An Average Weekend

We didn't go anywhere, or do anything particularly special, just pottered around at home, and I did some work on the AFWJ Journal...

Amy was really happy with it though, and told me she was having a lovely weekend, that we used to 'do nothing' on the weekends, just watch TV. I thought we HAD 'done nothing' this weekend (and that we used to do things on the weekend) but I suppose we managed to squeeze in some stuff. Lena is mostly over her hand, foot and mouth and Erica broke out in the blisters, but she has no fever and insisted it was not at all painful.

We got the pool sorted out. It started Saturday, which I think was the stuffiest, worst, hottest day we've had yet this year, and yet we still managed to not turn on the air conditioner. Lena nearly lost it at one point, nearly panicking with how hot she felt, and not being able to escape it anywhere. So I sat her down with a glass of iced water and a wet towel in front of the fan, and showed her how to wipe off her her face and body and let the air cool her. She settled down.

Not long after that, I decided it was time to escape, and do some shopping, just to get into the air conditioned interiors, and the air conditioned car. Every year, I get so annoyed at how dirty the pool gets, and the time it takes me to clean it up after a swim. So we went to Gooday, the hardware store, to scope out decking to raise if off the ground. We eyed some up, but decided to come home to measure the pool first. We stopped at the grocery store too, which was blissfully cool!

Back at home, I ferreted around in the shed to find the pool, and got it inside to measure it, also clearing space in the shed for the chairs and barbecues we needed to tidy away. Dinner was chicken baked with a tomato and vegetable sauce and cheese topping. A thunder storm broke in the late afternoon, which I was so thankful for, as it sucked the humidity out of the air and made it a bit more tolerable. It was super loud - we found out later that a lightning strike had taken out the car wash at the Stand! We had an early night, and I read a chapter of Harry Potter to the kids.

Sunday was the big day - pool day. I was supposed to get up at 6am to do the yard, but no chance - especially after Erica got up at 4:20 to go to the toilet - by herself! She must have been sleep-walking. Luckily Kanji heard her. Then for no reason at all, the other girls got up too, so the whole family accompanied her to the toilet.

So, I didn't get to the garden until after 10am, which is practically suicide (especially after hearing 7000 people were hospitalized for heatstroke over the weekend!). I wore long pants, a long-sleeve muslin top, and a Japanese granny garden hat - half a hat, with a scarf replacing the back half, so you can do it up under your chin, and gloves. This is to protect myself from bugs, sunburn, and just gross garden stuff (like cat poo). But with us all working together, we got it done in half an hour or so, and have set aside a pile of things to wash later, and cleared an area by the back door for the pool.

Next step - showers for everyone! Then I took them out to lunch as a reward for a very hard morning's work (not kidding - there was so much sweat coming off my face that my glasses were like I was underwater). We went to the Turkish restaurant and had kebabs and Turkish ice cream, and got given some divine cherry and apricot juice on the house.

Then we stopped by the Stand to pick up Kanji's van to transport the decking home, and went to Gooday to get them. A little bit more garden work, in yet another set of clothes - another long-sleeve top, but shorts this time. We set the deck boards onto concrete blocks to protect the bottom of the pool from the flood that happens when it's emptied - the soil is not very porous, and the yard drains to a spot in front of the study window - right where I used to like to put the pool. Set up the pool, turned on the hose, and the kids were in their togs and in the pool in no time. I nearly got in myself too, went as far as getting togs out, but then decided a nice cup of tea and some more Journal work was a better use of my time!



Kanji came home, and took us all out for dinner to sushi! We went to the new place in town, and it was packed - we took a ticket, No. 153, but the next number called was 132. It was written that the wait was 30-40 minutes, but in the end it was only about 20. I had my phone to keep me amused, then a friend turned up who I talked to. Amy read a book, Kanji just patiently waited; Lena went from me, to Kanji to me to Kanji, and Erica made a circuit of the room, amusing random baachans. Was it worth the wait? Yes, I suppose so, there was an interesting variety of sushi, and we collected around 30 plates in the end, plus extra orders of chawan mushi, udon, fried chicken, fried octopus, desserts, and beer and sake for Kanji.

I finally got the beer I had needed all day after we got home. I finished up a few more jobs on the Journal, and here I am, fulfilling my promise to myself to catch up and stay caught up with the blog!

Amy has started to read the blog, and the old posts too. Hello Amy! Nice that your English reading is getting good enough for you to comfortably read this now, you know it's as much for you guys to remember your childhoods as it is for me!