30th January 2010 (Saturday)

Wow this one'll be zoomy zoomy. We didn't do a THING and having put the Non to bed just now we're looking forward to retiring to bed ourselves very shortly with possibly some liquid sustenance (nature as yet undecided) and whatever we each choose to grab on from our freshly-culled little batch of library books. Are we 150 years old, or what? If so, it's jolly nice. Bring it on.

Well we did make a small shift in the morning, I guess. We went out first thing to a garage sale locally as they mentioned coffee tables (turned out to be completely unsuitable), but the Mr did pick up a small kettle for work which he'd been looking for - and to our satisfaction we saw one later in the supermarket for nearly $40, making an instant 'profit' of $35 so that always makes one feel a little rosy. We both instantly recalled a particularly memorable visit to a garage sale when we first moved to the States, as a by-the-by. On this occasion, we didn't have a car for the first three months and gamely tried to look at the interim for 'an opportunity of exploring'. Needed all sorts of stuff and not wallowing in cash so garage sales always look interesting. Looks reasonably close on the map, we head off. On foot. Nearly an HOUR later ( I do not recall the precise details but it was uphill and a very great deal too far away for our liking) we finally hoved into view of the desired destination. The offerings were completely unsuitable. There was nothing at all we were looking for. However having come this far it was just too painful to leave without purchasing anything, so we lighted upon a waffle iron - we'd often looked at recipes of waffles and hankered after one in a mild sort of way so decided to look upon it as a find. Only thing was the damn thing was CAST IRON and made the journey back severalfold more arduous than the one there. Also, upon application, it leaked and stuck, and we found that in the course of day-to-day activities one really very rarely feels compelled to stop whatever one is doing and whip up a batch of waffles. In fact, the urge was incredibly infrequent during the whole course of our stay in the States. ..... So compared to that, this little excursion was a positive canape of delight, ease and profitability. We also got to peek at the general neighbourhood of one of the target schools - Merewether Heights. All seems pretty uniformly reasonably well-to-d0, quiet, mild. Nothing outstanding either way, acceptable.

I digress more than a little. We also went to the library and finally got to register with the Toy Library as well - you're allowed to borrow just one toy at a time but some of them are pretty major, and it's a brilliant little scheme. We chose a little Noah's Ark (the animals were as usual a pull - Noah and Mrs have been jettisoned along with the Ark and the animals have gone up to bed with Lara). Nice haul of about 20 books again - and found out that we don't seem to pay for renting DVDs and CDs - bit of a refreshing change. And I saw (not that we need them but just as a curiosity) they even have a whole set of the BBC Shakespeare DVDs that we have - I can tell you sure as hell the Winslow library didn't have anything even REMOTELY like it, Pride and Prejudice was about as close as they get to education. Strange things one lights on. And stopped off at the supermarket. Then retired home, not to stir again.

Whole afternoon spent rolling about, doing our work (girls downstairs, boy upstairs as usual), and playing a ridiculous little game that came with Ian's new computer. God that thing is wonderful - under $800 dollars worth of laptop and it runs like an absolute dream. To say we're elated is a severe understatement. Of course, I'll still be here with this thing but then I have the time to just go away and do the housework chores while it decides to open an application at its leisure - things are a little different if you're relying on it for work. For dinner Ian did us a lovely new little combo of barbecued chicken breast in marjoram, also barbecues butternut squash and served with a salsa of nectarine and red onion. Lovely. After a quick bout of Potter time, bedtime. In the hot weather the Non has grabbed opportunity by the short and curlies and is delighted to be allowed to sleep buck naked, surrounded with her animals. You see her tucking herself up under a single sheet and hugging her grumpy Salmon and her Wombat and there you see pure bliss.

I'm off to top up my wineglass. Love all round, V xxxx