Crappest birthday ever

This is not a woe-is-me post. It's just that for the first time in the history of my life, I experienced a fairly crap birthday. While I should be UTTERLY GRATEFUL that I have had 43 most excellent birthdays, I am choosing to document my one (and hopefully only) crap birthday.

Yep. I turned 44. We live at number 44. It was supposed to be a monumental milestone celebration but instead, it was fully sick. I was fully sick. HM (always sicker than me no matter what) went all out and contracted pneumonia a week before and even though I'll never, ever, EVER be as sick as him, him being a man and all, I succumbed to various flying bacteria and came down with some just as vile bug. The kids are sick too. We are all just getting over things now but still on our medications. I now have an ear infection and sinusitis and it's a whole WEEK after my birthday.

So on The Day not only were we feeling disgustingly poorly, we decided (for the sake of the kids' birthday excitement and anticipation) that we should at least venture out of the house for a coffee and perhaps some brunch. But this trip was fraught with bad omens.

First of all, HM put the window down in my car, completely forgetting that it was faulty and not to be touched. I then tried to put it back up once we arrived at cafe as it looked like rain, but to no avail. Something I should never have bothered with.

Secondly, Barnstormer, a cafe connoisseur who is usually well behaved on such outings, decided that on this day of ALL days, she should display all of her learnings from Precociousness 101. She'd had a school excursion the day before and was experiencing "the hangover". I won't go into the deets but let's just say it was in our best interests to leave.

So we returned to the car after her performance only to find that I had a flat battery due to the tampering with the window without the engine on. Was this really happening I thought?????

I decided that I would first call a cab as HM was seriously struggling with pneumonia and had to get home as soon as poss. OF COURSE, it was grand final day meaning that ALL TAXIS were being used to ferry the revellers to their GF viewing venue of choice. Absolutely no taxi driver in the entire universe--not even a newbie on his first day--was going to come to our cafe to drive us one whole suburb away. HM even scoured the beach looking for a surfer or ANYONE he might know to provide a lift.

Meanwhile I called the lovely people at the RAC. The handsome RAC prince arrived in only 20 minutes and worked his magic. Five minutes after that we were dropping HM at the front door, with us continuing on to give the battery a bit of a charge.

In the afternoon we decided we would take my home-made birthday cake with the sugar crafted decoration of a champagne glasses $3 Coles bday mud cake to the park and let the kids run around. Got everything ready; candles, plates, spoons, serviettes and off we went. Arrived at the park and the kids had an absolute ball running around for ALL OF 15 SECONDS before HM and I decided it was more freezing than Antarctica. So we ate the cake in the car, in the car park. So sophisticated.

This is not my cake.

During the day I had bought a bag of prawns (laugh if you will) with a view to cooking up a storm while watching the GF, but as things went from bad to worse with my health, all I could muster for lunch was second hand snaggers in white bread with tom sauce. Dinner was even worse with fish out of a box in the freezer and left over chips from the cafe visit that morning. Yep, you know it. That horrible mushy cardboardy taste of reheated chips. Anyway, the whole lot ended up in the bin and I actually did resort to cooking up a wicked prawn pasta. But couldn't really enjoy it. Now normally on my birthday HM would assume all cooking responsibilities or even take me out to dinner but he really was down for the count with the pneumonia. The Surfer was absent and Hammerhead's culinary repertoire, while very creative, does not extend further than ham and cheese croissants, which we'd already devoured mid afternoon.

The whole messy affair of the birthday culminated in HM and I trying to outdo each other with coughing and spluttering on the couch (I am more sick than you) while watching a Rock Husdon/Lauren Bacall movie. We spent the entire movie trying to work out who "the other guy" was and HM fell asleep in the crucial last five minutes which explained everything, as he is wont to do.

... the Other Guy was Robert Stack. Thanks IMDB.

HOWEVER, there were some highlights. I did get some divine presents and HM even went to shops in the midst of his pneumonia which I shall always remember. Also I did get to see my lovely parents on the day, straight after the RAC fiasco. And I was privileged enough to watch Hunters and Collectors put on a great show at the GF (on TV). But nothing is quite the same when you are feeling vile and in all honesty I just wanted the day, and the expectations that it brings, just over and done with.

Hope all of you have gotten over your winter/spring lurgies!
xx

Long time between drinks...

Again, I have not been as prolific as promised and 2013 is turning out to be a different year in more ways than one. However, AGAIN, I'm on the wagon.

BORING I know, but I cannot emphasise enough HOW MUCH of a difference it has made this year. It's been since Jan 15. While there has been the occasional beer on a hot day, I think I could count the alcoholic drinks on one hand. It really has made a MAJOR difference to my mind this time, as opposed to the last stint on the wagon, which I later went on to evaluate in this post. In the meantime, I've become totally obsessed with soda water. I can't get enough of the stuff. I don't even add anything to it, not even lime juice. It's crazy.

Yes, I'm still drinking bubbles!!!

I've really been having a great time of late. We've been away for like forever, and all over the shop in general, but it's all good. Finally Barnstormer is at kindy 3 days a week and Hammerhead is there full time. I'd like to say I miss them during the day but in all honesty, I don't have time to miss the little cherubs. I drop them off and then whooooooshka, it's time to pick them up again! I do also like that we have more quality time together on the weekends and after school.

Barnstormer is seriously starting to overtake me in the intelligence stakes and yes, this is a concern, her being 4 and all. But her relentless critical thinking and questioning is hard work. Just recently I was lost for words in the Church of Bunnings when she demanded to know exactly how the seed from the man gets into the mummy's tummy to make a baby grow. The queue at checkout all glared at me, waiting for my response. "You're just not telling me that part of it, Mum." She is not one for wishy washy answers.

The Surfer has become a minor superstar on the surfing stage and a major celeb around town with the school crew. It's all good and he is happily gallivanting about the country attending all sorts of camps and scholarships and competitions. He's in Margaret River at the moment, Byron Bay in a couple of weeks and then Gold Coast in May. He's even managed to collect a few stalkers on the way. Of course, none of this has bought me any closer to Mr Slater but we are working on it. And to use the words of the wonderful Mumabulous (who lately has been saving my sanity a lot with her very inspiring blog) here is SOME CRUMPET for those of you playing at home.

Yes I know he's now bald and much older but really does it matter???

Ok, I am off to have lunch with the beloved HM who has decided that once a week we should eat barbecued squid at Kailis' in Trigg. It is totally divine and one day I will post a pic of the scrumptious stuff but I never get round to photographing it as one wants to just dive in immediately.

Late note: We meet at Kailis' and the BASTARDS have taken their signature dish, yes--the aforementioned barbecued squid, OFF THE MENU. They've replaced it with SEARED squid as an entree, but IT'S TOTALLY NOT THE SAME! I hate when places do this. That stuff was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO popular, everyone who goes there orders it.

Got something irritating you that you would like to share?

xx

All is quiet

This is just a quick post today. Yes, I know what you're thinking --"she always says that and then it turns into some epic rant". But seriously, just wanted to say that all is good again. I am feeling really good with everything on my current plate. I can see the wood for the trees, I can stop to smell the roses and all of that.

Sometimes I stop typing to smell the roses

Everyone is OUT which means I have some time to get some serious cleaning work done. Hammerhead has been rather ill this week which has meant lots of mummy-as-slave time and also visits to doctor/chemist stuff. Think he's now on the mend. He's been extremely hot and cold, ULTRA lethargic and gosh, the house is quiet when he's down. Yesterday he wanted me to just sit with him and talk. But he wanted me to do all the talking. I couldn't for the life of me think of anything to say (!). He wanted a monologue, but not a story. He was very specific about what I couldn't talk about but lean on what I could. I am used to being given something to work with but I got nothing. JUST TALK, he said. ABOUT STUFF. The shoe was so on the other foot.

Remember I have two, so I get double this amount of questions.

I am not working all hours anymore, thank you to all messages of concern. Yesterday I even had time for a family morning trip to the new look Trigg Island Café--a place where we have spent A LOT of time over the years, solely because of its location. However, I have to say that with the new KAILIS ownership, it is the first time that I think the café has it happening. It actually looks like it is breathing in the right decade. It's all white and clean lines with touches of aqua and a few Rusty surfboards hanging from the walls. The place reeked of fresh paint (love that smell) and the staff are attired in rather interesting squeaky clean uniforms. They all have to wear the exact same not-quite-happening jeans which I thought was a tad banal, especially when I saw the big boss man wearing them with his black skivvy. Was not looking his sartorial best as one should in his position.

And of course, as with any "new" café, there were more staff than customers. They were buzzing around us like flies, sweeping crumbs up as soon as Barnstormer dropped them and I saw one staff member engaged in that dead giveaway that too many staff are rostered on--the act of cleaning the seals on the fridges with a toothbrush. How dirty can they be after three days of business??? Anyway, an all-round pleasant experience and I'm sure all creases will be ironed out soon. So nice to have a decent café at the only surf break in town, as opposed to just an OK one.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. xx

Sick boy

Just a quick post tonight as tomorrow it is heads down, hard slog on the books.

Hammerhead has a bad cough+cold and we kept him home from kindy today. In an ironic twist he begged us to let him go and even tried to pretend he did not have a cough. I wished I had videoed this moment as I am sure there will come a time (at least by Year 2) where he will NOT want to go to school and he will be bunging on the cough like he's a packet-a-day smoker of Winnie reds.

Hammerhead? Hammerhead? Anyone? Bueller?

As a result of Hammerhead's day off, Barnstormer bunged on a cough of her own to avoid her 'school'. So then HM decided he better stay home to look after the kids while I get some work done. Suddenly we were ALL en route to the Wild Fig. Love that place--me partaking in a hot chocolate of course, and the kids eating muffins on the high lounges. HM and I got to sit in front of the fire too. I feel like we own that couch and give people the hairy eyeball should they dare be sitting on it when we arrive. I then sit right next to them and encourage the children to be at their loudest and most obnoxious in the hope that the trespassers will leave. Just kidding. I usually sit at least two tables away before I start this.

Walked around Star Swamp after that as it looked most inviting and it was particularly sunny at the time. It became particularly horrid when we were about half way around and began to pour dramatically. We all got caught in the rain and hovered around the side of a large tree trunk waiting for it to pass. Of all the jackets he owns, Hammerhead had on the only one without a hood. Bad mother--taking sick child out and getting him drenched in the cold. And I still have not purchased that family size umbrella. I wonder if Alannah Hill does family size?

www.alannahhill.com.au

Goodbye alcohol and caffeine ... for now

I've given up my wine and long macs. It's been three weeks exactly.

I had a bit of a crisis point just over three weeks ago. A very good friend died nearly two months ago--a most beautiful human being--and the black dog bolted down the well worn path. It was the third such friend I have lost to cancer. Am I jinxed? At this rate I am losing a fantastic friend once a decade.

I hit a very bad patch and so it was back to the GP for new directions after a lovely chat with a nice man on the Mental Health Emergency Line. GP enquired as to my alcohol and caffeine intake. Now I am no Hunter S. Thompson but I have to admit, my 'daily' glass of wine around nutcase hour was turning into two glasses, sometimes three. I knew this wasn't good but it seemed to taste nice.

Then it was coffee first thing in the morning. HM is barista extraordinaire and usually makes at least three full strength long macs before I am even out of pyjamas. This is often followed by a trip to a cafe with Barnstormer and Hammerhead for more. We like cafes.

Anyway, the irony is that you go to the GP depressed and they then tell you that you have to quit coffee and plonk. So you leave the GP even more depressed than ever!

Strangely, it has been very easy to give it all up. I think the fact that it is winter is helping. I do miss the little rituals that HM and I used to have but I am soldiering on, with clarity. Now I am hoping that weight will just magically fall off! I need to lose ten kilos at least. I am pretty certain I look exactly like that poor girl in the papers on the weekend where everybody had to judge whether she was fat or not. I almost have her height and definitely have her weight. So I am 'average'. This is one instance where I want to be below average. Stay tuned.