Virtual catch-up time... returning to 'normal'...

Whatever 'normal' might be! 

Well the holidays are done and dusted and we've had a fantastic time catching up with some of our family and friends 'in person' instead of virtually.  Skype is wonderful, but there's nothing quite like a real hug and cuddle and time spent chatting away into the wee hours of the night about things so many families take for granted.  I think these times are made ever more precious because we know they won't last and that we'll soon be having to put on brave faces for yet another airport farewell.

Oh well, I tell myself that each parting is just another step on the path to our next meeting.  If one doesn't keep one's eyes on the horizon one might easily lose the way. This is all just one big adventure!  Isn't it?  I know we have a visit from our Chicks in Palma to look forward to and we're all very excited at the prospect of spending time with the two of them!!!

Our 'UK' chickies have landed safely in their Wimbledon nest and all will soon return to 'normal' for them too.  My 'other-daughter' (don't like that 'in-law' word... too many negative connotations!) made the marathon run home to London on her own with the littlies.  Not a job for the feint-hearted.  Apparently, they were very good and the journey went well.  Needless to say, they are all exhausted and it will take them a while to reset their internal clocks.  It will help that it's still dark early/late.

Our preggie-chick is due to deliver very shortly now.  She's looking absolutely fantastic, but her feet are swelling in the heat now.  We're all debating on when bub will make an entry.  I'm putting my name down for Wednesday 3rd February.  Gender?  Well, that's a difficult one... I kept dreaming it was a little boy, but woke up this morning thinking it would be a girl and she would weigh 8lbs 4oz.  What do you think? I sure hope they have a name for a boy and a girl. We'll all be thrilled to have a healthy baby and nobody is at all fussed as to the gender.  Or when it will be delivered.  We're just trying to keep things 'light'.

There are heaps of photos to be posted after they've been resized and I promise to start posting some tomorrow morning.  Arabella Chickie in Palma... there are some lovely shots from NZ.  I've managed to sort most of them out now and have finished downloading the lot to my computer.

Oh, the mysterious malfunction of both our cars has finally been solved.  The coil needed replacing.  In both cars.  Yes, I am serious.  They inexplicably continued to go to sleep on us, in perfect unison, over the last two weeks.  This happened four times.  Fortunately, preggie-chicks 'other half' was able to loan us a car (for which we are extremely grateful) while all this drama played out.  Who would want to be driving through the Sydney tunnels with two wee chickadees on board in a car that couldn't be trusted to stay awake?  It's still one heck of a coincidence that they both fell asleep, at the same time, for the same reason.


My men are all back at work and I will be in full swing from Monday too.  Lots of marketing to be done for my other half and for myself.  I just need to get into the 'mood'...  to focus...  this post is my first attempt at that. 

April Blackbird

Some days are just like that!!!!

Today was truly, 'one of those days'!!!

Have you ever made plans that just weren't going to happen, no matter how hard you worked at it?

I was supposed to have lunch with a good friend today.  We'd planned to meet in Wahroongah for a leisurely lunch at 12.  All good.  We were both looking forward to catching up on the news, we haven't seen each other in ages and had lots to talk about.  It so didn't happen!

After dropping 'my man' down at his factory I made my way home to pick up a few items for my preggie chick.  We live in a very hilly area and I was glad that when my car 'died' on me I was up the top of the hill near the big MacDonald's.

The fact that the car died in the middle of an intersection wasn't happy.  It was raining, I had the lights, fan and windscreen wipers on so I had to switch off everything, switch off the ignition, put the car back into 'park' and try again.  The owner of the car behind me was still enthralled with the new toy she'd received for Christmas and sat on her hooter just to make sure it still worked as well as it did on Christmas day.  I wished I'd been able to pick up the car and move it out of her way so she could continue with her day, but it just doesn't work like that... heaven forbid, but she had to wait as I battled the beast!

Once the car was going again, I forgot about the incident, drove up the steep hill to our suburb, turned left into the first side road and.... nothing!  Absolutely, totally and completely... nothing!!!!  The power steering was dead, as were the brakes, but I had just enough momentum to get the car to the side of the road.  And that, my friends... was that.  There was absolutely no way I could breathe life into the old girl after that.  I sat, waited, tried again, waited... phoned 'my man' and got him to listen to my attempts.  Zilch! (Thank heaven for mobile phones... what did we do in the olden days?) So I locked the old girl and walked home in the rain.  Fortunately, I had my bright pink, but rather tiny little umbrella with me.

Yeah, I was so disgusted!!!  Got home, sent my youngest down to fetch his father who had to wait for a customer to pick up some products before he could act as my knight in shining armour once again (done this a few times in our 37 years together).  My man sailed up the hill, pulled up in front of my old girl and his car died too!  Seriously!  It would no way start again.  Dead as a doornail.

However... when he got into my car, it started first shot.  Typical.  He tested all the 'testable' bits... no sign of why the problem occurred, can you believe it?  His car, however, was no way going to go anywhere again.  And he couldn't find the source of that problem either.

Needless to say, we were all extremely frustrated and I had to phone and cancel my lunch and the scrap metal didn't get to the bailers...

Just when we were about to give up on the second car forever, it started again!  Both cars are still going well, no explanation for the problems...

What a waste of everyone's time!  What an incredible thing to happen!  Totally inexplicable 'chance'?  Or were we simply not supposed to be out on the road in the wet today?  I suppose we'll never really know...

I got to eat yet another brown bread and peanut butter sandwich for lunch today.  Huh!