Sunday 4th December 2011

Tired!! Rub eyes, reach for tea. Don’t know where to start for today. It’s been machine-gun fire. Work in the morning with Lara, then off to Nippers at 9 ish where she had the fantastic privilege of being the only kid in a wetsuit and so also the only kid not shivering their bits off because the water’s only 17 degrees. She’s really getting a hell of a lot better in all this participation stuff, and she even did a good bit of paddling on the surf-boards today.

Afterwards we came home for bath and lunch, and then had Neve over for an afternoon playdate, while I sat and ate far too many nibbles while chatting to Ann. Then after THAT we sat down and Lara wrote about 40 Christmas cards for her classmates, and we printed out and prepared a bunch of invites for her birthday party. All ready for tomorrow. Birthday’s in February but it has to be pretty much set before we go, so it all seems ridiculously early but it’s not, really. Then dinner while listening to Stephen Fry reading Paddington Bear, which she enjoyed hugely. Then more stories in bed.

I don’t know that I’m going to hold out much longer myself, to be honest. It’s been a full-pelt week. Fantastic fun. I think it’s another of those hold-the-kindle-for-a-moment-and-turn-over nights.

2nd December (Friday)

This week’s on supersonic mode. Cannot catch up with the boom. Lara’s been having fantastic fun with her friends yesterday and the day and the day before. On Wednesday, Olivia and Ruby came round, and they played in the garden, downstairs (disco dancing, schools, drawing, listening to stories…) and then Ruby stayed for our spaghetti Bolognese dinner. We had a picnic on the grass (yes, with spag bol) and they were in seventh heaven. Afterwards there was a little time and they jumped into the whirlpool bath and had a blast with bubbles.

Then there was Thursday, when Sophie came over to play. She saw the pic from when Ruby was over the day before and… well one thing lead to another and so she ended up staying for our roast chicken dinner… also on the grass. Boy, Sophie’s a good eater. Wonderful. They decided that they were going to have carrots, cauliflower, peas, courgettes and aubergine with the roast chicken and sweet potato, so that’s what I cooked them. Mind you, Lara didn’t want the peas and Sophie didn’t want the aubergine but I think that’s fair enough.

(Ok, they were in the mood for a photo shoot. Demanded it, AND to choose one for my computer desktop.)

Today it was gym, of course. We had dinner on the grass afterwards together (again) and then after Lara was supposedly tucked up in bed a couple of friends came over for a drink… at which Lara immediately go out of bed and sat at the table with us with one of her books and read it aloud to herself for about 20 minutes while we talked mainly about headlice. (A major preoccupation for many of us. Apparently kerosene is a great headlouse killer, and very cheap, but I just can’t see myself soaking Lara’s head in kerosene, somehow…) Then we packed her off to bed again. Simply lovely to just sit and chat for a while.

As a measure of how much stuff’s been going on, Lara hasn’t actually had time to watch a single minute of television since she’s been here. She’s been up from 5:30 in my bed, clutching books and reading, telling stories, doing fantastic homework (she was absolutely on fire for her long multiplication this morning), manic reading, huge playdates, cramming it all in. We’ve got Christmas cards to write, her birthday to plan, the trip to get ready for, everything to do and only a few days left to do it in.

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.