EDITORIAL: Mending fences a lofty goal

I T WAS to be the weekend I finally fixed the fence.
There it was, a ring around Saturday and Sunday on the calendar: "Ant fix fence".
Some jobs are just made to be avoided and I had dodged this one for months, in recent weeks citing abysmal weather as a fair reason not to stray any further from the couch than the refrigerator.
But there it was, a reminder glaring at me from the calendar. Sound familiar, guys?
First thing was first, however, and in my case the first obligation of the weekend - if you count Friday night as the start of the weekend - was attending the HBS Hastings City Business Awards.
My wife was one of the head judges, so, you know, I was really only there as her man bag but was quite prepared to applaud politely at what I was sure would be a very "proper" occasion. They were, after all, business awards.
Well, stop the press ... these business awards will go down as one of the events of the year. I've never been to an awards night where people laughed so much, cheered so much - there was even a tear of two - before having a full scale celebratory party at the Hawke's Bay Opera House.
With a taking off to the Cook Islands theme, it was a riot of a night which saw some of the city's top businesses acknowledged for their success through a difficult year.
Needless to say, on Saturday morning I was in no state to fix a fence. Besides, it was pelting with rain. I did manage to do some worthwhile things on Saturday however and they were: Read a book on the couch, drive to Napier for a coffee at Groove Kitchen, go to Black Barn vineyard to see Sola Rosa after dark.
Congratulations to Black Barn for continuing to put on top class music in the depths of winter. Sola Rosa were excellent and I spotted at least one captain of industry enjoying the night and the music. Surprising who gets out and about on even the coldest nights.
Finally, it was Sunday and I was feeling ... tired, actually.
I managed to waste away as many hours as I could by doing other useful things such as making cups of tea and walking dogs but by 3pm the calendar was virtually screaming at me. Fix the fence.
So outside I went, found the necessary wooden panels, found the hammer, nails and other tools a man might require. Had a cold beer while surveying the work scene and formulating my plan of attack.
By now it was 4pm and light was dropping fast, but by working industriously as only a determined man can, I managed to get up two panels.
They are not very big panels.
There's a ring around this coming weekend on our calendar: "Ant fix fence".