Mumbled Mundanities

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Bianco flats

When was the last time you drove out of town?

Last week the kids and I drove down to my mum's for a day visit.  She lives in The Gong, about 80 km from Sydney. I don't know if it really counts, though.  Other than that, last trip I did was down the coast for a week in January.

I think I'm absolutely due for a road trip.  We are planning a trip to Dubbo and possibly one to Canberra within the next couple of months.  I'd also love a weekend in the mountains - we did this last winter and it was a fabulous escape.

Huh.  Who am I kidding?  My life has been in a constant state of disarray for the past 37 years.  At the moment it's slightly worse than usual.

This is partly because we are currently in the second week of school holidays and it has been raining pretty much every day, meaning that we have been trapped indoors (apart from the odd 30-minute spell of dryness during which I make the kids get out and run around the yard like crazy persons).  As a result of being trapped indoors, the house is an absolute pigsty.  The mess, dirt and debris seems to reappear the moment I clean it away and I'm starting to wonder if it's all some kind of sick joke or that there really is a God, he's Catholic, and I'm in purgatory.  The boys have a touch of cabin fever and are prone to sudden attacks of wrestling and are bickering all.the.time.  I am sick of the sound of my own voice whining "Stop that.  Stop that." so that I sound exactly like those ineffective parents you come across when out and about and think to yourself, "No, YOU stop that!"

We haven't even been able to go to the park.  Yesterday I promised them we'd go to the pool today, but they've politely declined, because it's boring when it's just me as I'm unable to take them through the swirly-river pool with the baby.  They'd rather wait until dad is available on the weekend.  I suppose I could take them to an indoor play centre, but I have an abhorrence of those places.  They are hell on earth under normal circumstances - I can't even imagine what it would be like on a rainy day in the second rainy week of the school holidays.  Something out of Lord of the Flies, I should think.  And my eldest is not good at fighting.  As in, he just doesn't.  Even though I've given him permission to punch kids back as hard as he can if he's ever hit by anyone (because the last time we went to an indoor play centre there was a kid following him around punching the crap out of him until I realised and stopped him.  When I approached his mother about it she just said "Oh is he?  Sorry." in one of those aforementioned whiny "Stop that.  Stop that" voices.)

But enough about those hell holes.

Yeah, so everything is a major schemozzle at the moment.  I guess I'm one of those people who is affected by their physical environment because it has left my brain in a bit of a fog.  Mind you, Facebook has helped a bit with that too.  I joined Facebook a few months back and haven't ever really done anything on it until last week, when another couple of friends of mine joined and are sending me eggs, challenging me to quizzes and messaging me quite frequently. So it's been my time-waster of choice lately because, let's face it, how can you turn down an egg??  And now all of a sudden I have 5 times as many friends as I had before.  Which still isn't many - some people have 600 friends.  I don't think I've even met that many people in my entire life that I liked but then I am kind of grumpy.

*Sigh*  I don't think I'll even tell you that it's nearly 10 am and I'm still in my pyjamas.  I should just get off my lardy arse and go and tidy the place up, huh?

Nablopomo

We've just spent a v ery lazy weekend doing nothing much at all, which is a bit of a change for us and therefore enjoyable.

Following being mulleted yesterday morning (well, I was anyway), we headed off for a family picnic in a nearby "Heritage Park".  After walking up an enormous hill we ate bread and cheese and dips and fruit and then we played on the equipment, the main feature of which was one of those newish round-about things built on a slope that rely on gravity and fat people for momentum.  As the resident fat person, I duly rode with the boys on it for about a half hour before retiring due to queasiness.  The baby played in the sandpit (which was searched for cat poo prior) and crawled to her little heart's content.

The boys had brought their blade scooters and eldest son didn't want to bother with his on the walk back to the car, so I got to ride down the hill on it, which I must admit was the highlight of the weekend.  I haven't done anything like that for a good 25 years.

Went for afternoon tea at a nearby cafe and yesterday evening watched the first Harry Potter movie which happened to be on telly.

This morning was my turn to get up early with the kids (we take it in turns on the weekends) and today was our designated Cholesterol Day and so it was bacon and eggs for brekky.  Did nothing for the rest of the day until this afternoon rendered it necessary to go to the supermarket for food.  Boys came with me, wanting to spend their pocket money, and we pottered around Kmart for a while.  I bought 2 dvds - the Goodies and the second season of Vicar of Dibley.

Managed to finish listening to my online module for the writing course I'm doing and submitted my first piece - which was only one paragraph, so quite easy to achieve. 

Also managed to work on some arrangements for songs and get the bones of some parts in, so happy with that.

All in all, a successful weekend, I think.

I stumbled across this post through one of my neighbours here on Vox and found it pretty funny.  The translation at the end is roughly "Need something new?"

Nablopomo

I had my first haircut in over 18 months today and I was quite happy with it when I first walked out of the salon.  Mind you, I wasn't quite as happy as when the hairdresser was cutting it and it was going all flippy and cute looking.  Or when I was getting my head, neck and shoulder massage, or the complimentary hand massage whilst I was waiting for the treatment to work it's magic. 

Anyway, she assured me that all I had to do to style it was step out of the shower and blowdry my head upside down, which suits me because that is a great way to start the day.  Getting the blood to the brain and all.  She then proceeded to get out one of those big, fat, round brushes and spent at least 15 minutes styling it, which is just not on my agenda at all so today was definitely the last time it will ever look so perfectly coiffed.

But now at the end of the day when the styling product has worn off and it's kind of settling in a bit, I just looked in the mirror and realised I'm now in the possession of a glorified mullet.

Will just have to try the upside-down-blowdry in the morning and see what happens.

No, not really.

But you know how sometimes when you just feel stretched thin and tired and like you don't have enough time for everything that's going on at the moment?  Well, I feel like that now.

Maybe I should make April Noblopomo instead of Nablopomo.

Are you planning on doing any spring cleaning this year? If so, please share a cleaning tip you swear by.

Why, yes I am!  Fortunately for me spring here doesn't begin for another 5 months, so I have plenty of time up my sleeve.

I have no cleaning tips to share.  I am the worst spring cleaner ever.  Very apt to get all gung ho and get bored halfway through so I end up with a big pile of crap that sits in the spare room unsorted for until the next spring clean.  So I guess my cleaning tip is not to do that.