Rainy Morning Procrastination

Yes, after a long heat wave and very little rain, it is finally raining nicely here. This means two things. Firstly, I don't have to water the garden. Thank God for small mercy's. It takes an awfully long time to water the garden ... and I feel compelled given how much time and money has gone into planting said garden! Secondly, Chickie is having a beautiful long morning sleep. For some reason, she always sleeps more soundly when it's dark and rainy outside. This means I have at least a couple of hours to achieve about a million hours of chores! Of course, given its dark, chilly, rainy ... what I really feel like doing is curling up on the couch with a coffee and a book! In reality, as soon as this post is finished, I'm going to attack todays must do chores. Arabella, you'd be thrilled to hear that means ironing, and lots of it (about 3 weeks worth - we have no clothes left hanging in our wardrobes) and more weeding in the garden (if it stops raining). Blah! 

Chickie's first birthday party was fabulous! She enjoyed it more than I thought she might actually. Being such a social butterfly she relished all the additional attention, loved the presents and new toys to play with, and was even allowed to eat some special treats (a rather bland, chewy banana muffin made specially for her by mum, minus all the bits that might have made it tasty). The grown-ups enjoyed all the other tasty bits prepared by mum.  I did learn that perhaps next time I might just make Chickie a birthday cake, and simply purchase everything else! It all took an inordinately long time to make, and despite lots of help the day before from AB, I still stayed up into the wee hours of the morning icing cupcakes, making truffles and decorating butterfly biscuits! I will have to pass on the recipe for the cake I made ... white chocolate mud cake. It was delicious, easy to make, kept well for over 5 days, and made a large, dense but not too sweet cake. Would probably be perfect for the boat, if you required such a thing! Anyway, I had fun making everything, and was the first real baking I have done in ages.  It was a scorcher of a day - mid forties! Thank goodness for our air conditioning. We do seem to have a knack for throwing parties on these outrageously hot days!

I also started back at work on Wednesday. I must admit I was a little nervous, however once back at the school it was as though I'd never left. I wish I could say I started doing what I do, and loved it, and thought to myself, gee, I've missed this! But in reality it was more like, mmm, this really is quite boring! Still, it will be good for me, and at least it is only one day a week. Chickie loved the time with her dad, and as I only had the morning lined up, I went to the zoo with Chickie and hubby in the afternoon. Chickie was a little ambivalent about the whole affair, mustering up minor amounts of enthusiasm for the animals, which surprised me. She did however LOVE the crowds of people, and spent most of her afternoon interacting with various tourists, having great big 'conversations' with whomever she could. She has taken to 'grabbing' people as they pass by her, then laughs like mad when they stop to talk to her. So she had a super fun afternoon, which is the main thing, and mum and dad enjoyed the animals.

Well enough from me, I must go accomplish something before hubby gets home from work.


Hope BB and Arabella that you are having fun in Turkey, sounds wonderful! Glad the trip has gone well for you BB, and brilliant that you could go with and enjoy the fun!
Ciao for now
NMC

ps: was going to insert some photos, but you know, I don't know how! Will have to get instructions from AB.