emma_in_dream | Entries tagged with 3 things

1, Nearly, nearly ready for my leave. I did have a holiday in April but still had to feed, clothe and supervise children, merely in more difficult circumstances. Really looking forward to this holiday.
2, Mr Gold is looking like 90% recovered after I spent an hour cleaning his tank last week.
3, Have been given another parsley plant. I keep forgetting to eat it myself, but the guinea pigs do enjoy it.

It is quite difficult to see through the thick clouds of despair, so I should focus on the things that are bright and shiny.

1, My sister is coming for a visit from the UK for the first time in five years!
2, I am taking a week off work – I cannot say how much I am looking forward to it.
3, The carrots we planted appear to be growing. I dug one up but it was a mere hair – how long do they take to turn into something edible?

I had a wonderful time at Lara’s 50th Frocktail party. Got to wear a great outfit and enjoy the company of other adults.

This was a lovely change as the holidays consisted mostly of taking the kids to various medical appointments and working. Contact with other adult humans that I like! Wonderful.

I have joined the work gym and find that a little gentle exercise improves my mood.

Both the budget ($11 for 3 months) and the amount of effort required to get there (60 seconds away from my office) are just right. Also, I quite like the small selection of extremely old equipment, including an exercise bike which appears to be identical to the one my grandfather had in the 1980s.

1, On the weekend we went to the zoo and took the opportunity to feed a giraffe. It was so cool, because he twisted his tongue around the leaves and pulled them into his mouth. As Pearl said, it was like his tongue was a hand. A slightly slimy feeling, blue hand.

2, Ruby did some woodwork and created what she calls a musical instrument. With help she nailed random nails to a block of wood and then strung elastic bands over it to strum. Her Pop is incredibly impressed.

3, Inspired by a fanvid, I have been rewatching *Leverage*. Perhaps I will finish it this time.

1, Ruby is always attracted to books about trips to hospital, no doubt her way to process her life. At the moment a picture book about a bear having an ear operation is on high rotation. She likes to point out the degree of greyness in their fur which illustrates that the doctor bears are older than the patient bears, nurse bears and orderly bears.

2, I found Pearl reading an Enid Blyton short story collection under the covers after lights out. She was only given away by her giggling. I am somehow reminded of myself….

3, Although I was stuck inside at work, the girls did nature play by the river today.

1, It turns out that as well as *American Ninja Warrior*, there are a whole host of other versions. In Japan, the UK, France! I am the last one to board this train!

2, I have much of next week off.

3, We will be going to the Royal Show on Saturday 1st October if anyone wants to join us at the Rabbit Pavilion. I am hoping we may get to watch the pig diving again, as it was pretty much the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. (For random reasons, the pig diving board is right outside the Rabbit show.)

1, I was number 47 in the recall list for the book taking apart the dysfunctional relationship between former PM Abbott and his chief of staff. It has finally come in, in time for me to join a conversation that ended about six months ago. What schadenfreude to read of the screaming matches in the corridors of Canberra, of Tony running out of meetings to get parliamentarians to apologise to Peta, of MPs being embarrassed when dining with them because she fed him. After running a campaign of relentless sledging of the Labor government for being too personality driven and dysfunctional, and after boasting that ‘the adults were in charge’, it is a real pleasure to read about scenes that, aside from the constant F bombing, would be better played out in a high school.

2, I feel that I have raised my daughter right. Pearl selected “Singin’ in the Rain” to take in to school for consideration for watching in the last week of term. I doubt very much she will secure many votes but she was very pleased with herself for identifying something that she felt would appeal to both boys and girls. OTOH, Ruby requires a little more instruction as she refused to watch *The Sound of Music* and chose *Mary Poppins* instead. It’s good, but governesses called Mary are not a patch on governesses called Fraulein Maria.

3, I will be able to take Dad to dialysis tomorrow.

1, My cold and cough is so bad that I took yesterday off work. I rested in the morning and in the afternoon ran some errands.

2, The gluten free gingerbread house kit has arrived. Yummy and somehow the Ikea-type flatpack house stays together.

3, I enjoyed the circus so much last time that I have booked tickets again. And I am taking my Mum and sister as well.

1, Dad has started dialysis. Considering it has been imminent since November 14, this is a huge relief. It should make him feel better and once the timetable for dialysis is set up we’ll have a much better idea what the pattern of life will be like.

2, I got to choose the art from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs for our office. Very exciting.

3, The Stucky Big Bang is out, so there are heaps of new, long stories.

1, We went to an Educated by Nature event on Saturday and the girls very much enjoyed working with tools. Pearl liked the hand drill and made a lot of holes in some soft wood. Sophia then hammered nails through. They made a sculpture of a hedgehog which impresses me.

2, The girls let me sleep in the afternoon since I felt so rotten. When I awoke I discovered they had eaten a litre of ice cream while watching *Aladdin*, but still, I got to sleep.

3, People were kind enough to come over on Sunday which was good because the girls were super boisterous and needed to run about while I talked to an adult.

1, I am rereading *HP and the Philosopher’s Stone*. I wonder if Pearl is old enough to read it? She wants to because other kids she knows have. But it does have Voldemort sucking on unicorn blood. And Harry’s dead parents (who spend more time onstage than Hermione’s live parents). And the viciousness of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.

2, I am planning to adult like mad on Friday, census, tax, rates.

3, My parents entertained over the weekend and my children were shocked – shocked, I say! – to see the table clear and free of clutter. Pearl very earnestly praised them while Ruby ran around looking at the table and I smothered a laugh.

1, Lovely weather over the weekend.

2, Ruby informs me that she is a ‘fan of bottoms’. She has an ad from Lush showing a whole lot of women with no clothes on facing away from the camera. She wants me to photocopy it so it can go on her wall. I am going to assume this is some typical developmental phase.

3, The electrician who came by on Friday was both competent and cheap. And reassuring! My daughters said I was ‘milking it’ when I demanded sympathy after receiving an electric shock from the outside light. But the electrician was concerned and Western Power wound up calling the strata agents to inform them that other original light fixtures would all need replacing as the earthing line on mine has corroded. About half the units probably still have the original lights. So I have a working light and we’ve warned others about the possible dangers.

1, I’ve just started the BBC’s *New Blood*. It’s excellent and a nice retreat from vile reality.

2, I am reading *Milly Molly Mandy* to the girls. They are enjoying the stories greatly, and are also scandalised by the fact that I had scribbled in the book as a child. I keep pointing out that you can tell by the inscription (which does not mention my youngest sister) that I was very young when I did it!

3, We went op-shopping on the weekend and got several jigsaws. I do enjoy working on them with them.

1, The children enjoy karate.

2, Tomorrow is the school disco.

1, The girls both adored karate, and had huge grins on their faces as they did it. The class is aimed at kids and the teachers seemed very good at providing lots of positive feedback. Pearl most enjoyed kicking a bag and Ruby most enjoyed the game of dodge ball they played.

2, Ruby has been exhausted ever since she did karate but nonetheless set off to school with some enthusiasm today. PrePrimary are having a presentation on why hospitals are good. I thought she might be reluctant to go as she has well founded fears of hospitals, but instead she took my suggestion that she would be an ‘expert’ and ran with it. She knows *all* about hospitals, down to being a connoisseur of the best waiting rooms at the local children’s hospital.

3, I was finally well enough to start cleaning up the backlog in the house. For example, the things brought home at the end of last term are now put away.

1, I had a really nice lunch with an ex-co-worker yesterday at the City Farm.

2, Pearl kindly made a collar for Ruby’s bear which reads ‘Ambrose is my name’. After Ruby cried because ‘it was not how she imagined it’ she thanked her sister for the effort she put into making it. Very mature. And Pearl commented that sometimes things are not as good as we imagine – such as the Shopkin’s house she bought which she thought would be amazing but which is not. (Indeed, it is not.) Also, very mature.

3, I’m rereading Connie Willis’ *Black Out*.

1, Children back at school.

2, In a miniscule victory at work, my time sheet now works.

3, In another miniscule victory, the parking metre accepted my card today, unlike yesterday when it would not work and I had to find $14 in coins in the car.

Sadly, I feel very under the weather. I have my first bad cold of the year. We were going to have a little holiday down south but I really don’t feel well enough. Instead I think I’ll have to take two very disappointed children to a petting farm for the day.

Still, on the bright side, at least I can take drugs to block my nose up at night so I can sleep.

Quite hard to think of other things…. Weather bitter (by Western Australian standards), my health is miserable, the election is, once again, a morass. At least it’s not a clear win for one side, I still remember how enraged I was when Howard strutted about claiming a ‘mandate’. Surely it would be hard for either side to introduce sweeping changes of any kind with another hung parliament?

1, Soon it will be the school holidays.

2, The girls gave their Pop carefully chosen gifts that reflect their taste and not his. He is now the proud owner of some china cat magnets.

3, Parking at the new office not as bad as I had thought it might be. I am still driving to school every day in an effort to save time.