The Contingency Plan

Autumn has such a calm about it. The weather is settling after the buzz of summer and although the days are still warm, the humidity no longer hangs about.

Today was sunny and Penelope and I drove down the road to King Street, Newtown to check out the shops. The strip houses styles a little more ecclectic than most and there are plenty of interesting people to look at. When I was younger I really loved drawing attention to myself but now I like being in the background and drawing energy and inspiration from such vibrant locations.


Anyhow, I bought some deliciously fresh smelling soy candles and four cushion covers, a tshirt for me, one for Luc and a pair of absolutely adorable pants for Hugo. Pen pointed out how I have absolutely no hesitation in buying things for others but hold great doubts when it comes to anything for myself. She's right. Perhaps it's part of being a mother? The guilt is always present. I always think there are better things to spend our money on.


Luc is currently sittting directly opposite, facing me. He's typing on his laptop and occassionally looks up to say things like 'today piks spilt bacon juice on my foot', and then looks down and starts typing again.

'Piks' is one of the many nicknames we have for Hugo. It's a derivative of 'pikachoo', which took over from Wolfy when he was born. Also from Pikachoo are 'choo' or 'choo choo', 'pooky', 'boo' or 'boo boo'. I find nicknames essential for anyone I love. They also tend to be viral. Rachael also calls Hugo all of the above.

Luc just farted and it sounded like someone honked on an old school horn. He looked up and asked, 'could you hear that circular saw?' and then continued reading. Dork.

Shopping felt good today, though I still couldn't find anything that I really loved. What to do? It's probably a good thing as we're still saving for a car. We should be able to buy a nice one at the end of this month. We're lucky we live so centrally so the void of wheels hasn't impacted us too much.

Tomorrow Chloe and I are off to Ikea to find things to kit out our office. Yes, office. We've taken over the lower level of her beautiful house and will transform it into an office space for an important pitch at the end of the week. We have very different taste so it should be an interesting day.

Nice stuff! I wish I could shop more at the moment. I was doing very well about not having the extra cash to burn, but now that I've been buying things for the baby I've got the bug again.

Yeah, what IS it with guys and their farts? The Citizen always asks me if I heard his.

I had no idea Chinese guys were so gassy!