five days to go…

I have a good feeling about this weekend. I am ever hopeful that the stars will align and magic will happen….my nursery furniture will arrive, my footy tips will be correct, the sun will shine and myffyn will get her butt off the placenta couch and come on down. my husband even did the responsible thing yesterday and got the weekend team leaders number in case I went into labour last night and he was unable to front up for work today – needless to say it’s 5.48am and he will be getting ready to clock on while I sit here sending positive energy to my uterus.

yesterday afternoon I needed to get some more raspberry leaf tea from the health food shop and wanted to get a haircut so when scotty got home off we popped to the shopping centre. I have had hair at a variety of lengths, styles and colours since about the age of 15 and for the most part those styles have been short because long hair is not my friend. I can style long hair in only two ways…straight down or pony tail. imaginative I know. problem is I don’t have very thick hair – it’s like my dads hair I have a lot of it but it’s very fine so when I do have hair for a pony tail it takes a good 5 minutes to wind the elastic around it and then just looks ridiculous so it’s short hair for me. at the end of 2010 I started visiting a very nice salon with a very good reputation as colourists and stylists. on my first visit I was there for 4 hours – I am prone to exaggeration but this is no joke – and in that time I had a consultation with the colourist, a consultation with the stylist, a cup of herb tea, hair coloured, hair cut, a glass of white wine and some rice cracker nibbly things and finally hair styled. then I popped downstairs to pay and almost fell off my thongs when the receptionist said “that’s $380 for today” I thought I had misheard what she had said or that there was a larger bag of expensive shampoo and conditioner that had mistakenly been allocated to me so I said “sorry HOW much” and it came out again three hundred and eighty dollars. my god. it’s hair, it’s short and in six to eight weeks it will need to be cut again. I have never paid that much for a haircut in my life and, considering my current situation, never will again. the absurd thing about it is I went back. beginning of 2011 I needed another cut and colour so off i trotted ensuring first that there was at least $500 in our account in the event that the new year had seen a hike in prices…this time I asked for a quote before they started any work – a bit like having a patio built at home – and I was able to get the price to $280 by getting rid of the treatments and a head massage. I said no to the head massage last time because it’s always excruciating and they push way to hard into your temples which is dangerous. I think they believe that the harder they push the more relaxed you will become and I just want to trade places with them and show them how to massage – yes I am qualified, no you can’t come round so I can work on your sore back. anyhoo so this time I walk out $280 lighter and somehow talk myself into believing that this is a reasonable price. I justify it by working it out to an hourly rate and as this visit I was there for 3 hours that seems reasonable…yeah? so the haircut I now sport is a faux hawk that is shaved to about a number four on the sides and stands straight up about three inches on the top and its in varying shades of colour made to look like a fire. a bit difficult to wear to work due to my uniform including a hard hat so the boys joke that maybe we could cut the top out of mine to accommodate my new ‘do. this is a very difficult style to grow out due to the business on the sides, party on top nature of it so I decide to join the Worlds Greatest Shave and raise some money for blood borne cancer sufferers. it’s a charity relatively close to my heart as my parentals close friend continues to battle with multiple myeloma and scotty’s uncle chris with leukaemia and myeloma. so I started with the goal of raising $1000 for the charity and on March 12th 2011 made the plan to shave for a cure all the while still rocking my faux hawk as high as it would go. I was overwhelmed by the support I got from the most unexpected people and managed to raise $2500 which really blew my hair back. so on the day of my shave my boss had allowed for the site to hold a BBQ and for everyone who was not busy to come and watch me get shaved. I had invited my parentals and their friends that are dealing with the multiple myeloma to watch the occasion and we all had a big laugh at my expense as my colleague ran the clippers straight down the centre of my faux hawk – sexy look. now fortunately for me my head doesn’t have any random nobbly bits or weird skull shapes so as a baldy now rocking a number two all over I looked okay. and it felt awesome. only problem we now faced was that scotty and I now had the same hair cut which was a little strange for both of us in a variety of ways. so fast forward to late in 2011 and I need to start getting my haircut again and I vow not to go back to spending what some people earn in a week on it. I also have grown quite fond of the natural colour so probably no need to colour it either. so I experiment with various salons and none of them really lift my dress up and they all charge a variety of dollars ranging from $80 to $170 and I always end up going home and mutilating myself. fast forward to yesterday – sorry peeps I do get carried away – and I see that the reflection staring back at me sports a pelt that would make a 1960’s Ringo Starr cry with joy. something must be done. so off we go for the tea and a haircut. for the first time in my life I am taking a number – not at the deli for my 250gm of ham – at salon express for a haircut. am I nervous? no because once you have shaved your head you get fearless with hair cuts. ten minutes later kimberley is working her very speedy magic on my Ringo Starr and 15 minutes after that I am done. no need to blow dry, no need for product and definitely no offer of a half caffeinated decaf with a twist of lemon. and it cost me $25. unbelievable. I walk out of the salon and cant wait to get home and wash my hair and style it to see how it looks and I have to say I am impressed. scotty has been over on the mens side and his cost $16.50 and his is probably the best cut he has had in ages – considering that last time he left with a bleeding neck from a wayward cutthroat razor the bar didn’t need to lift that far. so it looks as though I have found the Virgin Airlines of the hairdressing market – no need for the fancy extras just get the job done at the cheapest price.

it’s 7am what to do, what to do…I think I will make a cake. I know it’s only five more days but damn they go slow when you are counting them. maybe that’s the trick with life in general – feel as though the years are whizzing past at lightening speed? start crossing the days off the calendar and see if that slows it down….it works as a child so it’s worth a shot…only 191 days to christmas…