Week 5: Newish beginnings(ish)

(Jan 29 – Feb 4)

After last week’s mood of pause and reflection, this week really felt like the grand slam of fresh corners being turned. The Elderbeast started his acting classes (and loved it); both Kinderbesten returned to school (finally); the Kinderbeast celebrated his sixth birthday; and I spent much of the week dreaming up plans for improving the house.

Monday

The Elderbeast has his first acting class after school. He reports that he is one of only three boys in a class with 1 girls, which will be a pretty good experience for him. For this first lesson they just play games (apparently), but he has a fine time and is keen to continue.
Meanwhile, my thoughts of painting the main room of my house continue. This was an idle thought at the back of my mind last year, but now I’m busy thinking of colour schemes and trying to work out the practicalities of actually getting the job done.

Tuesday

I forget my lunch today, which isn’t a good start to the day. For the last day of their holiday, the Kinderbesten are being taken to AQWA, but I need to get them ready and drop them off with the grandparents. The beasts don’t want to get out of bed, which makes this all even more of a rush than a typical school morning.
Once we’re all home again, I start to get everything ready for tomorrow. I make the packed lunches. I get school uniforms out of the cupboard. The Elderbeast and I sort out the big box of stationery that was ordered before Christmas and then, inevitably, just left in the box.
We then settle down and watch the last episode of Electric Dreams (which the Elderbeast has been getting into over the last few weeks). It’s very disappointing: just a pointless retread of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, which adds nothing new to the scenario. It’s perfectly well made, but given the inventiveness of the other episodes I really don’t know why they bothered with this one.

Wednesday

It’s the first day of school. I take the day off work it avoid the day being too much of a rush. As a bonus I go out for breakfast with the UK folks. On the way home we stop off at Bunnings so I can look at paint colours for my main room: there are so many! I pick a handful and get out of there.
I spend some time wrestling with my kitchen tap. It needs a new mixer cartridge, but is refusing to be disassembled. I decide to leave it be and walk away, somewhat dejected by my failure.
Collecting the kids from school picks my mood up however. The Kinderbeast has scored a sticker in reward for listening well in class. I then go to collect the Elderbeast and his teacher commends him on his hard work and focus during the day—and then goes on to suggest he can co-teach a class with her later in the year, if he’s interested. Stunning.
It’s also the night of the Blue Blood Supermoon (or whatever they’re calling it). We go and admire it for about half a minute, then head back inside where I proceed to count up my mosquito bites.

Thursday

A day of massive tiredness. I reward myself for simply existing with a huge Chocolate Fudge Brownie in the afternoon. It is delicious. My latest wine order from Naked Wines also arrives, which is always a highlight of the week.
The Elderbeast is at the cricket this evening, so I enjoy an evening of comparative tranquility and spend some time catching up on my blogs.

Friday

Taking the day off on Wednesday is proving to be a mistake: I’m still catching up at work. Meanwhile, the Kinderbesten’s mother is ill which necessitates changing plans for the weekend. I will no longer be #childfree, and the birthday celebrations we had planned for the Kinderbeast today will now have to take place tomorrow, which is actually his birthday, so it all kinda works out.
The Fridate Horror viewing this week is the 1978 version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, which has been and remains one of my all time favourite films. The slightly oddball performances of the main cast do a great job of subtly spelling out the humanity that’s being stolen, while Philip Kaufman does an amazing job of creating a setting where things seem just that little bit off.

Saturday

It’s the Kinderbeast’s birthday. As a birthday surprise I’ve booked him and his brother for a session at Bounce! We drive there and it’s not until we’re parked outside that he finally realises where we are. It’s an hour of good fun for the Kinderbesten, but they have devolved into sweat monsters by the end of it,
I take them home, shower them, and we chill out in front of Jurassic Park. It’s the Kinderbesten’s choice, but about halfway through he decides he’s too scared to continue, so we turn it off.
The family all come over for the early evening, bringing presents with them. The Kinderbeast ends up with a nice pile of gifts and a a ridiculous amount of birthday money. Luckily one of his presents is a safe …
It’s only after the Kinderbeast has gone to bed that I realise he’s pretty much eaten nothing but crisps and cake all day. Oh well, I guess if you’re going to eat like that it may as well be on your birthday.
For our evening viewing the Elderbeast picks out the 2009 Star Trek reboot. I really enjoyed this at the cinema, and I really enjoy revisiting it again. It does for Star Trek what Russell T Davies did for Doctor Who—takes something that was dwindling into cult status and makes it mainstream again. It’s dark, it’s emotional and it’s BIG. It’s such a shame that they messed it all up with the sequel.

Sunday

I get to spend some quality time with my friends today, mostly thanks to the Kinderbesten being exceptionally chillled and well behaved as we all play games. When we get home I corral the inderbesten into helping me clear out the shed—there’s a vergeside collection coming up, and I’m determined not to miss it this time. The Kinderbesten mostly do what they need do, and we get things sorted out in about 20 minutes. I end up with one help of old toys that can probably be donated somewhere, and another heap of crap that can definitely be chucked.
And a half empty shed that still needs tidying up. One day.
The Elderbeast has some homework to do before bed. I remind him that he has about an hour and a half to get it all done, and wonder how far he’ll get. At one point he starts flagging: staring at the screen when he needs to be writing. I set a 10 minute timer and tell him to just write until the timer goes off. He gets his work done, packs everything away, and we’re sitting in the kitchen chatting when the timer finally goes off.
Once again, last year this is something that would have involved at least an hour of stress and argument, with 30 minutes spent doing about 10 minutes’ worth of work. This turnaround continues to stun me.
He must be a pod person ….

Watched

Read

Not gonna bother writing anything in here until I actually start reading something worth writing about…

Eaten