Every year in the countdown to Christmas, there is a week or two where it’s all systems go.

There are concerts, rehearsals, excursions, day trips, birthday parties, and even rehearsals for excursions to concerts.

If you’re not careful you may, three times before breakfast, unknowingly drop the F-bomb phrase, as already mentioned above: Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

I was, however, in good company last week when it turned out to be one of those weeks that swung from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Sublime

The World Voices Choir and Albury-Wodonga Young Singers performed with a small orchestra at St Matthew’s Church in Albury on Saturday night.

Ridiculous

When the choir coordinator asked me during their rehearsal to pick up a slab of bottled spring water from Coles for the performers, I obliged without really thinking it through.

I didn’t want to move my car, which was in pole position out the front of the church.

How much could 24 smallish bottles of water weigh, anyhow, right?!

Quite a bit, I can now confirm after carrying that slab three blocks from the checkout to the church altar.

Thankfully, my tweenage daughter and her friend took my purse and mobile phone and pushed the pedestrian traffic lights but it was really too awkward to share the water load.

It reminded me of the front page photo in The Herald Sun of Johanna Griggs carrying a slab of VB back to her home the day after she wed Gary Sweet. And while that marriage didn’t work out very well in the end, the distant memory distracted me long enough from the task at hand.

With the choir’s collective whistles wetted, they were primed for a rousing reception of Deck The Halls.

Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

Sublime

I was beyond relieved with the bus driver showed up late to our bus stop one day last week, 500 metres down the road but in the vicinity, to be fair!

Ridiculous

Though I’d told my daughter to run ahead to meet the stopped bus, the driver waited for me to catch up.

Turned out it was his first time on that route and he simply wanted to confirm which way to go.

He thought he should go right at the next intersection, as did my daughter (and the sole passenger). I had a feeling it was left. However, two rights don’t make a wrong turn, so I let them go.

Later I learnt they took a few more wrong turns, even ending up somewhere back near our house.

This is why you should never take directions from tweenagers!

Eventually, they picked up a few more school children and the rest was event-free.

When I asked my daughter, what was the driver saying as they looped around the burbs, she replied: “He was just saying: ‘Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!’”

Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

Sublime

During the dress rehearsal for the Sharyn Hill drama production on Saturday afternoon, I gained an hour all to myself, right next door to MAMA.

Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly Series is a huge coup for Albury. The iconic artworks are as relevant today as ever. Next door, the remnants of the world’s first full-length narrative feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, plays for about 22 minutes in the sweetest vintage cinema seats. Well worth a look!

Ridiculous

When my youngest had a row with my eldest, she did the meanest thing she could possibly think of.

She entrusted me – over her sister – with her stage makeup for her drama production. I eventually convinced her to let her sister do her eyeliner but only after I’d made a small mess of it!

There’s only four weeks until Christmas.

Sing it with me:

Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!!