It could be worse

There is a well established theory about petrol prices, whereby if you artificially inflate prices for a while into ridiculous levels, you can then swiftly bring them back down to a price that is still inflated and people will no longer complain, being so relieved that it is not worse. It's how we now pay $1.40 a litre for petrol without blinking whereas if the price hikes had been steady we'd be bitching from sun up to sun down. Instead we mutter things like "could be worse" and are deliriously happy on the days it hits $1.38 even though last time crude oil cost this much a barrel it was at least 10c cheaper.

I was reminded of this when having a conversation the other day with a work colleague about what we were doing this weekend where I wondrously and almost guiltily mentioned that I had the whole weekend off. After months of shift work, where being at home at night was not part of my job description some weeks, let alone the weekends, it's quite pathetic how grateful I am for regular hours. And how truly marvellous things like getting to eat dinner with my babies every night can be.

As it is, it's so nice to be curled up on the couch on Sunday mornings doing my turn of early morning shift with the kids. I usually pick Sunday if I can because Diego and Dora are on back to back, I can eatch the sun rise, and then in an hour or two I can sneak back to bed for a nice snooze without worrying about getting the girls drsesed for ballet. In short, Sundays are truly awesome.

I woke up this morning after only a few short hours sleep (having been silly and awake into the wee hours) to a giggling bouncing Possum and a Monkey in the fridge guiltily eating chocolate cake. The sun is rising over the city and it's not too cool, even for May. I haven't thought about work and don't need to because there is none until Tuesday. There is no tenseness to my back and shoulders. There is no air of martyred misery. It's just a regular early morning in suburbia with giggling children, chirping birds and the smell of fresh baking in the air.