| Yesterday I had enrolled for a course, 'Study Smart' it was aimed at us mere mortals that haven't been in education for yonks and don't know how to approach study or write assignments. I was up at 5.30am when Moons kept coming in. I had been most anxious about sitting comfortably and frequent toilet breaks during the day. Inevitably whenever anyone gets up for the loo during a seminar, everyone looks and the speaker usually loses their flow. Imagine that happening every 20 minutes?! Driving into the city I was thinking about how much it cost to fill up my Landrover Discovery! Yikes! It wasn't until I parked on campus and wondered through the doors that panic set in. My god, I'm HUUUGE, I've got two kids, haven't studied for ages, what am I thinking?! I went into the loo and tried to gain some calm and composure. There were only 10 of us in the lecture hall and the lecturer was really, really friendly. Three of us were mature students, the other's were fairly young with full time jobs in hospitality. It was such an informative day, I learnt loads! I can't believe how helpful it was. We had some activities to do at the end of the day, and the lecturer confirmed that we'd all put the same answers. I was the only one that had done something different. Panic set in, my god I didn't understand it afterall! I explained my thought process with my answer and he said he was very impressed, I had approached this from a higher level as opposed to the basic answers which he had been aiming for. I was really chuffed with myself! YAY! Our group were friendly and I established a good rapport with a girl doing the same degree as me. I left feeling incredibly motivated and more confident and to be honest, quite excited! I got to my car and saw two pieces of paper in the windscreen. One was a parking ticket for $50 because I hadn't paid. PAID?? You have to pay to park in a university carpark?! I was very surprised! The other was a crudely written scribble, 'U R A RETARD, HOW MANY PARKS DO YOU NEED?' The uni carpark is obviously tailored for tiny little cars, there was no way my beast of a 4wd was going to fit comfortably in the bays, so, although straight my tyres were overlapping the line, just slightly, but unavoidable. I laughed at the irony of the badly written note and then called Steve to tell him I had learnt I was a retard! I had a couple of hours to relax before I had to dash back to the city for an evening at the Nanny college. When I got home I realised it was the last day to pay an outstanding speeding fine, so I dashed back out again to the ONLY bank that the NZ police force use. When I headed to the college I was feeling beyond drained and desperate to lie down. My speed edged to 120km on the motorway and then FLASH! Another bloody ticket! Grrr! I didn't think those things worked in the night! What an expensive day was I having! Arriving at the college I was most surprised by the calibre of family taking in a student Nanny. The car park was full of expensive cars, the women were smartly dressed and there were some men in suits. I'm not sure what I had anticipated. I waddled, panting up loads of stairs and knew this was only the start of a painful evening. Finally at 9.30pm I could taste the freedom! I was so glad to pull up outside the house. Steve reminded that me that at midnight we had to be BACK in the city for the launch of the new iphone. As I'm a contract holder with Vodafone, we both had to go so I could add Steve to my contract. 11.15pm saw us waking up the girls and bundling them into the car. They were so excited! I didn't anticipate much a line in the city, it is Wellington, New Zealand afterall. There were quite a few more people than I had expected, but still no where near the lines like when the PS3 came out or Buzz Lightyear! Steve joined the line (at number 77), while the girls and I waited in the car. The tiredness really hit me then. I felt completely zombified. Pregnancy tiredness is pretty alarming. The girls were using the inside of the car as a climbing frame, which I then became part of. The stereo would come on blasting periodically and the steering wheel took a real bashing. An hour passed and Steve was still in the line which wasn't moving. Although it had initially seemed well organised with paperwork being handed out in the line, coffee, hats and blankets being given out, it was still NZ, so customer service was slow and not well managed. I drove around the blocks a few times to keep boredom at bay and it forced the girls back into their seats so I could have some space. The city was quiet except for token roadworks, which seems to be a current trend at the moment in some of the most bizarre places - must be end of tax year. Finally at 1.30am the girls were beyond tired. They were screaming at each other, Pip was crying, I started to cry. I couldn't take anymore. I asked Steve how much longer he was going to be. A new iphone customer emerged from the store and Steve asked his number. 18. Great, all this time and that's how far they'd gotten? My body needed to lie down. Its rare for Steve to want for anything, he mostly likes these gadgets, the PS3, the plasma tv, and now this phone. I had wanted him to get one so badly, but all this time and all this tiredness was too much - no bloody phone is worth this. So he returned and we drove home. I'm still on auto pilot this morning, not quite sure what's going on! I'm really irritable though. Steve's at home this morning because we're waiting for our lounge suite to be delivered, the girls are exhausted and playing up and I've got some pretty bad cramping going on. I won't get too much rest today, Steve has a meeting in the city, he's won another contract!! This is part time and pays less then the usual, but still considered an average Kiwi salary. He's got this because he can work from home and we figure that when the baby's born, we'll be able to live comfortably on his UK and Kiwi part time salary for a few weeks before another full time contract comes along. Tomorrow I'm at the Palmy North campus for a special extra mural students day, which I'm really looking forward to because I'll get to meet some of the course instructors and probably more students on the same course. Just hope this baby holds off! Then Sunday the new Nanny starts! Freeeedom! |