Devastation & Perspective

Sometimes Jolly is just too hard.

1. The kick in the stomach
The battle lasted two years. Our little family construction company vs the Sydney Water Board. After seemingly endless man hours and legal expense, our claim for payment (for a wharf we build for them years ago) was taken to expert determination. Two weeks ago, the decision was handed down.... We won! A dollar amount was assigned and it was to be a matter of days before our struggling bank account would see the green. We were relieved and proud and RELIEVED!
Today the news came from Sydney Water. “We don't agree with the Expert Determination. We'll give you half what they say we owe you. Take it or leave it.”
I didn't even know they could DO that!
Now we either:
A- Take them to arbitration... another few years and another stack of money we don't have and another round of fighting energy we can’t muster.
or
B- Take the crummy offer and cut our losses.
This is the first time in my life I've wanted to throw a brick through a window.

2. The bitter Pill
At work, our crazy old Scotsman with long white beard and blue boggly eyes, famous for his gruff temper and hilarious jokes, stood in front of me and broke into tears. His 39 year old daughter is riddled with cancer. It's so bad, they can't even figure out the primary source of it. Last week, she just felt a bit run down. This week, her whole world has changed.

And that makes our business problems seem preet small-fry.