Distractions

Tuesday:

Feeling pretty battered today. My family can't organise dad's funeral because the hospital is going to do an autopsy first, so it seems they don't know the exact cause of death. It means the funeral won't be until next week some time, don't know what day yet so can't make plans to travel down there.

Still haven't got through to my brother, no idea if he has seen my emails or voicemail or texts but I assume not or he would have replied unless he is too overwhelmed. Or dead. It seems to run in the family at the moment. I have asked my uncle who lives reasonably nearby to go around there this afternoon. Haven't heard back yet.

Aiden is still home sick, he has a nasty cough that was pretty horrible in the early hours of this morning but does seem better now, hopefully it's nearly over. We did pop out in the morning to buy some food, I tried to keep it very quick but it was freezing out there and either that or the moving around did start up his cough again for a while. Well, I can prepare meals for the next couple of days at least.

I had some things already booked in for today so I was kept busy. The curtain guy came to measure the relevant windows and show me fabric samples, so I got that finalised. New curtains for the living areas and Jasmine's bedroom in 3-6 weeks. The guy encouraged me to take down the old curtains myself, when the time came, which means unscrewing the brackets. He seemed very surprised when I said it was very much worth the money to me to pay someone else to do it. $10 per curtain (9 un-screws, and a heavy curtain rail falling on my head, and having to stand on a chair when I'm uncomfortable with heights) seemed like a bargain to me!

And the Salvation Army came to take some donations of furniture and books. And we got a delivery of a cabinet to stand the TV on (flat-packed), the TV had been sitting on our coffee table previously and I decided to finally get a proper stand for it, with spaces underneath for the Xbox and DVDs and everything. The Salvos didn't want our old TV cabinet even though it is a nice piece in great condition - no one (including us) has a TV that small any more! We sit our CD player in it now. But it is a huge piece of furniture that dominates the room so I had hoped to get rid of it. Maybe a recycling centre will want it for the wood and glass?

Jasmine went to a friend's house after school. Aiden and I (mostly I) spent at least two hours putting the TV unit together. I think it looks pretty good, considering I have no skills in that area. I'm amazed we had appropriate screwdrivers and a small hammer! One corner isn't tight so it's not perfect, but I'm quite proud of it.

I feel I'm really making progress in getting the house fixed up a bit, and it is a good distraction. That, and thinking about the possible loveliness of Norfolk Island, are helping me get through the days. Otherwise I'd be sitting being miserable all the time instead of half the time.