Sunday 29 April 2007

Jumping


Jumping
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.
I've been looking through a disk of old photos (before separation) and found this one of a two-year old D'Arcy jumping on the bed. He had just had his first haircut not long before. I've been really enjoying looking at the photos, seeing how much he's changed in the 4 years since I got a digital camera. I look at some and think "wow, he still does that facial expression" so it has been educational. I haven't looked at these photos for about 3 years, so he has changed a lot, but has also stayed the same. He's always been cheeky and funny, but with a seriousness that the beloved picked up in some I showed him. He gets very worried about about death and dying, and things scare him unexpectedly. One of his famous utterances at the moment to the beloved is "can we talk about space?" and then they do. Sometimes D'Arcy will say "OK, stop now, I"m getting scared" when the talk turns to black holes, or the sun exploding in millions of years. I remember being scared by those things too. The hugeness of space, and the enormity of the numbers used were daunting to me. They still are. If I want to freak myself out I think of that kind of existential stuff...

Saturday 28 April 2007

Last Weekend


Beach
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.
Here's a nice sunsetty beach photo from last weekend to raise your spirits, in case they needed raising.

D'Arcy has gone away with his dad for the weekend, so I've spent the day in my pyjamas talking with the Beloved about home improvements. Now I'm cold because the magic Anzac day line has been crossed and it's time to fire up the heating for the winter. Only I didn't. Yet. And it's been raining! Yay. I hung out washing in the rain, and it made me immensely happy.

Thursday 26 April 2007

Public Holiday post mortem

It's always a shame when you lose a good public holiday to having to do annoying things. This post started life as a response to Ampersand Duck's post about Anzac Day, but it got too long and whingy, so I put it over here. She had to work on hers, but mine was lost to other reasons.

I was already annoyed that they put the school holidays around it and not Easter. I'd much rather have had it during the week when a day off school would be more appreciated by D'Arcy than in the middle of the hols, when the first time he says "I'm bored" is at 9am.

My Anzac day involved grumpy children. Well, one grumpy child. And the movies. He was slightly grumpy before we went in, and then really grumpy when we came out. He claimed it was because he'd been scared by the movie (which he had - bloody Disney!) but he was totally obnoxious for the rest of the afternoon.

It had started badly by being on a Wednesday. Wednesday is a swap-over day for D'Arcy. Usually it is not too hard, his dad brings him to my house on his way to work. Being a public holiday with no work for his dad, meant that I would be expected to pick him up at his dad's. This is a slightly bigger deal than you might think. When we first separated, I moved to a place about 10 mins drive away, so picking D'Arcy up from his dad's was no big deal. Then when we bought this place, we chose it becuase it was much closer. All well and good until about May last year, when his dad decided to sell the house and buy a farm. This has made swap overs hard. My house is on the way from the farm to the city, so it's much easier for his dad to drop D'Arcy off, or pick him up when he's in town. However this has led to white-trash tantrums on my front lawn about "you never come to my place to pick him up or drop him off" so it can be a bit tricky. On top of this, D'Arcy has been harbouring some tiny hope that we might live together again as a family. At least his dad's tantrum brought it home to him that it's not going to happen. Still he does try to use the swap over time as an opportunity to address those feelings, which often manifests as not wanting to go with the parent who is picking him up. Dropping him off works better. But I don't think I ought to have to drive for an hour each time becuase someone decided to move a long way away. So yesterday's solution was to meet in a cafe half way, which was OK, but kind of weird. I don't think it is sustainable in the long term. Part of the problem is that D'Arcy is with us for half a week each. I've structured my work week around that, and can't change it easily. I'm starting to think that a week at a time in each place would be good, but annoying to implement at the moment. What a quandary.

Sunday 22 April 2007

Writing in the sand


beach
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.
So we went to the beach for the weekend. It was a lot of fun. The house we stayed in was very basic, but very cheap and perfectly livable. Saturday was lovely weather, and we spent a lot of time at the beach. Sunday was cloudy and cooler, even raining a bit, but we went to the beach anyway. We think we might do it again.

Thursday 19 April 2007

What's in it?


100_1615.jpg
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.
We're off to the coast this weekend, so I'll leave you with this plasticine rendition of a name.

Saturday 14 April 2007

Early morning ballooning


Early morning ballooning
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken.
This morning we got up at dawn's crack to go and check out the Balloon Fiasco Fiesta. It was a lot of fun, but we'd go earlier next time - we got there around 7 and lots had already got underway. We stayed there for a while, becoming more annoyed by the "get the hell out of here" music by the minute. So we did. We went to breakfast and did some shopping, came home, had lunch and a nap. All in all a successful day, I reckon.