Last week I was given two free tickets to see Kate Miller Heidke. Of course when you have TWO children into music this becomes a choice of epic “pick the favourite” proportions. I decide the child doing music for the HSC and having singing lessons should be the one who got to go. However, when I asked her she sadly informed me she had an Ancient History assessment due the next day and wouldn’t be able to do both. I moved on to the next child who became excited at the idea.

By now Hippie Child is looking dejected, my guilt trips in and I decide she can get the assessment done AND go to the concert. Of course it means I have to buy a ticket to take us all but that’s OK.

I have a tendency to always believe the impossible is possible. There is nothing that can’t be achieved with a bit of juggling and focus. Despite what the self-help gurus say this is a character flaw, not an asset.

So in considering the situation Hippie Child looks like she is coming down with a cold, has 400 of the 1500 words needed and has all the research for the assessment done.

This is good I think, we are almost a third of the way there. She tells me not to buy the extra ticket until she sees how much she gets done that night.

Then I start thinking (again another serious character flaw). We’ll have two tickets together and one ticket sitting by themselves. That won’t be fun. So I put Nana on standby that she might be going to a Kate Miller Heidke concert the next night, but we weren’t sure yet. She wonders aloud who the hell that is, but happily agrees to go. So now I will be paying for two tickets to use my two free tickets.

The child sits typing and sneezing and by the end of the night we have another 300 words. I’m feeling confident now. We’ve got this nailed surely. Now she doesn’t want me to buy the ticket until tomorrow.

I drop her at school the next day urging her to use her study period well.

I check the theatre site regularly throughout the day just to make sure there’s still two tickets available.

At school pick-up she tells me she managed another 300 words. Yahoo only 500 to go! She’s not as excited as me. Her cold is still hanging around, when she tries to sing it’s not pretty. We cancel singing lessons.

We plough on, Nana is wondering if she can get into her pyjamas for the night or if she still going to the concert for the singer she’s never heard of – I suggest to Hippie Child we need to make a decision. She mumbles something about references but agrees to go.

I book tickets and off we go. It’s a great concert, which of course the girls love. Turns out we were sitting in the same row anyway with spare seats between us, so we could have sat together. However, the children decide to remain separated from the “oldies” who have accompanied them.

When we get home the last of the words are produced. 1500 yayyyy. Then I’m told about the reference list. Now remember the last time I compiled a bibliography we were still using books and journals as references. How the hell do you reference websites? We refer to the instruction booklet, but then friend Jack emails a link to a reference builder. I love Jack like the son I never had.

We get the thing printed. It’s supposed to be stapled together. I find seven staplers but not a single staple between them. How do you own seven staplers in the first place, and how the hell does nobody think to buy the staples they need to be an effective tool!

We head off to bed at 12.30am – the staple issue still hanging over our heads.

By morning waking up is a slow process but it’s an 8.45 am hand in for this assessment or you lose 30 per cent. So help me God after all this we are not losing 30 per cent.

I find a few loose staples and manage to thump one of them into the assessment.

WE ARE DONE!

I make a mental note that we are never leaving the house on a school night again.

Kate sang many beautiful songs but my favourite was this funny one (don’t watch if the f word offends).