Goodbye July (pt 3) or Why I Hate July (pt 4)

Independence Day 2007.

After arriving ‘home’ during the early hours of the morning, we all slept until some time before mid-morning.  I awoke to a monster head cold sinus thing, no doubt from the lovely recirculated air on the plane, physical exhaustion and the fact that the last time I had slept it as in freezing cold Melbourne and now I was in 40 degree New Jersey.  The kids were up and about so there was no time to rest, it was time to explore.

We had been invited to a 4th celebration with a colleague on the Jersey Shore but weren’t sure if we should go, if in fact it was a genuine invitation or more a pity invite.  We weren’t sure of where to go and were all still pretty stuffed so we decided to have a look around the local area instead.  We spent the 4th doing things that I had only seen on TV, things that are similar to what is normal here but dare I say it, oh-so American.

There wasn’t much in the house to eat so first stop was somewhere easy to get food.  I think we ended up at an Applebees.  The kids were rapt – being given paper and crayons upon entering won them over entirely, well that and the giant cups of fizzy drink that unexpectedly came with their meals.  I was overwhelmed at the choice of salad dressings, that and the sheer size of the serves.  I am sure that one meal could have fed the entire family.  Unlike in Melbourne, the food we didn’t eat was automatically packed up for us to take home with us.  That meant that we had an afternoon snack all sorted.

Next stop was a giant shopping mall.  I knew that clothing prices were much better in the US than in Australia, but to be able to buy a complete outfit for both kids, including footwear for little more than $10 amazed me.  It made me wish that we left all of our clothes in Australia and were forced to buy all new clothes.  I could have spent all afternoon wandering the mall but the kids wanted to go out and explore and we still needed to stock up on some real food for the cupboards.  

The remainder of the day was spent exploring neighbourhood parks, playing with all of the toys that were left there yet wondering where all of the kids were.  We managed to find a supermarket and get some essential food to get us through that night and the next few days.

Eventually we headed back to our house to actually explore the place we would be calling home for the next few weeks, until our apartment was ready.

 

The majestic entry

If I hadn’t already seen our house, seeing the gates to the property would make a person think that they were about to arrive at a mansion.

The 'humble' abode!

Seeing how beautiful the main house was made me wonder who lived here.  Apparently no one actually lived here, it was used as a weekender only!

Our little cottage was less than majestic but very quaint.

Home Sweet Home

I have no idea why the image is appearing so small here – maybe it is to emphasise just how small the house really was.  That is our car parked out the front and it is actually longer than the house!  OK, admittedly it is a huge car but a huge car doesn’t actually equal a huge house.

The house was tiny.  Downstairs was literally an open area that fit a 4 person dining setting, a small couch and a tiny tv cabinet.  There was a tiny kitchen and two steep narrow staircases, each leading up to a bedroom and bathroom.  The bedrooms were connected by a small ’secret’ door so that we didn’t have to go downstairs and back up again to check on the kids.

A tiny kitchen in a tiny house

I took this photo pressed up against the wall in the kitchen, using no zoom.  There is no way that any one remotely overweight could fit into this kitchen!  I couldn’t imagine much cooking happening in this small space.  As well as there being no space, the facilities were also limited – there was a fridge, sink cooktop and a toaster oven and that was it!

 

Slippery stairs

These are the steepest and slipperiest stair I have ever had the pleasure of falling down.  Both staircases were narrow and well worn as you would expect in a building that is over 150 years old.  What made them more difficult to climb was the humidity.  It was so humid that condensation settled on the walls of the stairwell and on the stairs themselves.   Now having moved from a 3 level house both kids were adept at climbing up and down stairs however after falling down myself the kids weren’t allowed to use the stairs themselves unless we were with them, or I wanted to take another photo!

 

At the top of the stairs

The lounge and dining areas were both downstairs.  For some reason the photos make both spaces look larger than they were, there was absolutely no storage areas anywhere.

 

Fine dining

 

The dining room had antique furniture in it, not exactly the furniture I would use for a messy family.  To the right of the dining table was the front door and the other side of the door was the lounge.

 

The lounge

Now I don’t know if you have noticed the yellow floral wallpaper?  It really isn’t my style, but in this environment it worked.  What didn’t work was the extra chair that was in the lounge.

 

WTF?

Please, a red chair with dog print is wrong in any home!

Both bedrooms were upstairs.  The master bedroom looked like it belonged in a country retreat somewhere, perhaps a bed and breakfast somewhere in the Yarra Valley.  It was really quaint and quite beautiful.

The master suite

The little secret door led through to the second bedroom.  When we arrived the room was furnished with a double futon – not the most practical bedroom solution for two restless toddlers.  For the first few days I ended up sleeping between the kids on the futon, trying to get them to stay asleep without kicking each other awake.  Instead they kicked me awake repeatedly.  By the end of night three we had a boys room and a girls room.  My sleep was marginally better with only one child kicking me.  Knowing that the single sex bedroom concept was less than ideal, we went out an purchased junior beds for the kids and we all had a better nights sleep.

New kid-sized beds

Of course with junior beds comes junior bedding – so cute, the bedding and the kids sound asleep in their own beds.

And there you have it, our entire house.  Did you notice the abundance of lamps in the photos?  That would be because there were only 3 actual lights in the entire house – the kitchen and the bathrooms.  Every other room was lit by lamps, that meant that there were lamp cords everywhere, the perfect tripping opportunity for all!  The lamps and the antique furniture helped to make the cottage a kid-friendly environment – NOT!  Despite that, and the fact that it was tiny, for a few weeks it was a place that we could call home. 

The grounds to the main house were beautifully groomed.  There was an undercover walkway from our cottage to the main house where the kids could play out of the sun.  This space became home to a firetruck bed (sans bed) that we found in a carpark and decided it would make a great toy for the kids as we waited patiently for their toys to arrive.

 

the Fire Truck

Outside there were plenty of interesting places to explore;

 

The brook (that flooded) at the bottom of the garden

 

the long grass by the forest, full of creepy crawlies

 

the field where the deer used to feed

the manicured gardens of the main house

 

 

there were so many places to explore, even corn fields in the distance, on the other side of the brook

 

Scary Crow

 

We even had our own scare crow (it is no wonder they are called scare crows!)

So there you have it, you have seen the place that we called home for a month.  It was beautiful but it was in the middle of nowhere and not the best place to meet new people and make friends.  Going through all of these photos had made me realise that despite the madness of our time in the US, it was an enjoyable time overall.  

Stay tuned for the next installment – the ‘bits that went wrong!’

Goodbye July (pt 2) or Why I Hate July (pt 3)

So at the end of Goodbye July (pt 1) or Why I Hate July (pt 2) we were all packed and ready for our big move to the US of A.  Our flight was departing bright and early on July the 3rd, 2007.  We were all at the airport in plenty of time to check in all of our 3 bajillion suitcases and say goodbye.  

Now everyone that knows me knows that I refer to the point of no return for international flights as the crying doors, the place where even if I don’t know anyone departing I still feel all of the emotion of those around me bidding farewell to their loved ones and more often than not I end up crying.  Well this day was no different to any other day at the crying doors, but it wasn’t as sobbingly distressing as I had imagined it would be.  I guess I was so excited to be embarking on such a huge adventure that I was filled with nervous energy and excitement rather than overwhelming sadness.  Sure there were tears, but most of them were shed by people other than me for a change.  

Finally after saying goodbye to everyone it was time to head through the crying doors, go through immigration and begin the wait until it was time to begin.

Girl-child and skanky bear waiting to board

Finally it was time to board.  It was pleasing to know that we weren’t the only family on board.  What was disappointing to see was that because they had the smaller child, they were given the front row with the extra legroom.  Fortunately being in the second row we all had in-seat entertainment.  Boy-child was happy to flick through the channels until he was overcome with sleep.  Girl-child however was filled with energy and wanted to play, not with daddy (he could sleep) but with me.  

 

Talking to skanky bear as boy-child sleeps

We spent hours wandering up and down the aisle talking to whoever was awake.  She was in a great mood and was flirting with everyone.  It was quite dismaying to have many other passengers comment that they were glad that she was no longer crying and as the ever-so-proud and defensive mother I am, I had to remind them that the crying child was in fact still crying (from exhaustion) and the only noises girl-child had made were shrieks of enjoyment and singing.  We were lucky enough to know staff on board the plane so they kept the food coming and took us for wanders along the aircraft to try and break up the monotony of the flight.

Of course as soon as we landed 12 or was it 14 hours later? and loaded girl-child into the stroller she promptly fell asleep.  It made for a difficult transfer through LAX.  Going through security was more than a little challenging.  We had to unload girl-child from the stroller, fold it up and put through the xray machine, as well as removing batteries from the laptop, taking off shoes and emptying pockets.  I went through holding girl-child, fumbling with one hand trying to get the stroller set up to put her back in, man-child is still loading up the conveyor belt with the stuff from his pockets as boy-child is sent through the beeping doorway.  Of course it beeped and he freaked out, probably not from the beeping itself but most likely from the 2 security dudes that were at least 6 foot tall, yelling at him to step back through the gate.  Now as a 3 year old he had no idea what they were talking about, hell he probably couldn’t understand their accents to even know what they were saying.  I wanted to go back to help him and I was getting yelled at and man-child wasn’t allowed through to get him and bring him back through the gate.  It ended up with all of us yelling and finally man-child was allowed to go through the security gate to get boy-child, take him back through to remove his belt that had a tiny metal clip on it.  Eventually we all made it through security and had a few hours wait for our next flight.  

Sleeping at LAX

Fortunately girl-child slept through the entire debacle.  In fact she slept through LA entirely!  Naturally she woke in time to board the flight and find our seats.  

Our seating arrangements on this flight left much to be desired.  Now 2 adults traveling with 2 children you would assume would all be sitting together, particularly as our flights were booked early and we checked in early but unfortunately that would imply that someone was applying logic.  We were sitting with 2 seats together and the other seats were singles.  Now I have no idea how they thought that was going to work, which child was going to sit on their own, the 2 year old or the 18 month old?  Perhaps they were to sit together and we would sit on our own.  Needless to say we kicked up a stink.  The best they could do was get us 2 lots of 2 seats together, one pair in front of the other.

Not surprisingly, girl-child had had all the sleep she needed on the floor at LAX and she was ready for more play time with mama.  By the time the flight landed I was beyond exhausted.  I hadn’t closed my eyes for more than 5 minutes in more than 24 hours and we still had to collect our luggage, clear customs and find our car.  

Eventually with all of our belongings found – 5 suitcases, 2 carry on cases, a suit bag, laptop bag, baby backpack, stroller, kids carry on bags and nappy bags, we headed out to find our new car.

Will all of this fit into the car?

Luckily the car was huge, even then we only just fit all of our stuff into it.  

 

The ginormous Dodge, one of the cars that would be ours.

The drive from Newark to Princeton was a blur.  I remember we picked up some drive-thru to have as a midnight snack and that was about it.  When we finally made it to Princeton, man-child struggled to remember which way to go to get to our house.  I do remember missing a turnoff and shortly thereafter missing a deer that was standing on the middle of the road.  Luckily we missed the deer and found the turnoff and eventually found our new house in the dark, arriving at our new home in the early hours of the 4th of July.  I was too tired to do anything but tuck the kids into bed and fall into bed myself.  Exploring my new home would have to wait until I was awake enough to string together a coherent thought and perhaps hold my eyelids open.

 

Coming soon, our new home and more…

Goodbye July (pt 1) or Why I Hate July (pt 2)

I have been feeling BLEH for a while now.  My world is crazy busy and I haven’t had time, or made time, to chill out and relax or to recover from the icky headcold that has plagued me for weeks.  One of the benefits of the crazy busy is having July fly by without me having a chance to really have time to dwell, or perhaps I have allowed myself to be crazy busy in response to the fact that it is actually July.  Who knows? Anyway, July is almost over and I feel as if I have made it through unscathed.  Of course I am writing this on the evening of the 29th so there is still time, however I won’t publish until I have made it through the month.  

I have written before on here, this time last year about a few of the more painful reasons for why I hate July, other than the obvious cold weather.  Now it is time to finish off the Why I hate July saga with Part 2.  Last year I alluded to what was to come, I even mentioned it at the beginning of the month so now it is time to continue - the move from hell.  I imagine that this could become a long winded post, not only because it was an emotionally charged time of my life but because it was also extremely amazing in a craptastic kind of way.  To prepare you for what is to come (or so you can just skip to the end or the photos), I present you with bullet points

• man-child working between Australia and the USA to get ready for the move that was to take place in July
• the renovations needing renovating before the move
• the relocation from hell and why it went wrong
• the return to Australia feeling like I had given up, that I didn’t try and I had failed myself and my family

So here it is, Part 2 of Why I hate July.  This saga actually began sometime late in 2004 and not during the month of July.  To set the scene, boy-child was a very active and inquisitive almost 3 year old and girl-child had just turned 1.  I was back at work 3 days a week, juggling shift work and kid activities.  We had settled into our now not-so-new house and had just lived through renovating a house that didn’t need renovating.  Man-child had an awesome opportunity to work in the US and spent many months working 3 weeks in the US and 3 weeks here.  It was hard work single parenting.  I could manage the single part OK, it was the excitement during the weeks when we were all together that were hard, when routine and consistency were thrown out the window.  Trying to make the most of the crazy together times knowing that all to soon man-child would be flying out again, knowing that the kids didn’t understand why sometimes dad was here and sometimes he wasn’t.

As a family we decided that the commuting between countries wasn’t the lifestyle for us.  Instead of returning to work only in Australia, man-child was offered a permanent position working in the US.  It was his lifelong dream to work and be successful in the US and he had loved his time working there.  It seemed too good an opportunity to refuse and I was bored with work and in need of a change so we set about to try and make it happen.  He was still with the same company that had relocated us to New Zealand a few years previously so we knew it was a real opportunity.  We also knew that the company wasn’t going to hire a relocation consultant to assist with the move and the HR department didn’t have the experience to do it (other staff members who had been relocated and ended up with insane daily commutes because they weren’t aware of local conditions).  Being the control freak that I am, I was happy to do much of the research for the move.

Initially we offered to relocate for 3 months, using up all of the leave I had accrued but the powers that be thought hat 3 months would only be enough time to settle into the postion without actually getting anything done.  They wanted us there for a full year.  There was even talk of me working for the same company as I had previously worked for them and still knew their products.  

Things were starting to get serious – a full year in the US, awesome.  The next few months was all about getting organised for the move.  I would research online, finding neighbourhoods that sounded great, comparing school districts and child care, even looking at crime statistics in each area.  I would email my findings to man-child and he would check out the locations in real life.  I also began the process of arranging leave from work and doing the math on whether it was more cost effective to relocate our furniture or store it.  All of the math was based upon us being in the US for a year, until the ‘company’ decided that it was not worth doing if it was going to be less than 2 years, 3 would be even better.  I couldn’t fathom being away for 3 years, besides I may not have had a job to come back to after 3 years.  I could confirm my employment for a 2 year leave of absence so we negotiated and committed to a 2 year stay with the possibility of staying longer if it was working for everyone.  Still the whole idea of moving to the other side of the world was too good to be true.  

I re-did the math for the move and all of a sudden it was going to be more cost effective to ship all of our furniture rather than store an entire household (3 bedrooms and a study full).  Now up until recently we had crappy old furniture but post renovations we thought the new spaces deserved new, pretty and darn expensive furniture so just giving away all the furniture wasn’t an option.  We did the right thing and arranged for 3 independent quotes for shipping the furniture and with the backing of the HR department, we accepted a quote for shipping.  

Next thing we knew, the rules were changed.  The owner of the company, ever conscious of costs, offered to store our furniture for us, free of charge, in an unused yet clean and safe part of one of the buildings he owned.  Furthermore, he would allow us to purchase or hire the furniture we would require in our new apartment.  Fantastic – the shopping trip of a lifetime to fully furnish a place, all using someone else’s money.  We were able to cancel the shipping company without incurring costs, merely the embarrassment of being perceived as being incompetent.  

Next task on the to-do list, find renters for our house.  Despite saving money by not having to ship furniture, we couldn’t afford the mortgage here and living costs in the US.  We found friends of a friend who lived up the road who were looking to move and our place seemed perfect for them.  Just as we were about to draft up contracts, fortunately before they gave notice to their land lord, the ‘company’ had decided that they could rent our house to use for corporate short-stays and for when we would be in town.  It would be more affordable for them to pay our mortgage than it would for them to pay our accommodation costs when we were back in town.  

Of course by now, knowing that we weren’t going to ship our furniture and didn’t have to pay insane storage costs, we had given away or sold off all the furniture that we wouldn’t need in 2 years.  That included our bed (it was really old and in need of upgrading so we thought we would splurge when we returned) and all of the kids bedroom furniture.  Really, we would have no need for a cot and junior bed when the kids were going to be at least 3 and 5 when we were due to return.  In fact the only furniture we had not gotten rid of was the new furniture my beautiful leather lounge suit (that comes with a side story that is too long for this long post), teak TV cabinet and shelves and our new dining table and leather chairs.  Oh well, they could just fit out the bedrooms before they used the house, that wasn’t going to be a problem.  It also meant that we could leave all the whitegoods in place and leave the house stocked with crockery, cutlery and non perishable food items, as in the other company short-stay residences we had stayed in.  

We seemed all set for the move.  Visas granted, tickets purchased and accommodation sorted.  The apartment we were to move in to was to be re-carpeted and wouldn’t be available for 3 weeks after we arrived.  We didn’t mind, we could camp anywhere for 3 weeks.  We had visions of dodgy motels alongside a highway but it turned out that another couple who had been living in the area were moving back to Melbourne and the property they had been living in was available.  Man-child had stayed there, with them on previous visits and agreed that it would be better than staying in cramped motel lodgings so it was all sorted.  

Of course this all sounds far to simple and easy right.  Well during this time, when man-child was still doing the three week commute thing, I found that there was a leak in a downstairs pipe.  Now the water had flowed underneath the almost brand new solid wooden floor that had been laid as a part of the unnecessary renovation.  The entire floor was ruined, as were 2 walls.  The floors needed to be ripped out and that meant removing the still shiny new kitchen.  Thank god insurance covered the damage bill, but it was challenging.  I had to fight with them so they would understand that we couldn’t live in a house with no kitchen or floors with 2 young children.  Eventually they seemed to understand my dilemma and found local accommodation for us.  We had to move out for 2 weeks to allow for the kitchen to be removed, the floors removed and the sub-floor dried before a new floor being laid and the kitchen being put back together.  Living in a small third floor apartment with no elevators and 2 kids was challenging to say the least, especially as I was single parenting for most of that time.  Naturally we were supposed to be packing and getting organised for the move during these weeks but we couldn’t actually access our house!

So now the house is back together, we have packed.  We managed to get rid of copious amounts of toys and clothes, even books but we still packed up boxes and boxes of essential items to be shipped to the US to be there when we arrived.  The first shipments that went were off-season clothes, the following shipment was to be essential toys and all the books we had purchased about our new home.  Books about Princeton, about bike rides and holidays in New Jersey, about must see attractions in New York as well as books about kids activities in the Princeton area.  We were taking essential toys and kids books with us on the flight, as well as all the clothes that we were still wearing here, going from mid winter, as well as some clothes for summer in case our boxes never arrived.  We were fully loaded with the maximum we were allowed to take.  Hooray for the huge luggage limits when flying to the US – we were each allowed 2 suitcases plus carry on, a stroller, a baby backpack and a laptop.

Farewell parties were held, goodbyes were said.  Plans for friends to come and visit were made and we were all set to go, to embark on the biggest journey of our lives.  It was exciting, scary and homesick sad all in one go, but mainly exciting.

The day of departure finally arrived, the 3rd of July 2005 and with it my hatred of July was to be re-kindled.  Already this post is way too long before I even hit the good parts, I will continue in a new post shortly, one that has pretty pictures to accompany the many words!

The 4th of July

I had no intention of blogging today.  In actual fact I have barely been near my laptop today instead I have been preparing for and celebrating man-child’s almost birthday.  Despite being insanely tired I decided to check emails in bed.  Of course on my way to gmail I stopped by and checked my reader to be reminded of the 4th of July celebrations that are taking place.  

Well 4 years ago, during the early hours on the 4th of July, this was us, just landed at Newark and on our way to our new life.  

Just Landed

We celebrated the 4th of July 2004 exploring our new home.  I remember exploring our new home, visiting typically American chain stores being astounded by the 4th of July clothing that we just had to have, finding parks for the kids to play in, eating at chain restaurants and not getting the whole tipping etiquette and generally being exhausted after 2 tremendously long flights with a 21 month old who refused to sleep at all.  

It was all terribly exciting and then it all went horribly wrong.  That aside, Happy 4th.

 

I’m Next

I have discovered that the best thing about having both kids home from school on a school day when they really aren’t sick is that they have company all day long.  This afternoon’s activity of choice seems to be playing shop.  Now that seems like a typical kid game to play, I have fond memories of playing shop myself as a kid, but these guys have taken it to a whole new level – they are playing massage therapy shop!  

Using towels, blankets and pillows they set up a massage area.  They calculated that each massage would cost a dollar and then borrowed some money from me.  They divided up the money so that we all had a few coins each and then it was time for the massage shop to open.  Boy-child booked in for the first massage.  Girl-child ran to grab some moisturiser and away she went massaging his back.

 

Boy-child clearly enjoys a massage

 

When I saw that the massage was real, I quickly rang to make an appointment.  I was told that there was still time for a massage, but the shop would be closing soon.  Be back soon…

So I am back and all refreshed from my massage.  I was fortunate to have two wonderful ‘therapists’ working on my back.  Initially there was a little tension as to who was hogging the massage area but they soon worked out that there was a simple way to share my back, the therapists each kept to their own side of my spine!  

The divided massage soon gave way to a competition of naughts and crosses, over and over on my back.  It was really quite relaxing.  It became even more relaxing when they decided they had to rub the over abundance of cream into my skin before the massage could be over.  They had used so much skin cream to play naughts and crosses that it took forever!

All too soon, about 15 minutes later, the massage was over.  I went to pay for the wonderful treatment that I had received buy boy-child insisted on paying for my treatment using his credit card.  The massage shop was then closed, the equipment shoved out of the way before both kids ran upstairs together, giggling and plotting their next adventures.

Man I love my kids, they rock. 

A Recipe for a Very Tired Me

1. Take one campsite near the beach,
2. Add 24 challenging teenagers,
3. Mix in little sleep at night,
4. Leave to fester for 3 days in the sun and you end up with a very tired and grumpy me!

I am going to have a rest before the kids, my precious kids, get home from a birthday party in an hour!

Holidays at Home

Well I have been AWOL for a few days, AWOL from the computer because a slow, lazy, relaxing and somewhat sociable life just happened to get in the way.  Oh, and the reason I couldn’t clear my Google Reader was my impatience coupled with the fact that my internet access HAS BEEN SPEED LIMITED!   How in the hell could we possibly have used 15 Gig in less than a month?  So for at least one more day I will be doing all things online at a speed of 64kb instead of the uber-fast 487 kajillion kb transfer rate

So this is how I have been spending my time away from work and not online…  

On Friday we decided that we should at least attempt to go through some of the accumulated stuff that needed sorting.  The stuff that you know you need but can’t decide where to put it so that you will know where to find it, so instead it just gets shoved into a pile of other oh-so-important stuff.  Well man-child hit the jackpot, he found a couple of free movie passes.  OK, so the passes had expired 2 days previously but we thought what the hell, lets give it a shot and off we went to the cinema.

The cashier didn’t even look at the passes, just scanned them and gave us our tickets and we were on our way to stock up on popcorn and coke ready to sit through the epic Australia.  I really didn’t know what to expect of the movie, I had heard that it had been crucified in the media but that was about all.  I went into the cinema with my usual expectations to suspend belief and enjoy the show, and that I did.  It was a beautiful story set in an amazing landscape telling (yes I know I am ignorant) a story I barely know.  It makes me realise just how little I know of our history, or world history for that matter.  I feel like I should know more, that I need to learn more but I don’t know where to begin.  Instead of going home to learn more and to validate the facts presented in the movie, we were invited to go out to dinner with my best friends.

Dinner was delicious – Japanese.  Almost everyone had a great time, although man-child was in a shit of a mood.  He was being a petulant little brat, and the cause was that I gave away a scanner that we purchased 2 years ago at a garage sale for $10 have used maybe 6 times ever.  He was annoyed that I didn’t ask first if I could give it away, despite him being a part of the original conversation months ago when we made plans to get rid of it!  His mood continued when I decided that rather than look at the menu, we would let E choose the dishes for us to all share.  You know, I used the logic that she can read the menu in Japanese and she knows our culinary likes and dislikes.  Not surprisingly, she chose a perfect menu that had the dishes that he would have ordered had he been given the choice, he was annoyed that he didn’t have the choice.  GRRRR – why do I choose the exactly wrong moments to be decisive?  The grumpiness aside, it was a great day.

Saturday we were invited to the ‘Kew Shack’ for a barbeque.  Now when I say ‘Kew Shack’ it is said full of irony, it is actually a mansion that friends house-sit at this time every year, although this is actually the last year as the ‘Shack’ has been sold for an undisclosed sum that is upward of $11million!  It has at least 5 bedrooms, a study, music room complete with grand piano, formal dining, many bathrooms, a gym with its own sauna and the obligatory gigantic kitchen and family area that overlooks a backyard straight from a holiday brochure.  The focal point of the yard is the gazebo that houses a beautiful kitchen with every mod-con imaginable that is much nicer than my own indoor kitchen and a dining room also.  Naturally there is a flat screen tv hidden in the kitchen, of course it is connected to pay tv, dvd and internet incase you need to keep up with what is happening in the real world.  On one side of the gazebo is a flood lit tennis court with an additional space for basketball.  Further along the yard is a shady space for the trampoline, bikes and cubby houses amongst beautiful trees and gardens.  The other side of the gazebo is the obligatory and beautifully landscaped pool area that of course has a spa and outdoor shower.  Of course we mustn’t forget the separate change areas and bathrooms for boys and girls!  

So amongst this grand setting we sat and relaxed with a group of friends.  It was beautiful and fun, but I felt lonely.  I didn’t go to this same event last year as it wasn’t the most kid friendly environment, they were invited but they would have been the only kids there, so I chose to stay home with them and man-child went alone.  This year, there were babies and toddlers everywhere, even the hosts are expecting a child.  Naturally most of the conversation related to children and it made me miss having my kids around, knowing that even if they were around I would have to spend my afternoon playing tennis or basketball and swimming.  I guess every cloud has a silver lining and I was able to relax, have a few drinks and enjoy baby cuddles without the obligation of parenting them.  As a result, we were last to leave the party!

I tried to sleep in yesterday but as like other days of my holiday, I seem to wake at around 7.  With no plans for the day, I stayed in bed reading for a few hours.  When I did finally emerge downstairs man-child was all ready to go shopping – I think he was hungry and had discovered that there was nothing edible in the fridge.  We spent the day going from one shopping area to another shopping area, eventually ending up at Ikea buying a cantilever umbrella for the backyard.  

Having a new umbrella was cause for celebration, so we invited the neighbours over for a barbeque and dip in the hot tub.  We had a great night eating, drinking, playing wii and relaxing in the tub that before we knew it, it was after midnight and apparently some people had to work in the morning so it was time to get some shut-eye.  

During the course of the evening, we were told about the issues a friend is facing about his extensive alcohol abuse .  This got man-child thinking about his own relationship with alcohol and more importantly his family’s relationship with alcohol.  It saddened him to think that as a child/teenager he was completely unaware of his father’s secret addiction.  He then became angry that he didn’t know and therefore couldn’t help back then, when help may have made a difference.  Now he is stuck trying to pick up the pieces of someone else’s life and having little effect and as a result is becoming more and more frustrated.  

He is still frustrated, frustrated about his family and their multitude of issues and now he is frustrated that he is back at work.  He has called a few times already complaining about being at work, I am predicting that he will be home early this afternoon!

So that brings me to today.  I am well stocked with books I haven’t read thanks to a stop at a super-cheap book store yesterday.  I haven’t reached my wii-fit total for yesterday so I need to catch up.  All those boxes that need sorting, still need sorting, and I don’t think that I will do any of it!  I am loving my holidays at home doing absolutely nothing, besides a few days offline and my reader is accumulating again.

All Grown Up

During the last week of our latest installment of renovations we decided to order a hall stand to sit along the new wall.  That was over a month ago, after the store saying it would be in in 2-3 weeks.  Just as I was working up the energy to call the store to cancel the order (by that I mean mustering energy over a number of days in order to prepare for potential verbal conflict) they called to say the hall stand had arrived.  I was then asked when I would pick it up (delivery was another $80).  I suggested that I would arrange to pick it up on the weekend.  It was Thursday afternoon at the time and the sales assistant requested that I collect it sooner.  I enquired about the store opening hours, to be told they closed at 6 every day.  Why wouldn’t a store have late night shopping?  There goes my plans to pick it up that night.  When I commented something to that effect I was promptly told that ‘The store can not hold the hall stand for you.  You will need to pick it up this weekend at the latest.’  How rude, they were the ones that were 2 weeks late in getting the hall stand in and I had 2 days to collect it – GRRRR.

On the up side, we managed to convince a mate to come for a ride to help collect the hall stand.  The stand was too large to fit in the car when the kids were in the car (we drive a pulsar) and under no circumstances were the store assistants allowed to assist in moving our furniture, it isn’t their job!  

Eventually the hall stand made it home and it looks all pretty on our new wall near the entrance.  

I love it, it makes our house look all grown up!

Look, there is man-child in the mirror and the high maintenance geriatric cat too!