#14 The week that was.
On wishing a dead man happy birthday, buying a one star rated broom and unsuccessfully running errands as a single woman.
I’ll Start on Monday is a free, weekly newsletter that lands in your inbox every, you guessed it, Monday. We explore creativity, curiosity and whatever else it may be that pops into that cute little brain of mine. If you like what I do, feel free to buy me a coffee. If you DON’T like what I do, feel free to buy me five coffees.
Hello fans.
So, did I manage to get away without writing a newsletter for two whole weeks? And send it late when I finally get around to writing it? Look, I have an excuse, and a pretty good one at that - I left my laptop charger at my mums house and therefore was unable to charge and subsequently use my laptop this week so how on earth was I meant to write for you folks?
Forgiven? Okay great.
Today’s edition is a collection of moments that I have acquired over the last few weeks and I hope you find them just as funny and engaging as I do. I think some of my most fond memories are often the moments that could be easily overlooked for being mundane. I try and see the humour in as much of my life as possible - humour has kept me sane for 26 years and without it, I’d be a hot mess 24/7.
1. The one star broom
I must admit, I do favour aesthetics over functionality. For my new apartment (!!!) I desired a wooden broom for my kitchen for obvious reasons - it looks good. A plastic broom from le supermarket just simply would not suffice in my cute 1970s kitchen and therefore I made it my mission last week to find the wooden broom of my dreams. The broom in question was from Target. Well priced at $12 and readily available at the Target local to my mum’s house, I decided to hop in the car with Mum (and my sister and her boyfriend, because after all, I meant business) and off we drove to go and inspect the “bad broom”. I would like to point out, G Mass is clearly confused with the rating system here. They have gone for one star in the Value For Money category, and five stars in the Quality category - this does not make any sense. Unless, G Mass thought the finish of the wooden handle part of the broom was the ONLY redeeming quality of the bad broom, I am struggling to understand their logic here. Anyhow, I digress. Against the G Mass’s advice, I went ahead and purchased the broom and boy oh boy was I excited to give her a spin when I returned home!!
I waited a good few days to ensure I had a good amount of content built up on my kitchen floor to test out the broom. I was scoring on both Value For Money and Quality, and would be posting my review on the website, so it needed to be an accurate account. Firstly, I must say how great the quality of the wood is - very smooth and a lovely light sand colour, loves it. Secondly, I opted for a more robust sweeping movement and angled some downward pressure into the floor so the bristles really connected with the contents of my kitchen floor. I was highly impressed with the sweeping motion that the broom was capable of and am happy to report a clean sweep was experienced. Five out of five stars.
2. Dad’s 60th birthday
As some of you may know, my dad passed away five years ago. June 30th is his birthday and had he still been alive today, he would have turned 60. Death freezes people in time in your memory, and the thought of my dad being 60 is something my brain really can’t compute. Although he was 54 when he died, he always seemed 25 to me and forever will be 25 in my mind. He was young at heart, very cheeky and deep down, I think he wished he was driving around the coast in his combi, surfing all day and fishing all night - he really was a true hippie masquerading in a corporate suit. Thanks to Facebook, we don’t have to remember when our friends birthdays are, and because we still have dad’s account active (we don’t know his log in details lol) there’s always the possibility that one of his mates missed the memo of his passing and wish him a happy birthday.
Well, this year certainly delivered.
I honestly couldn’t stop laughing when my sister shared this screenshot in our family chat. The “Hope you’re well mate, enjoy!” part got me so good. At what point do we let Zac know that dad is dead and no longer requires happy birthday messages? I guess we just wait and see what next year brings - stay tuned for 30 June 2022.
3. Remind me never to book an Airtasker again
Airtasker - my least favourite app in the whole world. I have used it before and despite being utterly disappointed in every single Airtasker I have ever booked, I seem to keep going back. Guess that says something about me doesn’t it? Ugh. When I moved house last week, I literally moved from one apartment in my building to another - a simple (ish) move from upstairs to downstairs. Now, luckily I had a set of muscles lying around to help me move most of my furniture, which left me with one final thing to sort out - moving the damn fridge. THE GOOD OLD I NEED TO MOVE A FRIDGE DEBACLE. I had counted on a few men to activate their biceps and transport my fridge from A to B, but alas, that plan fell through. So, back to Airtasker I went. I popped the job up for $30 (I KNOW BUT I DIDN’T WANT TO SPEND) and a gentleman by the name of Yaz offered $40 to do the job the next day. I accepted it smuggly, feeling pretty damn pleased with myself. Here I am, a newly single woman, doing things I would normally depend on my partner to organise, all by my cute little self! Well, Yaz proved to be the worst Airtasker I have ever come across, and I assume the people who rated him five stars out of five either have no standards or are his mates booking him to get him some good ratings because I would rate Yaz no stars (I seem to be in a real “reviewing” mood this week).
Yaz rocked up at 12:30pm, despite agreeing to meet me at 2pm. Clearly unphased by his hastiness, I didn’t hear from Yaz for another 3.5 hours, when he decided that 2pm really meant 4pm. I greeted him with as much coldness as I possibly could, and almost like his mother, I asked him “where have you been all afternoon?” You know what he replied back with?! “Well I was here at 12:30pm, so.” HUH? WHAT? OH SORRY, 2PM MEANS 12:30PM!!!!! MY BAD YAZ!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not only was he equipped with zero communication skills, he read the “must bring a trolley” requirement as “bring my mate instead” and in the process of not using a trolley, him and his mate put a big old dint in my beautiful fridge and still had the nerve to request payment for the job. You better believe I wrote a stern email to the support team requesting a refund in full. Updates to come.
4. Moving house
Some of you may know that I moved downstairs with my neighbour (who became my roommate and now very dear friend) at the beginning of the year. The plan always was to live together for a few months and then she would move out when she found a place down by the beach, and I would take over the lease and live on my own. She ended up finding the place of her dreams a lot quicker than initially planned and moved out mid May. No more than a week later, I saw online that my old apartment upstairs had been significantly reduced in rent, making it even cheaper than the place I was currently in. You know when your heart starts to race, a million different outcomes start circling your mind and you start feeling like you have to make a decision about something right in that very moment? That was me - I couldn’t concentrate on anything else other than “what should I do?”
I decided to approach my current agent about negotiating a price and in the meantime, send a message to the owner of my old place and see if he would be open to me applying. I made a promise to myself, that whatever the outcome was, was the one that was meant to be. Stick that quote on your pinterest board.
Well, the agent came back declining my offer, my old landlord sent me a big “YES!” and I gave my 28 days notice immediately. I felt apprehensive. After all, this was the apartment that I once shared with my partner and I worried it may a) make me feel sad and b) feel like I am stepping back in time, but as soon as I had those keys in my hand I couldn’t have been any happier. I feel like I am back home, back in a place I simply adored and I am excited to make it my very own. I apologise in advance if this becomes an interiors themed newsletter (not blog - people keep calling this a blog and it’s a newsletter, we are not in 2009 people. No one has blogs anymore!!!)
5. Hustling
I have a love-hate relationship with this word. I see a lot of people advocating for one extreme or the other - either work your butt off and climb your way to the top of the ladder, or let go of outcome and expectation and denounce being busy altogether. I have never really identified with the latter, despite often finding myself in a slump, watching housewives and drinking wine on a Tuesday when I really should be studying.
I have a friend who inspires me a lot particularly when it comes to career aspirations. She excelled in uni, scored internships that were extremely tough to get and worked for Bloomberg in her early/mid 20s, all without a single complaint. I spoke to her last night, and was asking her about working six days a week (she also worked full time and did a day in retail, as I currently do), studying, writing the newsletter and still doing auditions. She said to me something so profound that is going to stick with me forever - “Be the Nikki of your dreams. When you are having a day, when you think you can’t possibly keep going, think about the Nikki of your dreams and what she would do in that moment.”
I love this because it reminds me that my hustle, is different to your hustle - it cannot be measured. I have a lot on my plate right now, but I wouldn’t have it any other way and now when I have worked a big week, and the last thing I want to do is watch a lecture, I am going to think about the Nikki of my dreams and what she would do in that moment. (I can tell you she’d be pouring herself a glass of wine, watching the lecture and taking colour coded notes).
RESOURCES
Doja Cat’s new album. IT IS SO GOOD.
I am a bit late to the party on this one but Love on the Spectrum has me hooked. A must watch!
“I made a promise to myself, that whatever the outcome was, was the one that was meant to be. Stick that quote on your pinterest board.” LOL. Brilliant Nikki!