That’s not like me

I did something very out of character last night. I booked a seven-day holiday in a house on the South Coast for January.

The reason it’s not like me is that I am horrified by the prices charged for accommodation during January – they are heart-stoppingly crazy. I find it hard to justify paying so much, so I don’t.

However, I am drowning in the responsibilities of life at the moment and I will be in a better financial situation once the proceeds of my house sale arrive, so I thought what the hell.

The South Coast holiday wasn’t on my bucket list, but the youngest is mad keen to go to surfing school and I figured she’s about to fly the nest pretty soon, so I bit the bullet and coughed up my hard earned cash.

What got me over the line on the ridiculous nightly rate was that the place allows you to take your pets. I’ve decided the money I will save on dog sitting and airfares can be ploughed into a holiday roof over our heads.

The youngest is very skeptical about me taking the dogs, as Bilbo gets car sick, but I will pack a few towels and hope for the best.

The place isn’t super fancy, despite its ritzy price tag, but it has gun-barrel views of the sea from its balcony.

I am very keen to sit on that balcony for hours doing very little. Well, there will be some work, as there isn’t anyone to replace me as Insights newsletter editor, but that will give me something to do while the youngest is surfing.

I think the dogs will get a kick out of it too, since I am taking their backyard away from them in a few weeks time.

Speaking of which … we may be homeless while we wait for approval to remove the dusty old carpet in the new apartment and replace it with vinyl floorboards so the youngest doesn’t have a massive allergic reaction.

I am currently fretting over options for how the hell to accomplish the move, which may have to be in two parts: first part into the apartment’s garage while we wait for the new floor, second part up three flights of stairs after the floor has been installed.

Nothing is ever straightforward in my world.

I slept very badly last night due to panic about the logistics, plus all the packing I still need to do for the move, my massive workload in my day job (I remembered at 4am that I need to build four survey emails today on top of everything else), being double booked for the skipping trivia night, needing to drop the youngest to the bus for school camp at 8am, making the house presentable for the new owner to come over with their builder this afternoon, trying to find time amongst it all for a friend who is going through a tough time … and a weird loud humming noise that keeps cutting in and out during the night.

It is very hard managing all that and more on my own.

I reckon I slept four hours, tops.

My chest is so tight with stress. I will be very glad when the next few weeks are over.

OK, I’d better get on with my weary day. Catch you tomorrow.

Song of the day: The Beach Boys “Kokamo”