Weekends at Bunnings

Posted on | May 29, 2006 | 7 Comments


New study

This is where the theory will be cooking at my place from now on. On Saturday morning these walls were mustard! For non-Australian readers, Bunnings is the biggest home hardware franchise taking over the southern hemisphere. They have ‘free ladies nights’ (no, not that kind) and sell sausages outside their stores on weekends. Although my local store only recently opened – having bought out yet another smaller name brand – and had a Salvation Army lady collecting donations instead on both Saturday and Sunday (a different lady each day). I wonder if the handouts go to the families of all the small business owners Bunnings are putting out of work?

Anyway, the gearbox in my car died on the way back, forcing me to drive home in second gear. This annoyed many cranky cab drivers and weekend-specific pleasure vehicles that roam the Valley and my ‘hood. Maybe it was karma. I will be supporting the local Mitre 10 from now on.

Category: Work

Comments

7 Responses to “Weekends at Bunnings”

  1. Anthea Taylor
    May 31st, 2006 @ 2:39 pm

    hi mel

    i just moved into a recently renovated place in dulwich hill and therefore have so far been able to steer clear of Bunnings…

    i see you’re on at AWSA on the monday; i’m on tuesday afternoon, but most of the sessions running parallel to mine are some of the ones i really want to go to! i hate it when that happens.

    see you down there!

  2. melgregg
    May 31st, 2006 @ 6:26 pm

    I used to live in Dulwich Hill!!!! I miss my gorgeous little house. The conference looks great, doesn’t it (tho I haven’t worked out who is on parallel yet – eek). I am also speaking on Sunday morning about funding & getting grants post PhD – just got asked today.

  3. Mike Lucas
    June 2nd, 2006 @ 11:59 am

    Obviously people with a Uni background have no idea what Bunnings is about! For those of us who can use our hands to work, and not just make weird incomprehensible gobbldygook from too many sessions of theoretical claptrap, Bunnings is a mecca for people with ideas and creativity. Not only that, the staff really know what they are talking about, and the prices are without doubt better than anyone elses.

  4. melgregg
    June 2nd, 2006 @ 1:53 pm

    Gee Mike, I must type with my nose, and hold books with my feet.
    I didn’t mean to imply anything to the contrary, and if cheap prices are the most important thing in the world, then yeah, Bunnings rocks. The desks you see in the picture of the study were hand made by saw-millers with wood from the farm where I grew up doing lots of things with my hands. If you want to talk about some imagined divide between mental and manual labour, you’ve got the wrong blog.

  5. Anthea
    June 7th, 2006 @ 4:05 pm

    hi mel

    do you know what time the thing on sunday starts? there are no details on AWSA website about it, except saying there is a pg forum on that day. given the subject matter, i assume it’s for ecrs as well? we all know that very rarely you submit your phd and walk into an academic job…

  6. melgregg
    June 7th, 2006 @ 6:47 pm

    It says the details will be up shortly – I thought they were going up on Friday, but obviously not. Assume a 9ish start I reckon. My session on grants will be 11-12 and there are a few other topics listed. I will be talking to ECRs as well as postgrads, if only because I don’t think it’s realistic to expect postgrads to be applying for big grants while still doing thesis work. Assume the audience will be a spread of current and recent postgraduates.
    Looking forward to seeing you.

  7. Anthony
    February 14th, 2009 @ 9:28 am

    Wow! Which Bunnings does Mike Lucas go to? “The staff really know what they’re talking about”? As someone with an MA in Applied Linguistics, all I hear from them is the truth about what they’re going to do on Saturday night when they’re chatting to each other, and bullshit and avoidance about everything else when they’re talking to customers. If you can find someone to help you, the answer is somethink like “so-and-so will be able to help you; just wait and they’ll be with you”. If the staff were articulate enough, they’d have to say “just wait until next week”. The other answer is, “I’ll go and find out”. Then they disappear into a back room, never to emerge. (Perhaps their AWA expired while they were there.) They clain to have a “service” where they’ll cut sheets of ply and other timber for you. First, they’ll avoid you, then they’ll say you have to wait until someone comes back from break, then they’ll fob it off to the “new guy” who’ll ruin the edges because he can’t think to use a clamp to keep the sheets still while they’re being cut. I’m in WA. All the staff at Bunnings who used to know what they were talking about left and got jobs in the mining industry long ago. Most of the left-over staff are enjoying their weekend under the big roof while customers try to figure out if their shed has enough room to store more cheap crap that they’ll realise isn’t fit for the job they were told it was. Gotta go. It’s Saturday morning. I’m off to Bunnings because all the other hardware stores are out of business or don’t have a saw to cut ply sheets.

Leave a Reply