Pregnant woman dives headfirst off wheelie bin!

As most of you know, my wife likes to be industrious (see, for example, last sunday's entry). That is, she likes to get things done around the house. Surprisingly, this yearning for domestic over-achievement doesn't end with pregnancy -- if anything it goes into overdrive during pregnancy. Last time around this meant driving around finding things for the baby. Seemed fair enough at the time, if a bit over the top. This time, since we have most baby things, it's concentrated on house improvements.

Today was a fairly typical day. While I enjoyed my usual Sunday long run, Nat took Ella to the nursery to buy some plants. When they returned Nat painted two windows (two coats each) and while I took Ella around to see Nana, Nat cleaned the house (top to bottom). Of course, when Nat programs this much in a day, the assumption is that it will all go smoothly -- a silly assumption since it never ever does. Today, removing the sash window to paint it was more troublesome than usual, since the awning was in the way. So I was forced to interrupt my cricket-watching to help remove the awning. You see how tough my life is?

I also had to help replace the awning at the end of the day, and this is where things went pear-shaped. I got the awning in OK. But putting it in place wasn't enough, because it's spring loaded, so you have to wind up the spring and then jam it in. So I pull it out again to wind up the spring. Nat wanted to help, so she climbed up on the ladder next to me to hold the contraption in place while I was winding - but in the transfer the awning pulled out of it's socket at the other end. "Don't worry", cried Nat, "I'll just pull the wheelie bin to the other end and climb up on that." Good idea, I thought.

There were two wheelie bins to choose from. The large, wide, stable recycling bin, and the thin, narrow, unstable green bin. Nat choose the latter and dragged it into place, smoothly and swiftly launching herself on the top of it. At exactly the wrong moment the lid turns inside out, and Nat's input of momentum turned out to be a little too much - the bin toppled and so did Nat - head (or perhaps shoulder) first into the rockhard Canberra dirt.

Despite the obvious downsides, there were a few upsides to this story. First, we got to show Ella that she's not the only one who needs to apply ice to bruised hands and knees. Second, it provided a natural break, which made us realise that there must be an easier way to put up awnings, and once we did it properly it was a one-man one-minute job. And lastly, Nat didn't achieve all her new-plant planting, so we don't have to plan any new tasks for next weekend.