Oct 16, 2011 11:59
Sup LJ. Been a while.
You seem to be broken... my friends page is all kaput.
There have been adventures recently that I think require a record, but mostly I'm just going to ramble on a bit cos I'm hungover and feel like typing stuff.
Im mildly concerned with how building prices are being screwed down this year... like, significantly cheaper than what we were charging ten years ago. More leaky buildings anyone? Franchises in particular, Im looking at you. I think there are people out there who are desperate enough for work that they will take contracts that only offer wage rates instead of a respectable contract rate. That means that they're getting under $20 an hour, and then taking materials and business expenses out of that, and paying their own tax and ACC. No perks either like sick days or leave that you would usually expect with an hourly rate like that. Usual contract rates for trades is $35-55 and hour, which includes a bit of cream to cover you for extra insurance and expenses, and the hours you spend at home doing paperwork and managing your business. I think its a problem that franchise companies are offering cheaper housing, and then pushing rates for qualified people down so far that the franchise can still get their cut in between. Not a good look for the industry, especially for the people that are purchasing the homes. Getting your house build cheaply under contract is just encouraging people to build hastily and shabbily in order to reduce the number of hours they spend on the job. And quality companies are being pushed out of work because from the customers point of view both companies are offering the same product, but one promises it cheaper and quicker. These are the sort of conditions the market was working under a few years ago, and a lot of those homes are now waterlogged and cracking and falling to bits.
I wonder if anyone will learn this time round? If it sounds too good, it probably is.
Its been nice to be able to go out and see my friends again this weekend, since I've been hermited for about a month with a combination of work and flu. Its all my own fault really, only taking two or three days off a month, drinking two nights a week, it being flu season and all. I thought I was just hung over on Sunday morning, but then a fever developed and the coughing started... It only took a few hours before I had trouble breathing and I couldn't lie still because of the heat that was building up on my skin. I was actually a little worried about my health that first night, because my lungs filled with fluid and I spent about twelve hours carefully trying to coax air into the space that remained.
It was a truly vicious virus, never had anything quite like it. I went to my GP Monday morning and he gave me prescriptions for 'flu symptoms'. Spent the next week alternating between resting and doing light duties at work, still coughing up a lot of gunk and breathing very shallowly. It prob sounds like madness but it was essential that I got certain stages of a job finished so that others could carry on with their parts, and the light exercise helped to pump the fluid out of my lungs so they didn't permanently reduce capacity. Not exactly doctors orders, but I tend to know my limits pretty well.
A few days later I was starting to cough up some serious clumps of blood. Not just little flecks of red in my spit, but what looked like teaspoons of bright red chunky salsa... so I went up to A&E because my GPs offices were closed. The nurses and doctors up there made me laugh cos I told them I was coughing up blood and they said 'oh no prob that's normal...' I bet they wouldn't say that if they'd actually seen it! I got chest x-rays and they found the viral infection was gone but two big pneumonia clots remained in my lungs, filling about a third each side. Never had pneumonia before but I can tell you the fatigue is alarming. I worked the rest of the week but only managed about four to six hours a day, slept a lot, got up late in the morning. I was ravenous for calories, eating tons of pies and ice cream and steak. I think I probably lost a few kilos while I was in bed but I'm doing exercise with James now to recover muscle and improve lung capacity again.
It was kinda interesting and fun, in the way that difficult challenges can be rewarding, but seriously lets not do that again...
Been looking at property again, since the banks got me approved this year to go shopping. I found a place I really like but there's issues with council consents, so if the owner can get the place inspected and approved I'll go ahead with it. Otherwise back to the drawing board.
house,
fit,
ramblings,
work