Project 365: Week 18

Catch up, Catch up, Catch up. It's the theme of the moment at the moment.

I'm frantically writing lists - looking at the tasks I need to do, the time frame I have to do them in and then quietly going crazily insane whilst attempting to scale the pile of marking and teach my class with my usual maniac enthusiasm. I'm OK as long as I don't think too deeply about what I should have done at any point of time.

So I'd like to give a small shout out to the landscaping team at work for brightening my days with their efforts outside my office window. They've kept me thoroughly intrigued with what was going to happen next in the massive garden redevelopment project. It has been a source of much joking speculation amongst my fellow office occupants. There's also the entertainment factor of watching other people undertake hard physical labour in adverse weather conditions whilst you are in your cosy office attempting hard intellectual labour.

Day 119: The end of the fire season. Washing and airing the daughter's fire-fighting after her last batch of controlled burning. They were is serious need of this. I swear they were so black with soot and stuff they almost stood up by themselves.

Day 121: I think this is in fact a close relative of the iconic artwork - Blue Poles. I here by give you - Red Poles. Aligning these suckers seemed to involve alternate intense periods of sweaty labour and silent contemplation by the work team.

Day 122: The gift basket for the new baby waiting for delivery. Due to a complicated series of misadventures, I had temporary custody of this in my office for a few days.

Day 123: Look the mushrooms have grown up now. They've flattened out and opened up. More disappointingly, they're now a boring brown instead of that cute yellow.

Day 124: I feel this photo may need a "This photo may distress a few viewers". I get a phone call from my little sister yesterday evening saying, "There's a mouse in my dishwasher!". "There's a WHAT in Your WHAT???!" I reply. "Fine. I'll come and deal with it in the morning". That's my role. I deal with vermin. She doesn't. When I go to remove said mouse, I find a dead rat face down in a wine glass. This leads to speculation about what type of wine a rat might drink - red or white? I remove said rat. Need to give her cat some severe re-education about how inappropriate it is to chase vermin into slightly open dishwashers. Cat feels no need to listen to any boring lectures suggesting its conduct may be lacking. We DID rewash the dishes! TWICE!!

Day 125: The coolest thing to do with old suitcases. The amplifiers / ipod speakers on steroids my son fell in love with at first sight. Sunday morning at the Camberwell market with my girls on a shopping mission. Success! One tailored long black wool coat for the giant European adventure for one daughter and a suitably pre-loved classic leather jacket for the other at $10 each. Looking longingly at old tailor's lasts (cos' who doesn't love a disembodied wooden foot) and hat forms but decided my taste in classic industrial decorating objects and my actual budget are worlds apart.

Day 126: Granny wants a Latte Machiato. An update on the great granny rug project. 140 squares completed of the 300 I need. It looks so cool though when you lay them out on the floor and see what you've got.