House and Home

I am now a single parent - albeit only for six months but I am doing the job on my own nonetheless. *sigh* My darling's ship sailed one hour and 24 minutes ago.

On Saturday we went out and go some groceries and came home and had a lovely lunch together. I rang my very nice boss and he was more than happy for me to take today off. On Saturday Peter and I took Ninky and Roo to the beach. We also took Benny the Maltese and Polly the Labrador. It was such a lovely sunny day but the wind was quite fierce. Peter and I did not go into the water but the children had fun. They swam and ran and had a (not too successful) run on their boogie boards.



Poor Polly is irrationally frightened of water. So frightened of water that she really only has a bath every couple of years when I take her to the vet and have her sedated so the can bath her. She vomits and shakes and in the past groomers were sure that she was about to have a heart attack! On Saturday she surprised us by allowing Peter to lead her into the water that was a couple of inches deep. She seemed alright with it. Peter however, took it a bit to far and saw her tolerance as an opportunity to rinse a bit of the Lab "stink" off her. He picked her up and carried her out into water that was about chest height on her. To say she was not impressed would be an understatement! She flailed about and dragged Peter out of the water (she was on her lead) at 100 mph! She was then so distressed, that she had a bad attack of diarrhea and vomited repeatedly on the beach. I was concerned that she was going to die. She did not die, though when she got home she flopped on her bed and only moved once to eat dinner later that night. She was exhausted. Poor thing. I will make sure she doesn't have to endure that ever again. I have to say that she does smell a lot better though!

Saturday night Peter cooked us a lovely dinner and we watched some TV together until fairly late.

Yesterday we got up pretty early, got Peter pack and fed all the animals. Then we jumped in the car to head to Sydney. We stopped in at Kiama and had a look at a childrens clothing shop that sells lovely clothes at huge discounts. Ninky got some lovely clothes and Roo got a camouflage shirt and a nifty hat.
We went into a cafe to get some lunch. Peter had taken the children there a few weeks ago and I recalled that they had raved about the food, the great service and the price. However, yesterday was a different story. The place was full of flies and we waited ages to b served. Then finally the waitress came out and served a table full of teenagers who had just walked in and weren't even ready to order. We were not impressed so we voted with our feet and went up the street (getting soaked in the process because it was bucketing down) to a lovely little seafood cafe. There we had excellent service and a wonderful meal.

Next it was back into the car and on to the flat in Sydney. Soon after we arrived there Peter had to go down to the ship to do some work in preparation for today's sailing. He took the children with him so that they could see the ship. I chose not to go because I have spent more than enough time on Navy ships THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! I took the opportunity to have a sleep. That was a mistake though because I woke up feeling terrible. Sore throat, stuffy nose and a head ache. Ninky had woken up the same way earlier that day.

When Peter and the children arrived back at the flat we headed up to Kings Cross (which is about a 1 minute walk away) to get some dinner. I had forgotten just how seedy and disgusting that place is! Uugh! I used to spend so much time up there shopping, night clubbing and dining when I was a young, single sailor. I knew it had some unsavoury characteristics back then but there is nothing like having young children with you and looking at something through "Mummy eyes" to make you see the ugliness of a place. Drunks, druggos, prositutes. Not nice. It's a shame because there are a lot of decent people and great businesses there as well. Anyway, we purchased dinner (and some cold and flu medicine) and headed home in the drizzle. I felt worse as the evening wore on and ended up going to bed quite early.

This morning we were up at 6am and I felt even worse. Ninky was feeling terrible as well. We tidied up the flat and made the beds quickly. Then we were all ready by 6:30am. We jumped in the car and headed down to Woolloomooloo so that we could drop Peter off. He had made me promise that I wouldn't cry because then he would cry. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I was feeling so ill that I couldn't muster up at tear. The kids were fantastic and remained dry eyed (but sad faced) and we gave Peter cuddles and kisses and bade Peter farewell with a wish for fair winds and following seas.

Then I burst into tears as we drove away.

I would like to say that our trip home was uneventful but I can't. Poor Ninky vomited all over the front of the car, necessitating a stop in Kiama to purchase wipes, rubber gloves and plastic bags. Before I could stop Roo had "gone out in sympathy" and vomited out the back window of the car. Once that incident was dealt with we were back on the road and arrived home without further incident. Gosh I hate dealing with vomit!

So now we are home and the menagerie was pleased to see us. I feel better but Ninky is tucked up on the couch watching TV and making intermitent requests for water/soup/lemsip/cuddles.

It is cold and raining. A lovely day to be tucked up inside.

I have a lot of housework to do. I also need to get my uniforms ready for tomorrow. Today is the change to winter uniform. I like winter uniform so much better than summer. It is so much easier to take care of and looks so much smarter than the summer uniform.

I can't wait until we get issued with the new cams in September. They are going to be really easy to take care of!


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Now, regarding the house and home component of the project. I have quite a lot that I want to achieve in the time that Peter is away. In a later post I will detail all of the individual projects that I want to do around the house. They include things such as painting a wall in one of the living areas, creating an outdoor cat enclosure, redoing the whole front garden, planting a privacy screen along the pool fence. That list is nowhere near exhaustive but it gives you an idea.

More than anything though, I really want to get organised. I waste so much of my time procrastinating and half doing things. I want to develop routines and for this I will be availing myself of the advice of the Great Fly Lady. I have long been a fan but have never got around to actually implementing any of her strategies. Now is the time!!
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That's it for me for now.

This blogging business is quite time consuming! I started over an hour ago. I am quite a fast typist - so most of the time has been working out photo uploading I think. I will get faster as time goes by I imagine.


Hoo Roo.