#18 - A load off my mind

20/02/2011

Jess enjoyed her birthday surprise - she enjoyed the decorations but was shockingly ungrateful for the spam and toilet roll.
People these days!

Went to collect my washing from the launderette, and in the mean time gave another load in - they do a load for $1.50 and fold it as well so you can't really complain.
It is also a great chance to combine the trip with a visit to the Panaderia, which Jarett and I did. I got a cinnamon doughnut.

We then went to the church service, which was enjoyable. However I walked down in shorts and was about to zip on the removable trouser legs (trousers must be worn in the churches here) when I realised that the zip had broken off one of them.
I unconvincingly limped into the hall holding the right leg on, sat down quickly and we managed to procure 4 safety pins with which I produced a fudged effort - they were attached but every once in a while, the leg would sag down and my knee would be exposed.
However I managed to get through the service ok.

When we got home, the rest of the day was free.
Albin explained how today and tomorrow are both free for us to relax and reclaim some of the energy that had been slowly but relentlessly sapped during the past week through all the training.
Don't get me wrong, we learned some really awesome and useful things but all at once, so my head was pretty much spinning for the whole week hence the mini-breakdown yesterday.

So the day was free to do with it what we willed.
Ryan took everyone else to a national park for a hike (which they eventually wimped out of due to rain) so I gratefully grabbed the opportunity to be home alone for the first time in about 12 days.
I emailed Mum on the offchance she may be online (it was 8:30pm UK time) and she was, so w had a Skype call.
Everything back home seems to be good - my room has been comprehensively cleaned and dusted, a job I have never undertaken in around 14 years. Hattie seems to have moved in to her new flat ok. Grandma and Grandpa came for coffee and are well.
So everything's ok in summary.

 Dad then got home about an hour later so I managed to talk to him for about half an hour as well, so both parents are up to date and it's nice to actually talk to people rather than just leaving a message and waiting for a reply a few hours later.

They got back around 6pm which coincided with Kelly and the girls bringing over the cake they'd made - Luce-Marie had also bought a cake so we had two cakes and popcorn for dinner.
They were both exceedingly good in taste, I just couldn't get enough of them.

We then spent ages playing Phase 10, a derivative of Rummy which I'd played before and went on to win after a closely-fought battle.
That annoyed Christina which was fair enough as when she was in the lead, I played a total of 6 skip cards against her and I'd be pretty hacked off if someone did that to me.
But it's just banter.

Today was nice for four main reasons: a) giving Jess a nice birthday surprise, b) talking to my parents, c) having some time not training and d) having those couple of hours to myself in the house.
No matter how awesome my team are (and they are), I need time to myself and that has been very scarce recently.
It was bliss.

Finished the evening just chilling, anecdoting, drinking Diet Coke and massaging Andy's thighs which he seemed to enjoy rather worryingly.
He also made a thong out of foil of which I have some excellent photos.

Time for bed - we're going into the mountains for a hike tomorrow (typical, using our day off for strenuous exercise) so I had better get some sleeeep.

By the way - big respect to those of you who spotted both the reference to the Ariel adverts (trip to the launderette) and to feeling more at ease (relaxing afternoon) in the title.
Top marks.

But yeah, suffice to say that I didn't have a downer like yesterday.
I feel sane again.
Praise God for that.
Nighty night/good morning.

JG