The Long Drive before The First Sleep

Gary beats me to the house. He's in the bathroom tinkering with the Perrin and Rowe when I arrive. Working on a Saturday is not what I want from anyone but Gary says that he's got a stack of jobs. There's a lot of building going on and the workforce needs more tradespeople. Gary's good at what he does. He fits a water filter under the kitchen sink. We're drinking too much chlorine. The irony is that the Christchurch Plains has world class artesian water. So good, in fact, that a Chinese company has bought water rights which were given up by a meat works company in Belfast and it is bottling and exporting it. The water rights were passed on for a song. And the bottles are plastic. I protested against it, to no avail. Ecan is as bent as a dog's hind leg. Enough said. Money talks

I unpack boxes and wait around till Kirk arrives. He's tidying up the work. We talk about the difference in the contract price total and the progress payments total. He wrote 'inclusive' instead of 'exclusive' for the first two extra payments covering demolition and the concrete slab. We agree to split it. Then I ask how much he thinks I still owe him. Turns out he's forgotten about an additional $13,000, the difference of a partial payment which went through after Covid lockdown. I assume he would have found it sooner or later. 

Kahu arrives and mows the new berm grass, at last. Even with the blade at its highest he has to keep unblocking the damp grass. Smells delicious and there's so much moisture you could make a grass cocktail. I have just enough time to organise dinner and do a Wonder Woman costume change before I drive to New Brighton to pick up Armana. We're going to a burlesque jazz evening back through Cashmere and out to Tai Tapu. An hour of driving. I've double booked so want to get to Lyttleton for a 60th party so rush Armana off. I know we would be better off staying but my brain is so used to moving. It doesn't end well. I rush Armana who gets angry, and the 60th is finished when we get there. 

I'm exhausted. I really need to stop. After a cuppa at Armana's when we sort things, I drive home. Home. The new house, home. I'm normally scared of the dark and this is a new space. Armana tells me to light a candle and turn in a circle to reclaim the energy. I rotate carefully halfway down the hall, aware that anyone from the street can see all the way down to my room. I feel relaxed. There's only one thing to do, get into bed and sleep. There are no curtains and the moon is up. I want to open a window but since I'm by myself I don't. Instead I open the skylight in the ensuite. 

Fresh air, full moon and the garden just outside the window. I'm grounded and elated. Ten years of hard work nearly finished. I sleep the deep, peaceful sleep of the very tired.