Namaste… It’s Me and Mister C…

This week’s ‘hello’… namaste, originates from the Hindi language, the informal ‘hello’ is Hai and is the native language from the country India. I chose this country for the blog this week, as Husband is officially one-eighth part Indian (don’t ask me how!). There’s an interesting family history story on Husband’s Dad’s side (always remembered), through Husband’s dear Nan (also dearly remembered); it’s a bit too long to go through the history this week (sorry), I promise to go through it another blog time (Husband will hold me to it!). Of course, Husband loves a good curry (like his Ma and Bros-hiya!), and recalls as an eight and nine year old having a house full of visiting Indian cousins over for a delicious curry meal. Husband loves to cook up a special curry dish each and every week (usually at his folks place- but no go, with lockdown at present); we always appreciate Husband’s cooking during the week (thanks love), but sometimes it gets a bit too much, having the same repertoire of dishes (sorry love), let alone giving each child what they want, with their likes and dislikes (we do try!). We realised there is only a few dishes that everyone in our family all likes as well! I suggested to Husband, why don’t we try cooking up some new dishes together in the school hols and during our ‘stay-at-home’ situation, he agreed (something to do at least?).

It’s now week five of ‘lockdown’, last week of school and home school (yay or nay?). The girls have nearly managed to get their work completed in time for the end of the week (ten), for a well-earned school holiday rest… Now the big question is, what are we going to do with the kids for the next two weeks? I was fortunate to go online to our favourite ‘K-Mart’ store and arranged to purchase some items (like a lot of families at present?); I wanted to ‘click and collect’ the items, but unfortunately Husband accidently clicked the delivery button (oh no! – these sites can be hard to navigate sometimes) and submitted the order before we could check it out as ‘click and collect’. So, two weeks later we just received an email confirmation, that our items will be delivered at the end of the week- yay! It could have been a lot worse with further delivery delays (due to obvious high demand at present); we are grateful for anything at present and we all excited to receive the items we ordered for the girls and Mister C (yay for new ‘Lego’ boxes!), to at least have a few fun things to do over the coming weeks…

Over the past week, I was able to complete most painting inside the house downstairs; approximately twelve litres of various paint and sized tins later, I can now officially write, the entire house inside is now all painted, after four and half years later! I still have the new (sexy) front door to stain and the kitchenette downstairs to repaint the old benchtop (cheaper than replacing it all?). I managed to grab an hour last week (in between home schooling) to unpack the remainder of my clothes and belongings, that have been packed up for more than ten weeks or so. It was a relief to find some jumpers and my favourite track pants after many weeks (phew!), and I can now focus on more pressing jobs, like the fourth book illustrations (and more home-schooling?) that I have now commenced.

We managed to find and purchase (with some funds left over from the renos- don’t ask me how!) a new ride-on-mower. With Husband’s ongoing knee issues, he was advised by his ortho specialist (thanks) that he should not be twisting and turning his knee for several months after his recent surgery, and to be careful with his knee for life (great!). So, we had no other option than to buy a ride-on-mower, to help the situation with Husband’s knee and to get all that lawn finally mown! As well as husband doing an hour or two of mowing a week (block a little over an acre), We had been paying a local lawn-mowing service every few months or so, to come out and given the acreage a good once over (thanks!), but the cost did add up (eventually it would have amounted to the total cost of the mower) and my new soaker hoses were slashed by their whipper-snipper (oops!). Husband and I went into the shop (thanks heaps) to find the right mower for Husband and our particular area. We came across a bright yellow number (very cute) and agreed that model would be best (and a good price too). A few days later, we had the mower delivered to our place, the attendant kindly spent half an hour showing us the ropes- (thanks heaps- and in time for Father’s Day too!). I picked Mister C up from school that day (a face-to face school day) and mentioned in the car we had a surprise at home; the look on Mister C’s face was priceless- to see a new big, yellow piece of shiny machinery under the carport. “Wow!” Mister C exclaimed, “Is that ours, Mummy? I love it and I think it should be named, ‘Bumble Bee’!” … “What a great idea, Mister C!” I replied, and that was that, our new ride on mower had now been properly named (as all machinery items and cars should be).

Okay, now heading into 2020 (yay for the New year?!), I recall the family and I were unfortunately stranded (we had our bungalow with no power) down the coast, with all roads closed to get home at that stage. I had a bad feeling on New Year’s Day, that it was a sign that the worst was still to come for the New Year. We had heard through social media, that it was to be the Chinese year of the (metal-gold) Rat; a symbol most of us relate to with fertility, wealth and prosperity (did I mention I had a cute pet rat named, ‘Noddy’ when I was in my teens!). However, according to the internet and Hong Kong Chinese astrology, master So Man-fung Peter says ‘People born in the year of the rat may find themselves prone to negative thoughts and more disruptions in life. To alleviate the impact, to travel more in 2020’… (https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/fortune-guide-2020-chinese-zodiac-sign/index.html).

Instead of relaxing by the pool and going for our daily walks into the local forest area, near the beautiful lake in the park, we were surrounded by smoke and constant noise for overhead planes fighting the out-of-control bush fires around the entire South Coast area. The Park managers were updating us each afternoon about the evolving situation and whether the roads would reopen soon. Husband commented, “The Park managers came around each bungalow and asked us to vacate. We left mid-morning and had to crawl our way back up to Nowra, stopping for lunch. It was awful seeing all the burned forest and the way home.” We received word the highway had closed not more than five minutes after we got through, to get back up to Nowra; I recall it took over seven hours to finally get home, tired and heart broken. The girls were very sad and Mister C couldn’t comprehend the vast amount of devastation the fires caused, particularly the loss of the precious animal wildlife too. We chatted with the kids about the experience, we were pleased to have gotten home safely and grateful our dear neighbour was able to help with the pets (thanks H.W).

There was so much smoke and dust from the coast and other regional fires; it sadly came pouring up into our community, where I recall spending many days, trying to clean up all the dried-up ash and then the never-ending brown top soil, that the winds also brought in days later. Husband also commented, “It smelt like smoke in our house, so at about two am I went around checking what was going on and looked at the air quality scale for our town online, it read three thousand! Geez, that is fifteen times the hazardous level!” I will admit, it did take us many weeks to get over what we had experienced (like so many others too), we didn’t even live where the main fires ripped through the coast areas either. Husband suggested to donate to a few charity organisations for both stranded families and injured wildlife; it was a heart-warming way to give back to the communities affected by the fires.

Along with the stress during the Summer school holidays (it was a heat wave for many days too!), Mister C was showing signs of further stress and anxiousness, as the new school term came looming up at the end of January. I noticed he wasn’t eating much and had begun biting his finger nails again (not good). Husband and I had a tentative chat with Mister C regarding his feelings about going back to school; we were both worried about it as well (I think myself more so- as I had been at school more with him), but I felt mildly confident it would be okay, particularly with Flossy in year six, who also reassured me she could help support him in the playground when able (thanks sweetheart!). The girls were happy to go back to school, Widy now going into year nine and Flossy was excited to be on top in year six, the last year of primary school (so exciting!). The big day arrived with both Mister C and Flossy due back on the Tuesday of the week first, then Widy back the following day. Unfortunately, Mister C only went back for one day, it was heart-breaking to see how unhappy and sad he was (me too, a sick feeling in my stomach that wouldn’t go away); he didn’t have any of his few friends in the new class group, while I wasn’t overly pleased with his new teacher, who showed limited experience dealing with boys who had similar issues (not a good start to the term and no disrespect intended). The next day, I kept Mister C home, as he was overly tired from not sleeping well (poor little guy); I made an executive decision, after speaking in depth with Husband about putting the wheels in motion for Mister C to move schools…

A Word from Mister C…

Mister C had busily made Dad a card and gift at home during the week for Father’s Day; there was no school and no Father’s Day stall, due to the ongoing stay-at-home orders. “I love Dad so much, Mummy,” Mister C sighed and continued, “But I really don’t like lockdown! I hope Dad likes my card and gift I made him; it’s not much, but it comes from me and my heart.” Giving Mister C hugs, I replied, “Of course, Dad will, my son. Dad loves anything you make!” … “Oh, I want Dad to have a happy day in ‘lockdown’, because he’s funny, silly, a bit of a tubby codger and he’s, MY Dad!” …😏

Stay tuned…

Me and Mister C wanted to send our heart felt wishes to all the folks in Louisiana and communities in the North-West states of USA, due to the terrible destruction from Hurricane ‘Ida’ (not sure why these storms have names?). We are sending our thoughts to all the families and communities that are been affected by this devastating storm, Mother Nature at its worst. This is our ninety-ninth blog this week, it’s hard to believe that next week will be our one hundredth blog! Thanks for your continued support and keep on reading, for more 2020 stories! Me and Mister C… 💗