Key Issues

Last Sunday evening one of my neighbours rang my doorbell and told me that she had locked her key into her apartment and I was the only resident whom she knew and asked what she should do to get back into her apartment.  For me this has always been a bit of a worry as it is possible to lock the door from the inside, close the door and find that you are unable to get back unless you are carrying your key.  I keep a key attacked to my handbag and another on a hook just inside my door and have left a key with a neighbour.  I also make a habit never to leave the apartment without a key.  In the unhappy circumstance where you accidentally lock yourself out there is no master key and security is attached to the shopping centre and is not responsible for the apartments.

The only thing to do was to find an afterhours locksmith and on a Sunday Evening this was not easy.  The first one I tried recommended the closest one, just down the highway, but they were not answering their phone so I tried another one.  This call was  picked up by a message which said that in an emergency I should press button '1' which I did and found myself talking to a real person who agreed to come but he already had three jobs lined up and would come when he could  -  a wait of at least two hours.  My neighbour and her granddaughter were booked into a restaurant downstairs so I gave the locksmith my phone and Apartment number and shooed them downstairs to eat.

The locksmith was as good as his word, contacted me to find out the best place to park when he arrived at the CQ and I was able to winkle my neighbour out of the restaurant and they all met at the front entrance and I was able to beam them up.

D2 and I spent the weekend moving her incontinent cars out of my parking spaces and cleaning up the oil before putting the silver one back and replacing the red one with the little mauve Veedub with drip trays under both of them.  I must say that the degreaser which my friend, Rosemary, recommended was super-efficient and melted the oil so that it could be hosed away.  Not a very good time to be splashing water around  -  it is cyclone weather and nothing is drying any time soon but at least Management cannot complain about the oil any more.

I finally bit the bullet and started knitting the lacy cowl which I had planned for the possum yarn which D3 brought me back from New Zealand.  One problem is that it is black and can only be knitted during the day, problem two is that we talk too much as the Knitwitches Group so it is not a good place to try and knit lace and I have been tired and started making mistakes, none of which show but I should have been using a lifeline so that I could undo if necessary.

So I have started knitting another jacket which I can do both at night and at the knitting group.  It is a pattern which I have used before and that jacket is my most useful garment  -  easy to slip on when the sea breeze gets too strong.  The first is black and pills badly so I look like the creature from the black lagoon; this one is a colourway called Twilight and is blue and maroon and is going to be very pretty.  I just hope that I have enough yarn to finish it.