What I've been up to

[radegund]

This week has been ... about as varied as I'm able for. Possibly more so, in fact, considering how it's ending up. But I get ahead of myself. Allow me to give you a précis:

Monday
- Had a two-hour meeting with the architects and the man we're going to put in charge of building our 100-foot basalt tower south wing.
- Went to a therapy session (relatively draining).

Tuesday
- Took the boys to a home-ed meetup at a softplay place in Greystones.
- Spent most of the rest of the day putting together that photo post.

Wednesday
- Altered my concert skirt, finally.
- Cooked dinner for everyone including my parents; started cooking Friday's dinner.
- When K turned up, went to pick Oisín up from his childminder.
- Threw together a picnic dinner for myself, and caught the bus into town; was in time for the hired bus to Artane.
- Rehearsed with choir and orchestra for our gigs on Thursday and Friday.

Thursday
- Took the car to Fonthill for its NCT.
- While the car was being tested, brought the boys to Smyths Mega Super Bumper Galaxy of Toy Overload; bought some Playmobil for Friday's birthday boy (and for us, a rather disquieting green bouncy ball covered in rubbery tendrils).
- Lunched in the gracious surroundings of the Liffey Valley shopping centre.
- Hared back into town and went to the Co-op for our week's non-supermarket food.
- Came home, got a text from K to say she was stuck in traffic, had a minor conniption, turned on the electric babysitter (aka cbeebies) and ran around the house getting ready (including making a picnic dinner again).
- K arrived half an hour later, and I left immediately. Drove to Sir John Rogerson's Quay, parked, crossed the Liffey and headed down to the O2 Arena, where we were due to rehearse at 5:30.
- Rehearsed, ate my picnic dinner (there were soup and sandwiches laid on, but they had dairy), changed into concert gear.
- Went on stage and performed. Andrea Bocelli performed too. Indeed, to most of the 12,000-strong audience, he was quite possibly the main attraction. (The soprano and baritone soloists may also have got a look-in.) We had some opera chorus bits to do, and some oohing and aahing behind the croonier sections of the programme. It was cheesy and in-ya-face and pretty damn glitzy.

Friday
- Made flapjacks; showered while they baked.
- Drove niallm to the train station, for he is away until next Friday.
- Went to Oisín's dentist appointment (he was nervous, but the dentist won him over by affecting to seek baby hedgehogs in his mouth; she's the least dentist-like dentist I've ever met).
- Lunched in the g. s. of the Stephen's Green shopping centre (argh too much bleddy Kylemore); bought wrapping paper.
- Drove home and left the boys in the car while I went in and grabbed the birthday present and 16 flapjacks; wrapped the present in the car.
- Went to M's birthday party. Talked to OtherMothers and wrangled children, balloons, etc. Had fun.
- Came home and set about making my third picnic dinner of the week; also finished making home-dinner.
- K arrived, and I set out again - same drill as last time, with the parking and the walking and the performing with Andrea Bocelli. The gig was great - better than Thursday's. There's something uniquely exciting about 12,000 people starting to cheer and scream and applaud when you start singing because they recognise (in this case) "O Sole Mio".
- Hurried home to relieve the lovely, generous mollydot and Nuteile, who were kind enough to babysit (they overlapped with K, who left around 9). We had tea and chatted for a bit, and then Fiachra woke up so I went and fed him back to sleep; mollydot and Nuteile left shortly thereafter.
- Had a goodnight phonecall with niallm, put the kitchen to bed, and went to bed myself. Looked forward to the La Leche League conference the next day.

Saturday
- Fiachra woke at 2:15 and 4:00 (by which time Oisín had already arrived in our room). He wasn't very happy. He continued to doze and fret for the remainder of the night.
- I woke at 6:15 and threw up in the bathroom. Went back to bed and tried to sleep, without much success.
- Oisín woke at 7:00 with a dirty nappy (very unusual); he was in quite a lot of discomfort.
- Oisín threw up around 8:00.
- We all got up around 9:00. All Oisín wanted was to watch cbeebies, so we turned it on. Fiachra was cheerful enough, but very, very feedy.
- Resigned self to missing the LLL conference. Boo.
- Sent out a distress call to the rellies. This produced serious results: the parade of helpers comprised my mother, K, my sister (who brought along kulfuldi, kulfuldi's sister and her boyfriend, and another friend), and my cousin C. This made the day manageable, as I was basically hors de combat until mid-evening. Spent a lot of time in bed; went from being unable to keep cooled boiled water down in the morning, to being more or less OK with toast and flat 7Up (ugh) later on. Oisín, very insistently, watched TEN HOURS of television, and eventually fell asleep on the sofa while I was putting Fiachra to bed.
- Corresponded with niallm at regular intervals. He was agitating to come straight home, but I didn't think it necessary for a 24-hour thing. He is lovely, though.

Sunday
We seem to be better today. Breakfast is staying down, so far, at least. We're going to my parents' in a bit, as my brother is home from London for the weekend.

I'd quite like a quieter week next, kthxbai.

Comments

[ainetl.livejournal.com]

i would really love to hear you sing sometime. given the current state of my finances and the distance, that is highly unlikely. but gosh i would love it.

saturday sounds terrible. thank heavens for rellies and happy to hear that you're feeling a bit better today. just don't overdue it.

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

Glad you're feeling better. Nuteile & myself are still fine, so I think we've escaped whatever it was.

[ailbhe]

Criminy.

I say again, criminy.

Thank heavens for rellies.

[thereyougothen.livejournal.com]

why oh why does it always do its worst when you are single parenting? aargh.

hope it's all better now?