Friday
3rd May
Accolades again. This time to Katy and Jeff, my illustrious
daughter and son-in-law.
No!
Not a baby #5!! But a wonderful
job! They will be teaching a course at
Tas Uni, in the Education Faculty, on Behaviour Management. They will have five classes between them,
three hours per week for each class, with one class on-line, so they can very
happily and compatibly job share. As
well as this...they can continue to job share the spawn…and to practice what they preach!
Sometimes I feel very sorry for Pete,
having me as his main crew and travelling companion. Not that I am bad company; I do know that I
am optimistic, fun, and kind. All three
of these qualities come in handy, at times.
But…I am very absent-minded. He
must sometimes wonder if I am getting some sort of ghastly early-onset
syndrome. (For example, I find it almost
impossible to remember how to plug in the fridge, when we get to a marina, with
power provided…) But…no. I was ever thus…
I could get testimonials (if you could
call them that…) from my parents, my children, people (well, person…) to whom I
have been married, and, more specifically, people for and with whom I have
worked. I just vague out and…forget
things, or do things wrongly. My first
memory of this distressing personality trait is when I was about seven. Mum had entrusted me with an important task: go up to the village shop, and buy a dozen
eggs. And bring them back in this handy
string bag… Oh deary me… I was very pleased with myself and wandered back
down the road, singing gently to myself, and swinging the bag round and round
and up and down… I had no idea why Mum was so upset when I arrived with a bag
dripping with yolks, whites, shells…How could this have happened???
When I was living in my own little house
in 2002, with my hyper-critical son Michael, who was then about 24, I was
bewailing the fact that I had done something conspicuously forgetful at
work. “They will think I am CRAP,” I
said, sadly. He hugged me (he does love
me…) and said, kindly, “but Ma, you are a bit crap; surely you know this??”
So far Pete hasn’t flung me into the
sea, or even done much more than look at me, with a look of deep
disappointment, muttering and cursing a bit darkly, which is to his credit…And
to my credit – sometimes I get things right!!!
Michael is at present in Tasmania,
saying goodbye to The Family before his overseas posting. Katy rang me to say all four of her children
were outside, ecstatically chasing after Michael, and shouting Uncle Uncle! They love him so much…we all do…
This morning we took the marina courtesy
car* into Cairns, in search of a place to check, stamp and re-fill Pete’s air
tank, for diving. A merry little trip we
and of it… The environs of Cairns are very pretty, so we enjoyed the scenery,
but we had SUCH a hard time finding the right place. “It’s right on the corner! Cairns Scuba Air Safety Equipment! You won’t miss it!!” But…miss it we did until finally there it
was, not really on a corner, and very timidly hiding behind obscure initials
and lettering.
The bloke there was very
competent and professional and took charge of his mission, to get the diving equipment
on 2XS all safe and checked, so we were very relieved.
* And what a nice service this is! We have had courtesy cars before, in marinas,
but not very often. No charge at all, just
a donation of $10 or so to cover fuel, costs.
Lovely to see the photos of the family and to find out about Katy's and Jeff's job. Such stars! Have to say I identify with your comments about vagueness. The entire Calver family which consists of engineers, geologists and teachers, so pretty responsible really, is absent minded and nothing terrible has ever happened but it is EMBARASSING, every now and then.
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