Day 6 was pretty sedate. Started with a hot and steamy 3km run. It is still weird running without data collection. Fortunately, also this morning, I received an email to confirm that the garmin has been received for repairs.

Then we dragged ourselves out to action some items: visiting NewBank to deposit my large-ish tax cheque, which is not as exciting as it sounds because the whole amount goes only part-way to offsetting Don’s rather larger tax bill; and putting tons of coins into the magical coin machine. Then it was off to brekkie and a quick walk around the ‘hood. Because the walk was unplanned and it was quite hot, I had to bust out my umbrella for shade and still ended up sunburned.

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Inspired by the bonkers tidying book, but not at all following her process, I began some frenzied clothes decluttering and quickly gathered several shopping bags worth of discards. Quite a disturbing volume of discards, as I thought I’d already been quite ruthless this year.

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In the afternoon we drove into the wilds of the Northern Beaches to lunch with Don’s best golf buddy & other occasional golf buddy. Babies … everywhere. Adorable, but honestly it was exhausting just watching them run about and get into things they shouldn’t. You forget how insane living with tiny humans is – and are supremely glad it is not you (and that you made it out alive!).

BGB and lovely wife are expecting their second baby, who will be born just before the existing adorable sprog is 2. OOGB had two already, with a less than 2 year space between. As Joe/Frank and Bessie are similarly spaced I was well-placed to give advice, which was essentially: “that whole period of my life was so intense I seem to have blocked it out completely, but hey – it eventually gets much, much better!”

I think this was really the first time that I’ve appreciated that I had children when I was a wee baby – these people are not very much younger than Don and I are and, wow, there is just no breathing time.

The afternoon was lovely though – particularly just slothing around the backyard. We really do lack a slothing area (such as the amazing deck at our last haus). It makes me more determined to create some sort of outdoor, green, relaxing, conservatory-style space on the upstairs leaky balcony in the next couple of years.