A day of such beautiful weather that even a walk to the local shops is a treat: bright sunshine, a warm breeze, clear blue skies with just sufficient fluffy white clouds to make a good photograph. It was Nick’s day to go cycling out into the countryside but the rest of us had a lazy start to the day with Katie coming to snuggle in bed with me and asking for stories about when the children were younger – I have a stock of these and the children never seem to tire of hearing them. This segued into looking at old photos on the computer for another hour or so. Finally went downstairs and made everyone their choice of breakfast about 10 am, then negotiated an hour without interruptions and went back upstairs to do Level 2 Chi Kung – Body and Mind Method and the microcosmic orbit. Very satisfying progress today and afterwards I managed to teach Katie how to stand on one foot (which I had noticed her struggling with when she was trying to copy me doing chi kung a few days ago). I’m aware that, for most people, balance is associated with the ears, but for me it is definitely visual. And, as I’m guessing that Katie probably has my extra-wiggly ear canals, I thought balancing visually might work for her too. It certainly did – she spent much of the rest of the day casually standing on one leg like a stork! After Nick got home (flushed with triumph after achieving a very good time on one part of the route (in the top ten of some league table of networked cyclists) we took the children to the local shops and got shorts for Jack and Dash and new bathing suits for Jack and Katie. As sometimes happens, it was cheaper to buy designer shorts on half price sale than to buy normal shorts at normal price – so the boys will be swanning around Italy in designer shorts this summer! We’ve just got to get new sandals for Jack and then we’ll be sorted. When we got home Katie was desperate to try out her new swimsuit so I took a book, some nice blue cheese, and a glass of wine down to supervise her in the pool. Later I finished all the children’s packing while Nick put the finishing touches to the automatic watering – it feels weird to be organised this far in advance, but I could definitely get used to it!
Month: August 2014
Day 51
A cruisy day. Level 2 Chi Kung Body and Mind Method. Microcosmic orbit. Jade egg practice. All good. Booked some theatre tickets, sat on the swing seat with Katie and did cloud-gazing (one of her favourite pastimes) and starting packing the children’s clothes for Italy. We don’t normally start packing until about midnight the night before we leave but this time I decided that it would be a pleasant change to be organised. Plus the children have all been growing so fast (must be all that good compost I spread around their feet) that I thought it might be prudent to check what still fits them while we still have a little time to shop before we leave. Nick has been busy sorting out the automatic watering to keep all the newly-planted stuff going while we are away. Tomorrow we are going to buy a small, lightweight toaster to take with us. Toast is essential to Jack’s happiness and we haven’t forgotten the struggle to obtain it on our last trip to Naples!
Day 50
Sherlock and I walked Dash and Katie to art class then pottered home to a peaceful hour of watering and weeding. Level 2 Chi Kung – Body and Mind Method was noticeably more comfortable today and – amazingly – in the part where it goes “and if your hands don’t reach the floor, then just imagine that they do”, suddenly, what did I feel under my fingers but floorboards! Microcosmic orbit was lovely – all the various coloured energies showed up on cue – and very energising. Jade egg practice went well. The rest of the day wasn’t quite so much fun as I struggled to sort out a mess caused by my very slow and not particularly ept estate agent back in Christchurch.
Since the article Richard Bolstad posted about sharing, the universe seems to be drawing my attention to sharing-type issues. First there was the elderly couple outside Giraffe who wanted to “share” our patch of shade to the extent that we were edged completely out of it. Then last night at the theatre, there was the person who had bought a standing ticket, but thought everyone in the row should scrunch up so that she could have a seat! Then I remembered an incident years ago in Covent Garden at one of those cafes where one buys food at the counter and then finds a table – which of course carries the risk that one ends up wandering around with a heavy tray and nowhere to sit. There is a delicate etiquette involved in avoiding this situation – one wants to reserve a table by leaving something on it, but that something needs to be unattractive to thieves. Thus leaving a handbag or briefcase on the table is asking to be robbed, but a newspaper or a fairly ordinary item of clothing is probably safe enough. On the day in question I left a pristine just-purchased copy of The Guardian and a sweatshirt. 15 minutes later, after a long queue for food, I returned to find a bunch of antipodeans sitting at my table – they had thrown my sweatshirt on the ground and were happily reading my newspaper. They wouldn’t budge and only very reluctantly returned the newspaper!