Categories: uncategorized
Date: 20 May 2004 22:32:59
Hmm... can you resolve a stalemate? If not, I am either going to have to change the title or challenge modern chess-playing conventions.
I solved the kitchen cleaning problem by moving the box, and the pile of things on it, into the lounge. Well, the lounge was fairly unpresentable to start with, and it didn't half make things easier in the kitchen. In fact, it was amazing how quickly it got tidy enough for the cleaner to clean, once I'd actually switched off the computer, forced myself not to take my book with me in the bath, and set to to do it.
I notice another slight dilemma with the cleaner. She does an hour at Dad's and then two at mine, in theory. So, how does this excellent theory work out in practice? She does an hour at Dad's, which rapidly becomes an hour and a half because he doesn't like her to leave a job half done. Then he phones me and asks me if I'd like to join them for coffee. Needless to say, this involves me making the coffee. A relaxed and friendly cup of coffee, with biscuits of course, takes half an hour. Then the cleaner comes over to my place. We haven't had chance to talk properly at Dad's about how he's doing and how the boys are doing, so we have a quick chat at mine, leaving just forty-five minutes for her to do my place. Hmmm... there's something wrong here.
Added to which, our current routine is for M and I to go to aquafit for 1pm. Thus we want to have brunch - a substantial elevenses - at about eleven. Well, if I'm boiling the kettle to make myself a drink to have with my food, I can hardly not offer the cleaner one too.
Aquafit was great fun, if somewhat exhausting. It's incredible how the water helps. I mean, I exercised non-stop for an hour without even really noticing I was doing it. My body's finally realised now, of course. And boy, was the water cold.
After Aquafit we had a rather substantial "late lunch" and replaced all the calories we'd burnt off. Then I raced home to feed two ravenous boys and a ravenous father, to print off Smudgelet's birthday party invitations, to administer first aid... twice. First Tiddles came running in in excitement, waving his toy sword in one hand and his water bottle in the other, and promptly fell over the doorstep, landing on his knee. I pointed out that this was one of the drawbacks of running, to which he replied "I wasn't running, I was trotting". I added that he'd have been better able to balance and save himself if he hadn't been waving the sword and he said, "I thought of that, so I put the sword down before I fell over". Then, no sooner had I staunched the flow of tears and eased the pain in the knee, than Smudgelet came running in with a grazed hand. "I fell off my nothing!" he declared. At my puzzled look, he went on to explain, "Well, surprisingly I wasn't riding anything at the time, I just fell off nothing." I worry about my Smudgelets, honestly I do.
So now the time has come to barricade the kitchen and go to bed. A busy day tomorrow and a relatively early start. I have to track down the piano tuner, book an appointment at the doctor's at 8.30 (because if you leave it any later all the appointments are taken), go to get MW's television working properly again because it sounds as though the aerial has dropped out, go to M's to help her transfer some information from an old Publisher document into a new one for me, and be home in time to bath and beautify myself (a challenging job!) and feed my father before dashing off to meet a friend from the ferry for lunch. This leisurely stress-free life is a lot busier than my normal one!