August 2008

Getting away with it

I can feel Mothers everywhere breathing a collective sigh of relief now the school holidays are over and the small people are safely back at school. I managed by some miracle to make sure my four year old Lilah was returned to school on the correct day, but I'm still getting the hang of knowing when these joyous occasions begin!

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It's always very interesting to arrive at school on the Monday morning completely oblivious to the fact that there are actually three weeks of school holidays starting on Thursday. Interesting is one description of course, others that came to mind were 'shocking', 'disturbing' and 'anxiety provoking'!

Circumventing a total meltdown and drastic measures like shipping my child and I off to re-hab for 'mistaken mothers and other maladies', I had to quickly dive into short break options for the pair of us so her holiday wasn't a complete write-off.

Lilah's first request was to go back to 'Bula Land' which for the uninitiated to our previous holidays together is Fiji, (named because every morning we were greeting with a chorus of 'Bula' meaning 'hello'. Of course after the first few days Lilah wondered how long she had to keep saying Bula and whether a printed t shirt would suffice). Sadly, the weather in Bula Land is not as permanently perfect as the beautiful Fijians smiles, so we decided to 'think globally and act locally' for the break and enjoy some hometown fun.

Visiting Dreamworld in said school holidays was not unfortunately one of the best examples of hometown fun  in fact it was so disturbing that I can't bring myself to recount this particular adventure any further - especially the part where I had to visit the licensed area in one of their many dubious café areas to ensure I could hang onto sanity, and then took home the worst flu in history ... .mmm enough said.

But how good is it to get away sans child and spend three days in wintry Melbourne drinking 1951 martinis and beautiful glasses of red wine, eating delicious bowls of pasta and Italian braised pork dishes and shopping? Now that's true winter bliss to warm the very cockles of the soul and undoubtedly what a hard working, business owning, single mother needs. And did I mention the shopping? Did we visit the sales you ask? Well, I must reply in the affirmative and the hilarious thing is I even did a stint in the most prestigious establishment of Melbourne Target!

Yes it's true ... I went to Melbourne and to Target searching for the best leather jacket ever that I once witnessed being nabbed in Brisbane by a good friend, so amongst the fine dining, movies and incredible architecture and people watching there was a Target session searching through racks and racks and racks of leather jackets. Was there victory? Unfortunately no, but I did make up for it with the find of the century - an incredible vintage blue suede jacket from Shag, that was smoking hot!

So now it's back to school and I'm still doing my best to be the very model of the modern mother. Maybe sometimes I might drop Lilah off at school in too shorter shorts and ugg boots, but life is too short to worry about everything. I just can't see myself being one of the brigades of women that manage to take their children to school at 8.30am immaculately dressed and made up and ready - not even for work but just for their day! Of course I can play ball by the afternoon pick up and look the part, but in a winter morning we all just have to try and do the very best we can - and I think that's one of my lifesaving mantras - that the very best thing to do, is do the very best you can ...

"In the depths of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

With love from Felicity McLennan

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