Gender Differences: Lesson 2: Hanging Out Washing

Girls:

Take washing out of machine as quickly as possible and, if necessary, remove the tufts of tissue distributed throughout. Hang as quickly as possible to avoid mouldy smell ensuing. Hang each item separately, socks from toes, trousers from waistbands etc in order that air may circulate and clothes dry quickly and avoid fading in the sun. Gather in when dry.

Boys:

Leave clothes in washing machine until you happen to pass by the laundry. If mould ensues, rewash. When you remember, hang washing out: fold each item in half over the line and peg through the middle. Multiple items to one peg saves time. Wait for two weeks while washing dries. Complain loudly that you have no clothes, completely failing to notice the large pile of clean, dry folded clothing your stepmother has removed from the line and sat on the dining room table for two weeks.

Gender Differences: Lesson 1: Easter Luxuries

For Girls:

Sitting on a squashy sofa eating chocolate for breakfast, knitting(me) or cutting out pictures from magazines(BA) and watching all three series of 'Roswell' back to back.

For Boys:

Sitting in your newly cleaned out shed with your laptop, a cigar and a steaming mug of freshly ground coffee (or two), footy on the radio and the next leg of the Virtual Yacht Race on your screen.

Theme Thurday: The End

It's 'The End' of my house in England! It was also 'The End' of our time in England as we had finished renovating, painting, tiling etc ready to put the house on the market. And look! There's 'The End' of the garden. That was just about as much garden as I could cope with! Nowadays, our big, drought ridden unloved Australian garden looks like 'The Living End'! Ugh.

Stacy has reached 'The End' of her time hosting Theme Thursday. I have loved thinking about and coming up with interpretations on themes (when I had time to think) and I would like to thank her for her dedication to the weekly event over the last year and a half. Hopefully, Theme Thursday will find a new home and Stacy will have more time to regale us with beautiful photography, stories of her DIY and fabulous creative sewing! Great work Stacy. Thanks again.

Happy Birthday Little Sis!!!!

Today, 40 years ago, was Easter Monday and we were sitting in the kitchen of The Bestie's house, down the road, waiting to hear news of the arrival of our new baby.

Our dad walked in and announced that we had a sister! I don't know about you Middle Sis but I remember being delighted that it was another girl.

Unfortunately, 40 years later, here I am 12,000 miles away from both my sisters and unable to share in the super 40th birthday party held in honour of my Little Sis on Saturday night (I hope she got the delivery today though).

Of course, my Mum and Dad are also here 12,000 miles away from their youngest daughter on this special day. I can only imagine what it must be like to have your children scattered all over the globe. Alright, Middle Sis does live in the UK too but she is so frequently overseas on business that it must sometimes feel as if she lives in another country, or at least another world.

Nevertheless, in celebration of our youngest (immediate) family member, I give you,

My Little Sis growing up.

Here she is with Middle Sis (aged about 4 or 5).

And this one with me (she's about 2 and I'm 11.....remember what I said about 'Ugliest Kid Ever Award' Maggie? You weren't even in the running).


Awwwww....first day of school. Who did our haircuts in those days Mum?????????? Yikes.


Still around 5, with one of the guinea pigs which suffered a terrible fate and broke Middle Sis's heart. Look at the length(?) of that dress!!!! Mother! What were you thinking??? Oh that's right, you were probably wearing one about the same length!!!
Here we are in 1976: Mum, Little Sis (7), Grandma, Me at almost 16 and Middle Sis at 12(?).
A quick note on my stunning outfit. It was an Art project! I designed, tie dyed and sewed it together myself! I think I got 9/10 and never wore it again. But I digress.
Aged seven or eight, the ubiquitous bath shot! She is going to hate me for that one. Don't worry! The next ones are starting to get better......OK, not that much better. This one must be pretty close on the heels of the previous one, even though the dates are a year apart. Here she is in her new school uniform, about to start at our Alma Mater. I believe the summer uniform has also changed thank the Lord as this one was hideous. My dad used to say they were designed to make us look as unmarriageable as possible! (so you could concentrate on your studies of course). But in this shot Little Sis is modelling how NOT to wear the uniform because, as I recall, sandals and socks were verbotin and the jumper was not allowed to be worn with the summer uniform outside the school. The correct attire was summer uniform with blazer!

And now, a bit of a jump.


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I'm sorry Sis, I couldn't resist that one!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a bit better, with our handsome Dad! I think that's one of the Christmas cakes she made in Home Ec. at school. Unlike me, my Little Sis is accomplished and competent in the kitchen!

Now look at her, all grown up and beautiful. I love this photo of her. It's one of the few she sent me while she was growing up in the UK and I was back over here in Australia.

And here she is on our infamous 18-30s Ski Experience in 1987. She barely scraped in at the 18 y/o end of the spectrum and at 26 I barely scraped in at the 30s end :-). Middle Sis was definitely the target demographic for that trip.

Now how beautiful is THAT????? That is my Little Sis being a bridesmaid for me in 1992. Is she not gorgeous????

And here she is in all her glory at her wedding in 1995. That's her vair vair handsome husband escorting her. We love our brother-in-law...he's fab. (Quick, take her away, take her awaaaaaayyy!!!!!!!) Hahahaha.

And finally, I leave you with a recent photo from her visit here in January.
Happy birthday lovely sister. You are a treasure and a joy, a wonderful mother, a loving sister and a valuable friend. Thank you for the last 40 years. Thank you for my niece and nephew and thank you for just being you.

A Quick Report

For those of you kind enough to have inquired; Sat night was ok. I find it difficult to say any of my cooking is good or delicious or anything like that. I find it much easier to say that the risotto was NOT much chop and I won't use that recipe again, the veal was a bit tough (too much stamping around in claustrophobic shipping containers before a cruel death at the abattoir...oh well) and the warm bean and baby spinach salad was not as good as the last time I made it.

The Baby Angel however did a great job of her signature desert, chocolatey bananas! (see above)

Food aside, it was great to catch up with my two school friends (I will omit the word 'old') Prof J and The Skipperette (yes, another sailor) and their delightful spouses. It was really nice to share the BA's success with them as they too are old scholars of our beloved Alma Mater. It is also great to have friends who know your weaknesses and either a) keep out of the way and entertain themselves while you panic in the kitchen or b) stand coolly by you, offering quiet advice and a gentle hand without any pressure. BOTH of these things are appreciated more than you two will ever know.

Thanks for a great night guys! Come again soon.

Masochism

I have invited 5 people for dinner; with us, that makes ten.

Did I mention I hate cooking and cannot organise time to save my life?

PS:(That title should get me a few hits).

Who Ya Gonna Call?

A few weekends back I offered to help a friend move house.

He had put out a request on facebook and sounded so miserable about the impending move back to his mother's house, complete with pregnant wife and 16 month old baby girl, I could not help but offer my services.

He seemed a little perturbed.
" It's mostly heavy stuff, you know, furniture and the like...we're hiring a truck."
"Cool. We hired a truck when we helped my sister move. Don't worry. I'm pretty strong. I once helped Himself lift a wardrobe up onto the top of the Jeep you know."

And so it was arranged. I turned up at the appointed hour on a pleasant Saturday morning as my friend (a work colleague) was reversing the truck into his long, curving, soon to be former, driveway. There were several other friends there to help and they hung about eyeing off the access, the shaky looking steps down from the uneven patio and the size of the first two items for packing.

They were all men. Youngish men at that.

This fact didn't register for a while as I had arrived in time to attack the first two really heavy items, a couple of tall wardrobes. We used lifting straps and four of us staggered down the front steps, down the patio steps and down the sloping curving driveway with only two stop/collapses on the way, none of which were my fault I might add. Back we went for seconds and before long we had a long queue of furniture lining the curving driveway, awaiting allocation in the back of the truck.

I rode the hydraulic tailgate up to truck level and, with another fellow who had obviously done this before, proceeded to work out a plan for packing the space efficiently, covering items so they wouldn't get scratched and receiving them into the bowels of the vehicle like so many 'Tetra' blocks. About 90 minutes later we swung up the tailgate and I hopped into the cab with my friend for the short drive to his Mum's.

On arrival we were confronted by a set of moderately daunting stairs leading up to the main house and an underhouse storage area which required us to navigate a tight gate, a narrow path and an entrance at the rear. What fun. The lads and I went back and forward from truck to house to underhouse storage area......

In the process of all this I met my friend's mum who was preparing lunch for the troops.

She is two years older than me.
My colleague could be my son. How depressing.

I had to leave at lunch time to pick up the Small Boy from the Yacht Club so I didn't get to help with the second truckload. I got home and had a quick kip on the couch, planning to do a bit of housework or something after my usual power nap.

Well. When I awoke I could barely move. I felt like I was coming down with flu or something. Every joint ached, I felt feverish, I couldn't get off the couch. What was WRONG with me? I slept on the sofa for most of the afternoon.

It was only later that I put two and two together. The Mother who was making lunch, only two years older than me; there was a reason why she was not out there hefting things into the back of a truck!

I think I am finally past it.

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