Cloudland

Thank you to everyone who sent messages asking about my wellbeing. I hope I didn’t miss anyone in replying. I’m fine. The pain has settled so I’m even off the Endone, although I’ll be popping antibiotics for a little while yet. When we get back to Gympie mid-January I’m going to organise a colonoscopy to see where things stand. Tracey and I don’t believe in messing with this stuff – my kids are too young and I’m the only one with a license to drive our home.

Dear ‘readers of this blog’,

Sorry I’ve been a bit absent from here and Facebook, but until yesterday I’ve spent every day since Christmas sleeping for about fourteen hours and wishing I was lying down the other ten. My life has been popping pills and sleeping.

I’m not whinging.

In fact, if I’m honest, it’s been a little bit friggin’ awesome having a great excuse to wake up, roll over & go back to sleep until nap time later that afternoon.

Because I spent so long up the back of the bus in the loft which serves as our bedroom, the kids would occasionally join me for a nap or to read a book or play beside me or have a chat.

One afternoon, Miss7 crawled in next to me all upset.

“The other girls have started a club,” she said, referring to Miss9 and a friend she’s made here at the park, “and they won’t let me join.”

Usually I’d come down on Miss9 like a Warner Bros’ anvil, but two things stopped me. One, it’s so nice for Miss9 to have a friend she feels comfortable with enough to relax and play, and two, I didn’t want, or have the energy, to get out of bed.

“Well, how about you and I start a club of our own?” I suggested. “Just you and me?”

She looked doubtful.

“We can’t,” she said. “You’re in bed all the time.”

“No, I’m not,” I assured her. “I’m in our clubhouse, up here at the top of the bus.”

I know a few people shared my trepidation on how our sleeping arrangements were going to work out, but can I just assure everyone it’s fantastic. Not only is it great for supervising the kids at night and making sure there’s a minimum of shenanigans, when it rains it hits the roof two feet from your head! It’s brilliant! I’ve always loved the sound of rain on our tin roof at home, but this is even betterer.

“What’s the name of this club?” Miss7 asked hesitantly.

“Well, it’s all the way up here in the clouds,” I said. “Cloudland?”

If there was any doubt about the club idea, what happened next assured it was a goer. There was a rustle of the curtain beside my hip and another little head popped into the clubhouse.

“Can I join the club too?” asked Miss4. “Pleeeease?”

I looked at Miss7 for permission.

“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling the curtain back to shut her little sister out. “We’re full.”

“I think we can probably fit another member in,” I said. “She’s pretty small.”

Cue a huff and an eyeroll which would make her mother proud.

“Oh, alright.”

So this was my life for a few days following Christmas. On the bright side though, I’ve had my club members for company.

And, of course, it wasn’t long before we decided we needed secret agent names.

“You can be Agent FairyWing,” I told a grinning Miss4, then turned to an eager Miss7, “and you’ll be known as Agent AngelWing.”

Issuing codenames is always fun. That’s just science.

“And what is your name, Daddy?” they wanted to know.

I pretended to think. I’d already decided Agent FatherWing would make me giggle a lot.

Sadly though, this was not to be because our club was at that moment being spied upon by a non-member doing the dinner dishes at the front of the bus, who called out a suggestion before I was able to make my own very excellent one, proving nicknames, like falling ill at Christmas, are sometimes beyond our control.

Anyway, hopefully everything will settle back to normal now.

Until next blog update,

Agent PooWing

Apparently there’s a new ‘red taxi’ service here in Pinnacle Village. After an afternoon of playing table top games on the balcony of my sister’s residence (can you believe: converted train carriages!) they lined up and waited to be driven back to the bus one by one. A distance, I might add, of thirty meters or so. The world’s gone nuts while I’ve been asleep.
Worst thing about all this wonderful napping was missing out on spending time with this little fella. Rather wonderfully he’s sleeping on the bus with us tonight. I say wonderfully because so far he hasn’t woken up screaming. If he does I might need to fake a relapse tomorrow to catch up on some z’s again 😉
Auntie Miss7 and her Izzy in Cloudland.
Okay, quick survey. Because we’re calling it Cloudland I think the doona should be white. By which I mean we should remove the annoying doona cover idea and just have the doona insert. Tracey thinks this is disgusting and people will frown at us in photos. I think I don’t care about that, I just want to make it more cloud-like. Is this something you wouldn’t do? Have a doona without a cover on your bed? Am I – I can’t believe I’m asking this – wrong? Should I blame the drugs?

Raising a family on little more than laughs

6 Comments

  • I have had just a quilt on my bed before. Most often in winter when said quilt is between two or more other blankets, or at least isn’t touching the skin. Due to hardline pragmatism, as a cover for abject laziness.

  • My bed has always been made as follows – sheet, doona, then cover. Extra doona in winter for warmth (or now my partner’s much loved heavy brown blanket that he had before he met me and just cannot live without lol). Putting doonas inside doona covers is just a headache I’d rather avoid! So I’ve always used the doona cover as a bedspread for decorative purposes (or as a slightly heavier sheet in summer if the fan gets too cool through the night. What? Turn the fan down? You’re dreaming!)

  • Love it! Did you write in ‘invisible’ lemon juice and then heat it over a candle?? That’s got to be one of my favourite secret agent secret club activities.

  • Doona inside cover bit no top sheet (that’s just more unnecessary washing). I hope Agent Poowing feels better soon, perhaps a new will be in order once you get back in the drivers seat. Captain Poowing maybe 😉

  • Agent Poowing, I suspect your name would suggest extra linen washing anyway!! I am going to go with Tracey on this one as you live in a bus and finding a laundry appliance big enough to wash your doona insert without ripping it to shreds is going to be a mission. Leave the cover on, but you could look online, there are some seriously cool cover sets with universe images, cloud images etc etc.

What do you think?

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