I knicked down to the shops to pick up some rice this afternoon.
I'm not only getting into the lingo around here, but I've had my first experience all on my own. Wow--and after only two weeks.
"It's nice that we could have a relaxing day," I said to Peggy earlier.
"WHAT?," she replied.
Yeah--I remembered. It was a relaxing day for me. Some of us actually did work around the place today.
We got the dogs to the "little park" at 6:40, in between storms. She had already washed and hung up the first load of clothes, and with how the wind was whipping around, they were dry and the line ready for the second load by the time we came back.
The "little park" was a different experience from taking the dogs to the cemetery. I should explain that "the cemetery" is not what you'd expect. Yes, there is a graveyard there, but the cemetery sits on acres of bush land, so where we walk the dogs is far away from where anybody is ever buried (or likely to be buried in our lifetime). The dogs go bounding through the bush, chase roos and rabbits, etc. The "little park" is just that: a park. Lawn, sandbox, trees. That sort of thing. We wandered around up and down, back and forth, and the dogs foraged under the bottlebrush. I came across a fuzzy caterpillar, Cockatoos flew overhead, parrots (28s and rosellas) flew up into trees. A wattle bird scolded me for coming too close to her nest.
And in 20 minutes we were back in the car and back to home.
I hung up the second load of wash. I'm discovering that reaching up and hanging clothes on a clothesline is good exercise for my arm--in fact, my arm is feeling almost normal again and we will probably go biking one of these weeks.
When the wash was done, I came in here to my computer and started putting photos on the Net, while Peggy did a third (?and fourth) load of wash, cleaned all the red dirt from the trip out of the car, folded clothes, washed down the bathroom, fed the dogs, cleaned up the yard, and several other dozen things.
"Get into the car," she said. We went to a place where she could wash the car ("What can I do?" I asked. "Sit there and read," she said, grabbing hoses and wax and getting to work), then we went to a mall, did some shopping, decided on what to have for dinner and then she took me to lunch.
Next off to Janne and Chris's where Peggy helped Chris install some software on her computer and invited the two of them to join us for "tea" (dinner).
Yes, it certainly was nice "we" had such a relaxing day.
So when Peggy noticed she might not have enough rice for all of us for dinner and was about to drive off to the store, I noted that it was close by and I probably could find it myself without getting lost or killing myself or anyone else.
Dubiously, Peggy pointed me at the footpath and gave me instructions on how to walk the three blocks to the market, and gave me a shopping list and by golly, I found (a) the shopping center, (b) the market, (c) all the necessary ingredients (I even improvised and bought some milk for cereal for me), and (d) my way back home, without getting lost. I done good.
We got dinner prepared for the four of us and laughed a lot through the meal. Peggy and Janne went outside to have a smoke while Chris and I did the dishes. And now we're back at our respective computers working on the net and trying to decide what we're going to do tomorrow.
"Do you want me to cook dinner tomorrow night?" I asked.
Peggy got this wary look in her eye..."how much mess do you make when you cook?" she asked, knowing full well what a klutz I am.
Sigh.
Maybe I'll boil potatoes. Easy. No mess.
