I was driven to a second beer last night.. but today we are pottering around getting stuff packed, and wondering why we aren't in a tizzy. That will come again once the children are home! They are more or less packed though... so theoretically it should be possible to complete packing without having a coronary. Hmmm, maybe not, once Himself starts packing the car...

I solved the 'off-bike' footwear problem last night by finding thongs to satisfy the two youngest at the local supermarket. Go me, I think. Then they are packing thermal (polypropolene) gear, and #2 can't find hers. It's a wonder as they are bright rainbow stripes. Hard to miss, even in the diabolical mess their drawers are in. I find an extra one in 3#'s drawer (yet she has packed a top already - which I think was #2's). This other one is tiny! Uh-oh, she must have grown. Since the last time she wore it. Um.. Sydney to Gong ride in October last year? Oh boy... Do the hand-me-down swap, and write 'thermal top for #1' on the last minute shopping list this afternoon.

#2 also had me on a wild goose chase for a discarded, worn, school uniform top from Tuesday, which supposedly had her Student Council badge on it. All my children have the very bad habit of going up to the Disaster Zone (our bedroom floor) to search for clean, but yet-to-be-sorted laundry, and then step out of what they are wearing, and simply walk away with the new item. They do this especially when they are in a hurry (like she was on Tuesday), and are too lazy to walk 4 steps to dump the dirty clothes in the washing pile. (We may do 'cool' stuff with our kids, but I can't get them to do the basics!)

I was going demented looking for it - it had to be in the house somewhere.. surely. Last night after she went to bed I spotted said badge on a shelf downstairs. Not still attached to a shirt at all. Grrrr.

In half an hour I pick up two of them to drop at swimming lessons, but I will come back and potter round some more until I go to mine. And then we will have spag bol for dinner, and very calmly add the last bits and pieces to the bags... get a good night's sleep... and be up early to leave by hopefully 7-ish. We are detouring via Comboyne to drop off a box of food for our Wednesday evening sojourn. This is a link to the place we are staying at - top one - A Country Affair. The owners have been just amazing, all the help they are offering for just a $120, one night stay.. they have given us their mobiles to collect us if we run into trouble on the bikes... they are picking up the box of food from the general store and leaving it at the house for us.True country hospitality. I already feel like booking in for a week another time just because they have been so great. (Not sure what we'd do up there..)

So picture us, Wednesday evening, kicking back in this farmhouse in the countryside!!
We have cameras sorted (just hope they have a charging station set up at the campgrounds for us...)...with an OTG (on the go) bridge thingy that means we can dump photos direct from our camera across to a USB stick thingy, which will hold 1 Gig. No longer the latest thing, but handy nonetheless. (Next major purchase in this house (after the cycling sunglasses with interchangeable coloured lenses that we are (hopefully) picking up at a bike shop in Taree tomorrow - go the last minute purchases huh!) is a new digital camera. NOT a Sony cybershot. (And naturally better than 2.1 megapixels)....

So..

We have friends who live in Forster to meet up with tomorrow, and we know so many people going on the ride this time... it's quite awesome.. and comforting to know that there are others just as nutty as we are!

Will say cheerio till Monday week... If I was really committed I'd go find an internet cafe somewhere and put in a post... but somehow I think the break from being so addicted to the internet will do me good. Not that I won't miss everyone's blogs! Going to have a lot of catching up to do week after next! Be good!

Labels: bike riding, daily