See me smile

I just had my final exam. I've never felt so awfully free than today where I just stayed in bed until 3pm, only getting out to get something to eat. I'm so giddy from immeasurable relief that I didn't mind turning the webcam on beaming to my relatives in Norway and the Philippines our bedroom that was purely a disaster zone.

I watched tv in bed and didn't mind that the boys had turned their bedroom upside-down, inside-out. I didn't mind that my duvet would disappear and reappear in my bed. Or that empty milk cups piled up in my bedside table. I didn't mind stepping on lego pieces while trodding to the bathroom, or seeing my boys standing in front of me, sweet as angels, with their hands behind them, smiling so serenely, while their faces were covered in chocolate. Feigning ignorance, I asked them what they've been up to in the other bedroom and they replied rather defensively that they were just 'playing together nicely'. I smiled in approval, and confiscated secretly the stash of individually wrapped toblerones that was supposed to be their father's present to me for the hard effort I put into my exams. They ate my chocolates! but I didn't tell them off because I am carefree today. I am relaxed and excited that I could finally read fiction again...

Until next year when I start another round of reading cases and statutes.

Lesson 1

I let Zak stand in a corner for pushing Lewis. I sat directly in front of him while trying to pacify the screaming little one.

After a couple of minutes, he came up to me and said, 'I'm sorry Mummy. I thought about it and I'm never going to do it again. I've learned my lesson.'

Trying to look firm, I asked, 'and what lesson have you learned?'

He replied ever so innocently, 'only numeracy!'

Does this remind you of your grandmother?

Oh please don't lecture me about time and household management. I need somebody to train my husband the art of domesticity!

I don't like ironing clothes.

And I don't like putting them away in drawers and wardrobes.

I also don't like cooking, and dish washing, and toilet-cleaning.

So what does that say about my day today?

Frustrating and exhausting.

I ironed clothes while Jose Mari Chan was on YouTube singing that sad christmas song. I nearly burst into tears. Not because of the song, but because I just felt sorry for myself. I iron clothes once a month so you can just imagine how I was dwarfed by piles of babygros and shirts, trousers and jeans. And bloody bedsheets. I have never done ironing in industrial proportion back in the Philippines. And here in this sodding first-world country I.am.ironing.everybody's.clothes. And putting them away as well, which is worse. It's like Maths for kids. All husband's shirts on hangers. All husband's long-sleeved shirts on more hangers. All husband's t-shirts on one pile. All husband's jumpers on another pile. And on and on and on. Then there are more clothes for the two kids which have to be sorted in different piles as well. And socks. It's hell. There are 3 pairs of socks worn everyday. When they go in the washing, they decide to go separate ways and when they dry I could never match them up again!

After I read the boys' bedtime stories, I went on my hands and knees to clean the bathrooms. Then my husband called me on the phone saying that 'there's a situation'. For a moment I thought, god, he's going to bring home another baby and I'd get more clothes to wash and iron, or, oh no, his parents are finally moving with us and there will be MORE clothes to iron. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he said, 'I have loads of potatoes and they need to be washed - in the bath - because the kitchen sink is too small for this lot'. I moaned. 'But I just disinfected the bath!' He said, 'don't worry, I'll clean up'.

After bathing his potatoes, he kissed the boys goodnight, got out of the room, went downstairs and sat down in front of his computer. Before I could get in the bathroom to check, he said, 'don't freak out'. So I peeped through the crack of the door. The disinfected, glistening white tiled floor 15 minutes ago is now muddy. Mudbleedingdy.

I turned off Jose Mari Chan. I closed YouTube. I closed my eyes.

I took out the gun lodged in my brain and shot the iron to smithereens.

happy birthday to you!

happy birthday to you!, originally uploaded by Soyy.

Flop debut

I can't claim to be politically sound but I do have a little bit of political awareness. The interview debut of Sarah Palin just reinforced what I and a lot of people thought of her. I cringed all the way through the painful interview, and not just because 'Charlie' of ABC is awfully professorial to her, but because of her answers. She tried so hard to appear confident and knowledgeable but her answers did not have substance and were obviously rehearsed sound bites. When asked about the Bush doctrine, she just got lost.

The Republicans simply took a massive risk on her. I hope America doesn't.