Waaaaaahhhhh!
I have been without the internet at home for nearly three weeks! There is only so much sneaky work webbing I can get away with, this being one of those moments! But I will be connected again come the weekend, so from Saturday onwards, all going according to plan, I will be posting and blogging up a storm! Of course, it will mostly be tedious couply stuff about Sunday trips to the hardware shop and sewing and baking cakes, but that's been my world for the past month or so and dammit, I'm gonna tell about it!
So for all my imaginary hoards of fans out there, and the couple of bored mates looking for ways to procrastinate, watch this space...

Brand New Day

Done. Dusted.
We have Moved In Together.
I have physically picked up everything I own (and it turned out to be a frightening quantity of shite) and moved it half a dozen blocks away. I got to drive a 2-tonne truck. My hands are a mess of grazes and bruises. My legs even more so. The cat is pacing the polished floors yowling through the night. I fear I will be a very bad parent, because to deal with him I shouted a lot then shut him in the farthest away room I could. I fell asleep sour with guilt and woke up cranky and swore at the shower.
I love pacing the polished floors myself, just looking at how all our stuff fits together, watching his cat and mine as they circle each other warily but curiously. The sound of the key in the door has developed a new significance. My ears prick up and my heart pounds. I want to have lots of exciting show-and-tell for him. We keep catching each other's eye and grinning with delight and excitement.

I feel a bit scatty and overwhelmed. I have new normal to get used to. But I have an equally disoriented buddy to go the distance with. Hold my hand. The ground is shifting.
(I love you.)

The Fad Review:

So how am I doing on my chosen fads? Well, I haven't yet tackled the drying of fruit, but I DID go to a mate's primary school where she teaches Prep/1 and spent the day observing/helping out to get a gist (and D, I still maintain that "gist" looks better spelt with a 'j') of how it all works. Let me just say, hats off to primary teachers! This mate ran her class like a prima conductress before a symphonic orchestra. Reading group to the left, cue the creative writing session over there, Johnny sit down and stop poking Tina, Mark I can see you behind me go back to your seat and finish your adding etc etc. Marvellous! It was exhausting just being an observer though, and I didn't even have to go home and plan another class for the following day, but it was a beautiful thing to watch, and I am still keen to get into it, so I'm off to a couple of Uni Open Days soon to see if I can get into a Graduate Diploma. It's all coming together... I think I have a plan!
I'm also coming back to the idea of yoga teaching. I currently take a weekly class at a gym, which was a hand-me-down from MY teacher, so the group is a bunch of old hands who are very supportive and know where I'm at. I've also been filling in for the same teacher at her other gym while she is OS, and it's going really well. I'm getting really encouraging feedback from the participants, so I think I may be onto something, but I'm going to try and get a Certificate 3 in fitness (or whatever it's called) to enable me to teach group fitness classes in any gym - legally that is! Certainly with greater confidence that I'm covered for all eventualities. There is a performative element to leading a group of people or teaching a class that I kinda get off on. After all these years of putting any kind of teaching on the back-burner as my last-resort job, I'm now seeing it with new eyes and realising how awesome it can be! Everything is coming together at this point for a reason! Yee-hah!

Speaking of yee-hahs, tomorrow is Lease-Signing Day!!! And the beginning of the Big Shift. It is definately a period of Capital Letters. We Are Moving In Together! Fuck! And yay! And fuck! (but mostly yay!)

Fad No#15: STENCIL ART

Well, I finally got my arse into gear to make a piece of stencil art. This is a little house-warming gift for D, though I hope to put it out and about shortly (on the streets that is). We'll see how my nerve (and the flimsy paper stencil) stands up.

In The Wild!

Oh joy! Oh rapture! Oh Maurice! What more can I say?!

Fad N0# 14: THE BLUE MARY!

I'd heard tell of the legend of lighting ones own farts, but really, I never truly believed it was possible. Then it came up in discussion at home the other day, and the boys were comparing notes on the Catholic school experience of the so-called Blue Mary. So last night I witnessed in the flesh (in the gas?) a real Blue Mary. And I laughed so hard I almost ruptured something. I wish I could have taken a photo, but Blue Marys are like marsh flares or min mins... they are so brief and ethereal that you would be very lucky to capture one on camera.

Bic lighter: $1.50
Gas-producing meal: $9.50
Look on his face when he thinks his arse in on fire: priceless.

Fad No#13: LAWN BOWLS and other catastrophes

This is probably a bit passe these days - after all, the cool kids have been lawn bowling and drinking imported beer and listening to doof at the Fitzroy Bowls Club for a fair while now. (And of course, old people have been dropping dead over it for aeons!) But I thought it deserved mention. I have, I sheepishly admit, only been a couple of times myself, at the local joint directly across the street from my place, but it was indeed enormous fun. The VB was cheap, the old codgers were dinky di and we have subsequently gone for the $7 Friday night roast, which was as homely and overcooked as you could hope for! We only discovered the joys last year, just before the close of the season, so we have gotten out of the loop a bit, but I look forward to a few idle summer games coming up. (It'll also be an excellent excuse to get together with the housies, who will be ex-housies within a fortnight. Eep!)
Another stately and dignified grass-game (not) of which I have become equally as fond, is croquet. Cut-throat and viscious... yeah baby, that's the stuff! You can voice a lot of spite and vengeance in the clean 'tok' of mallet on ball. And if skill and deviousness fail, fling yourself on the ground in a tantrum! Worked for me! (Watch out for dog-poo.) I think with the weather lightening and the days lengthening, my thoughts are turning to outdoor activities. Probably the quintessential mates-game in my mind is the frisbee chuckabout. "Going down the park to chuck a frisbee" epitomises all that I love about summer holiday playing, even though I am mostly a bit of a spazz with a frisbee, and the slightest breeze can ruin my game. But it's what it represents, somehow. Copping a frisbee in the face sums up all that is good and sweet in the world. Ask any dog.

Fad No#12: WORD-GAMES

I love a good word-game! I've always loved crosswords, and when my gran (RIP) taught me a few tricks of the trade with cryptics that love amped up a notch or two. I also enjoy that Target puzzle in the paper on a quiet Sunday arvo. But my newest and most fervant word-game fad is Wordsearch. We scored this one from Dan's family stash of decaying miscellany in the bush, and I love it! Way better than Scrabble!
(We also rescued Pictionary, a version of Triv that I don't have, Uno, a word card-game from my childhood - My Word, Cluedo and more. We have a veritable games compendium!)

Let the games begin...