Hang on folks, I'm having a bumpy week.

If you like mood swings, then you've come to the right place! This week I seem to be veering between chipper, aggressively pro-active, weepy and borderline maudlin. I think there may be a number of reasons for this, but I think it has mostly been brought on by buying my twin nephews an Evel Kneivel Stunt Bike kit for their 7th birthday. I haven't seen them for a couple of years, due to minor inconveniences like them living in Poland and me living in New Zealand, so I buy them weird stuff off the internet and send the occasional package of random gifts from NZ. But it makes me sad not to be around them more because I think I would be/am a rockin' good aunt. Thus, I am feeling glum.

Jo phoned me and asked how I was and I did the dreaded long pause followed by a snivel. I really freak out if people do that to me, but she has assured me an evening of undivided attention and mollycoddling. I should try and find a really depressing movie to watch and bawl at. Preferably something Disney-esque seeing as cartoons seem to do me in emotionally. Don't even get me started about Bambi's mum.

I am sure there are other reasons too, but I won't bore you with them. Plus, Gert isn't feeling too hot either today - barfed up yesterday and has done nothing but sleep today. We can be pathetic together.

With luck the twin blokes won't launch Evel out of a window (they live in a block of flats) the same way my brother and I did when he had the exact same toy in the 70s. I recall that he landed in the garden pond, which was quite skillful because the pond wasn't very big.

I am now going to make a stupendous effort to cheer my sorry arse up. With internet shopping. Even though I've already pre-emptively spent my museum gig money (on tickets for the All Blacks v.s France in June & sprog twins presents). So, I've just bought myself a Buddha Box - a kind of ambient noise machine, in an attempt to reach a zen state - that I've been contemplating for ages and ages. I'm going to put it on my desk and calm my troubled mind/smooth my furrowed brow. I'm making good use of the NZ$ being all high and mighty, even if it is screwing the economy up. Bloody economy, always getting in the way.

Fingers crossed.

grumpy yet tedious