Lazy shot

After a busy day. Bit of a lazy start, admittedly, with TallGirl banging on the door at 9.30 that it was time to take her to riding. I'm she didn't mind the thrown-together packed lunch...

Then painting all day to make up for my slothfulness. This is the closest I got to doing the garden, a 10 minute sit down outside in the evening. This is the time I did the garden yesterday and was rewarded with a handful of very itchy bites. The one on my forehead is hugely swollen and shiny, making it rather difficult for anyone to speak to me. The grown ups just look at the ground and pretend they haven't seen it, and the kids just stare open-mouthed as though a cyclops has arrived in their midst.

I must engineer some gardening time tomorrow or the poor baby leeks will die, and I may go a little mad from paint fumes and lack of control over my time. Funny, I never much minded being a wage slave, back in the day.

On the plus side, the kids' school supplies arrived today; on the minus side the 'trade body' for our type of school has thrown an enormously unhelpful "computer says no" type of spanner into our plans to help the kids learn English. I have arranged for an Australian graduate to come over as a sort of unofficial language assistant and 'work' part time in our nursery. Just playing with the kids, but in English. She'll get room and board with a French family and nominal 'pocket money'. Now we're told she'll either have to be paid minimum wage, or will have to be sent as part of a formal three-way agreement with an Australian institution. And either way we'll have to pay social charges even though she has to have comprehensive health insurance for her visa.

I'm cross not only with France for refusing to see life outside of a set of small boxes, but also with our 'trade body' for being so negative about what everyone else thinks is a great idea. Humph.

(Any ideas on how I can (a) solve this or (b) stop being so angry about it, gratefully received.)