52 Weeks of Me: Outside (and other stuff)

Having finally got my camera back, I find myself completely out of the habit of taking photos. Nevertheless, with this week's '52 Weeks of Me' prompt in mind, I sat in the carpark of a local park and snapped myself 'Outside'.
I had just dropped the BA off at a party and the temp was in the high 20s. She insisted I walk down to the picnic spot with her and, as I had no sun hat, I reached into the back seat to utilise the only thing I had to hand, her school hat. Once she was delivered to her party I came back up to the carpark and sat on the gutter savouring the cool breeze before getting back into my stiflingly hot car (note to self: get air conditioning fixed). It was a delightful few minutes 'Outside'.

It was a long weekend here in Adelaide, celebrating nothing more edifying than a horse race.
Himself was disgusted.
"This has got to be the lamest public holiday in Australia!" he ranted.
"Come now," I suggested,"what about the Queen's birthday? Surely you can't approve of that holiday?"
"At least that's historic," he countered, surprising me once more with his fundamentally conservative nature. For a man who has worked at the forefront of the arts, wears his hair (what's left of it) long and is proud of the T shirts he designed in the 70s which read 'If It's Too Loud You're Too Old", he  exhibits some incredibly 'unhippy' -like values.
"At least she's our Head of State," he continued, "this is just a horse race!"
"What about the Melbourne Cup?" I cast out and reeled.
"At least the whole country is interested in that!" he exclaimed,"unlike this one, where 98% of the local population don't even know what we're celebrating!!!!!"
He does have a point. But who am I to argue with a long weekend? Lord knows with the incredibly 'full on' start to the school year, we could all do with a break.

The Baby Angel had a full calendar of events lined up for her weekend. She was little disappointed that tickets for the Womadelaide Festival were beyond her means. She was particularly disappointed when not only did her boyfriend attend all three days without her, but Boy Z was in the crowd with his father (at the tender age of 4!). She did not want for  entertainment however.

On Friday afternoon we commenced the hunt for the Formal Dress, had her hair cut and shared a pizza dinner before dropping her off for a sleepover at a friend's house. The following morning I picked her up ready to continue the Formal Dress Quest. At around 5pm we found the one I described here: this is my 'artist's impression'. The underskirt is actually the same colour as the overskirt ...

That night the two of us watched Eddie Izzard together as she practised face painting for her Research project. Life has surely calmed down since last year.

So what was Himself doing as I had quality time with my BA? Well, the only up side of my ruined shoulder is that Himself has become a little more proactive around the garden. On Saturday, in perfect Adelaide weather (27C) he worked his b*** off in the front garden. These are his pruning and lawn mowing efforts.
 Amidst this sterling work we had a brief and heated conversation regarding the watering system. I have recently turned it off as a) it is autumn and b) we had a $960.00 water bill!!!!  Himself suggested, perhaps fairly, that I should have let him know as the grass is now a little 'crunchy'.

 Meanwhile, the downside of my ruined shoulder is my slackness on the house keeping front. This photo was taken in the family room at mid-afternoon. I am torn between shame and awe at the amazing work spiders do.

If only I could channel their efforts usefully!