Most weekends closely mimic each other: drinking a lot of wine, playing on the computers, eating lots of food. However, this past weekend was pleasantly eventful.

On Saturday night, I met some friends in Windsor, a small suburb on the way to the Blue Mountains. After a stunning dinner of fish curry with numerous sides, I drove into Richmond to watch a local theatre guild’s production, A Dark Winter Night. Having been spoiled by theatre since childhood, I still enjoyed the performance. It was humble but entertaining. They even served free coffee and biscuits at intermission!

After the play I stopped by a local pub. Two beers later I was on the way back to Windsor, and shortly after saying goodbye to Markus and Marion, I fell asleep.

At 9:00, I woke feeling completely rested and ate an excellent breakfast. Remco and Daisy (my hosts) had some wonderful aged cheese, which when put on crumpets, was simply delightful. The previous night I had been complaining about the need to mow my lawn, and my lack of a lawnmower. Remco and Daisy immediately offered not only to donate their lawnmower, but also to help me mow the lawn!

As you can see, my lawn had turned into a bit of a jungle. I moved to the side lawn, yet the mower started to slow down. I figured it was full of sticky grass and subsequently turned it upside down and scraped out the basin. Those paying attention will already see the problem: I had turned it upside down. No gas fell out, but oil spilled out everywhere. On the next start it just chugged and spat, and wouldn’t start. I cleaned the oil filter, tried again, but no luck. I borrowed a wrench from a neighbor and I dismantled the lawnmower, looked for the problem, and tried again without success. Finally I decided to consult Yahoo Answers and found exactly what I was looking for. I ultimately cleaned the spark plug and the cylinder that the plug is in, and also cleaned the cylinder going to the muffler. Both were cleaned with several cotton buds dipped in petrol. On the next start, it worked!

Remco and Daisy ended up donating basically their entire afternoon to me. I tried to repay them with cookies, wine, chocolate and lunch, but I honestly don’t think that is enough. I’ll have to think of something special. Until then, thank you!