The best intentions

I was going to tell you about the Ipswich area heritage fair that was held at Woodlands on Sunday. Publicity for it promised to address the questions “Who came, why we came, how we got here and what Queenslanders did when they got here?” It was an impressive list that I wanted to see answered. I was also going to tell you about the antique plough and tractor demonstrations held near Gatton on Saturday. Mr. Blithe’s bus driver is a keen collector of antique tractors and promised him a drive. I would tell you about all of these things except that I did none of them,

Last week was a crazy whirl of builders, plumbers, various community writing projects, Blithe and Merry Girl’s annual cross country attempts (they kept up the Blithe family tradition and came last and last respectively), scouts, guitar lessons and everything else. The plumbers did a wonderful job – ultra efficient, polite and extremely expensive. They finished completely on Friday, we had our first decent rain on Saturday to test the new downpipes and water collection (I could almost believe that they had arranged the rain) and the bill was hand-delivered on Sunday when the boss checked on the job. The builders are meticulous perfectionists whom I admire greatly, but my frugal soul could hear the cash registers ticking over all week. Mr Blithe was at a conference in Canberra and it all seemed a bit too much.

On the weekend it was as if a switch had been flicked. I did absolutely nothing. I didn’t even defend myself when someone commented on how my bulbs should all be planted and that her’s were already growing. I did very little work on the house. I just spent time with my family. So you will have to learn about the area’s historical commemorations from some more diligent person or possess your soul in ignorance.