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Cue the heating

I hadn’t done anything nice for myself in a very long time. I was trying to save up money for the wedding and had been limiting my spending.  My hair was looking limp and lifeless, my tan was basically non-existent and my eyebrows were out of control. I did not feel like an attractive girl, or even a woman at all for that matter. I had become some lazy beast.  I wanted to do something nice for myself before the wedding rehearsals. I decided it was long due to head down to the local nail salon and have my nails done. I needed something to make me feel like a lady again. As I walked to the shop I thought about which colour I wanted to have my nails painted this time. It was always hard choosing nail colours, because it had to match every outfit you owned. I got to the nail salon and was seated right away, I didn’t even have to wait!

Did I mention that walking into the nail salon was like walking into an industrial freezer? The woman who was doing my nails had told me that the central heating had stopped working. I was starting to get goosebumps all over the place. The lady told me not to worry and that they had called for a heating service. Melbourne had been extremely icy lately, with Winter in full swing.

I was told someone would arrive shortly to fix the heating system. I didn’t mind all that much, I had always enjoyed the cold, I just didn’t like the shivering. The woman started painting my nails a bright flame orange colour, fitting if you ask me. I relaxed into the chair and let my mind wander. There was something incredibly relaxing about someone else playing with my hands. I was brought back to reality when I heard two determined looking men walk in. It was odd hearing manly voices in a nail salon. It was the team they had been expecting to conduct the heating repairs. Melbourne repair companies are incredibly fast, I’ll give them that.  I watched the woman walk the crew out the back and hoped she would be return soon to finish my nails.

I was essentially stuck to the leather chair due to the cold. Also because no fresh air was being vented in through heating, the smell of the acrylic was starting to spin me out. I felt a little faint until the air started to blow again. When I left the salon I had a very nice walk through the park on the way home with my flame orange nails. I had to remember to get my nails done this colour before the wedding. It’ll go nicely with my white dress.

Heating up ice cream

A homemade ice store located in the heart of Canberra has found itself in hot water after their industrial heating stopped working. Early yesterday morning, the Stanley brothers, Mike and Harry, found their entire wares of ice cream “frozen into solid rocks of sadness and lost money,” stated Harry.

The two decided to start a “homemade ice factory” in their Canberra home after finding the depths of Winter needed some cheer. Making use of their unusually cold house, the two went into business for themselves, selling ice for $0.30 per kg. “It was the best thing we ever did,” said Mike. “I was the brains and Harry was the brawn, and we made a small fortune selling ice. Don’t ever tell anyone they can make it themselves.” The transition to ice confectionery was a natural one. The brothers have always had a sweet tooth and were keen to try their hand at artisanal frozen delights. Climate control was an important part of the process in making sure the kitchen was not too cold or too warm to work with their ingredients. Gas heating was essential in the Winter months as ice cream tends to go wrong if temperatures are ideal during the setting process. With favourable reviews and a growing list of happy customers, the team were set to expand the business into a chain of shops selling their delicious goods at reasonable prices.

This streak of luck stopped Sunday morning when the two found “a horror show,” after their central heating had ceased working during the night. “We scrambled to save the ice cream, but it just kept on slipping through our fingers,” reports Harry. “The humanity.” Once ice cream gets too cold, small icicles form and ruin the texture of the product.

An emergency call to a Canberra based heater repairs company was made, and “the cavalry came in a not long after that.” Once the heater was fixed, the ice cream production slowly started to increase again. “We had the team take care of the solid ice, and sweep the liquid away, then we got back onto the task at hand.”

The Stanley brothers have vowed to continue on their homemade treats quest, further resolved by their unfortunate turn of events. “We know that we wouldn’t be standing here, dry and in business, were it not for the good men and women who repaired our gas heating.”

So Many Styles

I seriously hope our office can just pick a style and stay with it. It’s been two years, and we’ve had FIVE styles. Things are getting to the point where I expected to come into work one day and find out that we’ve gone from regular office block to some sort of elegant tower or underground bunker, because the boss just can’t figure out what makes everything run more efficiently.

I mean, the business going so well is the reason we’re able to call in the Melbourne based office fitout companies so often, but it needs to stop at some point. We started with regular cubicles, but then they were all torn out because “open plan offices are the future!”, but after a couple of months of that, all the cubicles are back because “you guys talk too much!” and then a couple of months after that they were gone again because “social interaction is the key to a healthy working environment, I saw it on the discovery channel.”

Yeah, alright. Except then the cubicles were back again, now in frosted glass form, because “open plan offices encourage the spread of germs, and sick days are a drain on company resources.” I mean, maybe. I didn’t think we were that unhealthy as an office, but apparently there was an incoming plague, and we have all been saved, yay. So it’s all frosted glass now, and the meeting room is full of purple bean bags because “it lets the clients know that we’re fun, hip and with it.” Also, the kitchen, which is now a communal space filled with…bean bags. It’s really hard to get up from those things, sometimes.

I honestly don’t think looking around Melbourne for the best office designers is really our problem. We just do way too much re-branding. We need to find a style, find a brand, find a look…and run with it. Build upon it, even. But not make an entirely different look every two months.

-Grace