My morning walk yesterday was pretty wild and woolly - I definitely rugged up, in a waterproof jacket and with hat, scarf and gloves to make sure as much of my skin was covered as possible. The rain was icy and with the strong wind it was coming down almost sideways again - it was an exhilarating walk and I'm really glad I braved the elements.
It wasn't quite so exhilarating driving in that same weather later in the morning - LiAM had a dentist appointment in Balwyn North which is about 45 minutes from here. With the bad weather it took us about 10 minutes longer which wasn't too bad - there were branches across the road in a few places and some traffic lights out, so it was a bit tricky although could have been much worse. We had some great conversations about 'What if...' situations - if one event had happened differently (in movies, books, real life) how might the end result have differed and would that have been better or worse...
LiAM's check up went well, then we went to Doncaster shopping centre for our post-dentist lunch - LiAM usually likes McDonalds after the dentist, and if we go to Doncaster he can get that at the food court and I can have something else - it's a great food court, lots of choices and most of it tasty and appealing. LiAM and Millie had Happy Meals - I used to be very anti McDonalds, and Happy Meals - I am glad that I have relaxed about that and let the children choose things that bring them joy. A Happy Meal does bring so much happiness, in the receiving, and the eating, and the toy... Caitlin used to like them too but they don't fill her up, so she usually chooses a regular meal and is happy to forego the toy. She also was very happy eating her burger and fries. I had a delicious baked sweet potato with bacon, cheese and sour cream - a perfect hot meal for a cold wet day. Oh and by that time I was a bit frazzled because I had driven round and round the carpark trying to find an undercover parking spot and in the end given up and parked as near as I could to the covered area. A hot tasty meal really helped calm me down.
We went to Medicare (actually that was before we ate, the kids were very tolerant and patient) to get back quite a bit of money from LiAM's dentist visit, and after lunch went to a couple of mobile phone accessory shops for Caitlin to buy Millie a cover for her iPod touch - she got a very cute Hello Kitty one. The main purpose of our trip to Doncaster was for LiAM to buy some Skylanders with his own money - we went to 3 shops to look at them and he was very discerning - looked at the ones that would pad out his collection in useful ways, and looked at the prices, and checked out what was on special - for a total of $47 he ended up with 6 new Skylanders, a new world and a Giants portal - he was stoked and I was impressed with his shopping skills. I think the highlight for him though was chatting to the guy in EB Games about their favourite characters and the reasons why they were good. The girls also bought one character to share.
I was exhausted by the time we were finished (I didn't have any water with us - I stopped to buy some and once we'd all had a bit of water we actually had the energy to go to the last of the 3 Skylanders shops - I had said I couldn't do it but some hydration really helped). When we got back to the car I couldn't find the parking ticket anywhere - I gave up and pressed the help button when I got to the gate - I had to pay $10.25 to get out which was a bit disappointing since if I'd had the ticket it would have been free - then I figured it didn't really matter, $10 wasn't worth getting stressed about and I was just tired and would feel better once we were home and I'd had a bit of a rest. I'm finding I can do that more often now - recognise that I feel more anxious when I'm tired and so not react to it, and try not to talke much (cos I tend to be cranky when I'm anxious), just take it easy for a while and then put things in perspective once I'm rested.
On the way home we listened to the Frozen soundtrack which I'd bought at one of the shops, and that helped me chill out quite a bit. LiAM played with his figures in the back of the car and when we got home they all played Skylanders to check out all the new guys. LiAM was very happy. Caitlin played Minecraft for a while as well, and I had a bath and then felt much happier. Tony cooked a delicious steak and potato meal for tea, and we watched House Rules then LiAM went back to Skylanders until he went to bed.
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