UNDER THE HAMMER

THURSDAY 21st APRIL

  Hadn't looked at the weather forecast, but it turned out to be a beautiful warm day not a cloud in the sky and the sun beating down akin to summer, at a guess around 26/7 degrees.  I had decided to take my River jacket (purchased in Katoomba) along to the River shop in Mount Druitt to get the safety tag removed that neither I nor the shop assistant had noticed at the time.  (It obviously wasn't much cop as it didn't send any alarm bells ringing when I walked out the shop!).  The problem was I had thrown away my receipt, however I located the payment on my credit card statement on line and decided to take my computer with me if proof were required.

  I caught a bus with only about a 15 minutes wait and arrived at Mount Druitt about 10.30am. Not knowing where the shop was, I started at one end of the Westfield Centre and progressively worked my way round it.  Having failed to to find the shop, I did find a directory of all the stores in the Shopping Centre.  River was not one of them!  I found a couple of small padlocks for my new suitcase, purchased some Easter Eggs (although I failed to find anything with a Spongebob Square pants or Garfield motif, and decided to invest $5 in a claw hammer.  That all done I waited patiently on a seat for the 754 bus to arrive and bring me home.  After walking through the park area to get home I laid my jacket on the concrete and attacked the security tag with the hammer.  I confidently expected the plastic disc to shatter, but none of it!  It didn't even crack.  Obviously a new line of attack was required, and I tried prising it open with the claw of the hammer.  This started yielding results and at about the fourth attempt, the tag came apart.  Job done!

  I savoured the weather for the rest of the day, taking Reilly for a long walk, and finished off my book.  More work on the computer, and that really completed the day, apart from another delicious evening meal from the resident Chef Caceres, washed down as ever with some wine in this instance some Pinot Grigio.  Robert went to see Nick straight from work, but returned home in time for dinner.