This and That. Just dropping in to say Hi.

In pregnancy news, we are 27 and a half weeks.  Time is flying by.  I am filling it in: getting shitloads of maintenance projects done. [In the past two weeks: sanding and re-oiling potting shed bench, coffee table, stairs in the house; pruning and tying down of espaliered trees in the orchard; making apricot jam; finally finishing the ‘put-the-last 12-rolls-of-processed-film-from 2005/6/8/9 in-photo-albums’ project; mending Mike’s clothes; having double-glazing fit to our bedroom windows (tuesday) and the window at the bottom of the staircase (today). ]

I’ve also spent many hours online researching modern cloth nappies and have been purchasing a few of several kinds (new and also second hand on ebay) so I can try them out and see which ones I want to buy more of.  In theory I could have used a nappy library but in practice the postal timing will work against me, as Perth doesn’t have much on offer and it takes 5 days to ship across the country, so half my hire time would be spent with the nappies in transit.  I figure I can re sell on ebay anything I don’t want to keep, and in a way, that will work out to about the same kind of cost.  This week I got a couple of new ones delivered and am washing them every time I put a load on so they get good at absorbing by the time the baby comes.  I don’t have a dryer and I already use half the amount of washing powder (I make my own) in a wash anyway, so good practices are already in place.  I was a bit taken aback to see that some people take nappy purchasing so seriously that there are “collectable” editions of some brands out there.  WTF?  These are NAPPIES, people.  Get a life FFS.  OK, some of these nappies are very cute.  And why not have a bit of a fun with a dreary job.  But when you start paying more than the new price for something someone else has previously pooed in?  I mean, really?

Yesterday I took the pram cover off (this was extremely tedious and I said some swear words).  It involved unscrewing 14 screws in awkward places.  Then I scrubbed the thing to high heaven.  Having seen three small boys over several years and nary a single wipe I guarantee, it was disgusting. Today I put it all back together again, complete with the requisite swear words.

Just as I was completing the task Mike came home from work.  At 2.15pm.  Which was odd for two reasons.  One: he’d texted to say he wasn’t coming home for lunch today.  Two: lunch is between 1-2pm and at 2pm he starts his afternoon session.  So.  Weird.

Turns out there was a personal/professional emergency at work which entailed him driving someone to Perth, RIGHT NOW.  And that caused a bit of a flurry because he was already planning to go to Perth tomorrow afternoon to catch a flight to Japan the following day for his snowboarding holiday.  Which meant he pretty much had to get ready for that  RIGHT NOW.  Luckily he had put on a load of washing last night, filled up the car this morning and done a basic pack of essentials yesterday.  It still took us half an hour to race around and make sure nothing was missed.  Like, his passport for example, and his printed booking in sheet.  Locks for the luggage.  Water bottle.  Washing off the line. Ipad and charger. And the phone kept ringing about the emergency the whole time, which rather interrupted proceedings.

And then he was gone.  And I felt a bit bereft.  I was expecting a whole extra night and day before he left, kind of gearing myself up for it.  Then this, all of a sudden.  It was really quite strange.  What am I going to do with the extra fish I bought for tonight’s dinner?  I could have saved $25 and just had a reheated pie for tea.