50 things I have done while talking on the phone with my sister.

1. set up a travel cot
2. washed the kitchen ceiling
3. pulled weeds
4. washed dishes
5. cleaned up vomit
6. played with the dogs
7. watched other people's children playing
8. washed the kitchen floor
9. made school lunches
10. knitted
11. stitched
12. cried
13. laughed
14. hung out laundry
15. ironed
16. watched television
17. read emails
18. picked up dog poo
19. wiped small people's bottoms
20. wiped noses
21. refereed fights
22. disciplined small children
23. left the room
24. tied shoelaces
25. brushed hair
26. cooked dinner
27. washed windows
28. cleaned the loo
29. arranged table-top activities for small people
30. spoonfed small children
31. danced
32. burned cds
33. copied photos
34. baked
35. peeled and cut vegetables
36. breastfed
37. felt unwell
38. been in hospital
39. stood beside a broken down car on the side of a road
40. been mean
41. cut toenails
42. wrapped babies' bottoms in nappies
43. bathed children
44. photoshopped images
45. doodled
46. drawn donkeys
47. loaded the washing machine
48. fixed her knitting errors
49. painted
50. washed my hands.

I speak with Giovanna at least a few times a week. When something happens I phone her first. Or try to. Because my sister is a world traveller.

When I speak with her changes depends on the time zone she is in. When she lived on the West Coast of the US I spoke to her when it was teatime here. Then she went back to Australia and it was back to very late night or early morning chats. While they were living on the Continent it was free rein and we chatted often, sometimes several times a day. It has been known for CK to text or email her and ask her to hang up so he could call home ;-)

Now she is out on some "frickin' atoll" in the Pacific and the time difference means we have a window of approximately an hour at either end of the day to speak. We use this to great effect.

I spoke with her this morning and had to #23 because I had been #6 and #21 (the dogs) and it was all too noisy to hear. As I sat outside in the early morning sunshine I #13 so hard that I was gasping for breath and #12 tears of helpless mirth. Why? Because Giovanna confessed to me that her Saturday had been not all she hoped as she had stuck a knife in her eye.

I guess y'all aren't laughing but oh my word even as I type I am laughing out loud at the thought. How? How do you do that? Over my rib-aching laughter she told me that the nurse at the out-of-hours surgery discussed with her whether it should be classified as an 'emergency' or an 'accident'. They decided that it was something one wouldn't do deliberately and so could be placed into the 'accident' category!

Then she told me how the doctor said how lucky it was the blade was so sharp as the stinging pain probably stopped her going any further. WHAT!! Had it been a butter knife she may not have noticed and kept on moving forward onto it?

You know how sometimes when something is so dreaded or boring you might say 'I would rather poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick.' In between my tears of laughter and gasping breath I managed to assure her that at least now she would know if that was a truly fair comparison.

Giovanna (bless her) confessed that I was the first person she had told as it was quote an embarrassing story unquote. Being a thoughtful and kind sister I spoke with my nice brother just minutes later for his birthday and regaled both him and the golden s-i-l with the tale. What?! We are family, it is nice to share.