lull

friday 19th:

the last day with the handyman, excellent quality work, an interesting character and doing us a huge favour sorting out our shelving

mr smear's long nap after a long night's sleep, finally getting the router positioned correctly, returning the utopia containers, toasted vegan cheese sandwiches for lunch

getting lost at the mediclinic, an hour and a half tired and running after mr smear, coming home over the nek

setting up the hifi and playstation, mom visit, dinner in front of penny dreadful, crashing early

saturday 20th:

a decent night's sleep but waking up emotionally exhausted, struggling with wall saddle failure and general sense of humour failure

mr smear's first swimming lesson! he took to the water well, but another kid was just screaming constantly and it made the overall experience considerably less joyful

the oranjezicht farmer's market was nice, walking to the v&a food court for something a little more filling, mom joining us for a short frozen yoghurt and coffee mission before we did some quick shopping, avoiding an incident with an asshole and driving through to builder's warehouse where they didn't have the shelves we needed but we made do with what we could find anyway

shelf installation, showering, powering up the home theatre for the first time, returning to netflix

awful rls

sunday 21st:

it would have been an amazing night's sleep if i hadn't still been suffering from the remnants of the cold, mr smear practically slept through

getting up at 6.30am to download crash bandicoot warped and abe's exoddus on our night allowance, beginning the day with pokemon and doing what was hopefully the last bit of drilling and coming up with an awesome idea for a reality show with gd and taking advantage of mr smear napping to get back into my telephony project

big shopping in the rain

mr smear actually walking around for the first time (as opposed to a step or two here and there), mom's visit and turmeric latte and going to her place to find that we hadn't left behind what we thought we had

dinner and awful rls again (desperation)

monday 22nd:

sleeping through the night (mostly), a busy morning, the first session with a new therapist, mr smear passing out on the way home, being too tired to take advantage of his nap, hitting the gym with low fuel, rushing home for a landlord inspection, a busy mr smear, dinner and some more stranger things (getting interesting)

getting most of my work done, anatomy of an epidemic coming in handy for an advice request

tuesday 23rd:

installing ffix, converting anime for projection

a long night of mr smear's discomfort compounded by our own allergies

a well timed poop as we arrived at the mall, leaving management a subtle message about the state of their baby changing station

lunch, an afternoon trying to rest and work and getting very little done and suddenly feeling awful in the evening

awful turning into nightmare, really bad food poisoning / gastro

wednesday 24th:

no sleep, weak and unable to so much as sip water until the afternoon

a good excuse to watch plenty of miyazaki

thursday 25th:

still weak, but able to eat some crackers and bread and a little muesli... a long day alternating between resting, taking care of mr smear and deep misunderstandings

a mistaken walk on the promenade, projection and Choices

mom helping out, miscommunication, a Choice to break the camel's back and going to bed worn out and unhappy

friday 26th:

porridge, electrolytes and aggressively scratching the itch
rescuing from drowning
mr smear napping through most of the final physio session
knead, unstocked wellness warehouse, waterfront mission, rushing home to pack up the projector and give it to the courier

still feeling awful the whole time

mr smear dancing to our music, prepping for friday night dinner, leering staff at pick 'n pay
a very nice dinner, leaving much later than anticipated

saturday 27th:

still feeling awful and barely sleeping due to painful rls

mr smear's second swimming lesson, recognizing japanese and trying not to stare, overheating

the waterfront on the last weekend of the month AGAIN, mr smear sleeping for three hours while we navigated through mobs of maul people; purchasing his first lego (duplo) set!

breastfeeding in the car after paying for parking and still making it out in time, picking up mom and enjoying a lovely lunch at posticino

finally beginning to feel better

showering, shopping and reporting sexual harassment to a manager, feeding causing a neck spasm to upset the whole house, finally getting mr smear to bed and then being hit by severe rls again

questionable leftovers, not quite throwing up

sunday 28th:

restless in the middle of the night
mr smear too, hating on the tooth fairy
early up anyway in shitty weather to go with my mom to the hout bay market and the world of birds. a chilly small market experience (stunning art, buying a balance board), then the weather improving dramatically for the many amazing bird and monkey exhibits that we'll definitely be returning to
fantastic indian food on the way home (with only a minor incident of mr smear puking on gd) and overeating and coming home and playing with mr smear and protoplasm joining us and drinking tea on top of orange juice to make myself sick again...

mr smear misbehaving before bed (meaning hurting me), bad parenting (third night in a row we've forgotten to brush his teeth before his last feed)

gd and home security, going to bed early

monday 29th:

getting work done and it going really well after a few days' break
mr smear still having a hard time sleeping

getting to bed around 5.30am, but no sleep because that's when mr smear really started suffering

early to the doctor's, then a therapy session, then a visit to the chiropractor then home for a nap, struggles with a challenging one year old (aggressive food throwing), slowly getting through chores (learning about duvet folding)

homework until midnight

tuesday 30th:

satisfying work, taking advantage of my remaining bandwidth, getting to bed at a reasonable time. an easier night, though not easy

waking up feeling disconnected

political tension with my uncle, literally taking an hour to extract ourselves and get to the waterfront for the start of a particularly unsuccessful shopping expedition that would include kloof street and piazza st john's and regent road, ending with serious aggravation and exhaustion on all three of our parts

small chores and lots of food

wednesday 31st:

an almost full night's sleep for the lot of us and a calm morning