lunch ladies

Today I went and had tea and cake with my step-grandmother (let's call her Joanne), my aunt (by marriage)(We'll call her Liza), and my Dad's partner, S (fooooorrr... Suzanne! That'll do), who is visiting Melbourne for a week.
I think it was an interesting feeling, sitting with 3 women who are 'outsiders', in a way, to 'my family'. So, I hadn't seen either Joanna or Liza for probably 4 or 5 years. And at that point it would have been very very briefly at a Christmas party and I would have probably said 'hi', before I wandered off. They figured out this was the last time- I thought it was when my Grandpa died when I was 9..ish, and we had the funeral. Maybe not, but that's what it felt like.
Brief history: Joanne married my Poppa as a second marriage, I was old enough to be a flower girl but not old enough to remember the wedding... So, they weren't together long before Poppa died of brain cancer. Apparently Joanne used to come with my Poppa to babysit me since I was born, up until he passed away, but I never remember he being there. For me, she was never 'really' part of our family.
Liza is technically my 'great-aunt', having married my Poppa's brother. And Suzanne and Dad have been together for maybe... er... 8 years now? And it was only on my trip to their place last year that I had grown up enough to realize she wasn't a horrible monster and that she was really, really good for my Dad.
So there's the scene. That's what I mean by 3 women who are 'outside' the family. It was just interesting to me that they were all tied to that blood- blood in me, but didn't have it themselves, you know what I mean?
But anyway, we talked about life, and weddings, and family, and Nic, and my brother, and food... It was nice. Really nice. Joanne and Liza often travel together- they've gone halfway around the world (and Australia) and back together. I just loved seeing that that friendship was still going. I hope I have that one day, in a woman. I love Nic, he's my best friend, but sometimes it'd be nice to have a woman companion, too.

 

This is a rock wallaby. He has nothing to do with anything. I was just reminded yesterday that my posts have been rather wordy lately, and I felt like I needed to break it up some way. He is from Magnetic Island, QLD, and is quite tiny. Also, they all appear to have iddy-biddy smiles on their faces. T'aw. AND LOOK AT HIS LITTLE HANDS. 

Anyhoo..

And then I came home and did some pilates/yoga in front of the TV cos today was hot (wtf autumn!?) and I didn't want to cycle in 30C.

I forgot to mention, but the other night, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, I suddenly realized that I can actually times things by 4.
As in, I suck at timestables, right? 2 3, 5, 9, 10, 11 - fine. 4? Not beyond 5 x 4... 6? Not really, I'll work out what 5 x 6 or 10 x 6 is, and go from there... 7... same thing, 8, same thing. But then I realized that if I need to times something by 4... I can double that number, then double it again. This might sound super lame to all you number people, but suddenly I could work out 6 x 4 without having to go from 5. I could also work out 122 X 4 without much difficulty as well, which is probably more than most people. So, I was excited about this. This brought me one step closer to 'being able to do maths'.
And I told Nic, cos I was excited.
And somehow, we ended up having an argument about timestables.
Seriously.
In bed, arguing about timestables and teaching them.
That surely has to be one of the dumbest arguments going around, right?

 

And right now I've been struck by a thought...
So, i'm no good with parents. I know right now at School, when parents come, I'm just some random young-looking-person who hangs around and smiles, and talks to the kids, right? But I don't introduce myself because I get shy... I'm really shy about parents. I'm terrified about parents... So here's me and Nic arguing over the best way to teach timestables... and he's someone who has heard and who agrees with most things I say about teaching (usually eventually)... and he just... wouldn't... he wouldn't let me compromise on this... And I'm now thinking: Holy crap, he doesn't even have an investment in this. What about when I get a parent who thinks they know best?!!?
So, maybe all this arguing with Nic will go to a good cause. I'll have already heard all the critiques, already backed up my point of view, already provided evidence...
He'll say he's doing me a favor.

Want another wallaby? You know you do.

YAY!