(Pic: Non reads Harry Potter before bed).
Once again, tired and inebriated. I'll try and cut it a bit shorter on the waffle today though. As we had the Non's first birthday party to attend this afternoon, we decided that it would be appropriate to go to the beach early on in the day and leave plenty of time for sprucing up and work afterwards. So off to the beach it was, I think not much past nine. The Non and the Daddy went off beach-combing, leaving me to do my laps in the big pool. On this uninterrupted occasion I managed to go up to a respectable 20 laps (which is about 1km - reasonable), and in the meantime the other two had done a whole load of beach combing, wave jumping, and playing with a little girl called Sophie who was perfectly lovely and lent the Non her goggles - the special situation of which made the Non actually use them somewhat. When the playing ended she abruptly because intensely aware of just how cold she'd become and shivered and shuddered off back to the changing rooms. A good time.
Then back home for fruit time and reading time - this time the Non read through not one but two books all of a go, and then lunch. However, unfortunately now it was time for Maths flash cards, and whether it was the weekend shrug-it blues, or daddy's here I'm going to be molly coddled, or simply a weekly throw my temper about the place episode I don't know but we had a HELL of a time getting down to it. Tempers were up, to put it mildly. Anyway, eventually got down to it and (of course) she did very well, but one really wonders sometimes what all the fuss is about. After that I was so disgusted with the performance I didn't bother to do any more of the other work, just left her to it until it was time to get ready to go at 3 p.m.. Well in the end both the Flea and I went along to the party, but were surprised to see that the norm seemed to be to leave the kids there, so we did. And she seemed to have a whale of a time. We went off for what was meant to be a gentle stroll round the neighbourhood to ogle houses but in fact turned into an hour-long sweaty trog up dale and down, after which we returned to base perspiring and exhausted. However, it's always interesting, I guess. In the meantime she's made a Koala necklace, played Pass the baby Possum, eaten and played, and was generally skipping and declared she's had a Lovely Time so I think it can happily be counted as a success. I asked whether she'd like to ask any of the girls there round to play and she declared 'Yes oh Yes!' so probably safe to say she's happy with their company.
In the meantime, while she was colouring in koalas, we were considering options. True, the Shack has plenty of potential and with some application (considerable application) could be made a lot more spacious and accommodating than a lot of its peers. However, we suspect that there is a ceiling that plywood shacks' resale value is bound to hit - and hit pretty soon once you really start to add in the cost of renovations. This isn't even considering the time/effort/mess factor. Yes, we've got some good ideas for it, sure. Certainly it would be a better property for them. But we suspect that for a little more cash you can get considerably more - it's the end-of-price-bracket issue, I guess it exists everywhere. Anyway, still considering that it would be a useful exercise to go through a rough costing and sketching out in any case, if only to give us an idea of what ballpark figures are like, what's doable and what's not.
In the evening, the Mr made us a lovely joint of rolled pork with barbecued sweet potato and butternut served with beans... lovely. Really tasty. And now the Non has gone to bed with her new Tyrannosaurus duvet cover - hugely delighted. Gosh she's not a girl to be trifled with - we finally remembered to borrow the first Harry Potter from the library so that we could finish it off, and as the end became too exciting she insisted that she read it herself, rather than Daddy reading it - and actually did pretty well and read it quite fluently. Just a few words to be helped with. She's a little bit scary, that girl.
Right, I promised less waffling. Lots of love to all, V xxxx
Then back home for fruit time and reading time - this time the Non read through not one but two books all of a go, and then lunch. However, unfortunately now it was time for Maths flash cards, and whether it was the weekend shrug-it blues, or daddy's here I'm going to be molly coddled, or simply a weekly throw my temper about the place episode I don't know but we had a HELL of a time getting down to it. Tempers were up, to put it mildly. Anyway, eventually got down to it and (of course) she did very well, but one really wonders sometimes what all the fuss is about. After that I was so disgusted with the performance I didn't bother to do any more of the other work, just left her to it until it was time to get ready to go at 3 p.m.. Well in the end both the Flea and I went along to the party, but were surprised to see that the norm seemed to be to leave the kids there, so we did. And she seemed to have a whale of a time. We went off for what was meant to be a gentle stroll round the neighbourhood to ogle houses but in fact turned into an hour-long sweaty trog up dale and down, after which we returned to base perspiring and exhausted. However, it's always interesting, I guess. In the meantime she's made a Koala necklace, played Pass the baby Possum, eaten and played, and was generally skipping and declared she's had a Lovely Time so I think it can happily be counted as a success. I asked whether she'd like to ask any of the girls there round to play and she declared 'Yes oh Yes!' so probably safe to say she's happy with their company.
In the meantime, while she was colouring in koalas, we were considering options. True, the Shack has plenty of potential and with some application (considerable application) could be made a lot more spacious and accommodating than a lot of its peers. However, we suspect that there is a ceiling that plywood shacks' resale value is bound to hit - and hit pretty soon once you really start to add in the cost of renovations. This isn't even considering the time/effort/mess factor. Yes, we've got some good ideas for it, sure. Certainly it would be a better property for them. But we suspect that for a little more cash you can get considerably more - it's the end-of-price-bracket issue, I guess it exists everywhere. Anyway, still considering that it would be a useful exercise to go through a rough costing and sketching out in any case, if only to give us an idea of what ballpark figures are like, what's doable and what's not.
In the evening, the Mr made us a lovely joint of rolled pork with barbecued sweet potato and butternut served with beans... lovely. Really tasty. And now the Non has gone to bed with her new Tyrannosaurus duvet cover - hugely delighted. Gosh she's not a girl to be trifled with - we finally remembered to borrow the first Harry Potter from the library so that we could finish it off, and as the end became too exciting she insisted that she read it herself, rather than Daddy reading it - and actually did pretty well and read it quite fluently. Just a few words to be helped with. She's a little bit scary, that girl.
Right, I promised less waffling. Lots of love to all, V xxxx
Sunday morning- Hi! That IS scary- my lord! Harry Potter by herself- that's me at 10 or so. SHe got your genes and some! Amazing, well done Non! And LOVE the reading setup- where on EARTH did you find such a perfect sofa for the wild ones?! Seen them around, but Nea is scared by them- by the story too, much as I was- is the movie any good, have you seen it? Oh and daddy is excellent being chaperon on the sofa, kind of Mr Bean style there- so is the grant really and truly done with? Excellent duvet cover choice Non- Leo IS very impressed, said that crystals are nice too. Yesterday he was immersed in dismembering a dead quirrel with a stick with his friend Eric, said " Mummy it had MAGGOTS inside and everything" with as much enthusiasm as if I had presented him with a gallon of ice cream. Nea looked at him with VERY highly arched eyebrows indeed. She's also quite started moving forward, stringing a few more words together, like "Come and see " and "I'm done" and "What do we do now?" (very seriously) of course they're not crystal clear but one gets it. Makes communication quite a lot easier, though a long way to go yet obviously- I enrolled her in a free library reading session- lovely reader there, absolutely entertaining- but she still refuses to be actually TOLD to go and sit down and listen- more like YUK everyone's doing that, I7m certainly not going to be one of them- kind. I tried to get Leo back on his swimming classes but he refused, said he only wanted to go with Papa, and wanted to go to Japanese Calligraphy (he's started by himself to go on to grade two now) - which is OK but won't get him far especially when we move to Uzbekistan or somewhere next time- and Ceramics again- perfectly adamant to get in as few sport activities in there as possible. Much better at school though these days- got the hang of it I think, takes him a lot less to do his homework and has had NO finish and returns for 3 weeks, even from maths- which is a miracle.
ReplyDeleteThere is something called a silent auction (fund raiser) going on on Wednesday night with the kids doing a play (the enormous turnip Leo's class) and playing the pianika- I was astounded at what stuff people in this country bring as "unwanted goods to donate"- none less than small laptops (new) kids toys that cost 50 dollars a pop and more, digital cameras, even SLR-s- no wonder people send them to camps that cost 200 dollars for 4 days and comment with a shrug "why not it's ONLY 200" - my friend AKi just announced that she was leaving her newborn (2 months) with her parents and going to Hawaii with her son and husband for a week for spring break- casual you know, I said where do you stay, hoping that someone in this community would say "you know I found this REAALY cheap site on the net"- but of course the reply was "oh we ALWAYS stay at the Hilton- it's the best you know"- BARF. Sod off. Where was I, anyway I saw with a chuckle that someone had put up 17cds of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows CD set- someone must like it as much as the Non does! Anyway I put down my modestly arranged basket that I put together in the dollar store and pretended not to notice. Oh in all this there are quite a few interesting auctions from various institutions- like "one day spending your day as an FBI agent at the FBI headquarters with bonus surprises" (what ever that might be, hope they don't take their knickers down at the metal detector) or "Lunch with Dr Phil and Dr Oz- donor value priceless" (only in LA, I'd rather hang by the nose from the ceiling thank you very much) - anyway you get the gist. Lord this cold Nea and I have had has been going on for AGES- the snot and cough just never seem to depart. Oh and at the moment I ain't got a phone- I ordered, very clearly and with a lot of trouble- my whole system to be changed over, made all the arrangements, and should have people over on Wednesday to do that change-over (these are bundles of Net TV phone) and suddenly Time Warner just decides to cut my damn phone off on Thursday- I call up from my cell and after an exasperating 45 minutes of on holds and explaining to the morons that no I HAVE been using this and this number and URGH just thinking about it makes me mad, wait a moment we'll trasfer you thing- after which the told me that Verizon (the new buggers) have taken the number and I have to call them- of course 2 hours till I explain the situation to Verizon and get to someone with two brain cells only to tell me they never had anything to do with it and can't access it till Tuesday anyway. When you threaten you'll speak to the manager or supervisor they calmly say "OK Ma'am hold the line please while I connect you" and then puts you on hold for 38 minutes till you finally go so crazy you want to stick your head down the garbage disposal and although you told yourself that there is NO way you're giving up, you do just that. URRRRRGH.
ReplyDeleteChuckle. As I write (it's the morning) Leo is sitting cross legged and telling Nea in front of some toy drums and xylophones in a Yoda like fashion- " Nea, sit down and let me teach you, you must LEARN, be serious"- where he gets these things from. Mako is at work again today. Sigh. I forgot to say- he was SO touched with the birthday card, and we all laughed at the appropriate card the Non had chosen- and well done Non with the signing, really SUPER! Thank you very much all round again. It's time to go and get the "breakfast" ready- a busy affair in our house on weekends, mostly with things like noodles and sausages, meat and eggs and stuff, people don't mess around with toast and honey I'm afraid. WHich would be a lot easier. Nea is now dramatically clutching her tummy (which is as balloon like as ever thank you very much ) and saying " ANGRY" (hungry, or maybe both) in a very Nanny-like kowai manner, hope to get back- still my net might be down for a couple of days (at any time actually knowing them) soon. GREAT to hear Lara is so liking her new environment- and finding so many friends too, she seems to have conquered that shyness pretty quickly- WELL DONE! And it's so nice you live so close to the school- when we have playdates we usually have to schedule a couple of weeks in advance and then it always gets more complicated. Shucks off I go. Well done Non all round again and to the parents congratulations!
ReplyDeleteLots of Sunday pusses- sorry Monday it is by now I guess, amazing- XOXOXOXOXO us