Neighbours

We moved house about two and a half years ago, to where we live now. As the crow flies we only moved 1.1 kilometres, but that was far enough to get away from some of the neighbours, of whom we weren't so fond.

On one side we had a lovely family, Mum, Dad and two daughters, one of whom moved out during the time we lived there. On the other side, an elderly couple who both eventually passed away, and their house was sold to some people who knocked it down, commenced work on a two-storey monster with a massive concrete fence at the front, and who would eventually lie to us and buy our house so that they can one day demolish it. Having built their fugly house on almost every square inch of their block, and then jamming a pool in the only bit of space there was left for their children to run around in, I guess they felt they needed our block as their back yard.

Across the road and down a bit was the single mum with the troubled teenager, who was often seen in the street screaming at his mum or her boyfriend, and was frequently visited by the police.

The street itself was busy, as people used it as a way of avoiding a major intersection. Our front room looked out on the footpath, so every time someone walked past the house it felt as though they were in our front yard. 

You can see why we wanted to move.

Where we live now couldn't be more different in lots of ways. We are the last house in the street, a nice quiet No Through Road. Instead of neighbours on our right side we have a local creek and walking track, with a playground five minutes in one direction, and roughly a twenty five minute walk to Mars' school in the other direction.

But one of the best things about where we live now is our new neighbours. You already know about X-Man and his baby brother Bumblebee. Their parents are Captain Spreadsheet and Ms Awesome, and they live two doors up from us. We didn't meet them until we'd lived in our house for just over a year, which looking back seems like a great pity. 

In between their family and ours lives the Z family, so named because they each have a z in their first name. Master Z and Baby Z are only weeks apart in age from X-Man and Bumblebee, and Mars and Venus are great friends with all of them.

But really, they are not our neighbours any more. They are our friends, and we are so grateful for them. In the last few days alone I've given a cup of sultanas to Mrs Z in the middle of a baking crisis, been out for lunch with Ms Awesome, borrowed some specialist screwdrivers from Mr Z to change a rear light bulb on the car after Ms Awesome followed me down the street to tell me the globe was blown, looked after X-Man for a while so his mum could have a break, and enjoyed Quiche Thursday with the two small boys, the two baby boys, the two mums and X-Man's Grandma.

And if you wanted any more evidence, it arrived tonight. I received a text message from Ms Awesome, enquiring as to my shoe size. Less than an hour later she quietly knocked on the door and handed me these.

And the reason for this wonderful impromptu gift? We were talking recently about classic literature and she knows I'm a fan of Jane Austen. So when she saw these boots with their scenes of the English countryside she was reminded of Mr Darcy, and of me.

And that's why her code name is Ms Awesome.

So I don't really think it's fair to call all these wonderful people my neighbours. Even though it is entirely accurate, it does nothing to explain how caring and thoughtful they are, and what a tight little community we've become, or how devastated we would all be if any of us had to move away.

Still, all things pass. So for now I am just so grateful, not for my neighbours, but for my friends who happen to live right here.

Training wheels

Before Christmas it became clear that Mars really didn't need the training wheels on his bike any more. So he and Supernerd spent some time out on the bike path practising, so that he would gain confidence and we would be able to ditch the training wheels forever.

Supernerd thought it might be a good idea to start by taking just one training wheel off, so Mars would feel that he was doing well, but would still able to use the second wheel as a kind of bike stand (his bike doesn't have one), and all the reports indicate that he only fell off two or three times each time they went out to practice.

Often when I think about my son I am greatly reminded of my younger brother, and the things he used to do when we were young. Any activity associated with riding tricycles or bicycles, wth or without extra wheels, was fraught with peril for my brother, and my parents used to keep a running tally called Gravity Versus Steven. Often, gravity was the victor.

Anyway, we asked Mars to explain to his Nana what he had been working on down on the bike path. The conversation went like this:

Mars: "Nana, we took one of the wheels off my bike!"

Nana (with tongue in cheek): "I hope it wasn't the front wheel."

Mars: "Yes, it was the front wheel! Now it's a unicycle with training wheels!"

So it becomes clear that not only has Mars inherited some of Uncle Steve's love/hate relationship with gravity, but he also shares some of the mad sense of humour that comes from my side of the family.

I believe that some fun times lie ahead.

Dream

Today I dreamed that I was pregnant. 

The dream started at the moment where I looked down to see a suddenly massive belly, and the shock of the realisation that what I thought was just gradual weight gain was actually something much more.

Then somehow, weirdly, I was able to discern the baby's head and cup my hands around it, and I knew that she was a girl, and I had to tell Supernerd about her, because he, like me, had no idea that she existed.

Then I woke up and, not surprisingly, never got back to sleep. 

I was a bit upset because she was beautiful, just like Venus, and I loved her. Even though she wasn't real and I knew it was a dream, I loved her. The mothering instinct is just that strong. I couldn't help it.

The plan is for no more children for us, and that was a hard decision to make for lots of reasons. So it was nice to fool myself for a few minutes, but hard to wake up from that dream and get on with my day. Thankfully we were going out, so I had other things to think about.

But as I sit down for some quiet time at the end of the day she comes back to me, and I know what I need to keep in mind above all things is that I am so blessed already, I have so much to be grateful for, not the least of which are people who love me and need me very much.

Venus may never have a little sister, it's true. But if she's very lucky, one day she might have a little girl of her own, and then she will begin to understand just how much I love her.