Evening meal

Having reached a significant milestone by working freaking hard at it for three full days – and one of them a public holiday – Adelaide opened a bottle of wine before she started the tea.

One glass later, she thought they might have pizza tonight.

She took another gulp of the red, then waved – not unkindly but without nostalgia – at the woman who had believed that every meal she fed her children should be a nutritionally balanced one.

Vacation care

‘I still feel a bit shy about this,’ her little boy said. He used one hand to wipe quickly at his eyes, the other to squeeze her hand.

They were only half way across the playground and the door was closed. Either of them could still change their minds (except for the pile of work she simply could not put off for another single moment).

‘But I’m going to give it a try, and I’ll get used to it, and then I’ll have fun,’ he said.

And it was good to know that you weren’t getting everything wrong.

And indeed it is

‘Mrs Gray who has (sic) organising her first David Jones parade, taking over from Mrs Vial, says: ‘People place a lot of importance on being on that VIP list. For some people, it’s a very important part of their life. If they’re not seated at the DJ’s parade, they feel it’s a reflection on their standing in society.”

Devlin, Rebekah and Rhiannon Doyle
‘It’s your party but we’ll come if we want to, say the A-list gatecrashers’
The Advertiser. Saturday April 22 2006, p 48

The melancholy settles in

She wishes she had picked the underwear up. He is probably used to it. But still.

‘Do you want normal tea or would you prefer herbal?’ she asks. It is a household joke made before she can think.

‘I’m not usually too fussy,’ he says. His voice is soft and leaves a trail across her soul. His hair is blonde and he leaves the tap running as he walks back and forth to his truck and he wears boots which look like they have never been cleaned.

She will joke about him at dinner parties in months to come and say he’s the kind of boy would make any mother proud. She will use her own mother’s inflections when she speaks and two of her friends will know exactly what she means.

trashy magazines

In exchange for the two gorgeous children, Adelaide’s mother-in-law had given Adelaide five Woman’s Days and a New Idea.

Adelaide had allowed herself a momentary break from her other worthy pursuits to wallow in the glorious magazines. But it’s funny the places your brain will race while you are reading about Lleyton and Bec and Angeline Jolie.

Adelaide remembered, for example, that on a visit to her own grandmother’s many years ago, her grandfather had given her a similar sized stash of magazines.

‘Hide these from her until she’s finished her jobs,’ he said. ‘But not behind the television, she’ll know to look there.’

And here’s the thing: Adelaide did it! She did as her grandfather asked. And then she got them out again when he had left for his very important job.

And here’s another thing: Adelaide knew that this was something should not tell her mother.

And here’s the final thing: when Adelaide’s grandfather came home that day he felt the back of the television to make sure it had not been on. It was something Adelaide had not known.

Adelaide believes she was six or seven at the time.

Google is weird

Adelaide lives a pretty much anonymous life in the city of her birth. In truth, she does not know someone who knows someone, and she has no influence over anyone of import.

She does not know:
when Jimmy Barnes will next be in Adelaide;
how much INXS tickets are likely to cost;
when Chloe Fox and Leon Bignell will wed;
Lleyton Hewitt’s address.
These last two she would certainly keep to herself even if she knew.

There are much better sources of information on Chris Schacht, Angus Redford and KG.

Why anyone would be looking for that kind of stuff here she really can not understand.

The sasmee railway park is open one Saturday and one Sunday per month, but she can not remember whether it is the first Saturday and third Sunday or vice versa or even whether it is the second or the fourth.

There are no patterns for child’s coathangers here and Adelaide offers no medical advice. She is not even really sure what an aorta is.

Who knew there were so many people on the hunt for an ecological dishwasher. Adelaide really doubts that there is such a thing. Depending on your definition of ecological of course.

Yes, success is the best revenge. Or at the very least you will be doing something productive, even if your motives are less than admirable.

Adelaide extends her apologies to disappointed googlers, but it isn’t entirely her fault.

Seemed like a good idea at the time

Unencumbered by children, but carrying one piece of recent Very Bad news from a friend, plus that bloody phone call had come, Adelaide and her lover went out.

‘I can’t quite decide.’ Adelaide looked up from the cocktail menu and, quite accidently, straight into the eyes of the Lovely Waiter. ‘Perhaps…’

‘The lychee martini is very good,’ the Lovely Waiter said. And quite coincidentally they were the very next words on Adelaide’s lips.

‘I just need to tell you we don’t have the mint. But that’s really just garnish,’ the Lovely Waiter said.

‘That’s okay,’ Adelaide said, ‘mint just gets caught in your teeth.’

‘You’re a shocking flirt,’ her lover said when the Lovely Waiter had gone.

And at the moment when her lover said I’ll have a coffee now please Adelaide should not have said and I’ll try the mango daquiri.