regroup
Yay for looong weekends! It’s an extra long one in our neck of the woods, what with Easter and then the Anzac Day holiday on Tuesday. And I don’t work Thursdays either, so that’s SIX WHOLE DAYS off. I plan to shut the door on the world and pretend it doesn’t exist. It seems we’ve been pulled in all different directions lately, what with all the birthday parties and things for families and friends, plus there’s been a fair amount of Family Drama going on in Dave’s lot (that I’ve contributed to, unfortunately) that we’ve just had enough of, so I’d rather not be part of it for the next almost-week, if that’s okay with everyone.
One of the main things we miss about living in the UK is being on the other side of the planet to our families. Which sounds harsh now I’ve written it, but it’s true: when you’re away from everyone there’s no pressure to be the good daughter or son, or fit in with their expectations or plans. You can just do your own thing. Dave’s parents in particular have a habit of calling him up in the morning and saying they’re having a gathering that afternoon, will they see us there? And then acting all disappointed if we say well no, actually, we’ve got other plans. Look, it is lovely to see them, but you know, we don’t get a lot of time together just the two of us as a family, and it’s a bit frustrating to be hit with the guilt if we don’t want to do what they want. So it was a lot easier to enjoy our independence with distance on our side, is all I’m saying.
A couple of our friends have a great solution to this. They tell people they’re going away for the weekend, but then they don’t actually go. I asked Dave if he wanted to try that, since we’ve already heard Monday’s supposed to be spent at a friend of the family’s and that’s not likely to be the end of it. “No, we just won’t go to anything,” he said. Well, we’ll see how that goes.
So, what do we plan to do with our six days of solitude? Well, DIY mostly. We have delicious ideas of getting on with some of our projects, like priming and painting the surrounds of our new windows, and finishing painting the wall outside, if the weather holds. I’m so impressed with people who manage to chug through project after project, while we’re still sitting here with our list, so wouldn’t it be nice if we can get up some momentum? Otherwise, I’d settle for some quality, non-housework, non-pissing around on the computer, time together, so we can work on getting us back.
Oh, and Dave said something about “Portal 2”, I’m sure that’s code for “I want to take the baby so you can spend an hour in the bath and then watch chick flicks all afternoon”. Right?