Last night I went to an orchestral performance where the conductor explained, and then the orchestra performed, pieces from Handel's Water Music.
"The division of labour in the family was that I worked to support the family while you stayed at home collecting keepsakes and the like."
As I listened, I was taken back to a time where music was a part of my everyday life.
From starting to learn the recorder in primary school, I moved on to the flute as a tween. As a teenager, I belonged to a youth orchestra, and played such illustrious venues as the Maidment Theatre (RIP) My mother drove me too far to attend lessons that were far too expensive. From the point of view of a parent now, it was absurd, but I am grateful for the experience.
When I left school and moved away from home, I was able to keep playing the flute in the church worship team in the city I'd moved to for art school.
When I was 18, I dropped out of art school, I stopped going to church, and I went to work full time.
At some point, my husband and I must have had some financial issues, and I sold my flute to pay a bill.
I have never played since.
In 2006, my husband was subject to an employment dispute. He was 'instantly dismissed' from his job.
I was heavily pregnant with our third baby. I was working part time doing home based daycare so that I would have my own income and not be dependent on his salary for my own personal expenditure - the odd cup of coffee, clothing and whatnot.
I had a collection of vintage toys that I had established over three years. It had become a bit of a hobby to acquire the ones from my childhood, or to find tatty ones on Trade Me, restore them, and sell them and see how much money I could make. I traded them, chatted with people online about them, gasped at the prices some of them went for on eBay.
The power bill came in and we panicked.
I sold all my vintage toys to make sure we could keep the power on.
When I left him seven years later, I was told that I had screwed his career.
“get preschooler dressed, walk to school,go to vet for cats flea treatment, go to shop for vege top up, go home and get preschooler lunch, walk to kindy, stay at kindy for 1/2 an hour to see new chickens, walk home from kindy, give toddler lunch, drive to kindy and school then directly to cricket skills clinic, do grocery shopping, drop off friend, son haircut, then to soccer training, back to get preschooler from daycare, Fruitworld for vege top up, back to collect son from soccer, pick up other son from friend's house, make dinner, rinse dishes and load dishwasher..” (actual lists sourced from my Facebook statuses)Staying home and collecting keepsakes and the like.
