Disaster strikes #2: Stay tuned to see what really happened.........

Too busy or too busy trying to get over being too busy, I haven’t been able to get to my blog!! This blog entry is a reminder to myself that I must learn how to say “no”, reinstate some balance in my life and never allow myself to repeat a year like 2012……….

Tears and Tantrums, Cakes and Parties, Books and Magazines and work trips to Melbourne. Love and Loss and Dreadful Navigation. By the time Christmas Day had arrived, December alone, had seen me spend 4 days in Melbourne, watch all 4 kids in their Acro concert, host a twirling Christmas Party, attend school presentation, make and deliver a wedding cake, attend the ABIA awards night as a nominee. Watch one of the kids in a musical theatre concert, make and deliver another wedding cake and a birthday cake, attend another Christmas concert, make and deliver 330 corporate cupcakes, make another 90 cupcakes for and attend the year 5/6 farewell, make a combined 16th/4th birthday cake, make a three tiered cake for and host my big girls 13th Birthday party, attend yet another Christmas party and then prepare for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, both at our house!!!!!!!! Boxing Day and a day “off duty” brought about the sharing of way too many bottles of champagne with one of my Besties, skateboarding down the street and hanging out with the kids on the road……Oh and a rather queasy stomach, a nasty headache, phone calls I probably shouldn’t have made and a series of photos I don’t remember taking or smiling for :). OH DEAR!!!!

To finish off this never ending December and the night before we left for our Summer holidays, I had yet another 30 cupcakes to make and a birthday cake to decorate complete with hand made sugar elephant holding a helium Balloon aloft in its trunk. Needless to say, the packing of ones bags for Qld and Fraser Island was put on the back burner but somewhere between the cupcakes and the Elephant I had no choice and the relatively simple act of packing a bag, became a complicated blur of socks, undies and Eleven pairs of pants but apparently NO COSSIES!!!!!! A single hours sleep and the job of loading the kids into the car for our 12 hour road trip rendered me as useless as tits on a bull and I spent most of the day in a semi comatose state, too tired to appreciate the fact I had nothing to do. I was strapped into the front seat of the Landcruiser and could not move, even if I’d wanted too.

2012, by far, the hardest year of my life, had nearly come to an end and I was determined to make sure 2013 was a little more normal. The year I put myself back together and at least, slowed down some of the disasters. In hindsight, I should have planned this new found “normal” for the Chinese New Year because the regular one didn’t start the way I had hoped.
2013 started as planned, on the first of January. Unfortunately for me, that day also came with an email from my elephant cake client informing me that one of the boxes of cupcakes did not make it to the birthday party and went on to outline her subsequent disappointment.
Being about 1000 kms away, with a large expanse of water separating us, there was little I could do about the rogue cupcakes, except to offer an apology and several reasons for their MIA status. Disheartened, I told myself, it was a simple mistake, just a little set back and this was not going to set the tone for the year. OH how I was mistaken ……

The first two wedding cakes of the year, booked in about 12 months ago and wedged between twirling training with International coaches and a Mum’s and Kids holiday down in Kiama, were made, packed and ready to deliver. Unfortunately, Mother Nature leashed her fury on us but felt letting me know the hottest day in Sydney’s history was about to hit, was not her priority, and the Frustrated Painter and I were left delivering a 3 tiered wedding cake, covered in kilo’s of chocolate ganache, fondant icing and sugared daisies, in 46 degree heat to a property in the Southern Highlands, to a beautiful stone reception room with NO air conditioning!!!!!!
OH and I thought Gingerbread house delivery was stressfull ………..