Genghis is gonna be really pissed at me.
Today, Natalie was in Albury for some medical thingy or another. She left me with a raft of shit that needed doing; a lot of it specifically for this music competition thing into which she has entered our eldest and our youngest. The Mau-mau needed her pink satin birthday dress dry-cleaned, for example... because our washing machine didn't quite get all the poster paint out. The Mau-mau also needed some nice white stockings to go with her new black shoes.
Scottsdale couldn't take care of either of those things before the weekend, and we have to have this stuff by Saturday, apparently. Also, Jake needed some decent trousers, and some clothes of the sort that one might wear while performing on stage solo with a cello. And once again, Scottsdale wasn't up to the task.
You can just about guess my chances of getting lightweight workout gloves for the heavy bag around here, can't you? Or a couple of new blue belts for the boys, since they have a grading coming up very soon.
So, yes. Trip into Launceston. Obviously, I needed to take Jake for sizing purposes. Stockings or tights for the Mau-mau were a no-brainer, so I figured I'd send her off to school, 'cos she loves it. But Genghis... he really didn't want to go. He thought today was the Athletics carnival, you see, and he hates the athletics carnival. He's a very competitive kid. He's very fit, strong, and physical... but he's stocky, and small. He's rapidly becoming a good gymnast, and he learns the martial stuff very quickly and effectively - but he is NOT a runner, and (surprise, surprise!) the school's "athletics carnival" consists mostly of running. (There is some jumping. But you don't get to do that until grade five. Why? I have no farking idea. Apparently, grades 1-4 are incapable of jumping. Or something.)
Therefore, young Genghis pleaded at length with me to miss school and go to Launceston. In the end, I shrugged and agreed. Personally, I can understand his loathing of the athletics carnival. If he really needed to get off his ass and exercise, I'd maybe have another opinion... but I don't see the point in making him run a series of races he utterly hates.
Except, of course, that today wasn't the athletics carnival. As I found out when I signed him and his brother off from school, the athletics carnival is next week. He's gonna really hate that when he finds out.
Anyway. We got the white stockings. We got charcoal pinstripe trousers. We got a black waistcoat and a black bow tie. We got a copy of the cello book with the piano-accompaniment CD. We got wrasslin' gloves. We got blue belts. We got a bunch of heavy pine timber to build a small stairway for the shed. We got the makings of dinner. We got lunch. We found a couple of DVDs. (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Black Swan.) We put a tank of diesel in the car. We dropped the little pink satin dress at a dry-cleaner. We...
... uhh... yeah. I think that was about it for Launceston.
But when I got home, I planted the laburnum tree that Amazing Neighbour Anna gave me. And I did some laundry, and I cut the pine planks to length for the stair. I collected the Mau-mau from the bus stop. I grilled hamburgers and made all the trimmings and fixings, and I carved up a watermelon. I washed things and I stacked things and vacuumed things and cleaned things. I oversaw some music practice.
And now, I can go to work.
