Martha and Susan’s Excellent Adventures

So on Tuesday I decided that I would take Thursday off, because I’ve worked pretty hard lately and I’ve been pretty tired, so I did. I was kinda hoping that it would be a nice day so that I could go to the beach, but it rained so Yael stayed home in the morning too, and we finished a puzzle of a dragon. Then I went shopping, picked up a chair from Ziv’s place in Maroubra, read some HP6, and knitted. I did go to uni in the afternoon, to check e-mail and chocolate cake, but I didn’t even have to feel guilty because Budi and Stanley both showed up for uni even later than me. There are some definite benefits to being a grad student.

In the afternoon I babysat the Crowe’s, then as soccer was cancelled due to all the rain I went home and made brownies (Michelle’s world-famous Chocolate coffee brownies), knitted, made shakshuka, read HP, knitted, had an all-round awesome time

I’ve been kinda quiet lately, so I’ll just sum up a few stories of what I’ve been up to.

A couple weekends ago I went up to Nelson’s Bay with 16 other people from around the centre for our friend Oliver’s 38th birthday. It was an excellent weekend! Lots of great food, beach volleyball, and Settlers. We stayed out to watch the stars (amazing!) each night, and saw some meteors the second night out. Our last morning I went to the beach early with Joe and Johnson. Joe and I went in swimming & surfing, and there were dolphins playing in the surf - one zoomed down a wave only about 10 meters away from us!

Since then I’ve been babysitting over at the Crowe’s. Phil and Sarah have gone to Calgary for 2 weeks - Phil was invited to speak at a conference, so the took the opportunity to go to Banff for a while. Slightly jealous. The kids are all good, and it’s pretty easy, if a bit tiring. Budi, Roland and Danny came over yesterday for dinner and Settlers. Alex and Viv and I beat the 3 uni boys, and the kids liked the fried rice that we made so much that there was a minor fight between Alex and Murray in the morning as to who would get the left overs for lunch. Viv even had a second helping of it at dinner (!) which pretty much never happens with her.

Last week I also had my annual review. Martin Green was the chair of my review again, and gave me a positive judgement. Said it looked like I was on track, knew what I needed to accomplish to finish, and seemed pleased with my progress this year. That’s a relief to know. If Martin thinks my work is good, then it should all be just fine.

Soccer has also started again. Not sure if it’s the soccer or the babysitting that’s got me tired.

Also, I let Alex drive home from Canterbury on the M5 last night. I was pretty cool about it, but it is stressful being in the passenger seat with someone who’s only got their beginners licence. On a highway. At night. At least I’ve not known him since he’s been in diapers. We only almost hit one bus in the city, and we were barely moving, so that wasn’t so bad as far as learning and close calls go I think. No life threatening, life-flashing-before-my-eyes stuff. But I did undo all the relaxation I’d gotten from yoga earlier in the day though.

As most of you know, I moved into my new digs on Saturday. I found the following letter left in one of the drawers in the kitchen:

Dear House,
I liked living in you, and I will miss you. bye.

It was in a 6 year old’s scrawled all over the place writing. My house is awesome.