Thursday, July 19, 2007

WHEN THE OTHER HALF IS AWAY

My other half goes away every 2 – 3 months for about a week or so. Usually to conferences, either as a participant or speaker, or at other times for business pusposes.

The kids love it when he goes off …when the cat is away, the mouse comes out to play you’d think. Well maybe, but they love it as this would mean that ayah will come home with lots of goodies (read as presents@toys). Also, this would mean that the older two will take turns to sleep in my room together with me and the younger three. The excuse…well since ayah is away, mama might be needing help at night and it’s a boon if one of them is in the room to give a hand. They’ve even done a schedule on who gets to sleep first, carefully dividing the number of nights between the two of them. Not a day more, not a day less. Equal number of nights on my already cramped Kingsize bed!

On my part, I dread when my husband is away. Simply because I find myself having to do the stuff which used to be taken care off by my partner. The runarounds like paying bills and picking up stuff from this person and that person often leave me feeling like the dispatch boy/girl. But the one that I dread most is the morning run to send my eldest to school. You see, it’s his job to send my girl to school everyday. I on the other hand would send my number 4 and 5 to the babysitter and then send my number 2 to school on my way to work. This arrangement has worked out quite nicely. But when he is away, adjustments have to be made. I find my day starts 30 minutes earlier. Need to get myself ready for work, get 2 kids ready for school, other 3 kids ready to be sent to their babysitters. Make sure the TV is not switched on as kids would be watching it and not eating their breakfast. Get things in the car; laptop, schoolbags, bags for the sitters and the list goes on and on. Really! With me running around getting all these things done, there’s no need for any morning exercise. I think I’ve managed to have a full cardio workout even before stepping out of the house. By the time I arrive at work at 7.30am and plonk myself at my desk, I feel as if I’ve gone through the whole day already.

Dear hubby knows my feelings about his outstations. Often, a day or two before leaving he would try and “suck up” to me by taking me out for some nice dinner or lunch. This time around he didn’t get to do so. However, a few hours before he left, he managed to get me a box of Secret Recipe’s sinfully rich chocolate cake as a butter-me-up …before-I-leave-you present. Like they say, the best way to win a person’s heart is through the stomach …and that reminds me…I need to eat the cake with my kids before he returns tomorrow!


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyooong Haseo,
Korean cat says helloand he misses his kimchi very much

Kams Hamnidaaaah

Sue said...

my kids, wen the father is not around, they'll take turns to use his pillows. *No Children allowed on our bed :)*

D said...

Waaahh.. korean cat back already??!

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