Yass! I'm assuming you're up for the footy mate ⚽

Die Schiedsrichter dieses Spiels hätten zu Specsavers gehen sollen 🤣

I watched it too😢

Good on you! 💪🏻

I love interesting old cook books!

He closed so many schools in my area, and now with a booming population the existing schools are massively over enrolled and struggling. Fuck you Jeff.

I did it! It took me a while but by god I did it!

Homemade Monte Carlos. All thanks to you guys in the thread yesterday spurring on my dissatisfaction of bought biscuits. Thanks guys! 🫡

Here's to the end of a pretty ordinary week. Mr P had to give bone marrow sample and has had appointment at Peter Mac. We're waiting to find out if he has blood cancer, leukaemia or whatever they call it now. Elder minipeeler is still having major issues with anxiety and school refusal. My MIL offered to pay for him to go to a private school she thinks would be better for him.. would've been nice to offer that last year, when I was having to enrol him in the only (really big) public school in our catchment and I was saying that I didn't have a good feeling about it, that I felt that there'd be problems for him given the issues he'd had in the past, but had no choice financially. I was equally anxious and bummed out about it and she knew that back then. Now she wants to sweep in with her money and save the day, by uprooting him and plonking him into a new school‽ I feel bad for being ungrateful. Miniest is going through a very testing rebellious and wilful stage. I'm trying to give her as much of myself as I can and my patience, as she is jealous of Elder and her dad being home all the time, which is perfectly understandable. She is academically gifted but puts in a bare minimum of effort and is wasting her awesome potential and it's hugely frustrating, but she doesn't give a shit. I am feeling older and more tired in my body and it's depressing. I've been bingeing dystopian shows on Netflix and find them comfortingly awful. I gave up on the "comedy" category.. maybe Americans just laugh at different stuff, but I found little humour there. Thankyou for reading my grumbles.

So over the weekend Mr P and I formally broke up. First there was an argument where a ramekin was thrown, then a calming down and proper conversation. We've been in separate bedrooms for years so not much is really changing. He initially asked me to leave. I said no, I've been paying rent for 13½ years to the owner of the property who isn't you. Neither of us can afford to move anywhere or pay market rent. Also with him on the dole, can't afford to pay for all car related expenses, which is needed with the children. I said I'm still happy to pay that stuff and I think he saw that it was a pretty good deal actually and he's best to eat humble pie and stick with it. It's in my interests for him to have a car to do child/school related things whilst I'm at work, and I'm happy to contribute to that. I told him (not for the first time) that he's welcome to see other people as long as discretion is exercised regarding the children. Since then things have been really civil between us. Let's see how it goes.

Got the phone back! I tried it this morning and it was on the move through Heidelberg. I thought it's obviously still on the bus! I tracked it through the suburbs until it was near my place and went out to the bus stop, caught that bus and found it wedged down between the seat and the wall! It was so exciting! Hey, I'm a middle aged mum, it's the most exciting thing I've done all year! The bus driver was kind enough to wait at the stop for me to search for it as well. Wonder how often they clean the buses tho..

I want to thank everyone for the insightful, thoughtful and very personal responses that were shared to my comment yesterday evening. Reading through that thread again this morning I'm deeply touched, and once again so happy to be part of a group of people who are so sharing of their knowledge and experience. Thankyou very, very much 🥹

Good morning all!

Thankyou all for your responses yesterday, they were too many and varied in nature to respond to individually in the detail I would have liked to give, but thankyou for taking the time and for your support.

I arrived home last night to be greeted by a very humbled, remorseful and apologetic Mr Peeler. The fine gave him a big shock, and when I saw it I could see why. A good mate of his had ripped into him about it before I got home, saying 2 kmph more and he would have lost his licence and gotten an $800 fine.. and then I probably would have pretty understandable grounds for a separation.

He has been seeing a psychologist about his depression & anxiety, which he was considering discontinuing due to the emotions it was dredging up. It was on the way home from one of these sessions that the speeding occurred. At my insistence he will continue the therapy and discuss what has happened and talk more productively about strategies to manage those feelings, but take time out after the session and sit in the park or take a walk before he gets behind the wheel, take time to decompress.

Today he will arrange for installments to be taken out of his fortnightly money, and I made it clear that, given all the other support ihave already given I am drawing the line very firmly on this one.

I also made it clear how disgusted I was about the drink before picking up the kids, and he knew given the circumstances there was no point arguing. The friend he visited is a flagrant alcoholic with a death wish, and he can visit that person after he's dropped the kids at home or on the weekend, but absolutely not during the day. He also needs to discuss this with the therapist. Visiting this guy is like a trap, everyone ends up drinking there. It's why I don't visit him anymore either, and I used to count him as a friend.

Finally, I asked if he felt I was being unreasonable in any of this, and he said no. I then told him that, given he agreed its fair and reasonable, if any of these things are not done, then I will end the relationship. Let's see how it goes.

Oh by the way I did my exercises, day 26 and I think 9 or 10 of tummy, I lost track. And I'm still off the grog. Have a lovely day everyone!

Good. That ad has been pissing me off when I hear it at work. It's like, thanks for charging people who have little choice (eg. renters) more for gas so you can use that money to pay for ads to bullshit us about how gas is green and great. Fuck you, gas companies!

TRIGGER WARNING: man rant with a hint of mysticism and philosophy..

Something all mums need to see.

Picture of a sign in my kitchen which reads, "GOOD MUMS have sticky floors, Messy kitchens, Piles of laundry, dirty ovens and HAPPY KIDS"

Mr Peeler cracked the shits about how the kitchen was untidy. Admittedly I didn't clean up very well yesterday, I felt fucking awful and it was an effort to drag myself through any task. I reminded him that he has made plenty of mess in the past week and cleaned none of it. He countered that he was sick. I reminded him I was too, and am still recovering! But only people with main character syndrome are allowed clemency for illness😒 Anyway, to cut a long story short (and a lot of futile self defence type arguing and bullshit out) I have this sign in my kitchen. After a similar argument many years ago, I left the house and went for a walk. I found myself in the op shop around the corner from my house. I walked into the store and there it was, this sign, perched atop a collection of kitchen bric-a-brac. It was literally the first thing my eyes saw when I entered the store. I shit you not, I swear on both my parents graves, there was a soft shaft of light from a high window that fell across some of the kitchen stuff, including this sign. It was so freaky! It was like, a sign but also a sign. You know, a sign sign. Of course I bought it, took it home and placed it in a prominent part of the kitchen, where it remains to this day. Mr Peeler later admitted he'd been a total dick. As he always does. Having the impulse control of a 5yo is not easy for a 60+yo boomer. He does not seem to be able to stop those first words from coming out, and having been in too many relationships where I didn't adequately stand up for myself if at all, I am shockingly defensive and do not back down in an argument.

Additional thoughts: I've spent altogether too much time in pubs, bars and taverns, done a frightening amount of drinking, and been in the position where it's late at night and the talk has turned personal. Older men often speak of their mothers, especially after a recent bereavement. I've never once in my whole life heard a man say, "my mum was a good lady but I wish she'd cleaned the oven a bit more often," or "I wish mum had vacuumed more often." They do say things like, "my mother never held me," "my mother never told me she loved me," "my mother was really cold to me my whole life and I never knew why," "my mother put dad first and us kids came a long way second." Because these are the things, at the end of the night, at the end of life itself, that really fucking hurt.

Thankyou for humouring my rant!

G'day all. So on top of everything that's going on, a good friend of mine died yesterday. She'd had a lifelong battle with illness and it finally beat her. Yesterday was a day of tears, but today I just felt flat. The kids get it (mum's sad) and let me wallow in bed a bit more than usual. Watched a movie, not sure why, called Arrival (on Netflix). Mostly was pretty boring until the last half hour or so where it suddenly changed gear and was mind-blowing. Tonight I'm going to watch *3 body problem.*Now to make pizza and eat leftover pasta that I made into a bake.

I've got some smell and taste back! 🤸🏼‍♀️🤸🏼‍♀️🤸🏼‍♀️

Proud of myself! I've been craving fish & chips, but it's getting to the stage where it's costing over $100 for the five of us! And sometimes it's not that great. So after work I bought some fish from the local market. I bought school shark because it seemed like a good price and gave me sufficient quantity to have a couple of attempts if I messed up, but everyone loved it! It was a huge success! I've always been a bit scared to do it because I'm not 100% on what to do and was afraid I'd screw it up. So I looked up wikiHow, lol. My chips were tasty, the fish was delish and it cost me $20, which is a massive saving. This is a big thing for me!

Good news! Elder Minipeeler got accepted into the school we applied for! I started crying with gratitude on the phone, and when I went back into the kitchen I burst out into this huge sobbing like I rarely have before, that wracked my whole body, and everyone was most alarmed by me sobbing and smiling. I didn't realise how much tension I was holding in my body until it all came rushing out, and now after a hard day's work I'm utterly exhausted!

Need to share my joy of fucking nailing it

Everyone agrees the cheesecake is the bomb! Aww yiss! Got the security tag off too after googling what kind it was and working out it was just a beeper tag (used the "forks" method with needle nose pliers to clip the wire). 💪🏼

Yeah! My birth certificate arrived! Now I can begin the process of getting my driver's licence! 🙂😬😳🙂😬😳