19th March 2010 (Friday)

Deary me, very tired and very inebriated... alas not due to huge intakes of alcohol but simply because I’m quite tired. Not quite sure what I’m meant to be writing. Potter Time is in full swing, and mental images of Putin as Dobby the House Elf weeping at the edge of Harry’s bed is very distracting. Mind you, there was after all a bit of alcohol consumed, after all. 

What on earth was there to report on. I was lucky enough to be given a lift down to the Merewether Baths today while the Non was at school (Anna said she was going swimming and would I like to come – is the Pope Catholic?) Deary me. Unremitting. Well it’s all very well, but one tries to keep pace to be companiable. I think respiratory tempo and to be brutally honest, levels of fitness, can be quite diverse. She just didn’t stop. Personally I find the first 500m really quite gruelling, and after that it’s OK to go at a level slog – I think she’s a bit fitter and doesn’t take so much time to warm up so she just kept on slogging. Phew. Anyway, after I got home after that it was already 11 so more than time to catch up on mails and start jolly well unpacking, as I was meant to do in the first place. This was exhausting as well as it mainly (entirely) unpacking and stacking the Non’s books. There’s a dichotomy of placement in the Non’s books are some are downstairs in her Reading Corner, and some are upstairs either in the study or in the hall outside it. Ugh trudging up and down stairs with armfuls of books is NOT restful. Also decided to have the Non’s ‘toywarming’ party on Sunday 28th, and ‘toyed’ about with what time would be suitable..... and had the nasty though that it might be sensible to miss out (what one imagines to be) churchtime on Sunday in case there are any ecclesiastically-sympathetic families out there in KH. (Kindergarten, Mr Harris’s class). So afternoon it is. Miscellaneous bits and pieces, you know.

Picked up the Non today and she said she’s got a ‘ticket’ for being extra good at school – now I saw no ticket and one is well aware of the unreliability of reports from the Non but I know that this occurs on a weekly basis at MH and the result is that you go to the headmaster’s office and pick some prize from his ‘treasure chest’ (well, it’s shaped like a .... treasure chest) but I don’t know if that’s what the Non is talking about or something else. I think we may have to touch base with the teacher on Monday, but irrespective of what the result is, it can’t be all bad if she’s getting tickets for good behaviour, whatever the background. Even invisible ones.

Can’t think of anything else. Don’t know whether this is due to fact or inebriation – the nub is that that’s the end of today’s blog. Lots of love to all, V xxxx

..... OK, an extra little tidbit. Some of you may know and some may not, Gosingen Moose is a very flat, VERy large moose – the type that has a zip all down one side and may quite well be intended for storing soft items in. When we brought him out of the attic at 40 Somers she was quite delighted and wanted immediately to sleep naked on him (he is very acrylic, very furry and very large, and she is very sensual). We said, no, you can’t – when we get to Australia you can sleep in him naked because it’ll be warm, but here, it’s freezing. Which she seemed to understand quite well. Well, she’s waited and waited, Gosingen is here, it’s Australia and it’s sure as hell not freezing, and just now as I went up to give her a snog for bedtime she was on the floor lying on Gosingen, covered in her aliens bedsheet, surrounded by innumerable mooses and other soft animals, looking utterly blissful and tucked up. It’s possibly even stranger because her bed itself is still at the moment just her mattress on the floor, her bed being due early next week or so. So there’s her mattress, and there’s the Non on Gosingen, and there’s several dozed stuffed toys, and woomph goes any floor space in her room, what with leftover unpacked boxes and general chaos. She’s utterly happy with it.

Anyway, there we are.