City to Bay

12km in 88 mins... not the sub 70 I was hoping for...

Seeing as I didn't think I'd even be able to finish today, I'm OK with that. My children shared their chest infetion with me and so I spent last night coughing, battling a fever and seeing to my kids as they coughed and battled with their fevers. I pushed myself and paid the price... I literally crashed as soon as I got into the car and ended up in bed for the rest of the day.

Ahh... good times.

Anzac Day

But it's not the 25th of April??

This is true, however, here at Wirraway, we had a different kind of Anzac Day... We have had a mare 'in foal' since she arrived at the end of 2009. Horses 'gestate' for 11 months so we have been greatly anitcipating the impending arrival. Now for those of you who don't know, trying to 'catch' the event of a horse birth is no simple feat. Mares have been known to 'hold on' till the intruding humans quickly dash to get a cuppa in the wee hours of the morning.

We have been watching 'Poppy' (the mare) like a hawk while she ever-so gradually displayed the signs that the event was nigh. I visited her twice daily during our recent annual leave because there was no-one else to check on her. I was hoping she might reward my dedication with a glimpse of such an amazing display of God's creation.

Alas, on a very stormy Friday evening, while we were tucked up in a toasty loungeroom, I can only assume by the present package in the morning that Poppy was not so comfortable. By the time we discovered him, he was very dry and fluffy, very stable on his feet and extraodinarily nimble in his movement.

Now Poppy is not a large horse but by the size of her foal, I'd say that her 'male-friend' was considerably larger She 'got him out' no problem and despite early assumptions, I think that she even got the foal drinking straight away too - pretty good for a first time mum!

It's so great to have a foal here. He is so delightful and already full of mischevious inquisitiveness. I got to name him, and was inpsired by the mare's name and the relationship of Poppies to remembering our fallen soldiers.

Nadia MacGyver

My children and I had the great experience of attending the Playschool Concert. What a way to cram 50+ well known childhood songs into one 40 minute block of time. Needless to say, my children were mesmorised by Abbie and Tao from beginning to end as I was duly preoccupied watching their antics.

The events to follow this occassion were pretty amazing and so I will divulge...

One of my friends who joined us at the concert had parked near me so we walked together as we left. We came to my car first and of course still had far too much to converse about so as I kept up my chinwagging, I mindlessly strapped Nadia into her seat. As I shut the door, terror struck as I realise that in the delay of unlocking the car and actually opening the main door, my car had automatically locked, leaving trapped inside my daughter, my handbag, my keys and my mobile!

The minutes (or proabably seconds) to follow saw all the issues presenting themselves compound to the point that I could almost feel my throat close over and my heart leap out of my chest: I couldn't get to my phone to call Andy - and even if I could, he was in Victor Harbor which would've made his rescue with the other set of keys a good 2 hours away; I couldn't ring RAA because I didn't have my card or in fact the number that one must ring - and even if I could, how long were they away? What if she started crying? What if Eli started getting upset outside the car (it was lunchtime afterall!)...

At that moment a thought struck: could I undo all of the training I had given Nadia to result in the car being opened? It was worth a try... here's how it went:

Me: (tapping on her window) "NADIA! unclip yourself
Nadia: (eyes light up... 'could she really be asking me to do this?')
Me: Good girl. Now, climb into the front seat
Nadia: (eyes light up... 'could she really be asking me to do this?')
Me: Good girl. Now look in Mummy's handbag and find the keys
Nadia: (while no words had come out of her mouth, she seemed to say 'OK' and started searching)
THEN
Nadia: (with eyes even more lit up) A 'LOON MUMMY!!!
Me: Put the balloon down Nadia and find my keys... MY KEYS (it must be noted that I was using everything I had to remain calm here... BLOODY BALLOON... WHAT WAS A BLOODY BALLOON DOING IN MY BAG???)
I'm pretty sure at the stage Nadia was probably thinking that despite my pleas with her to put the balloon down, I wasn't able to stop her and the lure of having uninterupted balloon time was far too precious. It took a LOT of convincing and visual cues from my friend involving her keys for Nadia to consider puting the balloon down. She finally found the keys.
Me: OK. Now press the GREEEEEEEEEEEEEN button... No, the GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEN button.
BINGO!!!

It took a fair chunk of the trip to my parent's house to rid my body of the adrenaline. But in the end I marvel at my daughter's instruction following abilities in this instance - especially when I consider the contrast of this display in terms of everyday life with her!

Ahh the unpredictability of a two year old!

What to do... What to do...

The lure of extra money leading up to a very uncertain future is reeking havoc with the notion of spending the final term of 2010 with my eldest child before he starts school in 2011. I am wrestling with the idea of accepting an extension of a current teaching contract. The job being only for two afternoons a week and the obvious good this would do to my future employability are are some decent reasons why this is a good thing.

It's a hard decision to make right now given that for the first 4 weeks of my contract, Andy has been on annual leave - so the care requirements for my cherubs has not been an issue. It's the coming weeks that will show whether I am cut out to be a 'working' mum - albeit on a very part time basis...

If nothing else, the offer has mildly boosted my ego... I've never been approached by an employer to accept a job that was never advertised and I never had to apply for - now they want to extend my contract!

I'm back

It has been a long time since a last "blogged" probably for the same reason I was reluctant to start in the first place.

I feel the need...

Little House of Horrors

Last night was pretty bad... on a few levels.

Losing power from midnight to 8am wasn't great - especially in a house that is still smoking from the day's heat. I guess the cooling appliances got to have a night off - lucky them!

Prior to that though, we had a few "house guests" that I don't recall inviting, or even allowing entrance. The first was a Huntsman Spider. It was huge. I have lived here on and off for the last 11 or so years and this guy matched what I've seen before - though I haven't seen one this large for quite some time. It's the kind of size that requires effort to find a vessel big enough to catch it in. This guy's legs spanned at least 15cm. Not many people actually believe me when I demonstrate how big they get out here. Needless to say, it was quickly recognised that he had outstayed his non-exsistant welcome and was removed as quickly as he had arrived.

Not too much later, we decided it was bed-time. After much preparation in trying to make the bedroom conducive to sleeping (for those non-Adeladian readers, it's reaching mid 40s during the days and cooling to a 'chilly' 30 overnight), we settled down for some shut eye. I had just turned off my bedside light but was still given some light by Andy's mobile phone as he went through his "bedtime routine". Thankfully, I still had my eyes open - if I had not, we may have had this next guest all night. An odd shadow was flying around our room - and if it were a moth, it would've given the last guest a run for his money on the "oversized for species" department. No... it was a bat... Again, not an unheard of occurance here, but still adding to our "eventful" evening. After some crafty catching techniques from "Batman" (aka my brave husband), normality was restored.

Five minutes later, the power cut out - for what turned out to be the entire night...

They're back...

Teletubbies are back. UGH... Probably due to the un-warranted success of their latest jaunt, In the Night Garden.

I'm still not a fan.

I caught Mr E watching it this morning. He said, "Look Mummy, the Jelly-beans are jumping!" Need I say more?