Chronicles of a Trailing Spouse...

School holidays nightmares... I hate school holidays. They feel like a personal attack on those of us who are reckless enough to have more than two or three kids. I don't quite know who is inflicting this attack -- I haven't thought it through that far -- but probably some kind of 'one-child policy' conspiracists ...or rather, 'two-to-three-child-policy' conspiracists, who disapprove of the four-or-more brigade). I say this because, when I had just a couple of kids I quite liked the school hols; for one I could snooze late by locking the bedroom door so the children couldn't escape (they all slept in my bed anyhow), putting on a Little Mermaid DVD, and throwing brioches, muffins and milk at them so that I could snatch an extra hour of semi-dreaming, albeit with a Disney soundtrack. We'd eventually get dressed and venture out to a play centre or park for a couple of hours, followed by baby-bowls from Bewley's (ah for the days when the kids w...

DH needs to get back to work.  As the visa application for Oz drags on I fear for his sanity.  My first inkling that he was 'losing it' was when I found him sitting alone on a bed in the boys' room furiously assembling a gigantic Transformer  toy whilst inexplicably wearing a hand-knitted hat on his head and a bow tie around his neck. So engrossed was he that he didn't notice me for some moments before looking up and asking 'have you seen the other truck for his foot? ' On another occasion he disappeared outside for several minutes; wandering outside onto the deck I found him perched on the roof of the garden shed staring out at the cows in the next field as if it were the most normal thing in the world (it is a very  nice view mind you). Unlike me DH is not designed for idleness, but rather than seeking out things to keep him busy -- and without the cut and thrust of the world of work, not to mention the incentive of pay at the end of the month -- he sinks i...