Ordinary Days

Debra and Johnny started going out on quite a regular basis, and in these winter months one of their favourite locations was the festival park.

Although it was different skill, having been roller-skating since a young age, Debra had developed a fine sense of balance which allowed her to take to the ice with relative ease.  She was certainly better on blades than poor Johnny.

He, however, had something of a talent for another winter sport ... snowboarding.

Debra was hesitant; it was quite some way up to the platform and some of the boarders went pretty fast and high. But Johnny reassured her that the half-pipe was designed to accommodate all skill levels safely and with the protective gear she'd be fine.

There was clearly a difference between skating on two blades and snow surfing on one board, Johnny was definitely more comfortable on a board and had no trouble transitioning across the flat and between the verticals.

Though, as Debra saw it, he did have a tendency to show off a bit as he flew up the verticals.  That said, and she wouldn't tell him this of course, she was actually rather impressed by her boyfriend's skills.

With Johnny's encouragement Debra was soon travelling between each deck without falling off her board.

By the end of the winter festival she even managed a complete there-and-back traversal of the pipe.  Johnny reckoned that by the end of the next season she would be grabbing, flipping and switching like a natural!

Of course it wasn't all high-speed, heart-racing excitement; sometimes it was just simple fun in the snow.  Building their own little igloos to snuggle up in and snowmen to keep guard!

The other two Slade girls also had fun ways to pass the time.

Both Desirée and Dolly loved stories and books.

Little Desi thrilled at the pictures as she was read to.

And young Dolly was often found in the library at school, devouring the latest derring-do adventure tales.

Not that they spent all their time with books.  They loved playing together, just as Debra had with Dolly; Dolly loved to share playtime with her little sister.

In addition to fun at home, their schools offered Debra and Dolly many opportunities for field trips and out-of-school learning activities.

As 'an artist', Debra wasn't entirely happy about the half-term work experience she had been offered.

Working in some big soul-less office was not what she planned to do but her parents convinced her she could use it to inspire her art - that she couldn't really say anything meaningful about something she knew nothing of ...

Dolly, on the other had, was delighted to join the scavenger hunt for little insects.

Having spent time with her mother in the garden she loved grubbing around for bugs in the soil!

-- * --

Malia's own work, producing fine garden produce for Hidden Springs got an extra boost when she featured in the local newspaper:

Malia had already gathered good reviews from in the local and regional gardening circle but this was a very special award that would give her a much higher profile - as well as a hefty monetary prize.

She also had a most pleasant surprise visit from her friend Jodi Bishop who told her that she was about to move to Hidden Springs. After the success of her previous visits to the town her company had decided to open an office in Hidden Springs and Jodi was put in charge of the office organisation.

She had just found a perfect little cottage on the other side of town, on Ash Drive and was moving in a few days.

-- * --

Carl loved his work at the lab and had a fine team of people with him, but as he was given extra responsibility and took on more project management he was occasionally asked to spend time 'schmoozing' with sponsors and clients.

Whether it was business lunches, corporate events or "networking parties", he never felt really at ease.

He could talk confidently, and endlessly, about his work and the excitement of research but the 'politics' of funding and project deployment were not things Carl could ever feel passionate about.

And there was always someone who knew everything about everything and quite why the lab were doing things wrong and, of course,  he knew exactly how they needed to be fixed!

Carl knew he could only smile and agree that these were some excellent ideas and he really would "take them forward on a pro-active time-line as part of the collaborative development framework" ...

Carl put up with it though.  Every job includes some stuff you'd rather not have to do and, in reality, it wasn't a big part of his job.  And whenever he had a particularly trying day he knew that he had a beautiful family back at home waiting for him.