Thursdays with O.

Decking is materialising with surprising speed. Yesterday there were struts, today there's actual decking. Tomorrow there may EVEN be stairs...oh, the joy!

Reading: Chalktown, by Melinda Haynes. Very good book. Gave up on the "Oh, I'm saving it for the flight" mentality and instead am now trying to FINISH book before flight as would be insanely stupid to take book with fifty pages left to read on flight. If you know me you will nod your head sagely at this point and say something like "Oh, YES."

To recap: pre-wedding (about six months pre) husband started to read Chesapeake. I'd already done so and recommended it to him. It went on our honeymoon with us. Then it came home with us. I think it got finished shortly before our first wedding anniversary. The joke being that while we were away I read the ten books I'd packed and then traded them in/bought new ones/read his.

Does anyone know how long it takes to send a fibreglass violin case from America to Australia? Incredibly, to purchase one here is between $400-$500. Bottom of the range, nothing fancy. BUT, Ebay is your friend! Buy it now for only $99US, pay $60US postage and TA-DAH!

One fire-engine red fiberglass case complete with hygrometer (measures humidity) can be yours. As long as you don't mind waiting a month. Which I wouldn't, except for the small issue of getting on a flight on Sunday. I'll (tragically) probably be separated from my shortly-to-be-beloved case by a couple of airport buggies. :P
Craaaaapola.

BUT, at the library many wonderful books about fire-engines are completely available for instant gratification; it's quite wonderful rediscovering the local library through the eyes of an almost-2 yo. (Although our local library NOW is a much nicer and child-friendlier place than our OLD library. I remember damp carpet, dank little corners and squeaky stools which has particularly nasty groves for trapping little fingers.) BULL-dozer is the word of the millenium, so did we ever hit gold with a book titled...WAIT for it.... BULLDOZERS!

The text is truly gripping stuff; "Bulldozers push. Bulldozers change the shape of the land."
is followed by the heady rush of "Bulldozers have wide blades. Blades push dirt into piles."
And can you beat the adrenaline rush elicited by "Bulldozer drivers sit high up in cabs. Drivers use levers to lift and lower the blades."

Wow, in my next life I'm going to be a bulldozer driver. Or maybe even this life!I'm sure I could retrain. Seriously, no wonder kids want these jobs. I mean, all Daddy does is sit on a round and round chair. He moves a mouse thing to move boxes around on the screen. Hmmm.