Sunday, May 24, 2009

Flu











Flu worse than ever - hate to think then what would be involved with swine flu! Had both kids home with it all last week too. Luckily Col (still in cast and collar bone not yet healed) was able to do all the cooking and walking to the shop. As I am the only one able to drive I got us all up the shops on Saturday to Beyond Q - the local second hand book shop which also has a cafe with great coffee. I exchanged some unwanted books for $35 worth of credit and we were all able to choose something then have coffee and cake. I got an old copy of Mia Freedman's The New Black which is the perfect book to read when you are sick - short little article sized chapters on light topics. Ruby got the first in the Lemony Snickett series for $8 too. It always feels like such an achievement, pulling off a fun day within the confines of illness and not feeling like it's laying waste to your life. I guess that's the challenge.
Here's some stuff from around the house whch makes me smile.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Assemblage

I am almost definitely wanting to study some art part time next year. Thats of course if I pass an interview to get into the course. I applied for this same course two years ago and an interview date was set. In the post came a letter detailing what would be expected portfolio wise. I had been hoping to use the same musty old portfolio I've been using since 1986 to get into various art courses but when I took a good look inside said folio I began to wince. There were no 'assemblages' in there (did they even have those in 1986?) and there was certainly no Computer Aided Imagery. Where was the request, I wonder, for a Poorly Rendered Still Life in Charcoal? My portfolio sported three of those. Times sure have changed. Before I could desperately glue a few assemblages together my little three year old was suddenly hospitalised and diagnosed with a rare osteo disease and I, shamelessly, used this as an excuse to pull out of the interview. The disease would probably run it's course over three years. Surely enough time to come up with one assemblage you would think. But here I am mid year 2009 with no Assemblages. Unless you count the weetbix deposits gathering under the kitchen table like stalagmites...

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

An unexpected turn of events.

Monday night while bathing kids and getting dinner a stranger rang to tell me Col had had an accident while riding home and needed me to come pick him up. I knew immediately it must be baddish because Col has had accidents before and still managed to drag himself and bike home. "Is it bad?" I asked. "Uh yes" said stranger in clipped tones (a mental image of Alain De Botton only in cycling gear made itself available to me). Slipping effortlessly into the role of Panicky Wife I took down some confused coordinates for a bike path in Aranda, thanked the man and went to get the kids rugged up so we could go and find daddy all bruised and broken somewhere on a bikepath in the dark. Fortunately Col managed to collect himself and call me on his mobile before I had left the house and I convinced him to call an ambulance. Then worried he would fall unconscious again before calling I decided to call them myself. Yes, they assured me without any patronising or making me feel bad about being Panicky Wife, they were already on their way to find him. They also rang me back when they had him in the ambulance en route the hospital to assure me everything would be fine. They were so nice.
So now Col is home for two weeks, one arm in a sling the other in a cast that covers most of his hand. It never occurred to me before how helpless you would be in this situation. Add to that he has to sleep sitting up. Fortunately as a patient Col is not the whiny kind and so is getting the best out of his dodgy innattentive nurse (me).