Curiously Minty

Pluie, pluie, aujourdhui

Today was very stormy and rainy but warm.  I swam in the rain which was good but reading my book my the pool was less satisfactory as the rain drops splattered on the page.  My daughter lay on her bed nursing a cold.  I brought her icy cold smoothies and read Odo Hirsch to her.  We love inventiveness, desperation and perserverance.  In the afternoon I went to the gym and then swam in the rain again to cool down.  They spoke to their father who is on a french pacific island.  They were excited to tell him we had seen a boat sink.  There were no casualties which makes their ghoulish pleasure slightly more socially acceptable. We ate nice pasta and marvelled at how chirpy the waitresses all were, how uniformly excited about our dinner choices and relentlessly upbeat.  It was quite exhausting.  But still the food was good, and they were nice to the children and indulgent of our variations.  Now the cold seems a bit better and they are playing cards amicably while the rain splatters down outside.  I like these days on holiday as much as endless sunshine.

Be my friend

You know sometimes you go for a massage and they play that fake rainforest or pan pipe or whale song music to relax you, well now I am listening to real ocean waves and it really works.   I think this is day 4 of the holiday but international date line is very confusing when you arrive in a destination before you've left.  We're now in Maui and doing nothing much at all but hanging out, enjoying the laid back vibe, eating ice cream, swimming in azure water, reading books and being together.  Oldest girl insisted I set up on facebook and now I am obsessed with tracking down friends to add to my tally.

Red nose day

I went to a party on Saturday night, a very unusual occurence for me.  Even more unusually I had an enjoyable time.  But I woke up at around 4am and with startling certainty knew I had a massive head cold coming on.  Sure enough I am sniffling and spluttering and dosing myself on ginger tea and thinking it can peak tomorrow but then I have to be on the road to recovery for when I get on a plane.

Plus ca change

The past week has been very trying.  This is in part because of the weather (grey and drizzly), a huge workload to get through before I go on holiday, the inheritance of some new people to manage which has its own set of time demands and tests of my patience and the now too familiar ebb and flow of the reasonableness of the father of my children.  And it is this last which exhausts my usual capacity to smile with dignity and absorb his lapses of parenting attention.  I have someone else who deserves some of my attention this weekend and I discovered late last night that there was a definitely unspoken assumption that I would pick up the slack while he swanned off.  I phoned and expressed my disappointment.  Then I phoned again and said more than that, he would have to alter his arrangements since it was not reasonable to expect me too.  This alteration has been effected but not without impact on the other child.  I can not believe that after 5 years this behaviour will change and yet I still wish that my youngest daughter will never have cause to say to me again, as she did this morning, “It’s ok, mummy, I am used to daddy letting me down”.

Foggy

Last night when I got back from a work function at 11pm I called Qantas to change my flight since I couldn't face getting up at 5.30am.  As it was, I slept fitfully worried I would miss my alarm and finally got up at 6 to discover a thick fog and a text from Qantas to say my flight was delayed 2 hours.  I took a chance and hot tailed it to the airport to try and get on the original flight but the gorgon check-in lady refused to put me on the flight even though it was sitting at the gate waiting for some last straggling passengers.  So here I am in the lounge, unable to get connected to my work email but idling on the internet.  I guess it is ok but I have a day of back to back meetings which are already spiralling out of control.

Yesterday was another frantic day.  I got side-swiped by a truck on Sunday damaging the whole driver's side of my shiny red car.  I had to drive around getting quotes from panel beaters, getting bored with repeating the whole story again.  Then I went and had my hair cut which was very pleasing as I seem to have found a hairdresser who can a) cut b) colour c) engage me in pleasant conversation while also allowing me to absorb what the magazines have to offer.  Last night was a dinner at this place which smelt of run down English country hotels (it must be the old carpets).  The food was surprisingly good though the evening wore on and on.

Monday morning I spent in the magistrate's court watching the sad little cameos of people driving with out insurance, without a licence, DUI.  I was a little surprise at how scruffy the lawyers were with suits that had never been pressed and shiny elbows.  I was surprised at the young men who didn't seem to realise that wearing a shirt and tie to court and not sitting snickering in the back row while waiting for their matter to be called would have a more favourable impact on the magistrate.  I was impressed with her compassion and her refusal to side with the police in the case of  a young indigenous man charged with resisting arrest.

My younger daughter has been very good, very patient with this busy, busy work stuff.  Very good at getting her homework done and looking after herself.  She knows our holiday is only 10 days away and she is showing a remarkable growing-upness of realising that she can trade me some slack since I have an enormous treat in store for her (and me too).  She has already packed her suitcase and made a list of what she needs to do on the day we leave.  Her excitement is infectious.

Because it's Friday

Borrowed from small hands via yvestown.

What time did you get up today? 6.30, it was raining and the cat jumped on my pillow and stuffed a wet paw in my hair

Diamonds or pearls? Pearls, I have beautiful grey Tahitian pearls, creamy ones in a gold setting from Burma, apricot ones on a leather strand, bronze ones (probably dyed in China but still beautiful), pale pink to wear with cashmere.  I favour the slightly misshapen over pale perfection.

Latest movie in a movie theater? Prince Caspian, over long, under-edited, LOTR has got a lot to answer for in epic battles.  Still I love Lucy who is the spit of the daughter of a friend and at least Susan is not depicted as nastily as CS Lewis draws her in the books (which I devoured uncritically as a child)

Favourite TV series? Hmm, I really like Greeks but I have enthusiasms which wane quickly.  I confess I watch The Bill every week but it is more of a soap opera that a series.

What did you have for breakfast? Dilmah tea, porridge with maple syrup.

What's your middle name? I don't have a middle name. I longed for one as a child and told everyone it was Francesca.

Favorite food? Oh, nearly everything.  I usually order fish in restaurants.  I love oysters and good bread and olive oil and ripe tomatoes.  Even though I love baking I am more of a savoury than sweet person.

Which food don't you like? It’s easier to say what I don’t like – brussel sprouts and okra, awful offal but I’ll eat liver and just about everything else at a pinch.  I was a vegetarian for more than ten years but I started eating meat again after my youngest child was born.

What's your favorite CD at the moment?  I usually just hear what my daughter puts on my iPod.  I like Sarah Blasko at the moment.

What car do you drive? Something German and red and quite fast.

Favourite sandwich? Tuna

Which human traits can't you stand? Bad manners, selfishness, stupidity, cruelty, boastfulness

What are your favourite clothes? Oh my, I love clothes and shoes.  At the moment, my favourite item is a Leona Edmiston dress with a beautiful mysterious pattern of deers in the forest on it (second page of frocks, first column, second from the bottom).

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?

New York City, Venice, Cape Town

Favourite clothing brand? At the moment, Leona Edmiston but I am fickle.  Easton Pearson, Trelise Cooper, Fleur Wood, Scanlan & Theodore, Moss & Spy, Alannah Hill (in moderation), Prada shoes and handbags (not that I own any but I admire them greatly)

Where would you like to retire? I will never be able to afford to retire given my superannuation but I’d like to have a house by the sea again.  I’ve been looking at pod houses and thinking about if I can buy some land on the south coast. I do not think I can ever afford to live in the land of my birth again.

Favourite time of day? I like it when I am on my own but my children are sleeping so early morning or around 9.30 in the evening when I can snuggle in my lovely bed and read.

Where were you born? Newbury, Berkshire

Which is your favourite sport to watch? Cricket but I like to listen to the radio commentators as I watch. 

Coke or Pepsi? Neither, I rarely drink fizzy drinks, I drink a lot of water

Are you a morning person or a night owl? Definitely a morning person but I prefer peace and quiet in the morning

Pedicure or manicure? Both, I’m afraid.

Any exciting news to share? I’m going on holiday to Hawaii in two weeks with my girls.  We are all excited about it.

What did you want to become as a child? An actor or a librarian or a writer

Best childhood memory? Little about my childhood gives me a warm feeling but I  liked passing my 11+

Ever been to Africa? Yes, I have lived in North Africa.  I should like to go to southern Africa.

Ever rolled anybody in toilet paper? Certainly not. I have no idea what this means.

Have you ever been in a car accident? Yes.

Favourite day of the week? Saturday

Favourite flower? Freesias

Favourite - Hot dog or Chinese food? I've eaten plenty of bad Chinese food but it's still preferable to a hot dog.

Do you own a bike? No.

Who was you latest e-mail from? I have 20 unread work ones sitting in my mail box. 

Where would you like to shop more if you could afford to? I love Hong Kong for the huge array of “brands”,  Melbourne for homeware and design, Wellington for edgy fashion, London for nearly everything, the US for cosmetics, sheets and sportswear.  The town I live in is not a shopping mecca.

Bed time? I love my bed, love sleeping, love being cosy.  “I nice and cosy” my daughter used to say when I tucked her in.  I think bed time is magical and  happily go to bed at 9pm

Latest person to share dinner with? My children. They ate but I had eaten a business lunch so sat with them while they ate.  They were bickering so it was not as calm and bonding as I would have liked.

What are you up to now? I am waiting to make a call to a business partner with a colleague.

Favourite color? Everything but orange and purple.  I have a lot of clothes in black but I favour light colours in home decorating.  I am not a fan of primary colours.

How many tattoos? Don’t be ridiculous.

Velvet lips

I am so in love with my dragon-girl-nars-velvet-matt-lip-pencil.  Even at $50 a pop (which means on the well-heeded advice of this wise one, I carefully cherish it in my make-up bag made from an old japanese kimono bought at Portobello road in the company of this blogger and I stow it in the bottom of my work bag), I shade my lips and something about its velvety smoothness equips me with extra confidence to slay those who get in my way.  Finish that report, stop back-biting your colleagues, let's work out how to get the price down, listen to what the client is saying.  Make-up maketh the girl.  Good manners help too but more on that later

Under the knife

Oldest daughter has injured her knee, can not ride her horse, has to wear a knee brace and will probably need surgery.  She is very bad tempered and while I feel her anguish it's also not fair that younger sister has to suck up the endless grumpiness.  Of course, it is also the source of some tension between her father and I as I seek to be fully informed.  Sigh, two weeks till we go on holiday and we can all reconnect.

The pursuit of the perfect red lipstick

You’d think that someone who was as serious about her work as me would have more important things to do in her lunch hour than pursue the perfect red lipstick that suited a pale skinned, reddish blonde haired person of advancing middle age.  But as lala reminded me, being a mother does not preclude one from exerting a certain shimmering aura of sex appeal.  I have been in turns pleased and perplexed at the shift in some men’s attitudes to me since I have been working on my strength and fitness in the gym which has had the knock on effect of improving my posture and stretching me out.  In the course of some idle conversation with my former boss where I pointed out to him that my former father in law (a retired naval captain and stickler for the right behaviour) maintained that brown shoes were only suitable for the race course and that he was so dressed, he responded that he was confident enough of his position in the world to flout this social order and what was I doing to look so good.  I was momentarily dumb founded since I have had a wary relationship with this man since he burst into my office while I was expressing milk more than a decade ago and neither of us have ever mentioned it since.  While pleased to accept compliments, I raged internally for a bit that while my girth had decreased, my competence had not increased but there is something about being visible and noticed that does do something for one’s career.  However, in other career advice, my mentor, someone well past the traditional age of retirement did ask me when it became acceptable to wear fishnet stockings in the workplace and hypothesised that I should wear a suit more often.  I pondered on Melanie Griffith in Working Girl getting a serious haircut and thought about all the lovely dresses in my wardrobe and thought, fuck it, work is hard enough without having to look so drearily corporate with it.  And since I own enough suits (sheesh, I’ve even got Armani that is too hot as in weight of the wool to wear in Australia) to cut it when circumstances demand it, there is no way I am going to dress in a uniform everyday.  Besides, I don’t like to iron shirts so that perfect white shirt thing is wasted on me.  So the upshot of all this was that I am wearing a dress and 4” heels today and my hair hanging loose and that’s ok with me.  But the lipstick.  It is raining and the onset of dreary winter is upon us, and houses in this country are never properly insulated for cold and I am thinking warm fur collars and good coats and gloves and the perfect red lipstick.

No excuses

I know that I have demonstrated those slacker qualities over and over again.  Tax return put off till the last possible moment, children’s passports unrenewed, wedding photos never stuck in an album (they’ve only been waiting 16 years) so failing to update my blog is one of my minor failings.

Still, in a testament to decluttering, I had a garage sale on Saturday where I disposed of one whole bookcase of books.  I took a deep breath, conceded that I would never re-read Donna Tart’s The Secret History which served its purpose when I would sit on the sofa feeding a new born baby with her suckling, a cat trying to climb into my lap and a paperback in my other hand, and consigned it to the bargain section.  I did a roaring trade.  People kept complimenting me on my good taste and one woman seriously chided me for not taking them down the local secondhand book store where I could get a credit on future books.  Didn’t she get the bit which was about removing stuff from the house, not adding more?

The one annoying thing was that someone bought the chest of drawers I bought in Stoke Newington Church St in 1990 and has not come by to pick it up.  Which means I still have the clutter.  The man asked me “how can you give that away” but just because it is old does not mean that I have any sentimental attachment to it and besides the drawers always stuck despite me rubbing the runners with wax.

I still had a load to donate to the Salvation Army (who irritated me enormously with their lack of system – why not have different skips for different items and then you wouldn’t need such a huge sorting queue?)

In other news, I am loving my job.  I really, really like the subject area I work with and the people are tolerably smart.  My boss has his moments but who doesn’t? The girls and I are going to Hawaii in a month.  We need to escape the Canberra winter and frankly Hawaii is cheaper and only slightly further than going to Port Douglas.  I am getting very excited hence the passport frenzy.  There is a long back story involving their father, broken promises and lack of priorities but I am not in the mood to whine (though that could come sooner than you imagine).