Looking for the silver linings

My husband took a redundancy package from work last week. He’s been there over five and a half years, which is like a lifetime in mining! He pretty much saw it coming, and was more cranky that they made him fly in to work only to fly back home again the same day, than about the actual redundancy. Well, he was disappointed in a few other things too, but not actually sad to give up a weekly cross-country flight on the rubbish roster they’ve been on this year, and the “politics” of the job. And financially we’re in good shape, so there’s no stress about job hunting just yet. Still, it’s the first time both of us have basically been stay at home parents. Ever! Wish us luck

But there was an immediate silver lining as a consequence – I got to attend the Aurealis Awards! I was cancelling flights on Wednesday afternoon when it suddenly occurred to me that I could go, with just the baby to worry about. Lots of flight credits meant no out of pocket there, and the hotel had rooms, so I booked – as an added bonus, when I rang my aunt to let her know I was coming on a flying visit, I ended up with lifts to and from airport, and a babysitter for the afternoon/evening! I’m very spoilt

Had an absolutely excellent time, although it’s never long enough to see everyone or chat properly. Still, it’s enough to recharge the creative batteries and catch up, however briefly, with friends. And meeting people face to face for the first time is a highlight!

Cat Sparks did her usual brilliant job of capturing the action, but here’s a couple of photos I got of folks “frocking the Aurealis Awards”.

Rivqa, Lisa, Angela & Kirstyn

Donna & Kate

Thoraiya & Joanne

Richard & Daniel

Cathie, Katharine & Cat

Kate, Kaaron & Deborah

So, we’ve moved again!

Yes, we just moved three months ago. Yes, moving again so soon hurt, a LOT. And I’m very cross with the owner of the last rental who refused to let us sign for a four month period because she wanted to put the house on the market (house still not on market, nor is it occupied). Grrr. Still, we’re done now, and finally back into a home of our own! It’s been a busy week. I had uni marking due Monday, so had to finish that before I could start packing. Spent Monday arvo & all day Tuesday packing. Removalists came yesterday (and whinged the whole time – not impressed!). They finished about 5.30. Managed to get beds organised for us all, amongst kid commitments (husband bought Chinese home for dinner thank goodness!) and I was zonked out by 9pm. So weary!

Thanks to a baby who only woke for one nighttime feed then slept until nearly 7am, I woke up feeling quite chirpy! Lucky, as today was pretty full on as well!

Today’s achievements included:
Solar installation
Screen doors installed
Foxtel connected
Powerpoint & light switch in new room
Blinds measured up for new room
Cleaning done at old house (not by me!)
Kitchen almost unpacked (by me)
Our bed put together (by husband)

Things not achieved:
All the other boxes
Internet access (Telstra says it’s connected. I’ve borrowed a phone from them to test the line before we escalate to faults).

So. Many. Boxes.

Whoops, there went April…

Just scrolled back and realised it has been over a month since I did a proper update here. It’s been busy and May has completely caught me unawares so I’ve had to hit the ground running!

Alisa setting up the launch of One Small Step and The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories (and Asymmetry from TPP) at Conflux

I seem to have had deadline after deadline, some of them big, some small, but they’ve been piling up like crazy. Over the past month or so I have:

• had the house settle, and organised a bunch of renovations to happen before we move in (next week!).
• presented an hour long talk on getting published, thanks to CBCA Tas.
• attended kids’ school events and chauffeured them about to various things.
• got sick (just a cold, which luckily never really laid me low, but was annoying).
• had Mum & Dad visit, with the lovely touring about (mostly to find fishing spots for Grandpop & Master Ten) that entailed.
• went to Conflux, the spec fic Natcon in Canberra (just for two days, but was great!).
• launched two books.
• published more books/stories electronically.
• had Alisa come to visit for a week (wherein we made lots of plans and progressed some projects).
• had a husband home for almost the whole time as he was sick.
• edited and laid out the WASLA journal.
• proofed some cool projects.
• marked a bunch of uni assignments (okay, that’s still in progress…)
• socialised a fair bit.
• read some books
• lots more stuff I can’t remember.

And had a fairly unsettled baby throughout – he’s been sleeping shockingly, but touch wood is improving a bit both with longer day sleeps and less night waking. Hopefully next week’s move doesn’t muck him up again.

I’m a lot in love with our new house. Really not looking forward to the packing and moving and unpacking next week, but SO looking forward to being in this house. Husband got the trampoline put up today, and he and the kids have been around there swimming almost every day since it settled, despite the builders/painters etc being there! We have built in the garage to be a fifth bedroom, and it has BUILT IN BOOKSHELVES! Ridiculously excited about this, and the other shelving in the house. We also tiled some living areas, and got a fair bit of painting done. We’ve also got some new screen doors coming, and solar panels (to subsidise the heated indoor pool running costs!), but the house is just fantastic.

Might be a bit slack on the updates for a bit longer, but hopefully in another week or so I can get back into being more present!

In search of a nice cup of tea

Two in two days! Yesterday, I finally managed to catch up with the lovely Kate Gordon and her Tiger, along with Monissa, at Swamp (Invermay). It was a noisy and boisterous visit, with Master Three not so sure he liked sharing the spotlight with two babies, but fun, nonetheless. We had completely forgotten that the CBCA Shortlists would be announced that day, so spent a little time checking out the Notables and wondering what might make the grade. And I delivered Kate her author copies of One Small Step, which was great! The tea though, I’m still not sure I can comment on, as ratbag kids meant I didn’t get to enjoy mine at its best. It was looseleaf in a teapot though, with cute little milk bottles! Master Three was impressed with the choccies served on the side as well. I’ll have to give it yet another shot at some point!

Today saw an impromptu catch up with Susan to check out Blue, at the Tramshed at Inveresk. It felt much posher than any of the others I’ve tried in Launceston (and the prices certainly reflected that). The service was good, though the delivery of food was surprisingly slow. And it was really noisy! The tea was just delightful though – I think they use T2 tea (as did Swamp, I think), and the water was super hot! We asked for a hot water top up when we’d finished our first pots and received these quickly, which was great. A really nice one, for sure, though as I said, quite expensive (especially the food). We got a comfy couch though, which was great with Bubs, and even though we were there for nearly two hours, I didn’t feel like they were evil-eying us to move on.

 

Wherein we act a little touristy

We have had a lovely couple of days for the beginning of our extra long, long weekend. The kids took the day off school on Thursday and after a short visit to the new house (which we got the keys for on Wednesday afternoon – very exciting!) we headed down to Hobart. First stop was Hog’s Breath, a favourite for the family – not quite as good as the Rockingham one, we agreed, but very yummy still. We then checked into our apartment, in Salamanca, and rested a bit and got ready for the evening. The purpose of our Hobart trip was to attend the launch of Livia Day’s new book, A Trifle Dead (which I was emcee for). Lovely to catch up with friends there (and of course “Livia” (aka Tansy) and the family), and finally meet some online buddies too! The launch went very well, with Stephanie Smith doing a great job as official launcher.

An early night once Miss Seven and I returned to the apartment, but not a restful one thanks to an upset baby in the cot next to my bed, so I was a bit weary by the time we got underway on Good Friday. Still, we started to go the long way home, up the east coast, for something different, but then husband saw signs for Port Arthur and we detoured to visit the Historical Site there. It was astonishing – a MUCH grander scale than I’d imagined, and very interesting. We’ll have to go back, as we were a bit tired for the amount of walking required (and the three year old was getting to “feral” by mid-afternoon!), but I highly recommend a day or two there if you ever get a chance.

We thought we might stay overnight somewhere nearby and maybe go back for a few hours today, but once we got in the car and the two little ones fell asleep, we just decided to keep on driving. Home about 6.30 pm and very pleased to get to bed not too much later!

Today has been pleasantly homely, even entailing cooked (by me) breakfast and lunch! Have been tidying and washing and looking at new things for the new house – I must say, a six day weekend is rather nice.