Not drunk blogging, just one of the classic lines Ali's related from the school camp she went on this week. The permanent teachers at this camp had a few good tricks up their sleeves to combine discipline and fun. She's hardly stopped talking about it since she got back about 3.00 yesterday afternoon. $165 well spent, I'd say.

We got up at 5.00 this morning to go for the community bike ride - this time with the girls (considering that we have to start doing some training for the Big Ride.) Weather was dubious looking.. cloudy, windy. I wasn't keen. But we went. And it started raining half way to town. And I gave him the big "I told you so" look. Oh well, we were up, we were there.. we had bike rain jackets... and it actually wasn't that bad. Rolled up to the start, to a very small turnout.

A couple of k's into it, Cait, my stoker.. my passenger... had an Attack. A full blooded DQ (Drama Queen) attack. Cold legs, wet bum, didn't want to be there. No.. didn't care about getting bacon and eggs at the cafe when we finished. She was so painful, I had to pull out after a few kms and ride back. She copped an earful all the way.. and then for the next half hour of killing time sitting in the car. That sounds dreadful, but it's not like this is some new 'thing' we've just dreamed up and decided to make her do. She was saying at the end of the Big Ride earlier this year that she wanted to do it again. And so we are. And so THIS was training.. and.. guess what, kid. It might rain on the Ride.. and you'll get wet! You'll have to push through a bit of discomfort.

Of course, being the teenage DQ that she is, she'd also ignored the advice we've given her ever since we bought them all bike nix. You don't wear undies with bike nix! Never. The seams dig in.. and guess what. If you get wet, then your cotton undies are going to soak up the water, and your bum will be wetter. But oh no.. she knows best.

I left her in the car while I met the others (after they did their ride) at the cafe, and we had bacon and eggs. The other two were fine. It didn't rain the whole time.. and despite being a bit wet, it wasn't that cold. And they got their promised big brekkie.

Gave her an ultimatum. Decide now whether she's IN for the Big Ride or not. If she's not, I'll buy a bloody road bike, and ride myself. I can't put up with the DQ act. If we're doing it, we need to do training rides, and the training rides start now. She made ME miss MY training ride today. So I was NOT HAPPY. And boy did she know it.

So we've been home a while.. and the phone rings; it's my mother. I deliberately didn't mention the bike ride. I know what she would think. But then she asked me if we went.. and I'm not a good enough liar to just say 'yeah.. we went with the kids'. I glossed over it.. 'yeah, Marc, Ali and Zoe did it, Cait had an attack and we didn't'... AND of course she says "I wouldn't want to go for a ride in the rain anyway."

[No, Mum. In my whole childhood you also never went in a swimming pool, or swam with us at the beach. You never did ANYTHING with us that pushed us out of our comfort zones or helped us challenge ourselves... AND ANYWAY... I didn't even ask for your effing opinion.]

Arrrghhhh.

Meh... so today.. disintegrated. Tired from getting up early, but not achieving what I set out to achieve when I got up early. Had a sense of urgency about getting things done, because Marc leaves tomorrow for this work trip to KL.. back Friday.. we leave Saturday morning. But we didn't seem to achieve anything much at all. Watched some good cricket?! I suppose.. I HOPE .. it will all fall into place this week.

Alternatively, I could just have a nervous breakdown and be done with it.

Labels: aarrrgghhh, bike riding, daily, teenagers