Pics of the house - as rquested :)

Ok I've been asked repeatedly so here are a few pics... batteries ran out midway so I think I missed out a few bits but essentially, 23 Hatfield Street.

Here's from the top of the garden

 and this is the grassy bit...

this is looking down on the patio area from the grassy bit..

and that's the patio area from the spare bedroom

and the spare bed itself...

Oh, back to the top of the garden (more or less) - told you it was steep

here's Lara's spa bath - she loves it

and Lara's room - sorry all a bit dark, flash didn't go off

living room

the downstairs area, with Lara's reading corner to the left and sitting to the right

other side of the downstairs, with my study to the left and Lara's to the right

Missed out the kitchen and so on but no doubt you'll see them at some point. There. Pics.

29th November 2011 (Tuesday)

The Marvellous Miracle of a Mowed lawn: a delight to the eyes, a salve to the conscience, a caress to the toes and a chlorophilous whiff to the nostrils.

I bought a ditsy, teeny tiny little rotary push-mower after discovering that the mower the people in the house left us doesn’t work. Of course, it doesn’t gather the clippings but that’s fine. No cords, no weight, just shove it about a bit and watch the grass go flying. Lovely!

Lara’s home, and it’s wonderful! Yesterday she skipped in with a huge yell and exclamation of delight to be back home. Well, this was after swimming. Amazing what good swimming she does, really, considering she’s only six. Amazing what good swimming they all do. It’s not often you see a six-year-old doing the butterfly. At least outside Australia.

Today we went to drama – it being a Tuesday. They have their performance on the 7^th December. She ate a donut on the way there, crumbed it joyfully all around the back of my car. Exited looking like an explosion in a sugar factory. We did a barbecue later, and she insisted on a story about Lemon Shark, Big Eyed Six Gill Shark and Shovel Nosed Shark all chillin’ out in a whirlpool bath (?) in Shark Bay on holiday, when they’re joined by a little girl called Lara with her friends Platypus and Pink Bear, who took  a running leap from the door into the hot tub and send the peanuts and crisps flying… etc. Then she named a local spider Mr Jiggles (because his web jiggles sometimes) and we played a Bird Board game she’d just made. Instructions like: “Find a worm! Go forwards five paces!” Or “Storm! Swept back to 22!”

In short, such a lovely evening I think I may just take my Kindle to bed and chill. She’s likely to join me at the crack of dawn anyway, certainly did this morning. 5:30 and there she was, perky as the whip bird, with THREE books tucked under her arm, desperate to read them before tomorrow (!) because she hasn’t read any of them with Daddy and she needs to take them back to the library on Wednesday. These aren’t little picture books but sizeable little chunks of 14 chapters apiece. We read one today, and might manage another tomorrow morning but I suspect the last one will have to go by the wayside. Unless she comes to bed at 4:30 this time – which isn’t out of the question.

Sunday 27th November 2011

Extraordinary how good weeding feels in a nice frock of a quiet summer’s evening.

The marigolds were just a touch for comfort and hygiene. (And yes, I’m talking gloves, not plants. No foreign nonsense in MY garden.)

Just got back from the end-of-season writer’s group get-together. We all brought along a plate of something (I brought a mocha chocolate cake I’d baked) and lounged about on the grass outside, then went in, read a few pieces, drank bubby, ate nibbles, quipped and pulled ‘stuff’ about in a way that doesn’t really happen in the outside world. There was lots of ‘stuff’ going around. All very enjoyable.

Came back while it was still light, and a beautiful evening, so I got out the aforementioned bucket and marigolds and did a bit of weeding. What with the incessant rain the whole of the week, the poor garden wasn’t looking its best but a little tug here and there and things soon fall into place. I also found (this morning) that the lawnmower the people in the house before left us doesn’t actually work, so I’ll have to nip out and get something tomorrow. Fingers crossed that the rain holds off for a couple of days so I can use it.

… OK have to add this. Online radio programme DJ announcing brightly: “And that was the mint-sauce free zone that is ‘sheep may safely graze’ by JS Bach…”

Saturday 26th November (part 2, I guess)

I wonder if it’s a property of Cheese. Ok, cheese. Just feel it ought to be capitalized.

Had Cheese (as in, made from cow’s milk) and Crackers (the wafers, not the state of being Bananas, Ape-shit, Round the Twist, Crazy, or Stark Raving Nuts) as part of a small Afternoon Tea with a former neighbour, and now feel utterly disinclined to do anything constructive. Wildly Reckless. As if I might… I don’t know. See if there’s a movie on tonight and watch it, then just go to bed.

Opened eyes this morning to see LIGHT. It was light. Not dark. Not 3 a.m., not even 4. Probably more like 6, but I didn’t bother rolling over to glance at the clock. It was nearly 7 before I got up. If you didn’t understand what a big deal this is – well, it’s a big deal.

… Have some British news radio program running in the background and just registered that (apparently) Curiosity is about the size of a small car. I think that’s a remarkably reassuring and quantitative measure of a quality that’s sometimes somewhat nebulous to pinpoint. (There was an indication that it might be something to do with Nasa but that’s immaterial.)

Saturday 26th November 2011

Still bucketing it down here. Has been solidly since Monday. Unbelievable volume of water. I think I will never get to do washing again.

I’ve been cogging through a delightful mix of tedious admin stuff and grubby unpacking and sorting all week. Garage-full of boxes finally coming slightly under control. Still lots of work to do. Then sorting out clothes after that. The fun never ends.

Also applying to every job in sight but it’s a bit futile just at the moment. Temp jobs seem to be rare as cockerel’s eggs and no-one’s really looking for someone to start in February. Still, blitzing that field on a daily basis, getting a few ideas.

Meanwhile, as I’ve been left alone, I’ve been taking my exercise at evening dance classes. For yesterday’s two-hour Salsa session I even put on a frock, believe it or not.  Started off a bit rusty but got into it pretty quickly – by the end the teacher was saying Very nice, it’s all coming back isn’t it, glad you stayed for the intermediate session. Plus it was a very small class so all mighty friendly. The other night I went for an hour of Waltz and an hour of Tango. Absolute crash course, never done them before in my life but all seemed satisfactory. Even had people giving me dubious looks and saying You’ve really never waltzed before? – which I guess is a complement.

On another bright note, my friend Anna (who moved to Tasmania) has just bought a house – rather unexpectedly it sounds, and it looks lovely. Not only that but her husband Neil has got a job, too – at a Harley Davidson shop, no less! So cheers and congratulations all round on that front. SO nice to hear things going well for someone. TALKING OF WHICH… CONGRATULATIONS to the Camel and Pobble, who are expecting their second child in April! Not that they read this blog but there might be those that do, and haven’t heard, and wish to know. (How’s that for a sentence?) Lara says, (correction, insists) that her new cousin is going to be called LARA GRAINGE and they’ll be identical twins. With her, obviously. Time, distance and parents are no barrier to this, it seems.

On that happy note, I shall go and have my morning shower.

A few pics

Having had (repeated) requests for pics, here are a few. Not many, sorry.. hasn't really been picture taking time. This one is the most recent: our first barbecue at the new place. This is the terrace/patio area at the back - the first rung of three tiers, as it were. (Well, this is Merewether Heights, everything's tierd.)

Here are a couple of pics from last Saturday's drama performance that the Non did. (No, the one with Daddy has nothing to do with the drama. Just happens to be at the same time.) They went to Hunter Street in their groups, and did what they call 'pop up' performances in their groups, then they all got together again and did some group 'poses', impromptu. It was very difficult (ok, impossible) to hear what they were saying because of the traffic, but they all seemed to enjoy it anway. I've got lots of pics from the performances but I'm not allowed to post them online because of the rights of the other kids.

Here's Lara doing a pose for 'Tantrum' (her theatre group is called Tantrum Theatre). I thought it was quite realistic, really...

You can tell we haven't been taking pics. Here's her Halloween get-up - she's being a cheetah. Went trick-or-treating, enjoyed herself, ate sweets.

And even earlier, from the old place... just being a bit of a Santa.

That's King Kong, the class mascot, riding her scooter outside Hatfield Street. She got to take him home because she got lots of point to earn 'tickets' - was VERY pleased with herself.

22nd November (Tuesday)

"I don't remember that."

Story of his life at the moment. Literally.

21st November (Monday)

Busy. All kinds of bits of paperwork, tidying up the house, crossing off to-do list, rummaging in papers, applying for jobs and updating contact details for agencies. A bit of gardening – didn’t seem like much but already half the green bin is full, and I haven’t even cut the lawn. 

Went to Bunnings to get some gardening basics: a hedge trimmer, a new barbecue cover, a trowel, a rake. My heart dragging along the tarmac behind me. Fallen jacaranda in lilac bleeds all across rained roads. Computer’s hum in the study but the net connection almost non-functional, making every web-move torture. Kept on at the List, wastepaper bin filling up with jettisoned projects. Found my dance-schedule – Monday night is Latin, probably cha-cha. Why not, for 7pm. Drove out into the dusking rain. ‘Danced’. Couldn’t forget for one second. Came back, feet exasperated. Backbone rebellious.

They had squid and mango tonight. I had tears and wine. Good for me I resisted mixing anything else in it.

Thursday 10th November 2011

It’s pretty bare round here. Moving tomorrow, and ‘most’ of the stuff is in boxes down in the garage, ready for the movers. Or me, more like. They’ll probably only get to take the heavy stuff, which is their primary function.

It’s also pretty odd. Here I am, entirely alone, spending the last night in this house. Even odder that I’ll be spending tomorrow night alone, too, in the new house. No husband, no child, just the ticking clock.

Ever fallen asleep on the train and woke up at an unknown station, and wondered well OK but where the hell am I?