Monday 19 November 2012

Untitled No 1

I can never think of anything witty to title my posts so I give up.

This week has been interesting.  Kind of.  The usual work stuff, of course.  Archiving.  Well, finishing the archiving.

I had done most of it is preparation of Rocket's visit from interstate Melbourne Cup week.  But as he got called home I didn't get it finished (I had planned to get his help with the last bit).

When I finally got some time, I finished it off and got that all ready.  He flew back in on Saturday.

However, Friday afternoon I got a call from the school.  "I have something to tell you that you may not like.  Dobby left the school at lunch time and did not sign out or return to the school.  We have looked around the school grounds for her but she's not here".  Great.  Her dad was never at school so how do I handle this one?

I called her.  No answer.  Called again.  Many times.  Eventually she sent me a message "I'm in class, what do you want?".  Hmm.  No you're not, says I.  Where are you?

Turns out her friend and her thought it would be a good idea to take off after their excursion.  Silly girls.  She told me some sob story about having a fight at school with the other girls, not being friends, and wanting to leave the school.  I got upset, because I don't know how to handle this type of situation.

Anyway, when I got home I stuck my head in her room and said when she's ready to talk come see me.

Later, she did.  And we had a very good, adult, conversation.  She told me the truth.  There was no fight, she and her friend just decided to leave.  This is the same friend who she has been with when she's broken curfew - 4 times.  I pointed out this was number 5.  She knew.  But she likes this girl.  After speaking to the girls mother, I now understand the lass has some mental health issues.  She likes Dobby as she seems to understand her and have patience with her where her other friends have turned their backs on her (she is quite high maintenance sometimes, but hopefully medication will sort that out in the near future).

Anyway, I told Dobby that if she wants to continue her friendship she has to take responsibility for doing the right thing and making the proper choices.  She has said she will.  Today she had to face the principal, and was given a three-lesson internal suspension.  It goes on her previously clear record and she's saying she has learned her lesson.  Guess we'll see.

Anyway, over the weekend, this friend asked if she could go stay with her.  Actually, her mother did.  This friend was upset because she felt she had convinced Dobby to wag, and gotten her in trouble.  I felt it was probably good for them to get together, under the careful eye of the mum.  And besides, I wanted some time alone with Fluffy.  Works for everyone I say.

We dropped her off after lunch, and set about looking for a new camera bag.  Fluffy suggested a back pack.  My problem is that with my joint issues I struggle with heavy bags and stuff.  So he suggested the back pack because we could all carry it.

We found one, which hold a laptop against the back part, then has space at the top for other stuff (my ipad, purse, and other stuff will fit in this), and the camera equipment goes in a bit at the bottom of the front section.  You have to lay the bag down to get to the gear or it will fall out, but it's a great idea.  The bag is black, with yellow interior.  Comes with a good warranty, and she gave us $5 off.  Nice.  Fluffy also bought me a little zipped pouch thing to hold SD cars, card reader and notebook.

Then we went home to relax.  I took my time to get ready, and we tarted ourselves up and set off for the Perfect Cup cafe in Melbourne Street.  Rocket was flying in at eight in order to pick up the stuff and car early the next morning.  We decided, Fluffy and I, to have dinner first.  This place is part of the Meridien Hotel, where Rocket was staying.

Parking was minimal so being the cheeky people we are, we used the motel car park.  Well, we were meeting someone who was booked into the motel so why not?  We were told before hand that there were two large groups having functions so meals would be late.  We didn't care - we had all night.  We found a lovely plush leather lounge and got comfortable inside.  The waitress set a table for us outside, but it was right outside the party group.  The weather was perfect so we just sat in the little bar area for awhile and had a drink (bottle of merlot for the man and juice for me).  Our starters arrived while we were sitting there, so we ate them there.  Very nice.  It was a share plate, with chicken tenders, salt and pepper squid, spring rolls, and another roll cut up.  Very, very good.  Would do as a meal on it's own.

Eventually when the sun had gone down a bit we ventured out to the patio.  Our meals came not long after - steak for him and Cesar Salad for me.  I couldn't finish it.  We had not long finished when Rocket told us he had arrived and was on his way.  I told him we had bought the lobster and a few bottles of champagne and charged it to his room, was that okay?  No worries, he said.  Heh.

After dinner Fluffy and I went back to the quiet bar area to our previous seat and Rocket saw us when he walked past.  He came and said hello then checked in.  He joined us, had the last glass of wine in Fluffy's bottle, then told us to put our meals on his room tab.  Nice!  Then he bought another round of drinks.

The bar area closed at 9.30pm so we packed up and walked down Melbourne Street to The Lion hotel. This place has won awards but it was packed.  Outside though, we found a relatively quiet table area.  The boys had to line up to get in the door so they bought double drinks and eventually, after I had thought they had picked up a couple of birds, they returned to the table.

We had a lovely evening, and it was only when Rocket said he was getting a bit chilly that we realised it was almost one AM.  A lovely evening.  We walked back to the motel and he used his gate key to let us out of the car park, bidding us farewell and expressing his gratitude for a great night.  He said that after the last week (with the accident last week and all) it was the first time he had relaxed and had a drink, and actually laughed.  We felt honoured.

Sunday morning Fluffy and I just sat around and relaxed.  I was even still in my jammies at eleven.  We just sat outside and did nothing.  We even talked a bit.  When I say that, I mean, we are not great conversationists.  We just enjoy each other's company.  But we seemed to have plenty to chat about.  It was very pleasant.

But all good things must come to an end and after I made us lunch we headed off to the shop and to pick up Dobby.  She had a good weekend, although she did realise she probably should have spent the time doing an assignment.  Sigh.  Some things never change...

4 comments:

Chris H said...

Kids! I am sure many of mine wagged too... I just didn't catch them. BUT I did catch the one that kept jumping out the window and disappearing for days on end!
I am so out of date... who is ROCKET?

JoeinVegas said...

Did you give him the car back?

SOL's view said...

I don't know if it's worse finding out right then, or later years down the track that they had wagged, after you thought they hadn't...

Dinner sounds amazing.

sparklingmerlot said...


First up, apologies for the way my last comment sounded! Made you sound selfish which was the LAST thing I meant. :(

Your weekend sounded lovely. Well deserved. And maybe Dobby will thing twice next time.