More whinging

But this will be the last for a couple of posts, at least. I promise.

Friday started well. I got up on time, got all the kids where they were going, on time with minimal tantrums and yelling (from me). I went to the hairdresser on the basis that Crash is in Hong Kong, and therefore couldn't need my support until after 12pm. I read a chapter or so of my text book while the colour did its thing. I bought some kids' chopsticks (stuck together at the top with an animal) to resolve the 2 year old problem of one set of chopsticks and two kids.

When I got home, I was a touch overwhelmed by the chaos, so I figured I'd run errands and do some grocery shopping. This is where is started to go to pot.

Some of the drama had its origin on Thursday, when Crash flew out and managed to leave his entire toiletry bag behind, complete with medication. I knew I needed to make a customs declaration to mail them, so I went to the Post Office instead of using Fed Ex. Ha! A customs declaration is not sufficient, you need a specific form, which the Post Office doesn't have. All this to mail about $20 worth of blood pressure and gout medication. This is a law which needs a small quantity cut-off. Just to add insult to injury, since I couldn't send the toiletry bag, and the other thing I needed to send cost less than $10, I couldn't actually pay for the latter because they wouldn't take EFTPOS. What century is this?

And so to Westpac. I needed to deposit some cheques. That worked! I also needed to change the PIN on my brand new, never used debit card. No. It was damaged. It was clearly my fault, just ask the guy on the desk. They had to order me a new card.

Shopping went comparitively smoothly, and I was only 15 minutes behind on my rather tight schedule. I figured if I cooked the spag bol for the kids' dinner really quickly, I'd be back on track. The anxiety levels were high, but manageable. I didn't even make it home before I got a call from Singapore needing support. An hour and a half later, I was still on the phone, whilst chopping onions, cooking and stirring. Somewhere in all the chaos, Fed Ex arrived to deliver 4 ginormous boxes, adding to the despatch atmosphere of my lounge room. I was also juggling calls from two or three other customers. Oh yeah, and I needed to pack the swimming bags for 7:30am the next day, but could not find my swimmers anywhere. Nowhere. Stress was getting really out of hand. And I had done none of the cleaning up I had intended.

By 4:15pm, the spag bol was cooked, but the problems in Hong Kong and Singapore were not resolved. Another customer called and told me he needed me in Bondi Junction. NOW. He was very reasonable, the need was real. But I had to pick the kids up in an hour. I offered to find him someone else who could do the job, which I did. Then the site where the work needed to be done announced that they wouldn't allow said person on site without my being there. Useful. I was really starting to come undone at this stage. Perhaps something about the tone of my voice gave my customer the courage to go back to the site people and explain just how insane this particular policy is, because somewhere in the middle of collecting all the kids, I got a call telling me that my sub would be allowed on site.

Just to add to the "anything that could go wrong..." theme for the day, when I left to pick up the kids, I shut the door after putting the dog out, and a picture fell off the wall. The frame smashed, but I guess I shouldn't complain, the glass didn't. And when I finally got out the door to go to Josh Pyke, we headed to Maccas for a bite. I really only wanted a thick shake. The poor girl on the drive through didn't quite understand the sniggers and "Of course it's not" when she told us the shake machine wasn't working.

All the chaos was to get myself and the kids sufficiently organised for me to go to Josh Pyke Friday night, for everyone to go swimming Saturday morning and for me to go to Sound Relief Saturday lunch time. So much more cheerful posts are to follow. :)