Kids Club

Sorry to leave you hanging on how KC turned out - but i've barely had a chance to get near my computer all week! If you know me, you'd understand what a travesty that is!! So, here's the belated run down.

Tuesday

Tuesday was bowling afternoon. We were meant to leave at 12.30 on a bus - but, at half eleven i suddenly had an awful feeling that i hadn't booked the buses! Uhoh... i raced into the office, called the company and found that i'd not even tentatively made a booking. Dr.B and i began to figure out how we could drive the kids down there. It was an hour of panic before the bus company rang and said that they'd found a bus that we could use and everything was back on track. I felt like a total failiure though, making such a stupid mistake. Still, i got the kids to bowling, managed the kids when we arrived and the bowling centre was running really behind and we had to wait ages, high fived kids for getting strikes, laughed for ages when one of the kids informed me that 'some girls like girls because they're lesbians' and played duck-duck-goose with the kids who finished early until the bus arrived to take us home. Other than the dreadful 'bus incident' (which, thankfully, wasn't mentioned again) and a few run-ins with leaders (power struggle), it was a pretty good day.

After the kids had left and we'd cleaned up, Loz and i headed to the shops to buy supplies because we were runnin cooking activities in the next few days. What should have been a quick and simple outing to buy pizza supplies and ingredients for honey crackles and cheesy twists turned into an hour long blunder around the supermarket. We couldn't find anything! And, we had no idea how much we needed of the things that we could actually find! Eventually, we located the cornflakes over by the towels, tossed some huge blocks of cheese into the trolley and decided that homebrand was our new lover.

After racing home to change, i went to Noodle's for a BBQ - staying long enough to do the standard 'meet and greet' and grab some food, before picking up Loz and dashing to the Ed - where we performed the standard 'meet and greet' with another group of friends. One of whom is incredibly good looking and actually deigned to speak more than pleasantries to me, so i was happy. We left before long, wanting to have an early night - but it was still after half twelve before i tumbled into bed!!

Wednesday

Up before seven again, i somehow managed to make it to church by eight. A million cups of tea later, the kids had arrived and the day had begun. It was elective afternoon and this was always the bain of my existance. Somehow, it worked out ok... i beaded tiny lizards with some kids, helped stage a performance for the older congregation (which, thankfully, they enjoyed) and then had to cook pizza with ten kids... which started out ok, until they decided to make pizzas with nutella spread and hundreds and thousands... the mess was huge but the pizzas were finally cooked and in the oven. Not before i burnt my poor hand a few times though! Ouchies. Somehow, i managed to cook all of the pizza, palm most of it off to the kids and survive the day... but it was touch and go for awhile there! Especially when i saw the extent of the mess... but i got to see my little baby boys, and that made up for it!!

After the kiddies had left, i had a whole two hours free time! Before i got dressed up and headed into Flashdance with Loz. The line was I.N.S.A.N.E! It stretched literally for hundreds of metres. Luckily, we cut in about half way through and only had to wait an hour or so! I was with Loz and her uni mates, but they were awesome, so i wasn't scared of the new people. The music rocked - first thing, we danced the nutbush, spice girls and a greece medley, woo! A few drinks later, i went exploring - and ran into SO MANY people that i knew! I saw the gorgeous boy from last night, plus his equally gorgeous friend and was greeted favourably. I saw Wally - who was too drunk to remember it. I saw Norm - who got me confused with Ayles and was upset because he thought that i was the one dating TinyTim. I saw Irish, who bought me a drink, and took me dancing. I saw the HotAviator, who looked as hot as ever, but is officially one of the most shallow people that i know... and after seeing all of those people it was 2.30am (two hours past the curfew we'd set ourselves) and it was definately time to head home.

Thursday

Thankfully, this was the 'relaxing' day for the kids. While they watched movies, i continued to deal (or attempt to deal) with leaders bitching about each other, and set up cooking for the afternoon. I got a ten minute nap before the fun began. We had ten kids at a time, five cooking cheesy twists and five making honey crackles and they swapped after fifteen minutes. It was ok to start with but then Loz had to go to work and suddenly i was doing both at once! Another leader came to help, which was useful, but there was still mess everywhere! The kids had a blast thought, and everything that we made was edible. They took all of their cheesy twists home and i was left to cook the 240+ honey crackles. More burns as i battled the ovens!

That night, i was supposed to hit the Havvey with Loz, but she bailed, so i drove in alone. I caught up with a few of the girls and guys, saw my gorgeous boy again (i'm really liking the fact that i've seen him three days in a row!) and then took one of the girls home - we left before the others, because things were pretty boring. It didn't seem like a late night, but it was half twelve before i rolled into bed, with no voice and a cold!!

Friday

Finally, the last day! The kids had been good all week, for the most part, and our resident trouble maker had been a veritable angel the last day or so, so hopefully things would go smoothly. We went to brickworks and the kids went on bumper boats, go karts and played mini-golf. Unfortunately, the woman in charge spoke almost no english, which caused a few difficulties, and they weren't ready when we arrived... and we had to send a kid home sick... and half the kids were too short to use to go karts... but i got two shots on the bumper boats and managed not to tip the kids out of my lap and into the scungy water!! After that, we had lunch in the awesome playground outside of the aquatics centre, before plunging into the lovely humidity inside. I had fun mucking around in the water with the kids. FrauC was there with her darling boys, so i got to play with them, and i played 'catch' with the kids and leaders for an hour or so, repeatedly going into battle with English and Shirtless Buddy over the ball - we're a competitive bunch!! We managed to get all of the kids out and changed and onto the bus on time, which was practically a miracle!! By half four they'd been packed off home and we were packing up. By five, we were stuffing ourselves with pizza and drinks, eating honey crackle mixture out of the bowl (the honey crackles turned out fine - proving that i CAN cook, despite what people may think!) and relaxing. Most of us went home, and i had to drag ShirtlessBuddy and his little brother away from Dr.B as they invented 'death ball, part 2' - which basically involved standing two metres apart and pelting balls at each others head. You got points for hitting and weren't allowed to duck... it eventually deteriorated into just pelting each other with anything they could find...

It was SO GOOD to be home and know that i didn't have to go back the next day!!! The kids had been good and i'd had fun, but it has been exhausting and i'd had enough. I had an hour to pack, because i was leaving at five the next morning for port douglas in QLD. Then, Loz arrived and we got ready to go out. We had a drinks for a double nineteenth, which we'd been dreading but which turned out to be great fun! All the usual crew was there, plus some people that i'd not seen in ages!! I saw Norm and Wally for the fourth day in a row! AND, i got a message from one of the girls from church - she's engaged!!!!! I was so excited! They're a great couple; i'd never thought they'd get married juts yet, so it was a lovely suprise. I'm so happy for her!

Eventually, Loz, LozK, Norm and i headed into Swish. Time to dance!! A million shots later, we were dancing to pretty much the same things we'd been dancing to at Flashdance... and it was just as much fun! Norm, however, took awhile to get into the somewhat girly music. LozK left, but we kept dancing. Norm was into it now, and pretty chuffed to have two girls on his arm. We had so much fun, dancing for a few hours and drinking cosmos - didn't we just feel oh, so dignified! Haha. Only downside; i lost mum's bracelet that she'd lent me! It had a magnetic clasp and i'd been worried that i'd lose it all night - at some point, i looked down to compulsively check it and it'd been gone! I couldn't find it anywhere. Someone must've picked it up and taken off with it. Sometimes the human race disgusts me. Eventually, Norm got kicked out for some reason and we decided that it was time to call it a night. I got home by half two - just in time to have two hours sleep before i had to get up and leave for QLD!!!

It's been a crazy week. I've been verbally condemned by my peers, loved by children and parents, run a reasonably successful kids club, watched Finding Nemo four times, cooked with dozens of children, been out every night, lost my voice, been told i've lost weight, practiced my dancing, met new people, been told i was gorgeous and i didn't have to spend much time hiding in a corner hyperventilating. Overall, i think i was a reasonable success!