Festival of Running

It’s now 20h23, and I’ve only just finished my day’s housework and chores! I’ve discovered that if one really applies oneself to housework, it can be a full-time job. School in the morning; lunch was the usual sandwiches, and then while Nick was busy outside painting, I made the dough for a batch of passion fruit cookies. The dough had to chill for half an hour, so while that was in the fridge I sorted out some money to go into the bank and my grocery list. Rolled out the cookie dough and shaped them as per the instructions, although they ended up all running into one another anyway. Pretty tasty though. As soon as those were out of the oven, I went to town to get some grocery shopping done. I can’t really do it all in one go and have given up trying, rather doing the most urgent things first and then getting more things as I go. I did the bulk of it today though, but could only find a parking right down outside Castle Gardens. There was no way I was carrying three heavy bags of groceries all the way there, so left the bags in Spar, walked up to Thorpes for a few more things, brought those packets down to Spar, went to Solomon’s for some paint and putty, left them in Solomon’s, then went to fetch the car, as by this time quite a few parking spots had opened up in the central parking, close to where I needed to be. Much better that way! Got home at about 3.15, then decided that the pantry should really be sorted out. Stopped to get supper in the oven, which was a chicken dish, and I put carrots and potatoes in the oven too, then carried on for another hour while that cooked. I threw away a lot of old stuff that was literally gathering dust, then vacuumed out the whole floor, right to the back where the stairs meet the floor. There was a lot of dirt! Then I moved the filing cabinet to the opposite wall, and have managed to put the urn and all the boxes of cups under the lowest shelf, so they are neatly tucked away and don’t have dirt constantly falling on them. There is a lot more floor space, which is really only advantageous for Aaron who likes to go in there with a torch and amuse himself. Lots more hiding spots for him now. Overall, it’s very much neater. Then finally I could unpack the groceries which I bought earlier, after cleaning all the shelves and rearranging.

The island is presently hosting a “Festival of Running”. Several athletes have just arrived on the ship who will be participating. The first event happened this morning, with a Jacob’s Ladder Challenge. It was very interesting, actually, as they had a live radio link-up to a person at the top and the bottom who were giving commentary on what was happening. So Nick and I sat on Aaron’s bed looking out the window where we could just make out the people on the ladder, and listened to what was happening. We only watched the first ten or so minutes, and the first contestant up did it in 5 minutes 17 seconds. That’s pretty darn fast!! There were about 20 participants in all, but I don’t know any of the other results. They sent them up the ladder one at a time with about a 1½ to 2 minute interval between each. I think the next event is a 10km run on Wednesday, starting at Francis Plain.