Woe is me...

My eldest child (#1) is in the Navy now. We took him to Townsville yesterday to join up. Then the nasty men took him away on plane to Melbourne.(Otherwise known as a place too far away for me to go and rescue him in one day.)

I have been practising hurling my arms around him a crying out "Don't Go, Dont go!" . Alternatively, I throw my arms around his shoulders crying out "Don't take my baby, Don't take my baby!" I have practised this so often at home that after enlistment when I went to give him a good-bye hug he flinched slightly, expecting me to show him up. Oh well at least he knows his mum.

I waited a full eight hours to ring him after he left.

Me: So was the flight all right?
#1: There was two
Me Did you change at Sydney?
#1: Uh
Me: Who told you where to go?
#1: We were unacompanied. (Sounding proud here)
Me: So you were ok with that? (Thinking to self, well I did see a girl with them, and he has reached Melbourne)
#1: It was Ok there was a girl with us.
Me: So, where are you now?
#1: Airport
Me:?
#1: We've got to wait for a bus before I can eat again. I haven't had anything since we landed.
Me: But you had breakfast and a meal voucher for lunch,
#1: And a meal on each plane ride
Me:?
#1:And now I've got to wait till we get to the barracks to eat again.

I hope the Navy has a lot of food, but they will won't they, they're used to teenage boys.

Note to self: Watch out when buying groceries, food will not be disappearing from fridge overnight as if by magic.

It's my birthday...

Well it was my birthday yesterday anyway. All week people have been making me bad-tempered by asking where I'm going for my birthday.. that would be nowhere. What am I getting?...that would be nothing. At the gym, oooh are you going out tonight...I doubt it. Hurrumph.

Well I shouldn't be an evil tempered old bat, well only for fun. When I got back from the gym there was a trail of clues around the house that Homer and the children had left that led me from one place to the other until I found my present. A lovely little knick knack box..I love that stuff.

Later I was ordered to get dressed as we were going out and we went out for dinner. OMG. Homer even said that it wasn't that bad and maybe we'd go out again, maybe even together.

Happy Birthday #4

Number 4 is ten today. I have to admit that there are times when I have wondered whether he would make it to double digits, the skateboarding down the north face of the Eiger incident for instance, or the finding of the new pet snake incident, or setting fire to the bedroom, or "flying" from the house roof to the tree.

At other times he has found himself perilously close to causing his mother to expire, the worms and play-doh in the microwave incident, or the locking mum in her bedroom by tying her bedroom door to the laundry door (on a day she had a job interview), or the undoing of the bolts fastening mummy's seat to her car floor incident.

Of course outsiders have views on #4 too. The parents of the chess club that he famously locked in the library to avoid extra reading lessons, the parents of the boy he showed how to get on the school roof, but neglected to show how to get down and the parents of the boy who he told about the play-doh/worms experiment, who then decided to reproduce the experiment with a cane toad.

There is a certain fame (or notoriety) involved in being the mother of #4. I am first name terms with the local fire, ambulance and police forces. Most of the local doctors and nurses know me though my son as well as professionally, and of course I am the source of endless merriment for these professionals at their meetings.

His birthday requests? Still wants a motor bike and a chain saw.

Living in hope..

#4: There's no school on Monday.

Me: What???? !!!! I'm thinking to myself "OMG, who's looking after them on Monday, I've got work, and any-way haven't they only just gone back to school after six months off!!" (Slight exageration, but it felt like six months.) "That's just about right, another bloody pupil free day, let the teachers break back in to work gently " I'll admit by this point I was getting slightly hysterical.

Me: What do you mean "NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY!"

#4: It's raining, we'll have a storm day.

Me: It's Friday afternoon, On a scale of one to ten its raining at about a three, there WILL NOT be a storm day on Monday. Now be a good boy and fetch mummy's gin and valium.

A day at the zoo

While grand-dad was here we took him to the zoo to see the local wildlife. It was so wet that we stayed for about five minutes and gave up.

I did get a couple of pictures of trees, and one of a very irritated koala. Koala's can be very nasty and bad tempered. This is probably because their diet disagrees with them. They have to eat eucalyptus leaves for six hours a day which then need the other eighteen hours a day to be digested and only provide enough energy for another six hours eating eucalyptus.

The ferns were in the crocodile pens. The crocodiles were all hiding in the water from the rain.

Dangers in the home

We made beef bourguinon today. When we were frying the bacon it was spitting, a lot, so number four came up with a solution....

Reef trip

We took grandad to the reef yesterday. It's not the best time of year due to an approaching cyclone. The sea was "lumpy" which led me to two conclusions, 1. # 3 and I can't join the navy and 2. #4 and Homer can. "How was it" every-one asked. "Great" I replied, "except for when I was throwing up or drowning due to bad snorkeling conditions. The picture is of #3 and #4 preparing to scare a shark. The red suits are stinger suits which stop jellyfish stinging you........except on your face. Shortly after this picture was taken I made both of the red devils put on life jackets as I was aging about three hundred years every two minutes trying to watch both of them.

Actually it wasn't that bad, even in the terrible conditions we travelled in due to the time of year we still saw giant clams and many different multi coloured fish. I'll go again, but in flat calm weather, and probably to Green Island so I can get solid soil under my feet. The whole trip was worth it for the photos we brought back tho, here's one of my favourites, #4 swimming with Wally the Napoleon Wrass.