Mean Girls

But let's hope they're not.

Kid 2 started high school today, on the other side of the city. After 8 years of walking to school every morning, suddenly it's all different.

She was up at 5.45am - by the time I dragged myself out of bed at 6.15, she was showered, dressed and ready to go.

This is her on her first day of Kindergarten.

This is her on her first day of high school.

Excuse me while I go and wonder where the last 8 years went. 

On a less maudlin note, this is what we did on the houseboat.

A Room with a View

I don't mind staying in nice hotels when someone else is picking up the tab, especially when the view is like this. The Australian Open (tennis) was on in the blue courts on the first photo - I didn't go, but I could see it ... And the view the other way was over the river to the ocean.

Melbourne was fun, but unfortunately the garden at Heide, which I'd been so looking forward to seeing, was badly affected by drought. I would have thought, given that it's an art gallery/museum, and the gardens are part of the 'story' of John & Sunday Reed, that they might have watered and tended to the gardens more assiduously, but apparently not.

The Louise Bourgeois: Late Works exhibition was worth seeing.



Spider, 1997, steel, tapestry, wood, glass, fabric, rubber, silver, gold and bone, 449.6 x 665.5 x 518.2cm

And then we came back to Sydney, and the kids had to be picked up from sailing camp and I had to organise Spouse's birthday party before packing to go on a houseboat this week. It's been busy ...

The Great Escape

This week we have a sneak preview of what it's going to be like when we're empty-nesters. Weird, mostly ...

Spouse has to fly down to Melbourne for a couple of days for work. I thought about how exciting it would be to have the whole house to myself, no one to cook for, no one to clean up after. And then I decided to go down to Melbourne too. I've set up one meeting with a client - to stop me feeling guilty about going AWOL - but otherwise I'm just going to visit galleries, go for walks and hang out.

I'm most excited about going out to Heide Museum of Modern Art. It's supposed to be hot and sunny on Wednesday, so I plan to spend lots of time out in the sculpture garden.

Saturday Night Fever

Having a couple of weeks off work has been rather nice. In fact, I've relaxed almost to the point of torpor. I am normally somewhat of a control freak and obsessive organiser and list-maker, but these holidays I've been largely happy to let things slide.

On Friday I decided it was high  time to get organised again, and started by getting up early and taking Kid 2 on a practice bus trip to high school. By 9.30am I'd already done that and finished a writing job, so I was feeling rather smug.

Next on my list was working out what the kids needed for sailing camp, which I had written down as being 14-18 January.

I opened the relevant email and to my horror discovered that Kid 1 was due at camp at 2pm. That day. And Kid 2 was due up there on Saturday. And that I had missed out on getting one of the kids'  boats on a trailer ...

So I had to make a 3 1/2 hour round trip to get Kid 1 to camp, then run around trying to find various things that Kid 2 had to take up with her.

Fortunately, perhaps because I was so relaxed, instead of getting upset I just laughed at my own stupidity and got on with sorting things out.

Spouse drove Kid 2 up yesterday and order was restored. Finding ourselves kid-less, we thought about going out for dinner, but somehow ended up hanging out with some friends, drinking possibly too much wine and feasting on prawns and other lovely things. But not actually eating dinner.

So today, to make up for my idleness, I plan to cook something fabulous for dinner, just for the two of us. And as of tomorrow, I'm officially Not On Hols any more. Oh, except for a couple of days in Melbourne during the week, but that's another story ...

Back to the Future

Another year already? That went fast.

There will be a few changes for us this year. Kid 2 (below, ready for school disco) starts high school in 3 weeks, leaving the primary school that we, as a family, have been part of for 10 years. I've also taught there, in some capacity or another, for 7 years. There were tears on Kid 2's last day. And there have been some more tears since. She is so worried about high school - will she be smart enough, will she make friends, will she fit in? Of course we make reassuring noises, but she won't believe us till it happens.

Kid 1? I just want to know who created 15-year-old boys and when I'm going to get my son back. Also, why did neither of my children inherit my tidy gene? (In Cadets uniform, below. He has since cut off all his hair.)

Speaking of people without tidy genes, Spouse is starting his MBA this year. And doing some teaching. That's in addition to his full-time job. It's just as well he doesn't do much domestically for me to miss! I expect there will be a couple of triathlons and at least one marathon in there too.

And me? I think I'm the family under-achiever. I loved my gig as the school Art Teacher last year (wall of colour from the Art Show I organised, above), but this year is the music year, so it's not there for me. But from Term 2 I may be running after-school art classes. And of course my usual copywriting work, which is not very interesting or fulfilling, but is a financially necessary evil.

This year I start new yoga classes, after being dumped by my private yoga teacher mid-way through last year. Not joking, I was dumped. By text. With not even a 'namaste' to soften the blow. And then I couldn't find a class at a time I could manage, but I've signed up for one now, starting on the 31st of the month. Fingers - and various limbs - crossed that it's a good one.

OK, I've now bored myself to death. Best go and do something productive.