Category: Drains

Believe it or not, I don’t hate cleaning my kitchen. It seems like the type of job that would be really long, gross and tedious, especially living in a house of four girls, but it’s actually really satisfying. I didn’t mind wiping down the fridge or the microwave. Heck, I didn’t even mind wiping down the bins. It was satisfying because I knew that by doing it myself, it was being done right.

I’m a bit of a germ freak, you see. Especially when it comes to places where we eat. I wish that I had been in charge of the cleaning roster from the start, because I would have put myself on the kitchen area multiple times. I also would have realised sooner that we are in need of a blocked drain plumber. I hadn’t realised because I didn’t need to fill the sink up until I did a big clean of the kitchen. It took so long to drain after I had done all the dishes that I know for a fact that we have a blocked drain. I don’t know how none of my workmates noticed this. Or if they did notice, I have no idea why they didn’t say anything.  

Of course, as the most responsible workmate, it’s my job to call one of the local plumbing companies servicing Melbourne homes. I get annoyed that I’m the only person who takes initiative in these sorts of situations. But I guess that’s the payoff when you live in a share house. Someone has to be the person who does all the organising or otherwise it’s the type of thing where everyone expects someone else to do it and no one ends up doing it.

I wish I had figured out this issue sooner. The fact that no one has brought up this issue yet makes me question whether or not anyone has actually cleaned the kitchen properly since we moved in.

My friend has such a cool job. He works with footy players and gets to spend all his time with them. I would love to have a job like that but unfortunately, I’m unemployed. I haven’t been able to hold down a job for the last five years and I don’t know why. It’s not me that’s the issue though – I’m sure of it. 

My life is pretty boring these days because I have nothing to do. The most exciting part of my last week was having a conversation with the most professional drainage contractors operating in Melbourne and hearing what they do every day. Apparently, they spend their days fixing things, inspecting things, diagnosing things… it sounds really cool. I wouldn’t mind being a drainage contractor for the next couple of months until I inevitably decide that being a plumber isn’t for me.

That’s just the way life works these days. It’s the gig economy, you see. If I found myself a really cool job like my friend has then I probably wouldn’t leave the job so soon but alas, that has not been the case. I’m not fussed though. I work to live, not live to work. I wonder if the plumber I spoke to who specialises in unclogging blocked drains in Brighton works to live or lives to work. I should have asked him. That would have been an interesting conversation to have had. Oh well.

I think I might spend the next couple of days researching to find out what drainage plumbers actually do, how much it pays and whether it’s worth studying/training to become one. If it seems like a worthy venture, I’ll probably give it a go! It would be good to be entertained for the months leading up to my birthday and then I can splurge all the money I’ve saved on one big event. That’s capitalism, baby!

Being an adult is so difficult. Having to deal with my emotions, on top of managing my expenses and dealing with unexpected things as they pop up is really difficult. Like, I was in the middle of a semi emotional crisis the other day and just trying to function at work, which was hard enough. Then, I started hearing a very concerning gurgling noise come out of my drains. As if I wasn’t struggling enough. 

I’m new to this whole adult thing so as soon as my drains started gurgling, I burst into tears. I’m just so overwhelmed trying to get everything in order and understand what I’m meant to be doing with my life. To put into context how much I’m struggling to be an adult – it took me three days after hearing the initial gurgling sound to actually work up the courage to call the drain plumber about the issue. It’s not like I was procrastinating and finally did it after three days, I actually sat by the phone for seventy-two hours straight trying to find the strength to call. It was difficult.

When I finally spoke with the drain plumber, I told him that I had no idea what the issue was and that it was stressing me out. He was very understanding which I was grateful for because I couldn’t have emotionally dealt with a drain cleaning plumber servicing the Melbourne area coming to my house and working on my drains if I hadn’t had a good interaction with him initially. He made me feel at ease and because of that, I was able to book him in to come to my house and clean/repair my drains. He’ll be coming on Monday which is only a couple of days away.

I’m just going to take this whole situation day by day. It’s about as much as I can handle at the moment and I don’t want to take on much more.

Their pace quickened, speeding through the sewers at double time. Maphira couldn’t work out why they’d suddenly sped up, but she went along with it, resisting the urge to say something annoying and witty.

The tunnel was well lit, with small lights placed on the stone ceiling every ten metres or so. They turned down several corners, then crossed a small bridge over the river of muck and grime. Along the way, Maphira noticed many blocked drains. Melbourne had a serious blocked drain problem, but it seemed that the Conclave wanted it exactly that way.

“Are we there yet?” Maphira asked in her most childish voice.

“No, not yet,” replied Vai.

She waited only a minute before trying again. “Are we there yet?”

“No. We’ll get there when we get there.”

“Are we there yet?”

Vai groaned and turned to Maphira. “Will you please be quiet? You’re starting to give me a headache. You don’t understand how important this is to me. If this isn’t a successful test, I’ll be toast. The Great Mechanist will feed me to his robot dogs. My life is on the line here.”

“Gee, I can’t imagine what that must be like.” Maphira glared at the woman she’d once considered a close friend. “Here you are dragging me through these disgusting sewers to be a test subject for something I assume is probably going to take my life, and you’re asking for sympathy. A bit rich. And honestly, get someone down here to conduct some drain camera inspections. Near Melbourne, there are plenty of plumbers who could do it, and they’d probably be discreet. This place is totally gross.”

Shaking her head, Vai said, “What you don’t understand, Mai, is that sometimes you have to go through hard things for the greater reward. Is it gross down here? Yeah. Does that matter? No. Similarly, I didn’t want to betray you all those years ago, but I did to create something better than our friendship. If only you could open your eyes and see the good of Robotopia, then maybe you wouldn’t have worked against us.”