Journal (Ridgeback Routine): Family Time

The last week was very productive in that we visited the Petrie Pioneer Village and found a clay workshop with a number of kilns that run art classes for both sculpting and wheel. Never having had an art lesson in my life I thought it would be a good idea to enrol for the classes (both wheel and sculpting). I have had a little success with sculpting in the past but all too frequently the work has been ruined because I've had little idea on how to remove frames without destroying the work.

I once sculpted a bust of my Bonnie Ronnie but she asked me to make a change which resulted in the work cracking. I did take a couple of photos before committing the clay back to the pail though and if I can find them will add them to my Facebook page or the new web page which I am about to start. I am really looking forward to this new adventure in clay and learning the techniques that will help complete and preserve what is often day's of painstaking work.

I've registered the new domain and found a reasonable host but have absolutely no idea of what I want for the layout so I might just start with something pretty basic and just see where I go from there. I love doing stuff with little or no planning, I get this sense of freedom and excitement. Now that I have little input to business and my health is improving I am really starting to enjoy not living the work.... there is no hurry to do anything, no deadlines and certainly no scheduling time down to the second while trying to squeeze 48 hours into 24. Much more time for the most important activity of all.... Living life to the full! with the most important people in the world... Family and Friends! neither of which are renewable.

What a fantastic weekend we just had with all but one family member present (Cades). Candice was down in Brisbane for a new bookkeeping course which only finished yesterday so she spent Friday and Saturday night with us, Brett managed to swing some shifts and came down with Rosie (the pooch, she's a bitsa but a lovable pooch none the less) to spend Saturday night with us as well.

Candice had planned to take Ronnie and Nat to the movies on Saturday so Saturday morning I took my son Jay to the movie's, we haven't done that for 20 years and we will be doing it a lot more frequently now. We then sped home so that the ladies wouldn't be late for their afternoon matinee. The girls Hayley and Matilda were away spending time with Granddad (Natalie's father) while the boys Locky and Cammy stayed home to spend time with Poppy (yours truly). Ronnie wasn't sure that the movie choice would be her cup of tea so decided to stay with the men till shopping time....The ladies had a shopping expedition planned for the late afternoon and apparently that went well. I left a little early to ensure that we had supplies for a Sunday BBQ.

I should have had a look at the state of the BBQ which had not been used in over a year on Saturday... I wouldn't have needed to rush as much getting a filthy BBQ back into almost 'pristine'? condition.... Anyway we had a blast with everyone talking over each other while kids went ballistic. The only down side was that Nat had to take little Hayley with stomach cramps up to the hospital emergency before coming to the BBQ. It turns out that little Hayley has a rather nasty dose of gastric enteritis, which is doing the rounds.

I have just put my Bonnie Ronnie to bed with a dose of the same illness, and she hasn't even fully recovered from the bronchitis yet, poor bugger - she can't keep any food down and is freezing cold.