Happy belated birthday to my gorgeous son. His birthday coincided with a visit from his great aunt (pictured bottom right) who was in town for a couple of days. She suggested he take the day off school and when I asked him if he wanted to do this he jumped at the chance. That was before I told him what we were doing.

We drove to Victor Harbor so our aunt could catch up with another relative and a couple of childhood friends and – bless my lad – he went along with it. After all, the choice was to go to school or spend the day with us. A day at home by himself on his birthday was not an option.

He did pretty well sitting at the table playing games on his phone while listening in on our conversations. I took him out for a bit of a stroll and a purchase of some gobstoppers at the nearby lolly shop. I discovered that those things take forever to eat and are really annoying when you’re sitting next to the person sucking on them.

In the evening he had Scouts and I took a cake and some party food for him and his scout mates to share. All in all, he had a pretty good day – I think. He did say that he didn’t mind not having a party because I’d spent a bit of money on last year’s one. Bless him for even thinking that. It’s not something I’d said to him, although I have mentioned the cost of his attendance at Jamboree next year.

My lad started high school this year which means he catches the bus to and from so I got him a Metrocard to use on the bus.

Not even one school term in he lost his wallet and I had to replace the Metrocard and his student ID card. I didn’t replace the small amount of cash and docked some pocket money for my out of pocket costs.

I’d registered the Metrocard so that it automatically tops up when the balance gets low. It beats buying tickets every week. When you’ve registered your card you can see what usage its had one to two days after the event. You can also report it lost or stolen and cancel so nobody else can use it. I left his for a couple of days just incase it turned up like the missing PE uniform did (embarrassingly it was in a bag in his room).

His wallet did not turn up and as someone had used his Metrocard on the other side of town I figured it wasn’t going to appear in our house or his bag.

I rang up to cancel it and asked how I could transfer the remaining balance on the card to a new one and was told I would have to go to their service centre in the city or the main train station – inconvenient to do either when you don’t work in the city.

Luckily I have a day off a fortnight so at my inconvenience I went into town to organise his new card.

Last Friday night I heard a couple of mums talking about having to do the same thing and I remembered I was going to provide feedback about this. I duly filled in an online feedback form and to their credit they replied within a few hours saying that provided I gave them certain details the replacement card could be done over the phone.

I replied with a thanks, and another suggestion to pass this information onto service centre staff.

I’m taking bets on when I’ll have to replace the card again. At least I won’t have to go into the city to do it.

I love autumn. I love the obvious changing of seasons. I love how the tree leaves change colour and how the weather is noticeably cooling down even though the warmer weather sometimes makes an appearance.

The days are getting shorter and my walking the dog in the mornings is mostly done while dark, the sun just thinking about appearing as I’m getting home. It’s still not cool enough to wear a jacket outside yet, but I know that’s on its way and I look forward to cranking up the slow combustion wood heater.

I hope this season brings along change for me as well. I feel like I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately partly due to missing out on a job that I feel should have been mine but isn’t. Dealing with a moody teenage boy isn’t helping me cruise through day-to-day life either. I don’t know what’s worse, having a three-year old or a 13-year old. There are similarities. He would live on junk food if he could. He turns his nose up at 95% of my cooking. He has little tantrums. However, there are up-sides. I don’t have to be on hand as much to tend to his daily needs like I used to.

One minute he can be quite hateful and the next he makes me laugh and we have fun together. I drove him and two other Scouts to camp yesterday evening. I’d had a shitful time with him prior to going to the hall to pack up the last bits and pieces and was dreading the drive but it turned out to be fun. The boys were all excited about going away and they chatted non-stop about school, about teachers, about friends. Despite the warning from my son not to embarrass him, or talk, I didn’t embarrass him but I was allowed to talk a bit. Although I nearly spilled the beans about what him and a female friend used to get up to when they were three. I stopped along the way and bought us all a flavoured milk drink – a road-trip necessity, especially as I had to drive home after dropping them off, and it won me some browny points.

When I said goodbye he gave me two extended hugs so I know that despite his teenage-ness, he still loves me.

So, I take one day at a time and I’m enjoying the peace and quiet this weekend.