When I go to quote on a job I am often asked the question, ‘So…How much for cash?’ or alternatively the suggestion is made (‘nudge nudge’) that the customer is happy to pay cash, with the implication being that a hefty discount might apply.

Up to now I have been fairly genial in my responses and politely declined any ‘cash’ offers as I haven’t wanted to offend people, but I am increasingly feeling like this is something I want to confront. It gets tricky because some people genuinely want to do me a favour by refusing an invoice and they struggle to get it when I decline. Then it gets weird and I have to explain why I would prefer to be honest…

I wonder, why am I the one who has to do the explaining?!

I know its supposedly part of Aussie culture and all that, but at core it is simple dishonesty. Its taking what isn’t ours and denying the state what it is due.

Call it theft if you like… (and if you don’t ‘like’ then that’s too bad)

What’s particularly disturbing for me is the number of people who call themselves Jesus followers who don’t bat an eyelid at trading ‘under the table’. What kinda discipleship is it that allows for this?…

It seems that in our culture we all believe in honesty – except when it disadvantages me. We’re happy to be honest so long as there isn’t a personal cost attached. This stretches beyond cashies and into most of life.

But what kind of pathetic ‘honesty’ is that?… Seriously… it is a sham. Conditional integrity is no integrity at all.

At the core of this issue is simple selfishness and greed. ‘More for me’. And the belief that it doesn’t matter if we rip off the government.

It matters.

It matters because it is stealing.

It matters because every time we do it we shape our character.

It matters because we make a statement by our actions. We tell people what kind of people we are.

It matters because we deny our government $$ to provide services.

It matters because it creates an uneven playing field and disadvantages honest operators.

Whether we are people of faith or not, this is not a contentious issue. Its black and white and I’m tired of being the one who looks kooky for saying ‘no’. Lately things have got tighter in my business and I have lost a number of jobs to people who are doing ‘cashies’. Last week I had a customer accept an $1100.00 quote, only to be called a few hours later and told that another person had agreed to do the same job for ‘$800.00 cash’.

Yesterday I was asked to beat a quote – a silly price – and I refused. I sent through my most competitive price only to get a text in return that said, ‘Let’s meet and we can talk ‘cash’.’

I sent a text back. “I don’t do cashies because I believe it compromises my honesty and integrity. Still want me to quote?” I haven’t heard back, but I’ll be interested to see if they join the dots and whether they want to pursue my quote that is several hundred dollars higher than the ‘cash’ quote.

I think I know the answer… And while I care about not getting the work, I care more about the message it would send if I did work for cash.

There are many aspects of life and faith that are grey and difficult to discern, but this isn’t one of them. So if you’re currently doing cashies why not have a re-think and ask yourself what it says about you and your business?…

About 6 weeks ago I went from having work piled up to having very little in front of me. For the last few weeks I have been turning up at 7.00 in the morning, quoting on a job and then doing it that same day.

I have also been undercut hugely on some jobs. Last week I reduced my price from $1250.00 to $1100.00 to get a turf job and then missed out because another the guy who came to do the retic was willing to do it for $800.00. I’ve gone from hearing people respond to a quote with ‘no worries – when you can start’ to ‘ooh that’s more than we can afford!’

It was like someone ‘threw a switch’ and things slowed right down. The economy was hardly on fire, but for some reason we seem to have gone slower again. In speaking with other guys in similar trades they too have experienced an abnormal slowing. Some guys I know are struggling to put petrol in their cars and keep credit on their phone – which makes it tricky to run a business.

Perhaps it is the post-Christmas credit card bills taking their toll?… Or maybe people are just tightening their belts yet again?… With work less certain people spend less. Who knows when you will need that money you have in the bank? The flow on/ripple effect is significant and it seems everyone will be affected in different ways.

Probably the only ones who will come out unscathed are those who ave ‘enough’, who are already able to live simply and for whom the desire for bigger and better is not the primary driver. But the question I find myself asking is what about those for whom ‘consuming’ has become a way of life, a religion?… What about those who rely on that next purchase for some degree of fulfillment in life?

I’m curious to see what develops.

I have enough work to get by and in quieter times like these I just try to enjoy the rest periods which give my 46 year old muscles a chance to recover. But you can’t help wondering, ‘If its quiet now, what will it be like in winter?’

Might have to plan some extra holidays!

Its been a while since I posted a general life update so on a quiet afternoon I thought I’d do that, as much for my own reflection as for anyone who cares. These are in no particular order, but just as they cross my mind…

The Bum – I guess the big news this week is that I don’t have cancer… I didn’t think I did, but being sent for a colonoscopy does make you wonder ‘what if?…’ With a family history of it, I guess I’m a fair chance in the future but for now I’m clean. Having read the blogs of friends who are currently in the midst of a great fight with cancer I was very relieved. I resented having 3 days of disruption in my life, and I can only imagine how it would be to have your whole future thrown into chaos.

People asked me what it was like to have a colonoscopy and to be honest I wouldn’t know. I was out like a light and when they woke me up 40 mins later it was like I’d had an afternoon nap – albeit with a camera up my bum. Fasting… now that’s another story altogether…

The World – Somehow all the catastrophes around the world make my own issues (of which there are currently few) seem insignificant. If I were a fundamentalist end times prophet I imagine I’d be predicting the end of the world some time very soon. Its been crazy. I haven’t written much about the floods, fires, quakes and tsunamis, nor the revolution/s in the middle east.

I find it hard to know what to say without it sounding trite or trivial, but its been hard to watch all of this while wondering ‘what the heck is going on?’ I know some have asked questions as to whether this is God at work in some way and trying to say something… I’m not so sure and I think its always dangerous to pontificate in this way. But that’s a big subject and I won’t delve into it just now. For the record – I think Gaddafi is an evil man and I wish the Libyan revolutionaries success.

The Family – Its that time of year when the kids get a year older, with Sam’s b’day in Feb and Ellie’s in March. He is now 8 and she is now 10 (on Tuesday). They are wonderful little people and we really enjoy them.

Here’s a pic of Ell before she went out with Danelle and mum to Riverdance this week. She’s growing up fast. Sam is still the extrovert of the family and always making us laugh.

This is him watching TV – he rarely just sits there, but usually ends up upside down in some way or other. They seem to love their homeschooling routine and Danelle is finding it great too. In April we will be 20 years married, which actually sounds like a pretty long time as I think about it! We’ve been tossing up where to go and what to do to celebrate and ended up deciding on 4 nights in Margaret River – the same place we spent our honey moon. It was difficult working it out as we only had a few nights and everywhere is so ridiculously expensive. We did consider an overseas jaunt, but the travel time was the main deterrent in that equation, so its a relaxing few days down south minus the kids. Yeeha… although the kids reckon they should be there… (Unlikely…)

The House – is still for sale and the market is dead flat. We haven’t been super-aggressive yet with our marketing and sales approach so it might be time to change gears. I tend to feel that if we get the price right then we will get a buyer, so maybe we need to drop it a bit further… This is the place we are hoping to buy, but at this stage its not looking like it will happen in the near future.

We haven’t allowed ourselves to get too attached yet so it won’t be a big disappointment if it doesn’t happen. Then again, if it does it’ll be nice to have a change of pace. We’re feeling like its time. What a house move does say to us is that we are willing to commit to this region for a substantial period of time – not something I could have said with conviction over the last couple of years, (for various reasons) so I think that’s a very positive thing.

Reading – Most of what I’ve been reading has been around the idea of New Monasticism, probably one of the strands of mission/church that I feel the closest affinity with. Most new monastic communities are small and exist independent of the established church, but I’m currently reflecting on how we can embrace the learning and wisdom from here and use it within our own church community.

I’m also aware that as I read about various NM communities they sound much better on paper than they are probably doing in reality. Still there is plenty of cause for inspiration and a re-freshing of the imagination in the stuff I’ve been chewing on. Hopefully we can learn about how to live with a healthy spiritual rhythm in the setting we find ourselves.

Work – has been oddly quiet. Normally at this time of year I’m running around like a blue-arsed fly trying to keep up with the demand, but the last month has gradually slowed to the point where last week I was actually able to take a day off and go surfing and the other 2 days weren’t full either. I have 3 full days next week which is good, but I’m not sure exactly what’s going down here. Fortunately our expenses aren’t high so I can get by on a day a week of work, but it does make you wonder what winter will be like if ate summer/autumn has been slow.

And its not for lack of heat as this has been our hottest summer on record… At times like this I begin to wonder if I’m going to have to go back to teaching, but I just can’t picture myself in a classroom again… ever… So maybe I should stop paying that lousy WACOT tax, which in effect serves as an insurance policy in case I break an arm and just need to get work that doesn’t involve physical labour.

Church – We have been really enjoying our church community this year and feeling a shift in the energy levels. A few new faces have added enthusiasm and passion and I have also been inspired by seeing 9 blokes sign up to lift the bar on their own spiritual formation. I’ve become increasingly aware that this is at the crux of so much of the struggle in the western church. We need people who genuinely know God and encounter him regularly and deeply in their own lives. I’m still very much committed to the missionary vision that has shaped us so strongly over the last 10 years, but equally aware that a vision of that kind can’t just be a task to complete, but needs to flow from some real deep passion.

The Future – Assuming we sell this place and move to Yanchep, we will be well and truly committed to the area for another 5-10 years which will see me into my 50’s… and which just sounds so unbeleeeevableee old…. I think we have another few years of work to do at QBC at least, and I don’t see Brighton Reticulation shutting up shop any time soon so chances are it will be ‘business as usual’ for a while.

I do keep my eye out for new business opportunities that could either be added on to what I am currently doing or that could open up a whole new adventure, but I haven’t seen something that really sparks for me yet.

I still have hopes to do another around Oz trip, but it probably won’t be for a while now. I think our term at QBC is a 5 year one, so the logical time to go would be at the end of that, (3 1/2 years away) but we’d need to consider that it would be with teenagers and it might not be quite so smooth sailing as the last time… (I love this pic of an EH Holden crossing the Nullabor in 1966 – but also very happy to do in the Patrol!)

Just a Gut Feeling – I get the sense that we are at the start of something new, albeit in the same place and that excites me. I have great hope for the community at QBC and feel like we are moving in a very healthy direction. I’m not sure all of what form that will take. I am not so sure about my business. While I enjoy it for the most part, the ‘challenge’ has gone out of it a bit and I do find myself not so enthused to leave the house each day. I can’t imagine going back to a regular job and working for someone as I have got used to being my own boss and all the freedom that goes with that. So we’ll see what develops I guess…

So that’s life for us at the moment – at least the ‘online’ version. I like to think that the person you read about on here is the same person you meet in real life, but obviously there is stuff that can’t be ‘blogged’ and never should be, so only my ‘flesh’ friends will really know how things are in our world. But if you’re one of them then hopefully you aren’t getting any surprises about now!

And if the backyardmissionary isn’t your cup of tea then maybe you should check out Jamie The Very Worst Missionary, one my newest blog reads, a mix of unrefined theological musings, random personal reflections and occasional naughtiness… hang on that’s me… she does similar but uses more naughty words.

I have a general policy of leaving my work car unlocked at all times simply because I don’t like the hassle of having to fix door locks and broken windows when kids break in. I figure they can have the ashtray money so long as I don’t have to chase around finding spares and doing repairs.

Last night was one of those nights. I got up this morning to discover my glovebox emptied and my ashtray taken along with my lunch money. As much as I allow for this you still feel pretty angry that people feel they can get away with this.

Even more annoying was that I could have caught them. It only dawned on me when Danelle told me her car had been done also (but no one wanted her god music!) and then I discovered my garage remote control lying on the road… 

My mind rolled back to exactly 2am when I woke to the sound of a garage door going up. I was sleeping deeply at the time but actually remember thinking it was the neighbours across the road having a late one. The hum of the air con and my own grogginess dulled what was a actually the sound of our own garage door going up – and then down again about 30 seconds later.

If only I had clicked… I’d love to have caught them, but then the question arises ‘what do you do?’

I used to consider keeping a large steel bar under the bed for moment like these, but you only have to wack someone once and chances are you will go to jail… Or maybe start a ‘war’ with local teenagers that you really don’t want to have.

My mate Owen who lived in Butler for a few years tells a great story of catching a local teenage tagger spraying bus stops. He followed him, caught him, took his spray can off him and painted him all over – then sent him home. He was a hero at the local residents meeting! And the coppers even turned a blind eye…

It’s a dodgy world we live in now isn’t it, when the law acts to protect the dipsticks rather than the innocent victims?… 

We haven’t called the cops (just a waste of both our time) the car is still unlocked tonight, and no, I don’t have an iron bar under the bed… (which isn’t to say I wouldn’t like to crack one of them around the head)

But maybe it should be…

When you respond with ‘its not our policy’ you treat everyone the same and that is often not a good policy. But it is convenient and expedient.

I rang the Commonwealth Bank today to ask if we could increase our line of credit from $250K to $300K. We probably won’t ever need it, but it was a ‘just in case’ measure, as we look at selling, buying and doing a few renos on the place in Yanchep.

All was going wonderfully until I was asked for the amount I earnt based on my last income tax assessment. That would be $31K… It doesn’t sound like very much does it, but then we did travel around Australia for that half that year and we did have substantial deductions. We are yet to submit last year’s tax return, but chances are with deductions and all of my church pay as non-reportable fringe benefits it won’t look huge either.

So that conversation went like this:

“Based on that amount we can’t lend you any more money sir.”

“I understand that – and that makes sense if that is all you have to go on – but I haven’t done this year’s tax return yet and that will be significantly different. However if you check my loan repayments you will observe that we have paid back 5 times the amount required each week for the last 18 months. Would you not say that constitutes a pattern worthy of consideration?”

“I understand what you are saying sir but its not the bank’s policy”

“Do you think maybe you could talk to someone and change the policy because I think we have clearly demonstrated that we aren’t going to struggle with the loan”

“I’m sorry sir’ said the commbank robot. “I can’t do anything. That is our policy”

“But do you not see what I am saying? You could lose a customer here because you have an inflexible ‘policy’?… Does that not seem a little dumb?”

“I’m sorry sir, but that is our policy and I cannot take this application any further”

“So you realise I will change banks.”

“Yes.”

So the ‘policy’ might be a helpful general approach to situations but it isn’t going to work in every setting. And when you are the one who gets dealt the pointy end of the pineapple you are not impressed. I do understand the need for an organisation to have some parameters in place that enable them to make efficient decisions, but I’d suggest that ‘its not our policy’ is also a convenient ‘out’, when tricky situations approach and people need to think outside the square a little.

In running my own business its a phrase I try not to use – ever – because it reflects blanket thinking rather than individual thinking. Ok, so maybe that’s a bit of a stretch for the Commonwealth, but given the profits they made in the last year perhaps they could consider employing someone as a ‘policy bender’ or a ‘what about this one?’ consultant.

A great way to keep business and to show concern for individuals rather than just profits…

But alas I think that is but another one of my dreams… Then again if someone with some muscle from the banking industry reads this and hears what I’m saying perhaps a change might take place…

I haven’t checked back over the specifics, but I don’t think we have had a sub 30 degree day in Perth for over 6 weeks. Its been hot hot hot…

And I’ve noticed it taking its toll the last couple of weeks as I have come home from work really weary and woken up thinking ‘not again…’

I haven’t felt like that before, and I still enjoy what I do, but the heat is taking its toll, which isn’t good because we have to get thru March yet before there will be any relief in sight.

Usually over summer we get a breather every now and then with a few 25 degree days, but it hasn’t been that kinda summer at all.

Its about now perspective matters and you remember how much you have to be grateful for. For some the heat has taken a savage toll with bushfires wiping out a heap of homes in the east of Perth, but for most of us we have just had to drink more water, or run the air con a bit longer.

I love Autumn and spring, I even like winter, but in summer I need to catch my breath occasionally and that just aint happening…

Ok, this is purely for the coffee lovers who may hit a similar snag at some point with their EM6910s.

On the weekend I gave my machine its weekly clean out and noticed that some milk had caked around the end of the steam wand. I wipe it down each time I use but obviously had missed the milk around the end and I needed to chip it off with a screwdriver. (Its the ‘hex’ end on the wand) I also gave the innards a clean with the little cleaning device.

And I have no idea what changed in those moments but when I cranked it up to make a brew I couldn’t texture milk to save my life. From smooth silky milk to ‘dishwashing bubbles’ and no apparent reason…

I couldn’t seem to get the steam wand in the ‘sweet spot’. It would simply hiss and howl like a wild thing instead of making the normal surging noise. As a result the milk just got hot and bubbly and the result was another crap coffee.

I tried various options to remedy things – re-cleaning, adjusting the temp of the steam and anything else I could imagine. Eventually after 2 days of boofy bubbles I had to consider that maybe I had stuffed up the nozzle.

So I rang the guys at 5 senses who are local agents for Sunbeam and had another nozzle sent up ($24.00 including postage)

I got home from work today and gave it a try and the result was better. Not brilliant yet – but definitely a big improvement. I’d say it went from a 2/10 to a 7/10, but not a 9 or a 10 yet.

Call me a fussy bugger, but I think there is big difference between a ‘7’ and a ‘9’. So over the next few days I will be trying to get things sorted and get back to business as usual.

So – if like me, you one day clean your machine and suddenly find yourself inexplicably churning out bubbly, rubbish then it may well be the nozzle…

Anyone else had similar problems?

A few weeks back I bought a trench digger.

Since then I’ve become addicted to it. It is better at digging than I am… faster… and it doesn’t get tired…

However in the last two weeks it has crapped itself on 4 occasions. Come to think of it that does sound a bit like me…

The first time it was a bearing that was shot and the Hire Guys at Joondalup (where I bought it) replaced it for free. Then on the next job a dodgy air-filter meant it lost power and couldn’t dig. They fixed that too. Then on the very next job after 10 metres of digging the internal bearings collapsed and we were back to shovels again. I picked it up yesterday virtually a new machine with bearings, plug, air filter, oil etc all changed.

Today we took it out this morning and after 1 whole metre of digging it decided to ‘lock up’ again. I was a little upset… I reluctantly called Steve at the Hire Guys who was only too happy to help and offered me a replacement while they checked it out.

I don’t think the failures were their fault and I don’t think they were even their responsibility to fix. It was a second hand machine and I understand that comes with risks. And while I’m frustrated at the various failures of the machine I am thoroughly impressed by the attitude these guys have had towards the whole deal. Its the ‘good bloke’ clause where you do what you’d hope someone would do for you. I know the original good bloke who came up with the idea and I think he’d be pretty impressed with these guys.

So I picked it up again today…

I tried it out across the road for 10m or so and it went like a charm. Maybe this time it will be all good. I am hoping so. Either way, in spite of the hassle I have to say these guys are worthy of your business!

I read about these guys in the paper today and thought their work as youth led social entrepreneurs sounded fantastic!

Young people seeking to change their own community and build a feeling of ‘us-ness’ and doing it in fun, innovative ways. You can listen to the founder Tim Kenworthy below share how it came about.

The Be Nice, Be Friends Revolution from Tahlia Azaria on Vimeo.

Ok – so ‘be nice – be friends’ doesn’t grab me as a slogan, but I get the idea and I’d cheer for these fellas anyday.