an endless source of entertainment for our clan right now is the pheasant fish we are housesitting. apparently there are three of them. as he dropped them off none too gently at our home, chad hinted heavily that there would be no hard feelings if the fish didn't survive the summer. he reinforced this by forgetting to bring along their food. i told him he should be so lucky.
when the fish live at the pheasant home their names are carys, sela and jasper. at 4d, their names are adam, ashleigh and ella. the kids are fascinated by them, and are always wanting to feed them the goldfish food we hastily purchased. they like the way the fish gobble the food, and then the pellets escape out of their mouths and the fish have to chase after them and eat them again.
charles and i spend more time than we should looking for the third fish. chad assured me there were three. "out of no where, after days of silence, the third one will appear" he promised. for the life of me, i can't see where this third one might be. charles is the same. we spend at least five minutes a day looking for the little one, and when the kids ask, we just say the missing fish is adam, off at footie camp. they make sounds, "oh, right, adam loves football…." and leave it at that. but where is the fricking fish?
i am busy unloading boxes. and taking surplus stuff that made the first round of cuts but hasn't survived the second round (the talent competition) down to the rubbish bins. the rubbish ladies are delighted. they follow me to the bins.
it is an odd feeling to watch someone lift your dross out of your hands and start physically going through it. you want to apologise, tell them to back off, it is GARBAGE, and watch the fest at all the same time. the other day, i watched the ladies pocket a bunch of my victoria secret thongs (sure dad, i mean flip flops, what did you think i meant?) and today i saw evidence of them wearing them as i took out a pile of jasper's too small undershirts to them.
if one lady lets go of something, her clearly junior colleague will pounce on it. it reminds me of the fish and their food pellets. and like the kids, i am fascinated a bit. but the flat is taking shape, box by box. there is one slighly important box of papers that is missing, but i would't have thrown that out…would i have done?
hats off to my neighbours who have brought us hot cooked dinner (chicken pot pie, i thought of you doug), looked after my kids and encouraged me over these last few days. thank you, thank you thank you. and for the nice emails from you all.
tomorrow is the first of two walkthroughs of the old flat. charles is doing it. i don't have any intention of going back into 6a until it is renovated and new people are living in it. more on that, maybe, later.
