November Rain and Eddie Vedder
Without Prejudice
And the rain comes down, cold and heavy on this day before I go to England. Reminding me to take my boots, my light weight rain jacket. Everyone in Melbourne excitedly readying themselves for the Melbourne Cup. The day that stops a nation. I won't be dressed in finery on that day, and one year my girlfriends and I are going to go.
But not this year. I shall be on a plane somewhere. I fly to Brisbane first, meet up with my wonderful family that have helped so much in my going. Jackie, my older Sister will join me at the airport and we fly within a few hours. I am so excited and nervous. I have never been on an Emirates flight before and she said we don't get our own bed but it has an upstairs and downstairs.
It's a something A bus and is supposed to be luxury plus. I leave cold Melbourne dressed in Brisbane weather clothes, hot and steamy and have to have an outfit for Dubai in my hand luggage. I want jewelled sandals and a floaty dress. We are only there for two hours and won't get out of the Airport unless a delay is involved, and I hope not. I will be comatose anyway as I intend to sleep most of the way. Jackie, could sleep on top of a pole and I am wide eyed and awake in the wee hours.
On to Manchester and wear a pair of leggings, socks, shoes, jumper and light weight jacket. I am not sure where I am going to carry all these outfit changes. I was going to wear boots with a dress but have to be practical, those boots will become a pain before I finish the trip. Feet swell in flight and wrestling with my cowboy boots will become a nightmare.
I could end up looking like Whoop Goldberg in drag.
Most of the celebrities I have seen flying, seem to wear a layered track suit and pants, tie their hair back or wear a cap, whack on lots of moisturiser and go make up less. And let's face it, no one us going to be taking photos of my sister and I. Just as long as we are comfortable and can sleep.
Then Manchester, get in hire car and drive to Yorkshire. By then we been flying 24 hours. I can see the headlines now. Demented women in bad track suits picked up in roundabout before M 1 unable to get off roundabout, just driving in circles. That actually happened to one of my brothers once, he was young, with his girlfriend and entered onto Piccadilly Circus and couldn't get off. Took him 11 circles before he could force his way to an exit.
Ah, then to see my Aunt Betty, the reason for our trip. She's 92 and it was supposed to be a surprise but her Son had to tell her in the end. We who thought she was feeling down and needed a surprise visit for her birthday, were gob smacked to find she was booking herself in for aTurkey Fest. I'm not sure if it involved an overnight stay and dancing, but she was determined to go.
My cousin, David, had to say to her, Jackie and Janette are coming over. We won't have long by the time we recover from traveling to get to London and I want to get to Scotland, Edinburgh and get my original birth certificate. And apply for my British Passport while in London, then we have a tribe of family to see. We also are going to Paris with the Auntie and having lunch in the Eiffel Tower. We only have two weeks to fit it all in and time will just fly.
I have to get to Mothercare and organise a Moses basket to be shipped for Babyzilla, ( Yvette ) even
though she has one, she wants "that one ". One winter coat for me, Boots The Chemist for makeup and perfume without luxury tax. A lime and lager in a pub, a Yorkshire pud dinner, Yorkshire Parkin
on bonfire night with a real bonfire and a Guy and fireworks. Wakefield Market for a morning. Can't wait.
Then fly home, stunned by jet lag on that trip, as it's worse coming home. I fly straight home as it's Babyzilla's birthday and by then she should look like a keg on legs and have only weeks to go to having her first baby girl after seven boys. Her birthday November 19th. Then Christmas and the heat should have arrived in Melbourne.
Then baby. Yvette asked me if she should stay in one or two days, I just laughed. She will be home the next day knowing her and raising ten kinds of hell if everything is not neat and tidy. She is a perfect baby making machine, has easy deliveries, usually early and literally pops a baby out, zips up her jeans and walks home.
We prepared for as many variables as possible. In the last six weeks she and I survived cleaning and de cluttering her entire house and my unit which was an enormous task. We had to work our way around boys on School holidays, the launch of Grand Theft Auto Five, two toddlers with heavy colds which we promptly caught. Surly teen boys that could not see our vision. We hurt our left wrists and had to strap them, hurt our backs and are still groaning about it.
We had to make memory boxes for all the boys as they all became jealous when we finished the baby girls nursery. There could not be too much pink in the house and had to contain it in one room only. Acer who is only 5 insisted he have a "blue room" . Cruz, 3, found the baby girl doll and hurled it across the room and trod on her head. We spent exactly 28 days working, she seven months pregnant, worked along side me, working just as hard as I.
Now, the house, unit and garden are perfect. The old furniture that the older boys dragged home from various places they had tried moving in to were stored in rooms. There had to be over a hundred
boxes of stuff to be gone through. Every time we emptied a box we counted them. And every box was detritus of socks, pencils, clothes, clean or dirty, memories, cars, toys, food scraps. Nothing could be thrown out before Yvette had checked it.
I am formerly a five star cleaner, ( one of my former jobs ) and when I clean, I really clean. The girls love it if I clean as I clean everything and also redecorate and that is the fun creative part. A joy after all that hard work. The boys that moved here eight years ago are now men. Working and want all their child hood memories placed aside for their children.
So from 9.30 every morning until sometimes 1am in the morning, ( our mission a clean house, our motto,)
"Rome wasn't built in a day"
we worked.
And the older males were a hindrance not a help except for heavy lifting and putting up the new trampoline for the five year old's birthday. That only took them a day including the trip all the way to Greensborough to Kmart to pick it up. We worked it out they spent 10 hours in total working and we spent 28 days. But we left them alone as we always receive the same answers
In a minute
Why
And if they do a job we end up doing it again so let them get away with it. Also Yvette found every bit of every toy right down to a missing black piece of plastic. I however am still missing my Scottish birth certificate and both my British Passport and Australian. They disappeared into the ether a while ago and after all the fuss I had to get out of the country I would die if I found them now.
When the churlish boys come home now, they walk into a spotless entry hall, a lounge room turned into a teen boys pad. Foxtel, three beds, lounge suit, fridge, computers, games. They mainly did it themselves once I suggested they will be bringing girls home and girls will expect it to look nice. Before that they were still being piggish as only teen boys can.
The two school boys have the biggest bedroom closest to the front door. They too keep it near and clean as Jai is 15 and is getting keen on girls too. Kyan at 10 shares his time with the toddlers in the "Blue room " and his own to sleep and play games. Foxtel is in the blue room and Mum and Peters room. Peter, Yvettes partner has been step dad to the 5 boys for the last six years. The only Dad Kyan remembers. Peter changed his nappies as a three year old.
I have been in my unit for three years and am letting Zach at 18 take care if it while I am away. He has taken care of it before and changes everything around which better be changed back before I arrive home. No visitors, no girls. Certain rules. He be fine, he's a great kid. Responsible, quiet, gentleman. Neat. Most important.
And the boys can walk into a vast kitchen and family room now, all de cluttered, laundry spotless
Bathroom same. Second toilet daddy long legs free, smelling good and clean. And Yvette's room de cluttered, with a fridge, giant screen which she loves to watch resting on her bed and she can now.
And next door is the nursery which is divine. Yvette has everything, just from what she had in storage. It is breathtakingly lovely, just what she wanted when she said to me sadly a month ago, looking at a beautiful coloured crocheted rug
"I guess I will put baby in with me "
I thought of her cluttered bedroom and thought,
" Not while my arse points to the ground "
I'm the grandmother. The maternal grandmother. Sadly Peters Mum passed away this year. She gave him a car, a bunch of tools from his Dad who died three years ago, a T.V. A double stroller, a BBQ. She was a good person and she would be proud of her son. He is a great father and stepfather and it took him six years to get there.
He used to give his parents hell.
He tried to stop me every way he could to change the cluttered bedroom butYvette
And the rain comes down, cold and heavy on this day before I go to England. Reminding me to take my boots, my light weight rain jacket. Everyone in Melbourne excitedly readying themselves for the Melbourne Cup. The day that stops a nation. I won't be dressed in finery on that day, and one year my girlfriends and I are going to go.
But not this year. I shall be on a plane somewhere. I fly to Brisbane first, meet up with my wonderful family that have helped so much in my going. Jackie, my older Sister will join me at the airport and we fly within a few hours. I am so excited and nervous. I have never been on an Emirates flight before and she said we don't get our own bed but it has an upstairs and downstairs.
It's a something A bus and is supposed to be luxury plus. I leave cold Melbourne dressed in Brisbane weather clothes, hot and steamy and have to have an outfit for Dubai in my hand luggage. I want jewelled sandals and a floaty dress. We are only there for two hours and won't get out of the Airport unless a delay is involved, and I hope not. I will be comatose anyway as I intend to sleep most of the way. Jackie, could sleep on top of a pole and I am wide eyed and awake in the wee hours.
On to Manchester and wear a pair of leggings, socks, shoes, jumper and light weight jacket. I am not sure where I am going to carry all these outfit changes. I was going to wear boots with a dress but have to be practical, those boots will become a pain before I finish the trip. Feet swell in flight and wrestling with my cowboy boots will become a nightmare.
I could end up looking like Whoop Goldberg in drag.
Most of the celebrities I have seen flying, seem to wear a layered track suit and pants, tie their hair back or wear a cap, whack on lots of moisturiser and go make up less. And let's face it, no one us going to be taking photos of my sister and I. Just as long as we are comfortable and can sleep.
Then Manchester, get in hire car and drive to Yorkshire. By then we been flying 24 hours. I can see the headlines now. Demented women in bad track suits picked up in roundabout before M 1 unable to get off roundabout, just driving in circles. That actually happened to one of my brothers once, he was young, with his girlfriend and entered onto Piccadilly Circus and couldn't get off. Took him 11 circles before he could force his way to an exit.
Ah, then to see my Aunt Betty, the reason for our trip. She's 92 and it was supposed to be a surprise but her Son had to tell her in the end. We who thought she was feeling down and needed a surprise visit for her birthday, were gob smacked to find she was booking herself in for aTurkey Fest. I'm not sure if it involved an overnight stay and dancing, but she was determined to go.
My cousin, David, had to say to her, Jackie and Janette are coming over. We won't have long by the time we recover from traveling to get to London and I want to get to Scotland, Edinburgh and get my original birth certificate. And apply for my British Passport while in London, then we have a tribe of family to see. We also are going to Paris with the Auntie and having lunch in the Eiffel Tower. We only have two weeks to fit it all in and time will just fly.
I have to get to Mothercare and organise a Moses basket to be shipped for Babyzilla, ( Yvette ) even
though she has one, she wants "that one ". One winter coat for me, Boots The Chemist for makeup and perfume without luxury tax. A lime and lager in a pub, a Yorkshire pud dinner, Yorkshire Parkin
on bonfire night with a real bonfire and a Guy and fireworks. Wakefield Market for a morning. Can't wait.
Then fly home, stunned by jet lag on that trip, as it's worse coming home. I fly straight home as it's Babyzilla's birthday and by then she should look like a keg on legs and have only weeks to go to having her first baby girl after seven boys. Her birthday November 19th. Then Christmas and the heat should have arrived in Melbourne.
Then baby. Yvette asked me if she should stay in one or two days, I just laughed. She will be home the next day knowing her and raising ten kinds of hell if everything is not neat and tidy. She is a perfect baby making machine, has easy deliveries, usually early and literally pops a baby out, zips up her jeans and walks home.
We prepared for as many variables as possible. In the last six weeks she and I survived cleaning and de cluttering her entire house and my unit which was an enormous task. We had to work our way around boys on School holidays, the launch of Grand Theft Auto Five, two toddlers with heavy colds which we promptly caught. Surly teen boys that could not see our vision. We hurt our left wrists and had to strap them, hurt our backs and are still groaning about it.
We had to make memory boxes for all the boys as they all became jealous when we finished the baby girls nursery. There could not be too much pink in the house and had to contain it in one room only. Acer who is only 5 insisted he have a "blue room" . Cruz, 3, found the baby girl doll and hurled it across the room and trod on her head. We spent exactly 28 days working, she seven months pregnant, worked along side me, working just as hard as I.
Now, the house, unit and garden are perfect. The old furniture that the older boys dragged home from various places they had tried moving in to were stored in rooms. There had to be over a hundred
boxes of stuff to be gone through. Every time we emptied a box we counted them. And every box was detritus of socks, pencils, clothes, clean or dirty, memories, cars, toys, food scraps. Nothing could be thrown out before Yvette had checked it.
I am formerly a five star cleaner, ( one of my former jobs ) and when I clean, I really clean. The girls love it if I clean as I clean everything and also redecorate and that is the fun creative part. A joy after all that hard work. The boys that moved here eight years ago are now men. Working and want all their child hood memories placed aside for their children.
So from 9.30 every morning until sometimes 1am in the morning, ( our mission a clean house, our motto,)
"Rome wasn't built in a day"
we worked.
And the older males were a hindrance not a help except for heavy lifting and putting up the new trampoline for the five year old's birthday. That only took them a day including the trip all the way to Greensborough to Kmart to pick it up. We worked it out they spent 10 hours in total working and we spent 28 days. But we left them alone as we always receive the same answers
In a minute
Why
And if they do a job we end up doing it again so let them get away with it. Also Yvette found every bit of every toy right down to a missing black piece of plastic. I however am still missing my Scottish birth certificate and both my British Passport and Australian. They disappeared into the ether a while ago and after all the fuss I had to get out of the country I would die if I found them now.
When the churlish boys come home now, they walk into a spotless entry hall, a lounge room turned into a teen boys pad. Foxtel, three beds, lounge suit, fridge, computers, games. They mainly did it themselves once I suggested they will be bringing girls home and girls will expect it to look nice. Before that they were still being piggish as only teen boys can.
The two school boys have the biggest bedroom closest to the front door. They too keep it near and clean as Jai is 15 and is getting keen on girls too. Kyan at 10 shares his time with the toddlers in the "Blue room " and his own to sleep and play games. Foxtel is in the blue room and Mum and Peters room. Peter, Yvettes partner has been step dad to the 5 boys for the last six years. The only Dad Kyan remembers. Peter changed his nappies as a three year old.
I have been in my unit for three years and am letting Zach at 18 take care if it while I am away. He has taken care of it before and changes everything around which better be changed back before I arrive home. No visitors, no girls. Certain rules. He be fine, he's a great kid. Responsible, quiet, gentleman. Neat. Most important.
And the boys can walk into a vast kitchen and family room now, all de cluttered, laundry spotless
Bathroom same. Second toilet daddy long legs free, smelling good and clean. And Yvette's room de cluttered, with a fridge, giant screen which she loves to watch resting on her bed and she can now.
And next door is the nursery which is divine. Yvette has everything, just from what she had in storage. It is breathtakingly lovely, just what she wanted when she said to me sadly a month ago, looking at a beautiful coloured crocheted rug
"I guess I will put baby in with me "
I thought of her cluttered bedroom and thought,
" Not while my arse points to the ground "
I'm the grandmother. The maternal grandmother. Sadly Peters Mum passed away this year. She gave him a car, a bunch of tools from his Dad who died three years ago, a T.V. A double stroller, a BBQ. She was a good person and she would be proud of her son. He is a great father and stepfather and it took him six years to get there.
He used to give his parents hell.
He tried to stop me every way he could to change the cluttered bedroom butYvette
