A week of work

Hello there people!
So I last wrote some time ago... I have my reasons... really.
Jason (who works with Alex and I at Safe Installations... do I need b/g info here? Safe Installations is the family business that I work at - moving safes - 1, 2 or 3 days a week to help save money for my trip to NZ at the end of the year. And also as work while I find a career... which probably won't happen until I get my license, which won't happen until we register the EH, which can't happen until we charge the battery on the EH... one day I hope) decided to take a week off from work, so it fell to me to take his place on the truck. Not the best of plans. I'm not as strong as Jason (nor nearly as strong as Alex), nor nearly as experienced as either. But it was necessary.
So I stay over at Alex's place Sunday night 'coz we have to be up at 4:45am in order to get down to Canberra at a reasonable hour. Yikes. This coupled with the introduction of daylight savings and a very odd sore throat that only affected my epiglottis, meant that I had about 4 hours sleep before heading off on the 3 1/2 hour truck drive to Canberra. Have you ever driven to Canberra? It's the most boring drive imaginable (ok, short of the outback), rewarded by entering the most boring city imaginable. In short, it sucks.
So we get down to Canberra and try and do this job, to find out that there is no truck access (no truck = no crane, and the 2 tonne safe was going to Level 1). So we go get permission to remove the bollards. Done. We move the truck in position. Easy. We unload the safe. Simple. We strap the safe as to have it on an angle that allows is to fit into the balcony. Routine. We lift the safe up to the first floor, and it falls to me to pull it in. I try. I try again. I try again. Nope. We lower it. Change the straps to a sharper angle. Lift it up. I try. I try again. I tray again. I fail. We lower it and put it on a massive angle. Lift it up. I try. I try again. I try again. I can't do it. We lower it and put it on it's back. Re-sling it. Lift it up. I try. I try again. I try again. This is fucked. We can't do it with just two men. So we apologise to the manager, and tell them we'll be back Wednesday. We then go to drop off the lock to the other bank (the other reason we came down to Canberra). Of course, it doesn't fit. So we take away their old lock and tell them that we'll fix it and drop ot off on Wendesday.
So, we wasted a whole freaking day, an early start, and about $400 of the company's money. Shithouse.
So Monday night I stay at Grandad's place for the night. Nothing eventful there.
Tuesday comes along. Melbourne cup day. It was worse than Monday. It was raining. All the jobs were difficult. The last job particularly so. We had to take a jewellers safe (about 3 tonne) off of a 3 inch concrete slab, rotate it, and fit it out of a door with only about 2mm clearance. All this in a room the size of a single bed. So small in fact that the concrete slab stuck out as far as the door, meaning that the safe had to come out at an angle (despite the limited clearance). It was difficult to say the least. Most everything went wrong, and Alex cracked it. I hate it when Alex cracks it (not the safe, silly; his temper). Then after we finally get the safe out (the entrance door also only had mm clearance), we load it onto the truck, and when Alex is backing the truck out, he runs over a bollard. He almost breaks down. It was the final straw. Luckily, when we are able to pull over, we find out that it only bent the steel mudflap. Very lucky, there are alot of things that he could have damaged under that truck. We head back to Botany and place our bets for the Melbourne cup. I try my luck at a trifecter, but also put $10 on Macaybe Diva (sp?). Alex was about to put down money on Macaybe Diva, but at the last moment decides to put it down on Railings instead. Of course Macaybe Diva wins (in an unprecedented 3rd Melbourne cup victory), and Alex doesn't. Another thing to go wrong on Alex's worst day ever.
I stay over at Grandad's again that night.
When I get into work the next day, I find out that when Alex was cooking dinner on Tuesday night, he cut the tip of his left index finger off, and touched a nerve. He said it felt like he was puring boling water over the whole hand. Fucked. What a shitty, shitty, shitty day for Alex.
Wednesday was fairly average. I don't really remember it. We didn't end up going to Canberra.
Thursday we had to remove some filing cabinets and a double door from a CBA office in Paramatta. Of course we couldn't remove the double door into the lift because we didn't have the long trolley with us. We promised we'd be back. I don't really remember the other jobs that day, and you don't want to hear about them. We ran out of time and weren't able to get back to the CBA with the long trolly because we worked beaucoup overtime delivering some strongroom doors to Chatswood.
Friday promised to be just as average a day. However, it wasn't.
Nova (a radio station) run a promo that involves uessing 5 movies from the 5 1-second-long clips they play from them. People had guessed the first 4, but noone had guessed the 5th yet. Because of that they made the clip a little longer. Straight off the bat I recognise it as being from Lost in Translation. For a few reasons I don't call the competition line (I never bother, I didn't have the number, I thought Alex should call after having such a shit week), but Alex does. For the first time ever he gets through first time. He's like "It's ringing! It's never rung before!" They make him pull over (you can't drive while calling; it's illegal), get all his details and his answer (Shrek, A Fish Called Wanda, 50 First Dates, School of Rock, and Lost in Translation) and put him on hold. He's pretty fucking nervous, and so am I. He downs a cigarette in about a minute. He's shaking. They take his call (on the air), and ask him his answer. They say that the adjudicators are out, and will get back to him after the song. They play a Motley Crue song, and Alex downs another cigarette in another minute. The operator then gets back to him and asks him how he feels ("nervous"), and says that if he wins, he has to shout and make alot of noise. Then Merrick and Rosso (the DJs) get back to him and tell hm he's won $10,000!!!!!!!!!
His whole body was shaking. He tells them that he's never seen Lost in Translation and that it was his borther (me) sitting next to him that told him. So they ask him to give me the phone, and I talk to them for a moment (they ask if he's going to share the money with me, and I say "he better!" as a joke), and ask to talk to him again.
It was crazy man. For the first few hours it was literally unbelievable. Alex said the he'll give me $2000 of it. I didn't ask for any, and I refused him at first, but he insisted. Good on him. That's pretty god-damn lucky 'coz I haven't been saving enough for NZ, and that money has almost covered it. Sweet! During the next hour or so, all his friends called him. Pretty much all of them had heard him on the radio (Nova is quite the popular station), which made the win even sweeter.
So we drive to our next job (which we were late to), and told the guy there that we won. He didn't really believe us, but later Alex came on the radio, and he was pretty impressed.
The rest of the day involved picking up the safe from CBA Parramatta, a job in Chatswood (where we got a $30 tip!), and that was it. A Sweet day. So we headed back to the factory early.
I went over to Brendan's place that night with most of my mates for a few drinks, and some good times.
I headed home Saturday, and had dinner with Mum at Yummy Thai (best Thai restaurant ever). It was good to be home, but I had to head back to Sydney on Sunday to stay at Alex's so we could head back down to Canberra Monday with Jason. Alex had spent the weekend at Stockton beach with his mates, a hired 4WD and some big-ass dunes.
Monday we went down to Canberra and on the third time of slinging the safe to make tehangle bigger, Alex and I got it through the balcony fairly easily. We had to remove a fire door in order to get the safe into the bank, but we did it. The removal of the book safe (the other half of the job) was a piece of piss. We also dropped the fixed lock off at the London Circuit bank.
I bought 2x $3 CDs because they had cool covers, but I can't tell you what they are like because I left them in the truck. Mum is bringing them home for me. But I don't know when that will be, tonight or tomorrow night, because she was thinking of staying down in Sydney tonight because Peter has his final HSC exam then (although I don't think staying with him is a good idea because it only means he will be distracted). This sucks because one of my best mates, Marty, hands in his honours on Wednesday, and I wanted to go out with him, and if Mum stays down in Sydney tonight, it means I can't. And that fucking sucks. But it does serve me right in not getting my license earlier. I hate not having a license.
I also bought a few CDs this week:
Ween - Shinola Vol. 1
Opeth - Ghost Reveries
Midnight Juggernaughts - Midnight Juggernaughts EP
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - The Proposition Soundtrack
Terrorvision - Regular Urban Survivors (A $2 gamble)
Nomeansno - The People's Choice
The Bubba Ho-tep Soundtrack
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy (Alex gave it to me)
El Caco - ?? (One of the $3 CDs I left in the truck)
?? (The other $3 CD I left in the truck...)

I'm staying at home today (and as said above) possibly tomorrow. Fun fun. I'll probably watch the free DVD that came with the Opeth album, and wander around teh house, bored. Actually, I'll try and finish A Feast for crows. I'm enjoying it, but I wish it was released as a complete book, rather than it being divided. Oh well, naught I can do about that one...
And that's about it (and about time too...). Hope your week is awesome.

Listening to: Nomeansno - The People's Choice (Album) (when I started typing this, but I've taken to long to copmplete it - 1 hour - that I'm now lisetning to Opeth - Ghost Reveries (Album))