Back to Reality

Back in Brisbane Claudia turned the flat into a home that it was a pleasure to return to. She was great at spotting things at garage sales that, with a bit of sanding/painting etc. would aid in the flat's transformation from a bachelor pad into a home. Plants appeared and flourished; herbs, flowers and vegies were planted. Crappy bits of furniture were replaced as I discovered the inside of shops I had only ever driven past. My attention was drawn to adverts that I had a bachelor's blindness to: (Carpets: Final Clearance'; 'Curtains and Linen -Must Go'). Where our day-to-day lives were concerned, we were very happy together.

Claudia started to work with me and in so doing just proved what a wonderfully flexible, incredibly hard-working person she was. We had started to move a huge volume of 'pre-loved' machines that we acquired through tenders and auctions. The volume of product was huge and the work to clean them up and prepare them for resale was heavy, dirty and involved a lot of carrying of monitors and CPUs as well as standing in an un-airconditioned warehouse in the heat of a Queensland summer. My work generally kept me in the air-conditioned comfort of a workshop and office. Claudia quickly learnt how to handle rather complicated and technical work on both the software and hardware side of things. We had, for example, hundreds of CRT monitors that needed to be tweaked to give their best output, having deteriorated after a few years in use. This involved removing the back of the monitor and re-callibrating all the colours, voltages and sometimes the yokes. It took a steady hand and a very good eye for colour for this to be done well. There were computers that needed to be pulled apart and have parts cleaned, catalogued and packed while still taking every precaution against the risks of ESD damaging the goods. (Electro-Static Discharge - natural static we all have that damages chips, basically.) She was the guru at using Word or knocking up an Excel database when one was required. Her dislike of mess and bad organisation meant she would always speak up when something had not been completed properly and this kept the boss on his toes as well as the rest of us. She handled all the menial work without any complaint and that is always a good measure of the work ethic of a person. She would unload trucks and the look of surprise on the drivers' faces was always most amusing.

It was great fun having her there. Claudia was the only woman and handled it well. The teasing was never-ending and bordered on harrasment at times, but she took it all and handed it back too. I never needed to stick up for her on any issues and that was testament to how strong she was within herself. She became the one person that everyone would ask after, such was her impression on people. They would have forgotten everyone else's name, but they could still remember her helping them. The two of us were there to open up at 08h00 and we would lock up at 18h00. They were long hard days and would have been so much longer and harder were it not for the cameraderie and effort that Claudia provided. I have always been so very proud of the work that she did there.