The school holiday had started. I did not wake up early as there wasnt a need to send the kids to school. I managed to catch some precious sleep and when I got to work it was already 9 plus. As usual for a Monday, it was a long day at work. I did not even have time to call or SMS the children. While I was in a meeting in the afternoon, she SMSed me instead. She asked if she could bring the children out at 6pm for movies and will bring them back before 12 midnight. I paused for a while. I was thinking of how I should respond to this request. Then I SMS F asking her if it was true that she was going movies with mummy at 6pm and she replied "YES". However, on further questioning as to why she wanted to go movies today when she refused to watch movie on sunday, she replied that actually she did not want to watch movie and only wanted to buy something. I replied to her that it was OK to bring the kids out. Then she asked me to settle my own dinner as she had asked the maid not to cook. I was feeling a trifle uncomfortable. Now, she had her access to the children on the weekend - this was agreed - and it was not my fault if the children did not want to go out. And on weekdays, she is always welcome to be back for dinner. As for me, after a long day work, I look forward to having dinner with my children, when I can talk to them and connect with them. And now she actually wanted to break my "this routine" and take the children out. OK now that was fine and she even told the maid not to cook dinner and I have to eat out! How ridiculous that can be? I told her "NO", the maid will still cook and since they are not watching movies (as told by F), the children should take their dinner first before going out. And she said that she actually wanted to bring the children out for dinner. I did not say anything. But I was feeling like "Oh shit". I was getting on well with my life, having my routine all worked out, even getting use to the idea of spending the Friday night and part of saturday without the kids. At least, I have the children with me from Sunday to Thurday. And now she had to do something to break my routine. And what can I do? I have to re-adjust my routine again and life is not getting easier. I really need to plan for myself a life without the kids - just like tonight - where can I go? I really need to have some friends badly. So, I just drove around for a while and when I got home finally, it was 7.30pm. I ate my dinner and fortunately the little one was around and she kissed me when she saw me. Then I switched on the TV to watch.