Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The crazy times of a working mother

I did finally get to Auckalnd. I started my day getting downstairs and being greeted by the Scowly Teen lying on the floor, howling in pain and clutching her head. Hm. Earache can be a right bitch! So, then set about getting the 11 yr old ready for school, popped them both in the car (ST still in PJ's) as well as leaving MANY frantic phone calls to The Stud (he starts work at 7.30am and was long gone!!).....Then I dropped off the wee one at her school, took the still bawling teen to work, wrapped her in ablanket on the office floor and rang the Doctor. They agreed they could see her at 9.30am...the exact time I was meant to be at the airport by. The Stud arrived at my office at 9.10am and promptly took over childcare, I scampered half heartedly to the airport. Is it just me, but is there a part of every working mother which believes NO-One can look after their sick "baby" as well as they can? Talk about guilt, I should have been Catholic. Anyhoo, once at the airport the queues were almost out the door. Why? FOG. Jeez, once a year there is chaos at Chch airport due to fog and it had to be that day. Several hours and a cancelled flight, recscheduled flight later...the 10.30am flight to Auckland left Chch at 1.40pm...arriving 3pm, too late for my 12.30 meeting. However, managed to re-schedule that one (thanks heaps to the CTU Advocacy service guys for being so accommodating)....then as it is getting lighter in the evenings here now, was able to get down to the pre-dinner cocktails in good time. Had a few nice glasses of bubbles and back to the Hotel.

On the way back I took some photos of the Auckland Sky Tower. The above pic shows the Tower, and the one below shows the person I caught jumping off the Tower. If you click on it, it shows it up bigger (as the actress said to the bishop)

He (or she) was attached to a special cord that they have for this sort of thing but I was quite thrilled to capture it unintentionally! Not bad for a FujiFinepix "starter" camera. I'm still quite attached to my old Pentax K1000 which is probably older than dirt but takes fantastic photos.
During the night the 28th policeman to be killed in the line of duty in this country was killed.

The next day passed in ablur of exciting Health and Safety stuff...no, I know you want me to elaborate but I'm sorry: too exciting! We started the ocnference with a great display of Mine safety rescue, complete with dry ice and spooky music! Innovative for a conference such as this, I thought! Anyway, there came a point on the second day after a too late night at the dinner where I just had to get some fresh air. Took myself off for a stroll down Queen Street and found this fella who was in slightly worse shape than I was in!
Stick to this type of bubbles in your galss, is my health advice for this week.
Incidentally, the Scowly Teen had the rest of the week off on more antibiotics and has only just started to resemble her usual self today. I think that's a good thing.

8 comments:

VioletSky said...

Glad you managed the pre-dinner bubbly, oh, sorry 'bubblies'.

Mike said...

Sounds like you had an okay time...despite the sick, scowly teen.

Steve said...

Why was the guy jumping off the tower? Was he an indecisive suicide?

Anonymous said...

Oh poor scowly teen - she's not had a good time with her ears lately. Maybe chopping them off might be an option? Worth suggesting maybe.

You are right re the sick children bit. I always consider myself a tough mother - don't fuss about things - but yeah when they are ill I hate to leave them, and worry like crazy if I do have to.

Sounds like a good time anyway. Lucky you.

Old Cheeser said...

The Skytower looks fab and very - Doctor Who esque. Gawd though, I wouldn't have the nerve to jump off something like that. Surely it's a bit dangerous in the middle of a city?!

The Poet Laura-eate said...

You poor thing - what a terrible day!

Great piccie of the Skytower though.

The Sagittarian said...

Violet - well, it was only one or four!
Mike - it's a tough job.\Steve - looks a bit like Spider Man eh?
RB- haha, I did suggest that to the ST but she said her hat would fall off.
Simon - well, I guess the inner city needs a bit of a laugh!
Poet - thanks, I did actually have a nice time but I never sleep that well when away from home so it was just as good to get back to my own 'scratcher".

Brother Tobias said...

Watched those skyjump videos. I love the engineering of that tapered drum. But heights - even at the remove of watching those clips - have a curious physiological effect, whereby bits of me that Nature didn't intend to retract attempt to retract to somewhere near my oesophagus, presumably believing that they have a better chance of survival there. It's not a sensation I want to pay for!