The Vineyard.

Amanda trekked home from work on Friday evening. She supposed the week had not been too bad. Her annoying boss was a total waste of space. This past few days, he had only groped her on the butt once, and had his usual infantile tantrums.

Amanda was too scared to complain about Harry, this supervisor of her section. She had a reasonably useless husband of her own, plus their three children to feed, clothe and educate. She did not wish to rock the boat, times were really tough. The cost of living was increasing, better jobs were not available, and the mortgage needed constant feeding. Amanda and her family were barely staying afloat. She privately thought capitalism had lost the plot, but no one wanted her opinion.

To make matters worse, Harry had invited Amanda and her husband, Hank, over for dinner. This meant racing round, quick shower, babysitter already arranged. What to wear? Harry's wife would scoff from a great height at Amanda's pitiful choices. She just knew it would be a long, boozy night, Harry and Hank vying to impress each other, while drinking themselves under the dinner table.

Amanda was the designated driver, so that meant none of Harry's array of beautiful, expensive wines for her. He had an 'in' with a relative's vineyard. Hank was a bad drinker, a social disaster. She knew he could be quite nasty and embarrassing, as the booze hit him.

Still, she had married for better or worse. Amanda cringed when Hank yelled to Harry, "Hey, the freeloaders are here again!" Harry's wife glared with a rictus grin. The meal was delicious, but the company was excruciating. Hank practically licked his plate, saying, "How much do you earn, Harry? I never get meat like this at home. In your dreams, says the supermarket meat section, eh!"

One bottle of vintage wine followed another. Harry and Hank did some male bonding, sharing phone images. Harry's eyes lit up, as he gazed suggestively at Amanda. God, they were both annoying. Hank was showing Harry a photo of Amanda sunbaking topless in the back yard. Her bikini was barely there. Her boobs seemed to sag, she was a mother of three children. Seemed these two male toddlers could snicker over anything that titillated them.

Eventually, the evening wound down into a hundred goodbyes. Hank did not notice Harry's quick grope of her breast, as kisses were exchanged. Amanda drove home, Hank went straight to bed. It had been a social disaster. Amanda checked the kids, paid the babysitter, and strapped herself in for the weekend ahead.

Free time passed in a haze of chores. Amanda tried not to be discouraged. But Monday morning rolled around, the children went off to their primary school. She decided suddenly that she could not face that dreary routine that day. The sun was shining, her credit card was a bit cashed up. It was time for a mental health day.

Amanda phoned in to work, faking a respiratory infection. Good bit of acting, she decided. She was too embarrassed to face Harry and his roving hands today. Not after the nudie rudie photo. She did not know why she stayed married either. She was definitely not a gentleman's wife.

Hank worked from home these days, so Amanda appeared to set off for work at the usual time. She drove straight to the giant shopping center. A day off! First stop, a decent coffee, a cake. Nice to treat herself for once. She browsed in a couple of fashion stores, bought some new clothes for her children. They never stopped growing. Retail therapy was grand, Amanda concluded.

She ventured to the food court, tried some Chinese dishes. Nothing Hank would like. Her next planned destination was the library, gaze at some magazines. But, unfortunately, as she was leaving her lunchtime, she bumped into Harry and his glacial wife. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be home with a virus!" Harry's face was bright red. His wife sneered, she was the catty one. "Right, you're fired!" Harry told Amanda. "Get to work and clear your desk. I'll get someone better than you."

"Well said," his wife agreed, "Unreliable!" Amanda wished she could sink to below China, somewhere below Planet Earth. She did get to work, cleared her desk, no reference. Sprung bad. No one stuck up for her, everyone was scared of Harry's bad temper, threatening their jobs.

Amanda went home, and told Hank He was distinctly underwhelmed. He reacted by cancelling their kids' school enrollments, the fees were now too dear. He told Amanda she would have to home school them all, starting at 9 am the next morning. Hank was on an economy drive.

Amanda had to face her new routine. No more commuting in nice couture, no doing lunch with air kissies for the girls at work. No more flicky flicky pout pout hair do's, with make up. No more wine o'clock in town after work.

No more, all gone. Amanda set her alarm for four am. to do her yoga before browsing online for lessons for her three primary school children. Then she had a speedy shower, before feeding time for breakfast. This was Amanda's role, home chef and janitor, being an educator was a whole new world.

9 am. How hard could this be? Amanda had passed primary school after all. She had abandoned her usual polished office clothing. She was braless under her t-shirt. Her girls were swinging loose and free, while she was wearing stained track suit fleece. She decided she might never wear her bra again. It seemed such a waste of energy. Already, everything was sagging. One of her kids tipped cornflakes on the Labrador, while the eldest two were squabbling.

Homeschooling began, with three very reluctant faces looking unthrilled. Amanda was not a teacher. Spelling was first lesson. She taught her children to spell R-I-E-S-L-I-N-G,. and C-H-A-R-D-O-N-N-A-Y. The kids fetched her a bottle of wine. Amanda poured some into her glass.

Yes, Maths time. Amanda's glass soon had 0 wine. Into it, she tipped 1/2 glass of wine. "This is a half." Her kids looked on in fascination. Now Amanda filled her glass of life up to the brim. "This is one whole, =1!" She continued, "Mummy is drinking 1/2 glass of wine. Mummy is drinking one whole glass of wine. Now there is 0 wine."

That was the Maths session, done and dusted. Aha. "It is time for physical education in the aquatic center. That's the pool in the backyard. It's a lovely sunny morning for your excursion to the yard."

Amanda sat still, slightly sagging. So she grabbed another bottle of wine. There was a load of washing waiting, and a pile of dishes, waiting, just for her. "Ah, Rome wasn't built in a day," she told herself.

Hank finally emerged from his slumbers, ready to turn on his home office. Always in his pyjamas. His business suits and white collars were now obsolete, like her pantyhose and high heels. "What's for tea?' he asked. "Your proctologist!" Amanda poured more wine, and headed to the sun lounge in the back yard. It was supposed to take a village to raise society's children. But it would definitely take a vineyard to home school them!