do it.

Later, K.tsl

Note: What is a tradie? If you don’t know it is an Australian term for a person who works in a trade such as a carpenter, electrician, plumber etc. More specifically to this story it involves those who do manual work, with an open air feel to their working life.