Saturday I took the resident teenager over The Bridge to record his first EP with his band. I am so very very proud of him - he has shown a dedication and passion that few adults have, let alone teenagers. He's a bit disappointed that I haven't yet listened to the tracks - still in their raw state - but the truth is the water tank and the belly dancing interrupted things.
So having spent Saturday on the shore in my manager/mum role I spent a lazy Sunday taking my time to get moving. In the afternoon I took the aforementioned teenager to do the grocery shopping and have a coffee - it was a nice way to spend a couple of hours. I enjoyed laughing with him. Anyway once home I set about making a dinner of fish cakes, mashed potatoes, peas and was even convinced to make a sticky chocolate pudding. Oh boy did I score big on the Mama scale. Kids snuggled up warm with full tummies to read books under duvets - and that's when it went to custard. And not the sticky chocolate pudding kind either! Somebody flushed a toilet and there was the awful gurgling sound that on the odd occassion I have experienced it has left me wondering a)why we still haven't put an indicator flag on our water tank and b)how is that we go through that amount of water when I struggle to get at least two of my offspring into the shower or the tub?! Hot on the heels of these thoughts was the stomach sinking realisation that we hadn't yet done the dishes. Plates, pots, ovendishes - covered in mashed potato, fish cake, and sticky chocolate pudding were setting hard in the kitchen and there was neither dishwasher nor sink to be used.
Monday morning was that kind of brilliant cold that seems to shimmer - you can just about see the air it's so crisp. The kind that ices over the duck's water dish and makes them sound like woodpeckers when they insist on trying to drink it. So porridge was a must - and that meant making it with milk because there was no water. The kids thought it was Christmas and of course now want it made with milk every day - but hello - 5 cups of milk every day? Sorry guys - not gonna happen. But I digress - we discovered there would be no water delivery since here in NZ, yesterday was a public holiday (Happy Birthday Queen Lizzie and all that jazz). In the meantime we'd filled my biggest stock pot from the garden tank and set it to boil so we could dispatch some of these dishes. It took forever to boil but when it did..those plates were hospital quality sterile! So were our hands. Luckily there is a public loo just down the road so that took care of THAT problem and hot milky cocoa took care of thirsty family members. I threw some frozen vege stock and soup bones in the crockpot - not literally you understand - added some fresh veggies and left it to turn itself into soup while I made bread with thoughts of fresh bread and soup for dinners. Leaving the dough to rise, I piled everyone in the car and took them to the big public (not to mention FREE) indoor swimming pool in town and we all had a swim, then lined up for hair conditioner and showered in the changing rooms. As is often the case in these situations we had a ball - racing the kids around the pool and pretending to jump on jellyfish. But there was a surprise waiting at home....remember the bread dough? Remember we have labradors? Well I had forgotten that part. We got home to steaming hot soup, an empty bread dish and a very guilty looking black labbie. I did manage to pull together some scones to have with the soup but I didn't speak to Fitzy for the rest of the evening.
This morning the water was delivered and toilets are flushing, showers are running, teeth can be cleaned and dishes can be washed. Thank heavens.
So off to jelly belly I took myself. And for once I actually could do some of the steps and didn't feel like the great white whale galloping around. I even - shock, horror - enjoyed it. It's a weird thing - what looks like a simple swaying movement is actually a really complicated, mapped out move and somehow my camels all go backwards, my figure eights want to be figure 32's and my hip lifts look like something Miss Piggy might do. But I have to admit - I have yet to find a workout that is more intense....mind you that could be coz I'm doing it wrong and spend all my time racing around trying to catch up!
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