Late night reflections

I wrote recently about one of the reasons I haven't been blogging lots lately.  Another main reason is that my work hours have changed, which means I have much less time after the Little Big Fella goes to bed before I hit the hay, too.

And it turns out that my creative (especially reflective) writing is done 99.9% of the time in the hours between 10 and midnight.

Poop for blogland!

But tonight is Friday after a long, hard week, my Fellas are snoring and I'm ready to put a few thoughts into the netherworld of the internet.

My Nanna turned 80 today!  I wish so much that I could be there to say, "Happy Birthday" and give her a birthday hug!!!

But I've been reflecting on some of my favourite memories of her, and the things I love about her, and how lucky I have been to have lived so close to her and Poppy as an adult.  Some days that would make me teary because I don't have it now.  But today it just makes me grateful to have been influenced by such a loving, courageous, safe, comfortable, practical, strong woman.

I love you, Nanna!

My youngest sister rang me tonight and we had a good chat and a laugh.  While we were talking, my brother rang her and we ended up having a group call!  It was almost as good as catching up for a cuppa together.

I had to tell them my painful story.

Last year the Little Big Fella's school took them roller skating for an end-of-year activity.  He loved it and wanted to do it every day over the holidays.  So last Friday night I'd found out that it was open to the public and I took the Little Big Fella along (despite being absolutely shattered and just wanting to curl up on the couch with a book).

He was SO excited!



To start with, he probably spent about 90% of the time picking himself up off the ground, but by the end of the session he was skating around the middle of the rink and mostly keeping his balance!  I was really impressed!

But near the start, we were skating around the edges very slowly and my skate got stuck on a bit of dirt or something on the ground.

You know those cartoons where people are about to slip over and their feet go backwards and forwards several times really fast before both feet flip up in front of them and they fall on their butt?  Yeah, I did a pretty good impression of that!  I laughed about it, because it must have looked pretty spectacular!  But I am still feeling it!

I'm pretty sure I'm somewhat allergic to the coal dust in the air here.  It makes me sneeze... a lot!  Even when I take antihistamines.

Did you know that when you sneeze, it causes your butt to clench slightly?  Nope, neither did I until the first time I sneezed the day after roller skating!!!!!!  Oh my Lord!  The pain!!!!

But it makes a pretty good story, so I happily shared it with my siblings, who had a good laugh.  (I even managed to induce the infamous walrus laugh from my brother!) 

You know those memes on Facebook about the best friends being those who you can chat with after years of not talking, and it's as if you were talking yesterday?  That's what I get with my family.  We're terrible at calling each other.  But we think of each other all the time.  And when we do catch up, it is THE BEST!

The next door neighbour's cat is calling out to its owners (also known as slaves) to let it in, which reminded me of a recent 4am wake up.  Did you know that a cat meowing can sound like your son calling, "Mum" in the saddest voice ever? I woke very suddenly, rushed to his room to discover him fast asleep.

What????

I mean, I know he occasionally sleepwalks to the loo, but calling out to me in his sleep like that?

Then the cat meowed a few more times and I went back to bed, having discovered the trickery.

It continued for the next hour and half, by the way.

I would have willingly shot it and faced the prospect of jail that night.  Except getting out of bed, even to shoot the cat (who I quite like in the daylight) would have taken way more effort than I was willing to expend.

The Big Fella has been away for a couple of days of training for work and came home this evening.  It was only two days, but I missed him and I'm really glad to have him home.

Can you imagine any reason that someone would build a 3-bay shed and not put power to it?  A small garden shed, maybe.  But anything big enough to stand properly in, and definitely anything big enough to fit a car in needs power.

Apparently the previous owners don't agree.

So the Big Fella dug a trench (which filled with LOTS of water - we had over 150mm of rain in 4 days just after he dug most of the trench).  And the electrician has been and connected power from the house to the distributor box in the shed.  Now to hook up lights, fans and power points so that it can truly be a drool-worthy man-cave!

Okay, the rambler has rambled enough and needs to go to bed.  Or finish reading her novel.  Sleep well, my friends!