Location: Manning Valley
Date: February 2010

February 11, 2010. For the past week or so, there's been a lot of activity in my street... roadworks, new drainage, and even my footpath fixed. It was damaged a few months ago when Country Energy was here with heavy machinery installing a new power pole and wiring.

The first few pics show what happened a few days ago. But the rest show a bunch of council workers arriving to fix the footpath (Merry Cans will tell you that it's a sidewalk, but don't listen to them... they're dills). On the first day they had a big machine to dig up the offending sections. Actually, there was only one slab broken but they decided to demolish half the damn street. Then they loaded all the busted concrete onto a truck and took it away... but not before posing for a classic photograph of them sitting on my fence to watch proceedings. Lots of people sit on my fence, and I'm seriously considering selling tickets.

Next day, they were back to lay the new concrete. When I saw the big concrete truck turn up, I could hardly believe my eyes. The driver was a WOMAN! She was a very nice lady, actually, but I suspect she could have done a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson no worries. After that, the blokes spread the concrete and left it overnight to set. "Don't let anyone write their name in it," the foreman yelled to me as they prepared to leave for the day. I pointed to myself and he laughed. But I resisted the temptation to deface their handiwork - which I must say was very professional.

This morning they were back to remove the barriers and assorted bits and pieces, and to shovel soil around the boundary gaps to encourage the nature strip lawn to regrow up to the edges. Bloody good job, and nice blokes to boot. Click here for the photo album.