No Work Today

.... For which I'm extremely thankful. But let me start at the beginning.

I think I mentioned that I was going to help my daughter move house, I also said I would supply lunch (now why did I say that?), which meant that Saturday night I was up till all hours making two quiches, a banana cake and putting a huge salad together. So, that all done, I collapsed into bed.

Sunday morning I was up early to do the laundry and hang it out, because the forecast was for rain today. I eventually arrived at my daughter's at about 9.15, to find her, a friend and her daughters, plus my granddaughter, all rabbiting on about some party(s) they had attended the night before. The adults party was costume and apparently was a lot of fun. The 16-year-old's birthday that my granddaughter and her friends went to was "ok, I suppose". Apparently the DJ was the same one as did the primary school discos...and played songs like "Bob the Builder". Even I was astounded...I may be a grandmother but I have a pretty good idea of the music teenagers like...and it is not Bob the Builder or the Chicken Dance...not really.

Anyway, after catching up on all that, we got on to packing stuff. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the furniture had been moved the previous day, so what was left was pretty easy. I packed up the kitchen stuff, we cleared out the bedrooms, cleaned the toilet, shower and bath, vacuumed the floors, etc. We only had two loads per car to take and by lunchtime, all that needed to be done was mopping the kitchen floor, wiping down the windowsills and mowing the lawn.

I was home by three o'clock and my daughter and her partner had gone back to do those last things and collect the netball hoop and lawnmover. I'm glad she was so organised because I've helped friends move and arrived there to find that not a thing had been done...it had been left waiting for the "helpers". It's a particular couple I was thinking about and this happened about 20 years ago, funnily enough when they had to move again, those of us who'd done all the work the first time were "busy" that day.

There was plenty of lunch for everyone and I left the rest for my daughter for dinner that night, much to her delight. She really wanted to get everything straightened up as soon as possible and not having to take time out to prepare dinner was a bonus.

The renovations looked lovely, too. They'd moved out while my daughter's partner (who is a builder) finished the renovations. He was finding it impossible to work in the weekends with everyone there, they were complaining of noise, dust, etc...so they rented a place for a couple of months.

Brooke's bedroom was painted the palest green on two walls, just off-white on the remaining two and with a neutral carpet. She had lovely lavender drapes and a thick fleece cover on her bed incorporating those two colours...and a brightly covered chair. It's a lovely teenager's room in these funky colours. She had a large white chest of drawers and matching bookshelf on top of which sat her TV and stereo system (which her father had given her).

Gabbie's bedroom was painted palest aqua. As her room is west facing, it gave it a cool feel. She had wooden venetian blinds up at the window and neutral carpet as well. Her bed was a lovely polished timber and was made up with more definite aqua sheets, a lovely thick cosy eiderdown in cream with a small aqua and rose coloured flowers in stripes. Her dressing table matched the bed and she had a shelf for her TV and DVD player.

Harry's room was a real boy's room. The walls were painted a definite blue, with a paler blue carpet. He had bunks with matching drawers and a shelves for his dinosaur collection. His curtains were blue with pictures of race cars all through the fabric and he had matching doona covers. They were a great accent to the room.

The new dining room only needs painting and he's going to do that when my daughter and the girls are up in Bundaberg for the final netball carnival for the season. Then...the downstairs part begins, but at least upstairs will be finished and liveable, apart from a hole in the floor where the stairs will start.

As I said I arrived home at three, brought my clothes in off the line and wandered across to see if Jane was home (she had been on a three day scrapbooking weekend). She hadn't arrived home so Fred and I were chatting away about this and that. He suddenly asked me if I felt like a drink...I knew he didn't mean coffee. I asked, red or white? He replied. white.

I had bought a new cask of white on the Saturday (and that's another story), so I grabbed that and some cheese and crackers. We sat out on the patio, had a couple of glasses of wine and I told Fred about the renos and he brought me up to date on his twin sister, who'd just had a big payout from a broken marriage. Then Roger from across the back arrived and didn't need much persuading to join us (he's so easy), and eventually Jane arrived home, didn't bother unpacking the car, but sat down to a glass of wine and cheese and crackers.

Time passed, Jane heated up some homemade chicken soup and we thoroughly enjoyed that. By this time it was pitch black and getting a bit cold, but no-one moved. Eventually, we realised to our shock that the cask was finished...I'd had a couple of small glasses of wine the night before, and then we polished off the rest last night. Just goes to show when the company is congenial, the food good and the evening not too cold, time can slip away. I think it was about 10 o'clock when we decided to call it a night.

Now you know why I was glad to find there was no work when I logged on earlier. I just really didn't feel like working. I'm not going back to the bottleshop for a few days, either. I'll be getting a reputation as a lush. A cask of Chateau de Cardboard usually lasts me about two weeks, including the odd glass or two to anyone who drops in, so I daren't go back 36 hours later and buy another one.

Here are some more pics. The first one is Cooper and Oscar, the second Cooper's first steps.

Oscar scowling (he didn't like the camera)