Well, anticipation fast turned to disappointment on Friday night when Damien and I set off for our nearest shopping centre to see Star Wars Episode III, only to discover that it wasn’t showing at this particular chain of movie theatres! So, off we went to the internet café around the corner to see if any of the other shopping centres nearby were showing it. Unfortunately, the one that did have it was just a little further away than I was prepared to drive – I also knew it would be horribly over-full on payday Friday. So Damien and I decided to see it on Saturday morning at the aforementioned over-full shopping centre. Instead we went to Steers and then went home and got some videos to make up for our disappointment. I must stress again just how excited we were so that you can understand our almost total dejection. We are both HUGE Star Wars fans (not fanatics mind you – we don’t own all the movie “stuff” or talk funny, we just watch the movies* over and over again… ok weird enough), and in the week after Episode III was launched, Damien re-watched ALL five of the previous movies – each one at least twice.
And then* disaster struck! My mother’s maid arrived early on Saturday morning to help me out with the housework (my pet hate) and then nearly left when she saw Damien’s room!!!!! Damien’s room, and the generally untidy state of it, is a constant bone of contention in our lives. For the preceding week (at LEAST) we had been arguing about the state it was in, and on Saturday morning I told him that if he didn’t sort it out enough for the maid to do her thing, we weren’t going to go see Star Wars.
I should have known better.
With Damien, one of the few punishments that “work” is grounding, or privileges being revoked, both for only short periods of time otherwise we both forget about it. Unfortunately, when he is grounded (or his privileges are revoked) then – me being the mommy – I am too!
And now, as I sit here typing this (watching Taxi blink groggily at me after my cell phone woke him up) on Sunday night, it struck me that having postponed the movie for a week – providing Damien can keep his room tidy – we may never actually get to see it on the big screen! You see, that’s just how our lives are. I can’t just ignore the punishment and go to see the movie anyway. Naturally that just defeats the object of the lesson, and – I admit it – I suffer from what I have started calling SMS (single-mom-syndrome) and one of the symptoms is that when I have money I have a hard time NOT spoiling my baby. And Damien is all but incapable of keeping his end of deals like this one, even when the reward is something he REALLY wants. The ONLY way I will ever keep his room tidy is to empty it completely and pawn all his stuff, or do it myself.
I am beginning to think that certain behaviours are related purely to the male chromosomes. Like the cliché about men being incapable of putting dirty washing in the washing basket – despite the basket being 2 inches from where they just dropped their dirty clothes. Or like always remembering to lift the toilet seat and I don’t even mind it being permanently up! And it’s not like he has anyone to copy these bad habits from either.
Anyway, after sherry and homemade soup at my folk’s house, and using their washing machine ‘coz mine is STILL broken, my brother, sister in law and myself watched the European F1 (a better day for Ferrari than the last few races). I wish you could see how excited my 10 month old nephew gets when he sees motor racing on TV!
Till next time, goo’night.
The only mystery about the cat is why it ever decided to become a domestic animal ~ Compton Mackenzie.