i Atent Dead
Jul. 5th, 2006 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsidheHad a fortnight's leave, including a drive to and from Adelaide for the weekend in the middle.
I've meant to write, but every time I sat down to put words into ones and zeros, I faced a big "This Brain intentionally left blank" sign. That, and every time I though I had enough time to gather and organise my outrage on a given subject, something even more outrageous would happen. Gah.
I, and Mim, and the girls, have spent most of the last three weeks sick with one thing or another. The girls are snotty, and have mild conjunctivitis. Mim has a cold, with classic hayfever response°, and I seem to be coming down with some sort of flu¹.
[°] Mim has two reactions to antihystamines: 1) nothing at all, or 2) nuked into oblivion. This does not make for pleasant recovery.
[¹] Gah. Every long muscle feels like I did two hours of heavy benchpresses with no warmup. Strangely, my joints are not so affected, as they usually are. Gah.
So, we pour the girls into the car at 0530 hours GST+10:00, and drive. 1730 hours GST+10:00 (or 1700 GST+09:30), 12 hours later, we pull into Mum's driveway.
Our biggest mistake? "Hey, this looks like a long drive all the way up the freeway to Cross Road, then all the way down South Road, why don't we cut across through Hahndorf or Meadows or something?" Why not? Because it's a bloody stupid idea, that's why not. We take a random turnoff, and end up in a part of SA a little like the backstreets around Belgrave, only not as navigable. This was partially because most of it was not on the map. Even when it was, it was a twisty little maze of mountain lanes, all the same. After not quite coming to blows, I took over the navigation and got us back on the freeway. We had accidentally ended up in Stirling, even if heading the wrong way.
Let us never speak of The Short Cut again.
Abbi had a wonderful adventure, heading off to "Aunty Kat's house!", where there were cats! Maggie even stood still long enough to be patted, eventually. We did not go to any wineries. I know what they look like. We did, however, go to a community-built playground in Onkaparinga. Abbi almost had seizures from pure joy.
On Sunday we went to the Adelaide Museum.
On the way in, Katherine was telling us about the gig she'd played out the front of the Museum the previous week. As we crossed the road, we saw a marquee set up, with a woman setting up chairs. We looked at the blackboard. The band listed to play was K&N. That's funny, said Katherine. I'm in K&N. No-one told us we were playing today. Maybe it's a mistake. So she asked: Who's playing today?
She was answered: K&N Brass.
She replied: No we're not.
She was answered: oh.
The nice lady was pulling out her mobile to call the guy who organises gigs for that band as we went in to the Museum. I'll finish this story shortly...
The Adelaide Museum is what one could call Old Fashioned. Lots of large glass cases, lots of taxidermy. The Egyptian room had mummies in it... parts of them, anyway. "Yes, Abbi, that's a foot. Well spotted. *cough*"
Anyway, the putative gig... After the museum, we all went off to attend a comp, where several friends of Mum and Katherine were playing. As we pulled in to the parking lot, Mum spotted the guy in charge of the bookings.
"Did you know you are playing at the Museum?"
"No, when?"
"Today."
"I'd should turn on my mobile, eh?"
This was when the SMSs and messages and missed calls ans such like made his phone glow white hot. "Oh, bugger," I seem to remember him saying.
So that was fun.
The trip back, we hadn't hit the main road before Abbi was asking to go to Aunty Kat's house again. It was past Ballarat before we heard from the back seat "Let's go to Aunty Kat's house! No... we can't do that. Let's go to Abbi's house!"
We were a little distracted, though. We kept putting off feeding Susi, always saying "at the next roadhouse...". That's the thing, though, there aren't any roadhouses worth the name on the Western Highway. We eventually said at Ballarat "should we stop at Ballarat? No, we'll just push through." Queue an hour and a half of screaming hungry baby. She didn't calm down until we were crossing the Westgate. Which is good, because if she hadn't calmed down, she would have thrown up anything we would have tried to feed her.
Abbi is still asking if we can go to Aunty Kat's house.
Politics to follow when I get my head together a little.
I've meant to write, but every time I sat down to put words into ones and zeros, I faced a big "This Brain intentionally left blank" sign. That, and every time I though I had enough time to gather and organise my outrage on a given subject, something even more outrageous would happen. Gah.
Sick.
I, and Mim, and the girls, have spent most of the last three weeks sick with one thing or another. The girls are snotty, and have mild conjunctivitis. Mim has a cold, with classic hayfever response°, and I seem to be coming down with some sort of flu¹.
[°] Mim has two reactions to antihystamines: 1) nothing at all, or 2) nuked into oblivion. This does not make for pleasant recovery.
[¹] Gah. Every long muscle feels like I did two hours of heavy benchpresses with no warmup. Strangely, my joints are not so affected, as they usually are. Gah.
Walk in the Hills
On the first Monday of my leave, we took the girls up to the Hills. We lunched at Miss Marples in Sassafras (again). They were very gracious about the havoc wreaked by the two slightly bored girls. Afterwards, we drove around until we found a likely looking place, which turned out to be Grant's Picnic ground. I was vaguely looking for Cloudehill, but it'll still be there. We took the girls on a relatively short walk. It was crisp, but not too cold. We were all rugged up and cozy, Susi in a baby-bjorn hanging from my front. They seemed to love it. We'll have to take them back.Adelaide
So, we pour the girls into the car at 0530 hours GST+10:00, and drive. 1730 hours GST+10:00 (or 1700 GST+09:30), 12 hours later, we pull into Mum's driveway.
Our biggest mistake? "Hey, this looks like a long drive all the way up the freeway to Cross Road, then all the way down South Road, why don't we cut across through Hahndorf or Meadows or something?" Why not? Because it's a bloody stupid idea, that's why not. We take a random turnoff, and end up in a part of SA a little like the backstreets around Belgrave, only not as navigable. This was partially because most of it was not on the map. Even when it was, it was a twisty little maze of mountain lanes, all the same. After not quite coming to blows, I took over the navigation and got us back on the freeway. We had accidentally ended up in Stirling, even if heading the wrong way.
Let us never speak of The Short Cut again.
Abbi had a wonderful adventure, heading off to "Aunty Kat's house!", where there were cats! Maggie even stood still long enough to be patted, eventually. We did not go to any wineries. I know what they look like. We did, however, go to a community-built playground in Onkaparinga. Abbi almost had seizures from pure joy.
On Sunday we went to the Adelaide Museum.
On the way in, Katherine was telling us about the gig she'd played out the front of the Museum the previous week. As we crossed the road, we saw a marquee set up, with a woman setting up chairs. We looked at the blackboard. The band listed to play was K&N. That's funny, said Katherine. I'm in K&N. No-one told us we were playing today. Maybe it's a mistake. So she asked: Who's playing today?
She was answered: K&N Brass.
She replied: No we're not.
She was answered: oh.
The nice lady was pulling out her mobile to call the guy who organises gigs for that band as we went in to the Museum. I'll finish this story shortly...
The Adelaide Museum is what one could call Old Fashioned. Lots of large glass cases, lots of taxidermy. The Egyptian room had mummies in it... parts of them, anyway. "Yes, Abbi, that's a foot. Well spotted. *cough*"
Anyway, the putative gig... After the museum, we all went off to attend a comp, where several friends of Mum and Katherine were playing. As we pulled in to the parking lot, Mum spotted the guy in charge of the bookings.
"Did you know you are playing at the Museum?"
"No, when?"
"Today."
"I'd should turn on my mobile, eh?"
This was when the SMSs and messages and missed calls ans such like made his phone glow white hot. "Oh, bugger," I seem to remember him saying.
So that was fun.
The trip back, we hadn't hit the main road before Abbi was asking to go to Aunty Kat's house again. It was past Ballarat before we heard from the back seat "Let's go to Aunty Kat's house! No... we can't do that. Let's go to Abbi's house!"
We were a little distracted, though. We kept putting off feeding Susi, always saying "at the next roadhouse...". That's the thing, though, there aren't any roadhouses worth the name on the Western Highway. We eventually said at Ballarat "should we stop at Ballarat? No, we'll just push through." Queue an hour and a half of screaming hungry baby. She didn't calm down until we were crossing the Westgate. Which is good, because if she hadn't calmed down, she would have thrown up anything we would have tried to feed her.
Abbi is still asking if we can go to Aunty Kat's house.
Politics to follow when I get my head together a little.
