A Singaporean In Australia

I have never met him and I don't know his name. Yet I received a gift worth more than $500 from him.

Well, he had a stash of brand new pavers left over from building his house to give out and chose me to take them away, after the initial guy didn't turn up as promised.

That Saturday was one of the tougher ones in recent memory, one I spent loading and unloading hundreds of pavers. To some, it was pure torture. However, I saw that as good exercise and being paid for it. Should I order that lot of about 500 pieces of brand new pavers, I would need to fork out at least $550-$600 for them and that was not inclusive of transportation fees or GST yet. Most certainly, my backside is not worth $500 an afternoon so it is foolish to think "work and use the money to pay others for pavers," is a good idea. It never is. Trust me on this. Those fuckers who say things like that are always found in their bed late Saturday morning. Anyone can come up with a theory. Never listen to what the others have to say. Words are cheap. Instead, look at what others are doing. The actions always speak louder. I look at how some are constantly gathering hay through the seasons and emulate them.

I made a total of 3 trips, unloading and loading at each. I estimated I handled about 6 tonnes of weight that afternoon, 3 tonnes load, 3 tonnes unload. As I did another two loads at 5am in the morning elsewhere, I probably amassed more than 700 pieces of pavers, half of which I stocked at MIL's house, to help her pave a critical area when I have the time in future. I will have to cough up $800-900 to have them purchased and transported.

The owner sent me a photograph (above) without caption.

"I will fix it for you," was my only reply.

Though I damaged the edge of his driveway by simply driving there, the repair should be done by his builder, who obviously did substandard work for him. Since the house was a new build, it will be under the "warranty" period. But heck. I didn't want to argue with anyone after a long day of physical work. Besides, his response to my reply was, "Ok. My wife is breathing down my throat." Couldn't get a bro into trouble with his Missus.

On Sunday morning, I woke at 5am and drove straight to their home. I ripped open a few more pavers to investigate.

The shoddy work by his contractors couldn't be more apparent with this pic. During the cement edging process, they didn't bother to fill the voids under the edge pavers completely. The moment you put weight on pavers with voids beneath them, they tilt and move. I could have simply walked away and told him about it. Instead, I squatted down there to fix his problem.

That (left) was the end product of my repair. I was fucking awesome. You know, the good thing about doing things yourself on the weekends instead of selling your backside is that you learn practical, transferable skills that will help you for a lifetime. Should I have to pay for this damage, it will most certainly vapourise the money I saved from taking his stash of pavers. With some paving experience, I got myself out of trouble. Remember, I know nothing about doing these when I first move to Perth. It didn't take anyone long to learn something as simple as that. Just the heart to start. That is all.

I returned home in time to have breakfast with the folks.

I sent the owner the pics of the voids I found under his pavers and warned him not to drive near the edges, as I strongly believe there were voids under the edge pavers along the entire stretch of his driveway. Or - get the builder to fix the problem!

I sent them a pic of my completed work as well. They weren't even awake by then. After an hour, I received a message from the owner, "Thank you for being responsible bro. Have a good Sunday ahead."