My Wednesday morning....
Posted by Wanda Lach on Thursday, August 22, 2013 Under: commentary
It's now 11:50am, I've been up since 5:00am and here is how my morning has run!
Well, of course the alarm goes off at 5:00am so I struggle out of bed and head for the shower to wake up! The next hour runs on auto-pilot and the less conversation and fewer questions the better!
After deciding whether to look absolutely tacky but comfortable in tracky-dackies or look sort of reasonable in case I need to get out of the car before I get home (I err on the side of 'reasonable' - I keep of thinking of that ad on TV where the lady is in her PJ's and slippers and has locked herself out of the car...don't want that!)
I poke my head out the front to see if the boy is up, hmmm, no light again... so I pad over and turn on the light and try to sound cheerful, 'morning, it's time to get up'....then pad back to the kitchen to check if Bertha is still glowing or not - I'm happy, she's still glowing but needs breakfast too so I head out via the laundry to grab a piece of wood. To achieve this I need to move the clothes airer, full of clothes of course, I hardly use the clothes line outside during the winter - - the laundry would be somewhere down the hill and far away - the winds here are absolutley phenomenal! I struggle to pull open the door and, since it's still dark out, fumble around for an appropriate piece of firewood.
Now that Bertha is crackling away I return to the laundry to grab the pre-ironed shirt and trousers (for once! normally I iron them in the morning) and take them back to the bedroom for husband who is still in the bathroom.
Return to the kitchen - fill kettle and turn on, fill coffee machine, refill water container (filtered), juice a couple of oranges, prepare 2 bowls of porridge, make the boy some sandwiches (morning tea!) and fill a container with something for lunch usually leftovers from the night before! Give Bertha a poke, turn on the gas heater because it's so cold... Make a thermos of coffee for the boy, prepare two cups of coffee to go for me and the boy; mumble some answers to husband's queries... it's late and no sign of the boy....he finally arrives, scoffs down breakfast, grabs lunch bag and heads for the front door with me coming up the rear - extinguishing lights and turning Bertha onto 'don't burn all the wood before I get back' mode!
Today is complicated by the fact that the XTrail has been returned and I want to drive it to see how it is running - this of course means transferring things like driving glasses, sunglasses and gloves over from my usual ride.
Now it's really late, drive like a maniac - but within the limit of the law - to get to Marulan - 45 minutes away, the last section is posted as 60km, 40km then a mind-blowing and totally frustrating (when you are late) 30km....the boy rolls out and grabs his stuff with a gruff, 'thanks, bye'... can't wait for him to get his licence... only a week and a half a way (I sincerely hope so anyway! - that's another story for another time!)
Turn around and drive home, stop for fuel, arrive home.... now the fun begins, sigh!
The Boys (the ponies...) are hanging the heads longingly over the gate, there's little grass to eat and they are pleading for a some breaky too.... so off to the shed for some hay, that will keep them happy for at least and hour!
I decide that I need to tidy up the XTrail first of all, if I don't do it now I will get to comfortable and warm inside and won't go out again...I remove the girl's clothing and other stuff from the car, empty out the centre consol and take everything inside to be dealt with 'later'.
I get the vacuum cleaner, it has come all the way from France with us... and is now standing crookedly on 3 wheels. It doesn't roll very well anymore as you can imagine and does have a tendancy to fall over (it's one of those large Karchar container types). I decide I don't want to look for an extenson lead so go to plug it in at the nearest powerpoint - which isn't close enough of course... only to discover that now I need to find a plug converter (sacre bleu!). Where to find one, the house is littered with them but of course you can never find one when you need it! I return to the kitchen, I know I have one in the pantry - yes, there it is. In the kitchen I sigh and look at the breakfast dishes still stacked in the sink (the dishwasher sprung a leak over 2 weeks ago and I'm still waiting for repair/replacement). While I'm there I check Bertha again -- needs more food....I head out via the laundry and repeat this morning's procedure. This time I realise that the wood trolley is empty...aaaaagh... drag it over to the woodpile and fill it up (this entails grovelling on the ground and reaching under the makeshift cover to retrieve the final lot of timber stacked near the wall), on the way back I look at the sheets that I hung out yesterday - yes, still on the line! amazing! So, I stop and take the sheets down and try to hold on to them and pull the unweildly trolley at the same time - then maneuver it backwards into it's parking spot with one hand - I'm getting really good at this!. Now, grab two pieces of wood with one hand whilst still holding the sheets - I don't want to combine the two.... splinters in the sheets at night - not a good thing methinks!
Struggle back into the laundry, dump the clean sheets, put the wood into Bertha, return to the laundry, put on a load of washing, pick up the plug, grab a cloth and a some Febreeze.... return to car.... plug in vacuum... oh no! vacuum doesn't reach car.... return inside.... grab keys... move car forward... start to vacuum.... the hose comes away, of course....it's already been taped together once.
Stop everything... hunt for silver tape.... reattach hose... recommence vacuuming. I decide that I will need the extension cord anyway - can't reach the other side.... hunt for the extension; plug in; move vacuum to other side... now I've parked too close to the shrubbery and get scratched and caught up in it...sigh!
I decide I should clean the seats too so I return to the house to find the carpet cleaner... return and finish scrubbing and cleaning interior.
Next thing to do is to try and fix the middle seat backrest which is jammed in the down position - to do this I need to fold down the seat back - but the toggle is broken.....an hour and a half later, bruised and scratched and making comments like 'dear oh dear, this is such a difficult job....' expletives deleted!!!!!!
Finally, I have fixed the seating, detailed the inside, returned the floor mats and Febreezed the car.
Put everything away and return inside.
By the way, I've scored $2.75 - spoils to the victor! lol! Any money found in pockets of clothing in the laundry or excess funds found in motor vehicles during cleaning are 'just rewards' I figure...'finders keepers'.... :)
Give Bertha a poke - and decide that I really need some small bits of kindling to get the smouldering log going... outside again via the laundry - hmmm, yes, the washing machine is blinking and singing "I've been finished for ages ..." okay - go and collect some kindling, come back, feed Bertha and stir up the flames... return to laundry, hang out washing on the airer (of course - it's blowing a gale outside again); put on another load of washing and return to kitchen where this morning's dishes are still in the sink... what! where are the faeries when you need them???
Okay - wash the dishes, turn on the kettle for the hundredth time....I look at the clock... it's 11:50, my stomach is rumbling, I'm exhausted.... time for breakfast or is it morning tea or maybe lunch? Just as I sit down Spook goes flying out the front and is barking... usually means an unexpected visitor... I have just sat down and have taken a bite of my continental frankfurt....I sigh and head to the front door to check out the scene.... nothing, nada!
Oh well, it's now 12 o'clock and I sit down and write a list of what I need to get at the shops... later.... much later!!!!
Well, of course the alarm goes off at 5:00am so I struggle out of bed and head for the shower to wake up! The next hour runs on auto-pilot and the less conversation and fewer questions the better!
After deciding whether to look absolutely tacky but comfortable in tracky-dackies or look sort of reasonable in case I need to get out of the car before I get home (I err on the side of 'reasonable' - I keep of thinking of that ad on TV where the lady is in her PJ's and slippers and has locked herself out of the car...don't want that!)
I poke my head out the front to see if the boy is up, hmmm, no light again... so I pad over and turn on the light and try to sound cheerful, 'morning, it's time to get up'....then pad back to the kitchen to check if Bertha is still glowing or not - I'm happy, she's still glowing but needs breakfast too so I head out via the laundry to grab a piece of wood. To achieve this I need to move the clothes airer, full of clothes of course, I hardly use the clothes line outside during the winter - - the laundry would be somewhere down the hill and far away - the winds here are absolutley phenomenal! I struggle to pull open the door and, since it's still dark out, fumble around for an appropriate piece of firewood.
Now that Bertha is crackling away I return to the laundry to grab the pre-ironed shirt and trousers (for once! normally I iron them in the morning) and take them back to the bedroom for husband who is still in the bathroom.
Return to the kitchen - fill kettle and turn on, fill coffee machine, refill water container (filtered), juice a couple of oranges, prepare 2 bowls of porridge, make the boy some sandwiches (morning tea!) and fill a container with something for lunch usually leftovers from the night before! Give Bertha a poke, turn on the gas heater because it's so cold... Make a thermos of coffee for the boy, prepare two cups of coffee to go for me and the boy; mumble some answers to husband's queries... it's late and no sign of the boy....he finally arrives, scoffs down breakfast, grabs lunch bag and heads for the front door with me coming up the rear - extinguishing lights and turning Bertha onto 'don't burn all the wood before I get back' mode!
Today is complicated by the fact that the XTrail has been returned and I want to drive it to see how it is running - this of course means transferring things like driving glasses, sunglasses and gloves over from my usual ride.
Now it's really late, drive like a maniac - but within the limit of the law - to get to Marulan - 45 minutes away, the last section is posted as 60km, 40km then a mind-blowing and totally frustrating (when you are late) 30km....the boy rolls out and grabs his stuff with a gruff, 'thanks, bye'... can't wait for him to get his licence... only a week and a half a way (I sincerely hope so anyway! - that's another story for another time!)
Turn around and drive home, stop for fuel, arrive home.... now the fun begins, sigh!
The Boys (the ponies...) are hanging the heads longingly over the gate, there's little grass to eat and they are pleading for a some breaky too.... so off to the shed for some hay, that will keep them happy for at least and hour!
I decide that I need to tidy up the XTrail first of all, if I don't do it now I will get to comfortable and warm inside and won't go out again...I remove the girl's clothing and other stuff from the car, empty out the centre consol and take everything inside to be dealt with 'later'.
I get the vacuum cleaner, it has come all the way from France with us... and is now standing crookedly on 3 wheels. It doesn't roll very well anymore as you can imagine and does have a tendancy to fall over (it's one of those large Karchar container types). I decide I don't want to look for an extenson lead so go to plug it in at the nearest powerpoint - which isn't close enough of course... only to discover that now I need to find a plug converter (sacre bleu!). Where to find one, the house is littered with them but of course you can never find one when you need it! I return to the kitchen, I know I have one in the pantry - yes, there it is. In the kitchen I sigh and look at the breakfast dishes still stacked in the sink (the dishwasher sprung a leak over 2 weeks ago and I'm still waiting for repair/replacement). While I'm there I check Bertha again -- needs more food....I head out via the laundry and repeat this morning's procedure. This time I realise that the wood trolley is empty...aaaaagh... drag it over to the woodpile and fill it up (this entails grovelling on the ground and reaching under the makeshift cover to retrieve the final lot of timber stacked near the wall), on the way back I look at the sheets that I hung out yesterday - yes, still on the line! amazing! So, I stop and take the sheets down and try to hold on to them and pull the unweildly trolley at the same time - then maneuver it backwards into it's parking spot with one hand - I'm getting really good at this!. Now, grab two pieces of wood with one hand whilst still holding the sheets - I don't want to combine the two.... splinters in the sheets at night - not a good thing methinks!
Struggle back into the laundry, dump the clean sheets, put the wood into Bertha, return to the laundry, put on a load of washing, pick up the plug, grab a cloth and a some Febreeze.... return to car.... plug in vacuum... oh no! vacuum doesn't reach car.... return inside.... grab keys... move car forward... start to vacuum.... the hose comes away, of course....it's already been taped together once.
Stop everything... hunt for silver tape.... reattach hose... recommence vacuuming. I decide that I will need the extension cord anyway - can't reach the other side.... hunt for the extension; plug in; move vacuum to other side... now I've parked too close to the shrubbery and get scratched and caught up in it...sigh!
I decide I should clean the seats too so I return to the house to find the carpet cleaner... return and finish scrubbing and cleaning interior.
Next thing to do is to try and fix the middle seat backrest which is jammed in the down position - to do this I need to fold down the seat back - but the toggle is broken.....an hour and a half later, bruised and scratched and making comments like 'dear oh dear, this is such a difficult job....' expletives deleted!!!!!!
Finally, I have fixed the seating, detailed the inside, returned the floor mats and Febreezed the car.
Put everything away and return inside.
By the way, I've scored $2.75 - spoils to the victor! lol! Any money found in pockets of clothing in the laundry or excess funds found in motor vehicles during cleaning are 'just rewards' I figure...'finders keepers'.... :)
Give Bertha a poke - and decide that I really need some small bits of kindling to get the smouldering log going... outside again via the laundry - hmmm, yes, the washing machine is blinking and singing "I've been finished for ages ..." okay - go and collect some kindling, come back, feed Bertha and stir up the flames... return to laundry, hang out washing on the airer (of course - it's blowing a gale outside again); put on another load of washing and return to kitchen where this morning's dishes are still in the sink... what! where are the faeries when you need them???
Okay - wash the dishes, turn on the kettle for the hundredth time....I look at the clock... it's 11:50, my stomach is rumbling, I'm exhausted.... time for breakfast or is it morning tea or maybe lunch? Just as I sit down Spook goes flying out the front and is barking... usually means an unexpected visitor... I have just sat down and have taken a bite of my continental frankfurt....I sigh and head to the front door to check out the scene.... nothing, nada!
Oh well, it's now 12 o'clock and I sit down and write a list of what I need to get at the shops... later.... much later!!!!
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