I'm baaack! and wait, there's more!

A big sorry to all those who have been hanging out for news (OK, maybe just Mum, LOL). This is not a winge but .....

Thursday night I was a touch ferral as I had been looking forward to roast lamb at the WM's place, a glass or two of red wine and was just about to whip up a pav to go with the three chips of strawberries and cream that I had bought earlier in the day, when I had to go to work instead (mentioned in previous post). I had also been planning a good nights sleep to make two in a row, you know, that simple pleasure you get to have on your DAYS OFF. I am sure you are getting the picture. During roll call, I warned the girls that tonight was not the night they would be wanting to put a foot wrong, as I would be on all weekend and would not be likely to let go on any transgressions, as the milk of human kindness that night was down to a thin trickle of whey (sour at that, LOL)Whilst I was in full flight so to speak, there was a crackle, fizzst, spit and pop beside me with a particularly maloderous smell issuing forth from the TV!!! (This as Home and Away was on - sound turned down for roll call - and just before 'Make me a Supermodel' - quelle horreur and shriek. One of the girls switched the TV off at the wall, and once I was reasonably sure it wasn't going to burst into flame, myself and two other girls lugged the beast out onto the concrete verandah rather than the wooden floor at the entrance of the building, (just in case it did burst into flames during the night). We had a spare TV in storage so lugged that down the verandah and after some juidicious twiddling of knobs the girls managed to get it tuned just in time for the model show. Phew, priorities and all that.

Friday I got back to my place for about three hours, two of which I was asleep - woke up at 3pm by which time I should have been on my way back and slowly gathered myself together. Still not well pleased. That night we had Bishop Justin out for a visit and he took Mass. I met him at dinner and he seems a very nice person (good firm handshake!). I enjoyed the service which he took, but had to laugh when even he mentioned footy during his homily - though the WA teams are no longer in contention for whatever they are playing for!!!). The service reminded me of being at boarding school myself, I would go in full of fanging about whatever, and whatever the sermon or word of the day was about, it often spoke directly to what I was thinking/feeling!!! Hence by the time the service finished I took a deep breath and went upstairs with the milk of human kindess up to full bodied milk again. I let the girls sleep in the lounge and have supper (masses of cooked noodles = mess everywhere usually, but they intuitively knew this was the night to clean up spotlessly, which they did without prompting, LOL)

Still feeling an amount of goodwill the next day, (and because I was tired myself) I 'allowed' a sleep in until 10am - I know, my goodness knew no bounds!!! We had a leisurely breakfast and I then decided, what the heck, why not have a lazy day all told, so let the girls go back to the lounge, watch TV and we did not duties or rooms - their cup runneth (ing) over. After lunch, I opened the library to put a DVD on for the juniors, the spare TV not able to play them and then an easy night ensued, most asleep early after such a strenuous day. Only blot was that the server was still down so no access to the internet. Also got news re the WM - the WMH had taken her to hospital to see a Dr and she had spent three hours on a drip, came back with anti-biotics and was ill with a sinus infection.

Sunday I went mad and allowed another sleep in, this time until 9am as we were to have a clean up day, duties etc. It started well and then ..... I was in the midst of a whole house uniform check, room/wardrobe check, duty check when one of the girls came to tell me another one was in the loo throwing up and crying. Dropped everything and got said girl to her room, cold compress on forehead and tried to get some fluids into her as she was feverish and looked as though she had the flu well and truely. By then it was lunchtime, so got everyone else downstairs, only to see Niagra Falls coming down from the verandah upstairs onto the path below as I got down there. Went from 0 - 100k thinking 'the little witches have turned on the fire hose (back to whey) but when I got upstairs, there was water, pouring out of a water pipe next to the hot water heater. Got one of the Brs over to deal with that (who told me we had won the Bledisloe Cup and the Tri Nations - YAY!!!), meanwhile tried to get panadol etc into sick girl who couldn't swallow anything and had a temp of 39o by then. Rang the local hospital who said bring her in (I was concerned about dehydration if she went much longer without fluids) and fortunately the boss took her with two other girls while I got dinner underway. While all this was happening, most of the girls were in the library watching an unprecedented three movies in a row and catching up on email etc on the computers. At the same time, earlier in the day I had started two girls on blanket stitch around baby throws and then four others wanted to do the same. I managed to hold them off until after dinner and then with Miss, Miss coming from all directions I finally yelled out, flaming heck, I am not Shiva the goddess with a 1000 arms (slight exageration on the number of arms, but you know the one I mean), I can only do one thing at a time, so you can all wait and take your turn!!!! Medications all done (a flu bug is sweeping through the place), needles found, cottons picked, I was able to watch bits of 'Dancing with the Stars' while the stitching was going on around me and peace reigned for at least half an hour. Yay for Sunday and an early night - 9pm all were in bed, 9.30 all asleep or close to it. At 10pm I did last medication for the sick one and finally headed to bed myself. I tried to download the new 'Office' program on my laptop, the one that the WMH said would take 5 mins, but could not get it to accept a specific code (was trying to put the wrong numbers in as I found out today, LOL). Figured I was too tired to make it work properly, read three pages of my book while falling asleep so took the hint and turned out the light. I had to be up early this morning as one of the girls was leaving at 6am to go home for the term happy daze!!

On Sunday in between all the dramas, I did manage to get a phonecall home to wish sister Kay a Happy Birthday and catch up on the birthday debrief (8pm NZ time) and the choral festival that had been held amongst the Waiuku Primary Schools. It sounds as though it was a resounding hit (lots of hard work and effort by Kay and friend Viv with a cast of 1000's (maybe 100's, LOL)). Forgot to ask if video footage had been taken. I like the idea of the two candles on her cake, one for Dad who shared the same birthday - nice touch.

At this stage it doesn't look as though I am going to get any time off soon as in whole days, joined together as in two in a row, LOL, so postings maybe erratic. Will do my best to catch up on personal emails as soon as I can. Am off home to open the mushroom box, to water them and give them an amount of light, to water the 'garden' and have a change of scenery and gather more necessities. I think I am being covered for the afternoon so do not have to be back until dinner time. I cut up a double batch of tomatoes and onions for more tomatoe relish this morning. The green tomatoes that I bought for GT chutney have ripened over the weekend so may have to do another batch of relish instead, LOL. Catch you all later