Embarrassing moments.

I spend a lot of time on jetties ~ waiting for boats to come, waiting for boats to go. Thursdays I spend a lot of my day on jetties, one way or another.

So 1/2 way up the next island's gianoumous hill I wasn't impressed to find I'd left Ditz's flute payment sitting on my kitchen counter. It's not like me to get quite that distracted.


Ditz's flute books have arrived & Jan has given her till October before she sits exams, which will definitely be a new experience for Ditz & not one she's looking forward to because Jan has finally got through to her that, no, this isn't a pleasure cruise & yes, it hurts when you stretch! Now Ditz attacks life with aplomb & being clever & personable manages fairly successfully to skim the surface breezily ~ unless mother nails her flat. Well, yesterday it was Jan nailing her flat & I am still giggling . Poor Ditz!

Firstly, asked to read her music, Ditz began with airy insousiance because she has been reading music for years & unlike most of the other school band members does not need to scibble the names of the notes in so she can play her music. She managed about 4 bars before Jan pulled her up & began the excruitiating process of analyzing the music note by note, beat by beat, passage by passage. Ditz's face was a picture! From that point on I don't think she got through a full bar ~ & Ditz does so like to be thought clever & to be right. I just have to watch she doesn't lose heart or we might as well quit then & there but so long as she believes her teacher likes her she will do whatever she is asked to without complaint ~ & smile about it. I'm not much of a nagger so my kids are always shocked to find themselves picked on, not realising that the teacher or coach is delighted to find they not only have someone worth training but someone with a teachable spirit who will do their best to do as they're asked. Liddy is having a similar problem with her coach at present but I digress.

We ran overtime (hugely embarrasing when I have left Jan's money behind) but finally start trudging home. Ditz is very quiet so I know she's exhausted & her diaphram is hurting because she's been made to breathe from it hard for the last 1/2 hour. I'm exhausted & all I'm doing is listening. Ditz is quiet all the way home, quiet & grumpy. We have a couple of hours free before going across to the mainland for band & after a short break I send Ditz upstairs to at least run through her scales. She baulks. Basically she's had enough but secondly the cat's upstairs & Issi has decided he hates the flute. Whenever Ditz starts playing he flies at her with his ears back & his eyes wide & swipes at her biting & clawing in a very ferocious manner. Flute practise is punctuated by cries of, 'Muuum! Come & get Issi!'

Which brings me to the really embarrassing bit. I drive Liddy's car on the mainland. Everthing on Liddy's car is the opposite of what it is on my little red island car so it is not unusual to find the windshield wipers flicking instead of the blinker, or me fumbling round for lights etc. Now in the months Liddy's owned the car we've not had to put petrol in it because it only gets driven twice a week & it wasn't being used at all for several months but I had said to Liddy the gauge was at 1/2 way & we might want to think about topping it up & could she find out what sort of fuel it used. Anyway, I took Ditz in to choir Wed., night & remarked as we pulled into town had anyone besides me been driving the car because the fule gauge had come up a long way, which was really odd of it. A bit later it had come up some more & was looking almost full. I stared at it as I parked wondering who else had been in the car & could possibly have topped up the fuel when it registered the fuel gauge too was back to front!!!!!!!! It was sitting on empty, not full. Mad panic as we looked for the nearest service station & put all the spare change we had in it. Yikes! Is it just me? Mind you, no~one else had noticed it was back to front either & disaster was averted in the nick of time..