Category: Diary Page 35 of 47

It’s a fun-packed Saturday! Or at least it promises to be. We have some friends coming over before 10am, so we’re up and out early for the Weekend Family Shop, then back just in time for our guests. The Kinderbeast has a Kindererbeast to play with for a couple of hours, and they obsess over dump trucks and other toys while us grown-ups chat about adult affairs such as movie posters and how bad we both are at playing guitar lately. I also make use of the visit to pass on some of the Kinderbeast’s old clothes: he has grown out of many awesome clothes, but the Kindererbeast is just youngerer enough to fit into many of them. It’s win-win.

After our guests leave we settle down for Saturday Morning(ish) Film Club. This weekend we make the excellent decision to watch The Incredibles. I make the less excellent decision to sit down, which does nothing to ease my burgeoning headache, and does everything to make me not want to get up again for the rest of the weekend.

Which is unfortunate because I have baking to get done. When my wife and I were still an actual living-together married couple (instead of a not living-together couple who still have to remain married for another 10 months because family law is ass-backwards) we hosted an annual Piejama Party. This is a party where you eat pies and wear pajamas. Much as the title suggests. This event would traditionally happen around this time of year. Officially, Piejama Party died with the marriage. However, myself and my friends do like to eat pie … so …

I have elected to make cornish pasties, which naturally I have never made before. I’m actually making vegetarian cornish pasties (they were almost gluten-free too but I have it on good authority that gluten-free pastry tastes like week-old elephant pants … that’s possibly not the exact description that was provided…). I make the filling, cut the frozen pastry squares into triangles, and start assembling. I think I’m about to make some nice little bite-sized pasties, but it appears I need some remedial geometry as I need up with three trays full of huge meal-sized pasties. I get the first tray in the oven as my guests arrived (serenaded by James Bond themes, because that’s the sort of thing that happens when you watch The Incredibles).

The pasties are a great success, and the best part is all the other pies we get to eat as well. When we’re not filling our faces, we enjoy some games of Exploding Kittens and Pandemic Cthulhu (which I particularly like).

It’s a good evening, and further proof of the adage that you really can’t go wrong when there’s pie and board games in the mix.

After the week I’ve had I’ve never been more pleased to see Friday. No doubt the Kinderbesten are equally delighted as it’s the last day of school before a two-week holiday. My weekend officially begins by taking Beryl home, then the kinderbesten and I return to await the Arrival of Seb. The Elderbeast is allowed to play on his iPad all evening, as a rare holiday treat, while Seb and I enjoy the remake of The Blob (which remains a whole bunch of fun every time I watch it).

I have a terrible night’s sleep. The Elderbeast managed to install himself in my bed the previous evening, and go to sleep, before I could do anything about it. Usually he’s a relatively benign presence, but this time he tosses and turns all night. I take ages to get to sleep, probably still consumed by residual stress from the day.

I eventually manage to get to sleep, but then wake up to the sound of the Kinderbeast crying for me at 2am. I go in and he tells me he can’t sleep. I calm him down, tuck him in again, and then get myself back to bed. Minutes later, he’s crying for me again: he wants his music on to help him sleep. I stick on Moana and return to bed. I get my head down and am summoned yet again. This time he wants me to get a cuddly toy for him. He gets his cuddly toy, but I’m getting cold now and somewhat less amused. I get back to bed, trying to wrap the covers tight enough around me to get warm again and get back to sleep; but inevitably with one ear listening out for the Kinderbeast.

Naturally, I don’t get up in the morning to write. However, in the last few days I have managed to come up with ideas for two new stories. This comes as something of a relief given I’ve not had any fresh story ideas since the breakup of my marriage. Sure, I have plenty of material to be working on for now, but the idea of inspiration failing me long-term was definitely never part of my plan.

After the events of yesterday I need to write an incident report, but I do the right thing upon getting to work and head straight for my coffee without even switching on the PC. After that, I get the report done, but I spend all morning in a haze of angst: I’m overtired; I’m probably still stressed from yesterday; and I’m apprehensive about heading to the Family Court to file my papers. I’m nervous about whether I’ll take a wrong turn again, or if there’ll be parking, or if I’ll get turned away for forgetting one critical document. I head out for a second coffee during the morning, because why the hell not, and then it’s time to drive into the city.

I do not get lost, and there’s a parking spot waiting for me right at the entrance to the car park. I take it as a good sign. I end up waiting about 30 minutes in the Family Court, but they sort all the papers, stamp them, charge me the filing fee, and it’s done.

It feels good to get this one big step out of the way.

Wednesday. I get up and write some more diary entries, as I’m still not quite in the right mood for story writing. Then I get a text message that the website at work is down, and looks like it might have been down for a while. So this means I need to get the kids ready and get myself ready, all while trying to coordinate some diagnosis and remedial action–mostly over SMS–and then get to work as quickly as possible. Of course I’m late leaving, because I’ve been focusing on trying to sort things out at work instead of getting ready, and of course the Elderbeast picks up on the stress and picks this particular morning to give me a hard time as I’m trying to all but abandon him by the school gates.

I arrive at work and go right into crisis mode: I need to coordinate things with my team (who are brilliant), two separate external parties, and our internal management. There’s no time to get coffee, but one of my awesome colleagues goes out and brings me one back. We get the site up and running again almost within an hour, but the rest day gets swallowed up by reports, communications, further remedial actions, and all sorts of things that only really happen when you’re part of an organisation so big that one side is barely aware the other even exists. It’s an energising and frustrating day. I’m drained by the end of it but pleased with my efforts and those of my team; and, for the most part, pleasantly impressed by the support given by those around us towards resolving the issue. My emails run well into the hundreds over the course of the day and are still coming in when I get home.

I get home, grateful that I thought to buy some pasta and sauce over the weekend to use as a potential emergency dinner, for tonight we dine on Emergency Dinner! I knock it all together and pour myself a very large glass of wine as soon as I can get to the bottle. I have every intention of collapsing into bed almost as soon as the kinderbesten are despatched to sleep, but I’ve also planned to file my consent papers at the Family Court tomorrow afternoon  and I need some time to make sure I’ve got everything I need. There are multiple documents, and numerous copies required of each: some only need a photocopy; some need two copies plus the original; one document needs an additional FIVE copies. I’ve got most of it, but I still find I’m missing four items. I email myself a list of what I need to print out the next day.

And then, somehow, I’m still up and staring at my PC at 10pm. I get myself to bed, but manage to spend yet another hour being drawn into a black hole of internet articles covering various aspects of Doctor Who production: it’s exactly the sort of minutiae that I find oddly compelling.

Finally, I turn the light out. The day has certainly been an experience.

I manage to turf myself out of bed just before 7am and write some more diary entries. I end up getting stuck right in and am late getting the kids ready for school. The day seems in jeopardy when the Kinderbeast wakes with a cough, but he claims to feel fine and, despite the disrupted morning, we still get to school on time.

I’ve been rediscovering Snow Patrol’s Final Straw album, which I used to play constantly when it came out. I’d all but forgotten about it until I unpacked my CDs, and am now enjoying playing it constantly all over again. It accompanies me on my drive to work. On which note, I’m finding that I’m really getting back into the work mode again at last: it’s been a bit of a haul, but it’s another one of those days where I feel like I can get in there and beat the job, and not the other way around.

In lesser news, my single serve of soup proves to be a predictably inadequate lunch.

I come home to a peaceful house: the Elderbeast is at a friend’s house; the Kinderbeast is out with his mother and Beryl, seeing his grandparents. The Elderbeast returns home in time for dinner, but we grow tired of waiting for the others and start eating (yes: soup, again!) Of course, just as we sit down they all arrive.

Beryl has clearly enjoyed a wine during her family outing, as she asks if she can open a bottle and then insists–absolutely demands–that I also have a glass. I just can’t bring myself to disappoint her and say no.

I spend some time finalising the documents I need to file with the court: superannuation statements; numerous bits of paper that I double check have been signed and witnessed; copies of signed bits of paper. It’s endless. Once that’s taken care of I have a fairly awesome, chilled out time with my glass of wine listening to The The (I am currently obsessed with Uncertain Smile) and searching up playlist of other songs that feature awesome piano solos. It’s a good evening.

It’s Fucken Monday. I don’t have a story I feel like working on at the moment, so I use my morning shift to catch up with some diary entries. I get to work and face a day of many, many meetings–not helped by the realisation that my favourite coffee place is closed for the week. Backup coffee place is ok, but it’s not the same. I’ve also been lax in my food preparations: my lunch is described as a “sad looking bit of chicken” by a colleague. She’s not wrong.

The highlight at the end of the day is a seminar entitled “What schools need to know about autism”, which is being delivered by two friends of mine who have done an incredible job of raising their two autistic children and are exactly the sort of people who should be out there telling everyone how it’s done. I’ve been wanting to attend one of their presentations for a long time, and it just so happens that they’ve scheduled this one at the University where I work. It’s a tremendous presentation: moving, enlightening, inspiring. I’m so proud to know these people.

I get home late. The kinderbesten have already eaten, courtesy of their mother. I make soup and tuck in once bedtime has been taken care of. I entertain idle thoughts about watching TV, but once again fail to do it, opting for an early night instead.

It’s Pathfinder day. I’m thinking that I don’t have to arrive until midday, which gives me time to get a few things done, but a quick check of both the Facebook invite and the Google Calendar entry confirms that things actually kick off at 11am. I need to shower, get chicken in the slow cooker, have some damn breakfast (it’s “damn breakfast” because I’m “damn hungry”) and leave by 10:30am.

I allow myself a lie in until 7am, and then get an hour’s writing in: managing to finish the second draft of my new short story, which feels pretty good. It still needs some work here and there, but things are on the right track. The rest of the morning goes pretty smoothly. I get the chicken cooking, I make myself some eggs, and I’m out of the door in good time. I do, in fact, arrive for Pathfinder almost on the dot of 11am.

Which is when I learn that the start time is midday after all …

No worries. I get a bonus hour of chatting, snacking and drinking tea.

Once the game is done I get home to await the return of the kinderbesten. I need to make sure dinner is ready, get tomorrow’s lunches done, and put away all the cocaine and sharp objects. They get back, we have dinner, everyone’s had a fine weekend. However, I look around and the dishwasher has only just gone on, the sink is piled up with pots and pans that I really can’t be bothered to wash, and there is washing airing up in the craft room that has been there since Friday. I wonder where the weekend went.

Naturally, we end the weekend with Doctor Who as well as bonus (yet disappointing) Brie. Doctor Who is exceptionally good this week, which is very welcome given how excited I’ve been about seeing the original cybermen making a reappearance. The show has done a superb job of matching up the aesthetic of the overall episode to the original cybermen design, making it seem entirely appropriate that something designed in 1966 would look perfectly appropriate in an episode filmed over 50 years later.

Bring on next week’s finale!

It’s a #childfree Saturday!

I finally manage a decent lie in (8:30am), and head straight to the supermarket for 9:30am. My plan is to get the week’s shopping out of the way nice and early, then relax all day and catch up on TV. I get the shopping done, but then decide it’s the perfect day to get a proper framing job done for a couple of gorgeous art prints I bought some years ago. They’ve been languishing, lop-sided, in some cheap IKEA frames for far too long and they should really be up on the wall.

I drop the shopping off and head to the shopping centre, which contains an art shop, so I can get some backing card. The good news is that the art shop happens to have 50% off everything on this particular weekend. The less good news is that it’s getting towards 11am and I’m starting to realise I haven’t had any breakfast or, worse, any coffee yet. I stop for coffee, but decide I’m still not that hungry after my mega-portion of dinner the night before. I attempt to find some poster-size frames for my movie posters, but with no joy. I then head into JB Hifi and convince myself to buy a 2 CD set of Propaganda’s A Secret Wish album, and also grab a five-disc set of Patti Smith albums: a steal at just $20.

I have a rule with shopping centres: on a Saturday I will only visit them if I can get there before 11am. After then there’s nowhere to park and those places become literal hell. What I learn today is that getting out of a shopping centre at lunch time on a Saturday is possibly far, far worse. Every exit is now just an extension of the parking lot. I happen know every exit and every turn I take, every alternate route I try, ends with me facing the backend of yet another car. Finally, on my fifth attempt, I make it out. Freeeeee!

I get home and make some decent coffee along with some scrambled eggs. I start to feel human again. I then line up my Patti Smith CDs and get to work on the reframing. It take a good long time. There’s a lot of measuring, lining up, taping, trimming. But after the first one is done I’m so pleased with the result that I plough straight into the second. The results are great. The only downside is that I realise I have no suitable fittings for hanging them on the wall. Yet.

I’ve missed my shot at spending the afternoon watching TV, and the evening is creeping in. I have big plans for the evening: steak dinner and then my first viewing of Inglourious Basterds. But it’s getting late. I shower, cook my steak (and eat it), tinker with the LED lights I bought for the new coffee station (they’re too bright, so I cut discs out of some coloured plastic document wallets to place over them). Then it’s movie time.

It takes me a while, but I eventually decide I’m loving Inglourious Basterds just a bit–it either happens at the first cinema scene, or when Michael Fassbender appears, I can’t remember which. It’s a film, like most of Tarantino’s, that is in love with the art of film. I can’t wait to catch up on Hateful Eight and Django Unchained, both of which I’ve managed to miss to date.

The week is ending with a bonus Free Dress Day at school for the kinderbesten (no, they don’t get a free dress; they just get to wear whatever they want for the day). The Kinderbeast has had his t-shirt chosen for days, but the Elderbeast is far more casual about this rare opportunity.

I get bonus Subway for lunch as we’re providing catering for a workshop. I volunteer to go and collect the feast, which means it also gets to go on my credit card until I claim the expenses back. And I still have a previous lunch that I have yet to claim for. Plus all the parking I haven’t yet claimed for. One day I’m going to be rich beyond my wildest dreams (or at least it’ll feel that way).

It’s another childfree weekend for me. I get home, say goodbye to the kids, then drop Beryl back home. Then I have to Hoover (sorry: vacuum), tidy up, shower, and make dinner before the wonderful Seb arrives. I manage to get it all done, but I’m at the table eating when he arrives. I’ve cobbled something together with leftover sausages, tomatoes and risotto rice … and it’s damn delicious. I eat all of it, even though there’s enough for three in the bowl.

I treat myself to one of the good bottles of wine from the rack,and then Seb and I spend some time dazzling ourselves (literally) with the selection of ludicrously overpowered LED lights I’ve picked up in the last few weeks. We then explore the collection of posters that has been sitting forgotten in the back of my wardrobe. I used to know someone who worked in a cinema, so I have some authentic cinema posters in the collection. The one I’m most excited about is an original Nightmare on Elm Street poster, which is absolutely beautiful. I’m also tremendously excited to discover I’ve own a full size poster for Some Like It Hot, which I had no idea was in there. Other highlights include Reservoir Dogs and a gorgeous poster for Ghost World, which I donate to a friend who loves the film far more than I do.

Then it’s time to settle down for our Friday Night Horror Movie. This week it’s The Frighteners, which is always a treat. We agree that one of our most favourite things about the film is the way it transitions from a comedy to something really quite dark by the end. A lot of films can’t pull that off, but somehow Peter Jackson does it.

Thursday. I manage to get up for writing once again. However, someone’s coming to reseal the shower at 7:30am, so my morning shift is a blend of writing, getting dressed, and trying to get the Elderbeast (who has somehow appeared in my bed during the night) awake and dressed. It’s also bloody cold.

The Elderbeast makes a token attempt to get out of going to PEAC. He had homework to do last night, which he resisted at first, but eventually got stuck into and did some pretty good work. I’m kinda surprised he’s not dying to go to his class and show it off. I think trying to get out of PEAC has just become part of the routine now. He’s happy enough to be going once we get in the car.

I’ve taken the morning off, because of the shower thing, so I head back home for a while. I finally get to talk to the tutor who’s running the mindfulness class that I’ve enrolled the Elderbeast in. We have a good chat, but in the middle of it the shower guy wraps up his work and needs payment, so I have to call her back. I then go and collect the Elderbeast from PEAC. The teacher tells me he worked very well today, which makes me very happy.

I get to work just after midday. I’ve grabbed myself a sandwich from Coles again, but I’m baffled by their pricing. I had my eye on an egg sandwich initially, priced at $6. But then I see that a chicken sandwich is cheaper at only $4. But I don’t fancy chicken. Furthermore, there’s an egg and bacon sandwich is also only $4. I really just wanted egg, but I’m not paying $2 more to NOT have bacon. It makes no sense! Anyway, I wolf the sandwich down and then have to go straight into running a workshop with my team. I’m still so hungry afterwards that I have to walk down to Aroma to get one of their awesome homemade sausage rolls.

Back home and I finally get to admire the beauty of my freshly resealed shower. It looks brand new. Only took me about five years to get around to having it done.