This whirlwind week

We've hardly seen each other this week, Ian and I, with one of those lots-of-meetings-and-stuff weeks.
Monday: Me, James and Robert in, Ian and Ishbel out at Joeys.
Ishbel had stopped going to Joeys but went a couple of weeks ago when the Melbourne Cup was on and they were making racing silks (out of crepe paper) and doing horsey races round the hut. There is an activity on today (more about that to follow) and I told her that, if she wanted to do the thing today, she'd have to keep going, not just cherry pick the more interesting days. After this there will be Christmas parties, etc. to keep going for.
Tuesday: Ian and the kids in, me at a Tanderra (Ishbel's after school care centre) meeting.
Wednesday: Me and Ishbel in, Robert and James at Venturers, Ian ferrying boys back and forth. This week the Venturers went to Glenbrook pool for fun and games there.
Thursday: Ian and the kids in, me at Joanne's. It was Joanne's first day of chemotherapy and she wanted someone to "babysit' her because she didn't know how she was going to be feeling. She had a long day as she also had a port inserted - a little device that goes under the skin with a tube fed into a vein - the next time she goes the chemo line is clipped into the port. Her chemo is fed in over 2 days so it means her arm isn't strapped up with a drip in it and she can be a lot more mobile. Unfortunately there was a bit of trouble getting the port in and she was feeling pretty bruised and sore.
Friday: Ian, James and Ishbel in, Robbie at work and me out at Bushfire Brigade training. this time we did Pre-incident planning in the shed then went out doing some Local area familiarisation (very important that we know trails, waterholes, hazards, etc in our area) which involved some bush bashing and the removal of a tree from the track by pulling it out of the ground - we aren't allowed to use chain saws after the sun goes down.
Saturday: Ian and Ishbel in, Robbie at Lee's, Jamie to Kirsty's birthday party and me working at the Timelines Local History conference. Ishbel had her friend, Zanny over to play. Robbie is away overnight. Jamie was back shortly after 9pm having enjoyed his pool party. The conference went smoothly although there weren't enough attendees for the library to even break even so it's doubtful that it will continue in coming years. My colleagues Jenny, Gillian and I were there to register delegates and sort out the catering while our supervisor Robyn and John the local studies librarian ran the conference. Most of our day was fairly boring, waiting for the next meal break. Unlike last year when we spent lots of time preparing morning and afternoon tea, this year the catering was all done for us (the Leisure Centres have a catering service called Aquafresh which is very good). I came home with a big plate of sandwiches, a cheese platter and lots of cake thinking the boys would soon polish it off, forgetting they were both out. desperate calls to Karen and Dan, Sharon and Janet and Steven to come and help us finish them proved useless. Luckily Zanny's dad agreed to take sandwiches for the cricket team today but an awful lot of food went into the bin.
Sunday: Everyone out. I'm off to Katoomba for book group in half an hour or so. We've been reading Alice in Wonderland this month. I've enjoyed it. I started to read it to Ishbel when we lost Harry Potter but gave up when Harry turned up again so I'll try again later. Robbie is still at Lee's. He'll be back later then out again, I see he has to work again this evening. Ian, Jamie and Ishbel have gone with the Scouts (Joeys, Cubs and Scouts) down to Sydney to the zoo. Jamie wasn't keen and went off kicking and screaming and grumbling but I wasn't going to have him doing nothing all day, especially with everyone else being out. I know going to the zoo is quick and easy for you Edinburgh types but it's a big deal trip for us. Ishbel was excited and keen to see her favourite - the Tasmanian Devil.