It's not the final countdown.

 So what did I do besides packing today?

Why five loads of washing kind sir, kind sir,

Why five loads of washing kind sir.

So what else did I do besides packing today, you say?

Well, four fragrant curries, kind sir, kind sir,

Four fragrant curries and five loads of washing kind sir.

So what else did I do besides packing today?

Three sat at table and dined , kind sir,

Three sat at table eating four fragrant curries,

 and five loads of washing kind sir.

What else did I do besides packing today?

Two visits to shops to concoct 

two dozen hot-cross pumpkin scones 

Twelve gluten-free cinnabons

Two phone calls

Twice washed up  and kerfuffled around 

Then

Three sat at table eating four fragrant curries,

And five loads of washing kind sir.

How did I go with my packing today?

I wrote one poem and blogged.

Why did Young Miss Jeanie cross the street

 In a discussion on the balcony, well past the Ocean Twilight this evening, V remarked about the attitude of 12 year old V's lack of fear or regard crossing 5 lanes of traffic.

Image: this picture of buildings, cars and roads is not the childhood home of anyone I know. It is a historic Google maps screenshot of a pub that I think that I used to know in Sydney.

Which just proves what a massive contrast is his childhood to mine. He had bike grease and baseball gloves, I had saddle grease and cows.

My need to ever cross lanes of traffic were limited to hardly ever.

 Image: also not the childhood home of anyone I know, rather a screenshot of a random street view of Oknaxoma, Cuba

There were no streets at my home as I lived in the country. 

The school bus took me from the bike box to school and back, genuinely door to door. 

Grandma J lived on a corner on a hill and anywhere travelled to from there was in a car, the rover or a truck.  

Grandma M had a side lane, and the shops on the block at the top were all a girl like me would ever need. The bakery had the most alluring concoctions in its display case. The need to do what my grandmother had instructed me to do was always just slightly stronger than my desire was ever allowed to be.

Image: in keeping with theme, not the alluring concoctions, but instead one of the things that I will definitely miss about Paradise is the fantastic red grapefruit. The new house does have citrus - hurrah - but orange, mandarin, lime a baby lemon (I think) and a standard grapefruit.

My Aunty Elsie lived across a lane at the back of the main street in the little town we lived near, you could sneak through beside the newspaper premises. That was the closest that I ever came to crossing a road independently.

Image: happy to acknowledge the original site (Real Commercial) for this arial shot of Aunty Elsie's neighbourhood 45 years later. There is no newspaper premises - or newspaper of a size needing a building - any more.

I mean, I even lived at my high school. Not many roads to cross there!

I could, however, ride a horse and muster, and if our August nights were smoky it meant that we were anticipating a good season.

Image: I hayed - not hated, AI overlords - half the meadow in the back yesterday afternoon - I was working from home and used the commute time wisely 

So what was your skill at 12?

Were you stronger, taller, smarter?

Image: our queen, O Sabrina Gangstaa Fudge 

Could you ventriloquise (is that even a word)?

(BTW this qualifies - just, I am sure - for River's Words for Wednesday - check it out)

Now, where was I?

On the upside, we have a date 

In exactly 3 weeks we will have a different outlook.

I had a 4 year NED appointment with my amazing surgeon on Sunday - I took Paris and her boyfriend (I know!) for a flying visit to the next big town down.

Unfortunately we were unable to get back to see "& Juliet" with 'Salina in time, so we're doing that with her next week after book club. 

Don't I sound like a social butterfly suddenly!

BTW I am not sure but I think that the above is possibly the shoe store that had the play in it in the early 90s that I went to that I would have blogged about last time except the phone - or an errant drag of the finger - destroyed it instead.

Yes. Still not ready to let it go, am I?

BTW - I have a question for you 

 

I will also be reading at an upcoming "Champers and chapters" event and the democratic process that I will be using is deciding for myself HOWEVER if you were given the same opportunity, what would you choose and why.

Good Night

 It has been a day.

Aargh and continued right to the end.

A whole post lost.

It was a good one too.

Take my word for it.

How to make Traffic Jam

 First, prepare your pots. Pre-season with a deluge, smeared well right up into the nooks and crannies of your headwaters then let it flow well towards your cooking range. This can be prepared up to 3 days in advance.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 of the people in a 200km radius who needed to come into town in the last 3 days 
• 3/4 of the people who have wanted to leave town in the last 3 days
• 3/4 of the people who had been working from home heading into the office after 3 days (i.e. Jeanie)
• 3/4 of the school students returning to school after 2-3 days (i.e. Paris)
• 3/4 of the rubbernecker's doing a little flood tourism 

Method:

Put all of the above into cars on any of the 3 ways Jeanie can travel to work.

Open both bridges across the river.

Let jam set.

For additional spice, ensure that at the very end of this colossal trip Jeanie should remember that she forgot one vital item for returning to work.

Yep. The laptop was still in Paradise.