Where to find good help

 After my last post where the comments touched on a strategy for finding tradespeople, the events of today might interest someone. If not, the story is here for me to later marvel over my own brilliance

We have here a website called Airtasker (maybe you have similar). People post a job on Airtasker and then sort through the people who are applying to do the work. The website has developed over the years and it is probably a lot more sophisticated these days but that is the basic premise.

Today, I was thinking about buying second hand furniture and I wanted a plan ready in the event that none of my progeny were available to help out with transport.

I went to a local buy/sell group and asked if anyone could recommend a taxi truck or similar service. People said "Airtasker". Well, no, I was hoping to support a local business and not lose a percentage to a bloated monolith.

Pretty soon, I received a message "Hi Kylie, I can do that for you"

Well I was really on a fact finding mission more than wanting a specific job done so I replied

"I'm all sorted for now but for future reference, is this something you do normally?"

As it turns out, this guy has a van and does small pick up jobs as well as gardening to keep him busy while his wife works from home.

And, just like that, I had found someone willing to put their hand up for a small job, found out what kind of service he offers and found out he will work in my area. 

I don't know if he's any good and maybe he's scanning facebook for work because he's not good but right now, I have a lead and I've probably managed to select for someone who is motivated, which is a great start.

How do you find people to do work for you?

Fixing stuff......

 Well, I'm employed again after being made redundant last December and now that I'm earning enough I am starting to plan house maintenance which has been sorely neglected for a very long time.

The first priority was a new fence to replace the one that was so bad, Lucy dog might be able to just crash right through it. 

So, the fence had been measured up and the fabrication was underway and another job cropped up.
We attempted to change a lightbulb in the loungeroom. PUCK went the circuit. We reset the circuit breaker and tried again. PUCK.

As far as we know, the lights are the original ones installed about 60 years ago so I saw where this was headed and called an electrician. 

Mustafa arrived promptly, making jokes and chatting away. As he worked to make a repair on a burnt out fitting, he dropped a screw. We couldn't find it and he couldn't fix the light without it. I decided it would be smarter to get new lights than hassle about trying to fix the existing ones.

So, off I went and picked out some lights and Mustafa came back to install them. He talked about his life and his children, his wife's cafe, studying in French and village life in Lebanon.

Somehow, he told us he had a pet lamb, purchased to keep the children from spending long locked-down days staring at screens.

"Did you eat it?" I asked.

"No, I couldn't eat a pet....he went to live on my friends farm, not to be slaughtered."

There were videos of the lamb eating watermelon and chasing Mustafa's young boy up the street, doing little happy jumps as he went.

When it came time to pay, the price was discounted: "We're friends now" he said and the new lights were not the only bright spot on a cold winter evening.

By the way, the funeral went well. A lady with a walker even made her way especially to tell me she thought it was a lovely service so I'm calling that a win.

The deadline for me to finish my chaplaincy studies is drawing close, I may not finish by the end of June but I will be very, very close and my trainer has told me that she will advocate for an extension because I am engaged and achieving.

The course requires me to facilitate a ceremony (dedication/ wedding/ funeral) and I haven't had opportunity to do that so a mock funeral, captured on video and sent to my trainer was going to be the way to get around it and then there was a call from my local minister "I have a funeral to do, would you like to assist?"

Now, the only part of a funeral that I really have to participate in for the sake of the course is the committal but somehow, my minister Ben, has extended my role in the funeral at each conversation we have. He will preach a very short sermon but the rest is my gig. So, right now I'm writing a blog post instead of writing a funeral plan. I'm a terrible procrastinator. :)

On Wednesday, I met the niece of the deceased, Mish. She talked about her aunt Noeleen's life, her love of craft, line dancing and community. She talked about the independence she showed and the way she grabbed life with two hands. She talked about her interest in family even when she was hospitalised and isolated due to covid.

The funeral is on Monday morning, at a crematorium I have visited over the years. I'll write out every word and I might not use the script but it will be there to help when nerves threaten to derail things.

Well, Noeleen, your earthly farewell will be officiated by a complete rookie, what would you think of that? I'm sorry I didn't get to have a chat with you before you took off but I'll do my best to give you a warm farewell