School holidays are crap! I think they should be abolished. All they are good for is catching up on illness, lurgies and lie ins (OK, there is ONE good thing then!).
It’s been a really cr*p week here; we’ve just stumbled from one disaster to another! We always row in the school holidays as it’s hard enough trying to run a business when the kids are at school from 9 – 3, let alone when they’re running round the house, screaming and arguing all blooming day!
...........before.........
A week ago last Sunday, Darcie slammed her finger in the door. It was nasty, but we bandaged it and she seemed OK. It did bleed an awful lot and she cried a little (although not a lot for Darcie who has ‘officially’ THE lowest pain threshold in the Southern Hemisphere).
I went to change the dressing on Monday morning before she was going out to play again and it just looked yuk. It was still bleeding a lot and the cut looked really deep. ‘Right’, says Paul, ‘a trip to A&E, I think’. ARGH! Four hours later, the Dr had assessed Darcie. She’d had an X-ray and she’s broken the very tip off the top of the bone of her middle finger on her left hand. The nail bed is pretty damaged too. The Dr was toying with the idea of giving her a few stitches, however, once I explained that she needed ketamine (it’s a horse sedative!) to knock her out completely when she had to have the backs of her ear-rings removed, he changed his mind and said ‘let’s bandage, give her some antibiotics and we’ll re-assess in a few days’. Coward! The x-ray was really cool – Darcie’s got wicked fingers underneath that skin!
..........after........... Felicity in action.
The Dr bandaged her finger and it’s HUGE! It’s not the neatest of dressings and we have giggled about it (she is now ‘Felicity Fat Finger’) She certainly calmed down when she realized she wouldn’t need stitches; she had a mini-breakdown prior to hearing this in the X-ray room! Sam, of course, had the major grumps as he had to spend a lot of time in the hospital hanging around. I’m just grateful that Adam was at daycare, otherwise it would have been a major family outing!
Obviously, the dog was a little put out with Darcie getting all the attention, so on Tuesday, he decided to eat an entire tub of mouse killer that Paul had ‘hidden’ in the garage. Bugger! Another trip to the vets and Pentley was kept in all day and made to vomit (probably given alcopops and made to mix his drinks!). That cost us over $200!
Wednesday, Paul took the kids to watch the new Harry Potter film and Sam got a migraine and spent the rest of the evening in bed (after moaning like he was dying for at least two hours).
Thursday, we got a speeding fine in the post from MARCH (haven’t even told Paul about this one yet!). Couple that with a few massive rows and general ‘grumpiness’ within the family and woohoo – there is our week.
Go Dockers!
On a happier note: Paul and Sam went to the Fremantle Dockers on Sunday with the footie club. They were supposed to parade around the Oval with the players, but for some reason, the local council cancelled it! No reasons given. They just did! Still, they seemed to have a good time. The trip on the coach is exciting enough in itself! Paul treated Sam to a baseball cap and all was at peace with the world (for an afternoon at least!).
Action shot
Monday was a quiet day; then Tuesday we took a hookie day from work and went to the Pinnacles. I quote from the tourist blurb: ‘Nambung National Park is home to the Pinnacles Desert, a series of eerie limestone formations sporadically scattered over vast yellow, rippled sand dunes. Just 245km or three hours drive from the center of Perth city, the Pinnacles make for a comfortable day trip where visitors can walk amongst these spooky stones and visit the nearby fishing village of Cervantes.’
Paul had already got his oar in to state that he hoped it wasn’t another ‘tree top walk’ i.e. a 7 hour drive for sod all. This was also his disclaimer as it wasn’t his idea! So we tootled off; with the dog on board. Stopping frequently for Paul to make phone calls without the kids (and dog) whining in the background and also to periodically squeeze Pentley so he didn’t piddle in the car. It was a good four hour drive from our house, so you can imagine how much we laughed when we arrived at the nature reserve to be met with a large sign saying ‘no dogs’. Fan-flipping-fastic! So, it was like mission impossible trying to get Pentley smuggled into the nature reserve. I did think about putting a headscarf on him and a car blanket over his ‘knees’ and keep asking, ‘are you alright in the back there, Mum!’
My Grandma…… what a big nose you have!
Luckily for us, Pentley behaved for once in his flea-bitten life and kept his hooter down in the back and stayed schtum whilst we paid our $10 to enter the park.
The funniest thing was when I got out of the car to take the kids to see an interesting stone, Pentley started barking. In a completely feeble attempt to disguise his bark, Paul coughed. A very feeble, wheezy cough that was supposed to cover up the deep, loud woof of a semi-adult 25kg dog! I did laugh!
Me, laughing hysterically at Paul covering up Pentley's 'WOOF'
We’d ‘done’ the Pinnacles in half an hour! It was like a McDonalds attraction, in that you stayed in the car and drove through the rocks.
See what I mean - it's a drive through!
There was a little trail (like playing ‘in and out the dusty bluebells’) and we swerved and dodged, visited the toilet and we were done! (it was one of the ‘drop’ toilets too; the ones with no water in them, but a very deep hole where you can see everyone else’s ablutions who’s gone before). Anyhow…… here are the majorly exciting photos!
After a while, we were spotting the ones that looked like Willies :o)
Another item ticked off the WA ‘to do’ list that turns out to be a little underwhelming! Yeah, it was pretty. They were rocks sticking out of the sand for Pete’s sake; what sort of excitement where we expecting exactly? Sam thought some had been transported there and concreted in.
Would you drive for 8 hours to see them?
We thought it was strange how there were little ‘baby’ rocks on the outside of the roads that marked the way – how convenient! Darcie believed us when we told her they were new ones just planted. Muppet!
On the way home, we got caught for speeding by a patrol car. They were on the opposite site of the road, traveling towards us. They switched on the blues and twos, turned their car round and proceeded to pull us over. They’d clocked us ‘doing’ 126kph, which I don’t think we were doing anywhere near. But what can you say, other than, ‘yes, Officer. Thank you, Officer’. The more fuss you make and argue it, the more hassle you’ll get. It didn’t help when Pentley started barking and I commented ‘he doesn’t like Police or tax men’. Paul banged his eyes at that point!
Not bad weather for a Winter's day though.
Adam’s completed ‘school’ with Sam and Darcie being at home. He’s complained non-stop all day, every day about it. Most children bring home paintings, or drawings with them from school; not Adam. Every week he seems to bring home with him a new and exciting lurgy. This week, we’ve got a very high temperature and a runny nose. I’m sure he thinks the more he does it, the more we’ll stop him going. Er, no chance mate. I’m starting to rely on those few hours he in ‘school’ to stop me going clinically insane. 37 times tonight he asked for more medicine…. Non-stop. Thank the lord for alcohol.
