seven days in

tuesday 14th august:

down the crypto rabbit hole until 3.45am

early up, jumping out of bed to an angry mr smear, the washing machine installed, gd out of commission and some unnecessary tension

a bad cough starting

dropping mr smear at school, printing our contract and sending in my shirt for popeyefication, pharmacy

my first work chats (asynchronous), lots of communication tool configuration, a rush to draw cash for the morning's appliance guy, beginning to set up my old laptop

picking up mr smear, who'd had a normal day, a mall visit for a babyccino and some nails for our coffee table, home for lunch, taking mr smear in the stroller back to the mall with him falling asleep, just missing the next hardware store, stopping by an awesome tattoo parlour (tomb) to get my helix replaced

mr smear waking up in a foul mood just before we returned home, ordering in, apartment contract stress, mom's laptop issues (windows smartscreen is the WORST), the food being good but the delivery sucked, ending up with polystyrene packaging in my food

the tragedy of my son spooning good soup all over his chest, but improving a little at least

a very long goodnight, peeling three apples with my teeth

the policeman shouting at our neighbour's door

wednesday 15th:

waking up past midnight in my son's bed having passed out because it had taken so long to get him to go to bed

a little setup then grabbing four hours of sleep before getting up around 5.30 to adult with the lease - finally getting through it around two hours later, just in time for everyone else to wake up and to decide that i needed more rest (ha, ha, right)

still with the horrible cough

a very busy morning getting mr smear to school, finding a strip for our shower door - feeling like i'd taken a crazy pill, wondering if everyone on the roads was simultaneously having a stroke and one well-dressed man actually walking into the side of my stopped car - lots of time invested in contract signing and snags, setting up my workstation, dealing with pest control and homeless shelter vouchers and the museum and class gifts and condolence gifts and drawing cash for piercings

picking up mr smear ("i *want* to be wet and smelly!"), trying to optimize by taking him to the shelter to pick up the vouchers; he fell asleep just as we arrived, and everything smelled intensely of human feces, the weirdness of learning that the pharmacy gets a bulk discount on vouchers and hoping that's not actually the case and that they're simply paying a part of each booklet themselves

mr smear napping and me continuing to set up my workstation, asking him what he wanted for his room's walls and constructing a lego policemen poster while he complained that he'd meant he wanted to see lego city on the ipad; feeding him wraps, hummus and berries before taking him and his balance bike to the tomb tattoo parlour to pay the amount i still owed them, mr smear finally getting on his bike (i'd had to carry it the whole time) and having an amazing time following around the indian restaurant owner's bigger kid (and stopping to develop a relationship with the francophone car guard)

a pleasant walk home, then heading to my mom's coffee shop to help her with her laptop and chat over coffee before doing a grocery run for my salad ingredients, winning a bunch of airtime vouchers, then coming home and straight into shower time

a dripping wet diaper right after showering requiring us to shower again, putting mr smear to bed and learning that for three days he's been avoiding going to sleep because he's afraid of a ghost he saw on the #!%?ing care bears

raging after discovering that the cleaning lady is still putting open food in the cupboards

trying to get some work done but becoming overwhelmed with exhaustion, lying down to nap for half an hour

thursday 16th:

and eventually getting up at 5am and wondering if this early morning thing was going to be the way forward

horrible cough day three: sludge throat

gd and i sharing a mutual freakout because i'd been working for my new employer for three days and had yet to produce a thing; partially exacerbated by running out of local funds because i hadn't been keeping track and the move was full of surprise expenses

managing to get mr smear out the door half a hour less late than usual (with a little stress and a packed breakfast), returning pretzels and learning about torque bits and finally leaving the hardware store with a wood bit and a pre-sliced dowel, picking up a second attempt at a popeye shirt and printing the lego policemen poster (which he'd enjoy later), returning home to sort out carpets, make slow and steady progress with work and later prove my "handiness" to my wife by satisfactorily fixing the foot of our sleeper wood coffee table

the relief of being able to walk barefoot in our apartment for the first time

picking up mr smear and taking him shopping while he devoured his breakfast, lunch and berries (and a handful of raw almonds, which pleased me), then returning home to find him passed out in the back and lying down myself for an hour or two until he woke up around 5pm

finally, after being in our home for a week, setting up the entertainment system

a reasonable bedtime preparation followed by a child who was completely uninterested in going to sleep - after a lot of effort on both our parts he threw a tantrum; i managed to handle it well and he confided in me that he didn't want to go to sleep because he wanted to go to the dentist - i explained that the two aren't mutually exclusive, recited a poem while scratching his back and finally got some me time in watching you magnificent bastard before getting back to work

mr smear starting a cough,

oh-f***-it's-friday 17th:

crashing suddenly just after midnight

a longer time waking up than planned, wondering where my week went (inspiring me to log my hours again)

an hour or so figuring out how to self sign certificates in windows (thank you, let's encrypt! and thank YOU, babun!), a tough time getting mr smear out of his room ("i don't want to go to school! i want to stay in my room!") and ready for school ("i don't want to play with my friends, i want to go to the dentist!")

a lost cap, a quick shopping that took far too long, picking up gd and going straight through to her not-hypnotherapist

a little work progress, followed by a rush to get through a city full of incompetent drivers, stopping in the worst parking lot (woolworths at cavendish) to pick up a new cap for mr smear and finally arriving ten minutes late at the wrong hospital on the opposite side of town for gd's appointment - dropping her off and realizing that she was two minute's walk from our new home - it turned out to be a bad idea to tell her that, though, which kind of soured the afternoon a bit

picking up mr smear, working while keeping an eye on him, finally achieving something (basic, but satisfying) just before leaving for the temple

a pleasant service with mr smear playing quietly in the kid's corner with a new friend (i think her mother thought i was hired help - she certainly treated me as such), heading straight to my cousins for a really nice and loud family dinner

saturday 18th:

lost iphone contacts - my phone had decided to attach all my contacts to my work account and deleted them all when i disconnected it :'(
gardens visit, a scalding hot babyccino and the predictable fallout which the woman at least had the decency to be embarrassed about
a beard trim and laser treatment
a company gardens playdate, mr smear's first strip show (he stumbled upon a woman modelling nude in public), the kids simultaneously pooping their pants and the nightmare scenario of not catching mr smear taking off his onesie and diaper and covering himself in messy shit
back home for a fun hour or two while the kids parallel played
setting up the playstation and mr smear passing out on my lap watching me play motorstorm
dinner and disenchanted (great)
sailor coming over for a long and entertaining evening

sunday 19th:

two hours of personal project work followed by two hours of dealing with mr smear's nappy rash and refusal to sleep, finally sliding out of his bed (his eyes were still open) at 4am just as city revelers started a massive fight in the streets that lasted at least half an hour

about three hours of sleeping badly, waking up uncomfortably, half an hour of tightening security for my phone service, driving through to wynberg

the joy of witnessing mr smear in the back seat wearing a blue glitter water drop mask and singing along to dead or alive - you spin me round

getting out of the car for a memorial service and mr smear yelling "ghostbusters!" at the top of his lungs...

telling my son we had to go but getting stuck for half an hour (at least some of it was fun, chasing him around the empty synagogue)

lunch at plant, waiting an absurdly long time but the new menu definitely successful

a fun walk around the block with mr smear and witnessing a gang of street kids giving patrons a hard time

coming home to no naps, a proper shower (after two days skipped) and an afternoon with mr smear generally* playing nicely while i worked on my telephony project and then joining me for an intense session of toy story 3 (that game is amazing)

* with a few bum-paste related meltdowns

accidentally breaking a very nice wardrobe light installation (all we needed)

dinnertime with animaniacs (he asked for it, we all enjoyed it), followed by a very nice story time and getting him asleep before 9pm for the first time since before we moved, gd actually settling in a drawing for the first time in ages, and now that i've posted i think i'm ready to work.

i just wish i didn't have that infestation feeling all over my legs again. and that i had time to invest in preparing for next week's poetry slam.