temper

Even if you did happen to have the misfortune to be a regular reader of this journal you may not have realised that I am a blogger of somewhat volcanic passions.

One likes to keep these things on the down-low, in order to preserve the overall atmosphere of civilised discourse.

The truth is, beneath this urbane exterior, lurks something like Mr Jekyll, or was it Dr Hyde? The nasty one, I mean. Scratch the surface and it’s pure red hot sauce.

The past 7 days, and today in particular, have more than scratched: they’ve gouged a hole where no hole was before.

7 days without running. 7 days feeling like my chest was in a vice. I’m losing it, I tell you.

Today was the culmination, or perhaps a better word would be “nadir”, of all this - mainly because it was my turn to take the family chariot in for its regular check-up.

Mechanic
Imagine, if you will, self at the counter, attempting to explain the car’s present malady to the mechanic.

“It has some sort of pox or sickness in the electrics” I say, to be greeted with dumb blank stares. “The flickery thing at the back, she’s stopped flickering”.

“Ah, okay. Leave it to me” he says. Ah, that’s a relief!

“It’ll be an hour, I’ll call you when it’s done.”

Great. Now, to kill an hour in Lilydale.

I’ve never spent much time in Lilydale, for one reason or another. I’ve long been a big of a fan of the lake and I’ve driven through the place a number of times to get to other places. Also, I’m told there’s something called “Lilydale toppings” which sounds super.

The place, however, ain’t that great. I was there for three hours, and that was more than enough. The only growth industry I could see, judging by the shops in the main street, is unemployment.

I’m sure I’ve missed something. Perhaps the town is not at its best on a Wednesday morning, God knows I’m not.

Anyway, suffice it to say, by the time I made it home I was not in the best of moods. If I had a cat it would have been kicked. I was on the point of scouring the neighbourhood for sleeping felines - even a possum would have done - before cooler heads prevailed.

The good news, from my perspective, is my current dose of man-flu is subsiding. I plan an invigorating trot around the city tomorrow morning. Possibly tomorrow evening may find me in better spirits.