A Spot of Non-Blogging

I'm back - but only to grovel and agree that yes, I've been very slack. I do have ideas for posts - honest - but they just haven't made it past that fleeting thought stage.

From the middle of September I will have 8 weeks of both children in full time school. I will have a super-clean house, proper meal plans, a body like GI Jane's and a kick-arse blog that has time dedicated to it. There won't be a site in London that hasn't been seen by moi. That's the plan anyway. In reality I might just bake cakes only to sit and eat them. Until then, I just want to say sorry I haven't been around, but really, who noticed?

Why just 8 weeks? Because we're moving back to Australia. Having your nearly-4 year old getting used to full-time school only to pull her out is not ideal, in fact I feel terrible about it. But it is the best option available to us.  I've been explaining to her she'll have to keep her clothes on from 9am until 3pm but she isn't having any of it.  That could be interesting.  It must be nice just declaring "I want to be nude!" before shedding all your gear and skipping happily around.  It's a shame we can't all do that without fear of arrest, although right now I have to say she must be freezing.  I assure you I'm a responsible parent but there's only so long I can chase her around saying "Put this one!  PUT THIS ON!"

I'm getting excited about moving back to Sydney. It's home. We'll be near our family and old friends. And it's nice not being foreign. I'm focusing on that and trying not to feel sad about leaving. But I'm too sentimental to love change, we have built ourselves a great life here, one that we always knew would be a short stint. And I always have, and always will, love London. Especially our little part of it.

What started as a "I'll blog soon" post has turned into more of a monologue, sorry kids. In the meantime, here is a photo of my very healthy (yay!) husband and kids. Because sometimes you just have to share.

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Exploring the UK (Kind Of): Football

To avoid confusion, when I say "football" I am talking about "soccer."  Unless you already call it football, in which case just ignore this paragraph.  Anyway we're talking round balls, people.  Round.

To live in the UK and not go to a football games feels all kinds of wrong.  I think if I had to pick a song for our time here, it would be the theme from Match of the Day. I've wanted to go for ages, and yesterday I finally did.   For fifteen minutes.



I'm Australian and from a rugby family.  Growing up, football was a game for immigrants and little kids.  I did have a foray into football when at nine, I was the only girl in Wee Waa's (yes that's what my hometown is called) competition. The ball coming anywhere near me was terrifying, but I thought I did a good job of hiding it. Then one day, the coach stuck me in goal and told me to stop running away from the ball.  Oh. My highlight of the whole experience was playing with glass all through my hair after shattering the windscreen with my head on the way into town - but that's another story.

Mine is a family who love watching rugby together.  Dad would take us to Wallabies and Waratahs games, and I didn't even mind having to wear a battery-powered Wallabies beanie (that's a warm hat) with a big flashing Wallaby on the front.  It was always good fun - great company, great crowd, great game.

But take a really good rugby crowd, give them an intravenous hit of triple espresso, stick a rocket under each seat, and you have a football crowd.

And I absolutely loved it.

Even getting the train there was fun.  You feel like you're part of a club, which I suppose many of them are.  I took my son, and it was a lot of effort not to play along by saying things like, "Yes, just taking my lad to a game... off side... goal... striker... world cup... the man from the crisps ads..."  For that is all I know.

We were swept by the crowd to the stadium.  People were so friendly, seriously, I lost count how many times people asked my boy if this was his first game.  Once we got there I did the normal thing and bought a beer.  In my world, you never ever watch a rugby game without a beer - it's like a movie without popcorn.  Security took great pleasure in telling me off, for a second I thought he was joking, but when was the last time a security guard joked?  I drank as much as I could behind the white line but knocking a warm beer back with my five year old felt wrong.  Bye bye beer.

We took our seats right behind the goal posts and watched Fulham and Norwich warm up.  Mark Schwarzer was practicing his saves (do we call them saves?) in front of us, we cheered Fulham on, and the whole thing was just fab.  Three big blokes came and sat in front of us and immediately offered to swap seats so my little man could see.  The ten minutes before the teams came out to play were palpable, the music was building up and up, the fans were on their feet, both sides were singing... then when the teams ran out it was incredible. I have never experienced anything like it.  I tried to video it, it's a bit shaky and if you're really keen, I suggest you let it buffer first.



I have always liked football as a sport, but I didn't expect to love being there so much.  I was sitting there trying to take it all in, when I looked down at my son.  I thought he'd love it too.  But he was sitting with his hands over his ears, tears streaming down his face.  He has always been a little bit funny with loud noise, and this was just too much.

I tried to reason with him.  I managed to bribe him into giving it five more minutes, honestly thinking he'd get into it.  We stayed for as long as we could, but I couldn't ignore his tear-streaked face and him pulling on my sleeve desperate to go home. Our time was up.

But I'll go again.



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An Update

Some blogs really give you an insight into the person behind it.  You get to know them, you know about their lives and you know exactly what's going on.

My blog is not like that.  I'll write about my family from time to time, but I certainly don't document our everyday lives and my innermost thoughts here.  But there's a lot going on at the moment.  I touched on it here and now I'll elaborate.

My husband has been ill.  He caught what we thought was the flu and then went steadily downhill.  After two weeks, we knew it was serious so we tried to get him into hospital.  On a Thursday, he asked the GP if he could be admitted and was sent home with an inhaler (gee, thanks).  He continued to get worse.  He went into hospital on the Saturday where he was immediately diagnosed with severe pneumonia.

It was all very bleak until the antibiotics started to work a few days later.  He came home last Saturday.  Yesterday's x-rays have shown he's going really well but he needs to take it easy for at least another three weeks.

Day 5 in hospital and getting better.
Modelling his nebuliser to celebrate he's no longer on oxygen. 

They say it's all in the timing.  Well - here is a man who has never had a day off work sick.  He is a sports journalist, which means his busiest gig comes around every four years... yup.. for the Olympics.  Our time in the UK has been organised purely around the Olympics, it's one of the main reasons why we are here.  He was admitted to hospital on the first day of competition and didn't get to cover any of it.

Doesn't that just suck.

In the meantime, I got ill too.  (I don't have pneumonia!)

Oooh that sucks as well.  Excuse my language but that sucks arse.

Now, we are normally really positive people.  Honestly.  But when I don't feel well, I become one of those miseries who is easily annoyed and complains a lot.  My husband, even when seriously ill, is still very positive.  So I've promised him I'll up my game and shut up even though, I have to say, this is all about as fun as mucus. But in the meantime, humour me please, I see annoying stuff everywhere.  Like, how annoying is my herb garden?

It's coriander. 

And how come the top of our fridge always looks like this?

And what happened to my computer when I cleaned the keyboard?

How come he loses 7kg and I put on 3?  That's annoying.

There is a bright side though.  Firstly, things are getting better.  Secondly, it's been absolutely amazing being on the receiving end of such incredible kindness.  Our friends and family, both here and overseas, are wonderful people.  I don't know where I'd be without them.  It's a bummer it takes something so horrible to remind me of this, but maybe I needed it.

I'm not sure what to sign off with. I think it best if I hand it over to someone looking on the bright side of life... and whistling while they do it.

 

 

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The New Online Efficiency Expert (?)

Recently, Penny from aresidence wrote that she had been given a blogging assignment but needed a sidekick. I was chosen (yay!) but it had absolutely nothing to do with me telling the judge how wonderful he is.

British Gas have asked us to demonstrate online efficiency. Now before you snort at my clear lack of organisational skills, let me explain that yes it's a demonstration, but it's also a challenge. That makes more sense now, doesn't it? My part of the deal was to spend 5 days experimenting with saving time, money and hassle by carrying out easy tasks online.

I was sent an i-pad in return and now plan to pepper my conversations with "my i-pad...". Thankfully my sister was here when it arrived. Before you can say "no idea about technology" she had it switched on, linked with my email, Twitter and Facebook and with apps downloaded. So now I know what apps are.

So for five days, I've been using the internet to make everyday tasks easier. Did it work...?

Day 1
My husband is home recovering from serious pneumonia after a week in hospital. In an attempt to have some of the attention redirected back to me, I have completely lost my voice. We have two young children. It's summer holidays. The challenge: to maintain some kind of family life without speaking or leaving the house**. Hmmmm.

This morning I did a big grocery shop before getting out of bed. Let me just paraphrase that for you - I had not yet got out of bed and my grocery shopping was done. Someone, somewhere, was selecting my broccoli. Mid-morning I realised I ballsed up the whole thing, but I amended it with no problem.  I really should use shopping lists, although when you shop online, it remembers what you've bought before and you can make up a list that way.

I used the site's "recipes and tips" section, and inadvertently designed a meal plan for the week. That's a first.

** I have discovered it is impossible to safely control a 5 and 3 year old out and about with no voice.

Day 2
My birthday is coming up so I'll just have a little peek at the shops... without leaving the house.

A dress I tried on at Britmums has been on sale at TK Maxx for £30. A quick online search and it's come down to £15. I buy it. The whole exercise took no more than five minutes. Happy birthday to me!  This inspires me and I set up a Paypal account... and if my husband is reading this, don't worry. Yet.

On a different note, we are moving back to Sydney at the end of the year and I've been trying to find my daughter a nursery (pre-school) there. I know this sounds daft, but last week I asked Mum to pop in and pay for her spot on the waiting list. She has been offered a place and to accept it, we have to pay up. Being the tech-savvy woman about town that I am, I pay by internet banking using our Australian account. I know, I know... why have I not worked this out sooner?? Well my husband does the internet banking which I know makes me sound like a Doris. But he's out of action at the moment so it's about time I learnt.

Can I just say how much we will miss free nursery?

Day 3
I've been thinking at some stage I'll have to go to M&S to buy the children's uniforms for September. The nearest one is 7 tube stops away. Normally I'd think nothing of it, but I'm seriously excited to work out I can do this online. A few clicks and it's done. It's almost too easy. Why have I not been doing this forever?

Day 4
I have a subscription to a magazine, The Australian Women's Weekly. I love it and being an Aussie in the UK,  it's a little taste of home (although I have NO idea who half the celebrities are).  Admitting to it here is the equivalent of me screaming "THERE IS NOTHING ROCK & ROLL ABOUT ME AT ALL."

Anyway, it arrived today. And it has something very, very cool - you can download an app called Viewa. Once you have it, you just select the magazine's channel and if you like the look of a recipe in the magazine, you just click on it's Viewa logo and you'll automatically have a list of ingredients. No more searching for pen and paper, by which time you can't remember where you put the magazine, then when you do write the ingredients out you put the piece of paper down somewhere but don't know where... apparently...

Anyway this is such an exciting discovery. I've already tried three new recipes from this magazine, instead of just dog-earring random pages.

Day 5
It's my birthday. Happy birthday to me! My voice is still gone and talking hurts. My family call which is lovely, of course, but I spend each conversation apologising for cutting the call short.

I need to see the Doctor again. Getting an appointment is as fun as amputation, in fact I wrote about it here. Well now I feel really foolish because I could have saved myself all that trouble and booked it online. I had no idea. So instead of spending my birthday trying to make an appointment with a receptionist whose mission is to not give me one, I make it myself in a couple of minutes.

I've never got my head around Skype. We do use it, but my husband has to set it up on his laptop. So when he isn't here, and he works weekends, no Skype. Well, now that I am all savvy and efficient, I now have my very own Skype account on my i-pad. And when my voice returns, and my face loses this puffy full-of-snot look, I will use it.

The internet is such an everyday thing, but still, asking myself "can I do that online?" is a change for me. But this exercise has been worth it. And it's only been 5 days, so now I'm wondering what else I've been missing...?

How do you use the web to make life easier?


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A Wobble

You know when everything is perfect?  And in the back of your mind you wonder to yourself how long can that last?  You try not to think like that, it's really no way to live, but occasionally you catch yourself thinking that surely things can't be this perfect for this long.

The bubble has to burst.

Our bubble has not burst.  But it's had a little wobble.   And while no-one likes a wobble, it forces you to check in with yourself.  To make sure you really, really know what's important.   To make 100% sure you are truly grateful for all that you have. To remind you, not that you need it, that your husband is the absolute best, your family really is amazing and your friends love you.

I feel like my blog is not the forum to discuss someone else's health.  But my husband has been ill and in hospital since Saturday.

Top tip for GPs!  If a man comes to you for the third time, and this time he's begging to be sent to hospital, he really isn't pissing about.  

I'm very happy to say he is now getting better and we think he'll be home at the end of the week.  He'll need a while to recuperate after that.  If I could marry antibiotics and private health insurance in some kind of bizarre ritual, I would.  I'm very much in love with them both.

It's been a bloody horrible time.  While the most important person here is my husband, my thoughts are also very much with those who are not so lucky.

Top tip!  Don't Google the love of your life's illness. It's unsettling.

So while I'm very relieved, to be honest I'm not really myself at the moment.  I'm tired.  I don't feel like chatting, I don't want to see friends, I'm just in my wobbly bubble.  But it hasn't burst. And soon it will no longer be wobbly.

x


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