I get asked to do all sorts of things in my work and one of todays tasks was to spray paint a garage roof. So there i was, dancing around on what in hindsight was probably a fairly brittle 40 plus year old asbestos roof with spray gun in hand with my back to the drive when i heard someone shout to me from the drive. I let go of the trigger on the gun and turned round to find a man standing on the drive looking up to me. There was a surprised look on his face when he saw me and he apologised for calling me “mate” which I didn’t hear anyway and to be quite honest wouldn’t have been bothered me. He explained that he had come to mow the lawns but couldn’t get his mower past my car in the drive. I climbed down the ladder and went to move my car, as i walked back down the drive he made the comment that it was unusual to see a woman doing that sort of job which I immediately took as being sexist and said you would be surprised what girls can do, he nodded and got on with his mowing.
Some time later when he had finished the lawns he got out his blower and proceeded to blow all the stray grass cuttings off the drive, i needed something from the car and walked towards him. He had his back to me so didn’t see me coming, he also had his ear defenders on so didn’t hear me either. I stopped and waited for him to finish, he turned round and was surprised to see me standing behind him. He took off his ear defenders and asked me what else i did for work. I told him painting was my main job but i did all sorts of property maintenance and again he seemed surprised. As i walked past him he said “good on you” I replied, I’m not your average kind of girl! He smiled and said “obviously not” It got me thinking about a song from about 15 years ago by a young lady called Alex Parks, the song was called exactly that, not your average kind of girl and I’ve been singing all day. It has actually had a really good effect as today has definitely had its moments like several screws shearing off when i was refitting some blinds after painting. It took all of my “thinking outside the box” to figure out how to get round it but as usual, after a drink and some sustenance, some careful repositioning and the blinds were in place. Not so many years ago i would have really struggled with things like that but in the end it’s only a confidence thing and i love the challenges my job throws at me. Variety is definitely the spice of life!