Lunchtime walk

Wednesday:

Lovely start to the day; breakfast in the covered courtyard (I allow myself bacon around once a week) after everyone else had left. I don't usually read newspapers, but this local one was delivered so I decided to get into the spirit of the area.

I went inside to my desk and the kookaburra visited. I mentioned yesterday I was giving them cooked meat, well a lot of it was left behind so I guess they didn't like it. This morning I put out some raw meat - trimmings from my steak - and that went very quickly.

I did deskwork most of the morning while waiting for a registered letter to arrive. You'll remember settlement on our Canberra house was supposed to happen last Monday but there was a document missing, well that was all sorted out and we settled on Thursday. Today we got the cheque. As soon as it came I walked up to the shopping centre and deposited it into our account. As soon as it clears it will of course go on the mortgage for this house! It was a great relief when settlement was finalised.

It was very hot outside, but I walked the back way along a path in a very narrow strip of bushland, only a couple of hundred metres wide at most. Sometimes you walk along directly behind houses, other times you have native bush on both sides and can only see houses and streets off through the trees. I feel safe because I can see civilisation at all times (but I still wouldn't walk it at night). Much more shady than walking along the roads, and about the same distance.

It was nearly lunchtime when I went out but this time I made sure I wasn't hungry! I did buy myself a food treat while I was there - a mango. Yummy. And I dropped into the library to exchange my books. Then I walked home to a house about 10C cooler than outside, had a drink and recovered, and had a lovely lunch.

...

It turned into a very stressful afternoon. Jasmine texted to ask if I could pick her up from school as it was too hot to ride home. Timing was going to be an issue with Aiden getting home soon, so I told her to ride part-way and I would pick her up at a particular side street. Getting out of our quiet street took forever, with three or four schools within a couple of blocks of here (two private) the pick-up traffic was horrendous and there were cars backed up all around the round-about as if they were parked there. But I got out eventually by being a bit pushy and drove to the meeting place. Jas wasn't there yet. So I kept going, all the way to her school. The bike path is right beside the road, how could I have missed her? Drove back to the appointed corner, waited, stress levels rising. Where was she? Time was ticking on as well. As I got out my phone to call, she texted me. She'd gone down the side street instead of waiting at the corner, and was right down the other end!! Miscommunication there. That street is blocked off to cars half-way down, so I had to go round the block. Got there eventually.

Next challenge, the bike wouldn't fit in the car. I'd been worried about that. She's now using my old bike, so it's small adult size. I tried to take off the front wheel like Tim does, but with no idea what I was doing. It wouldn't come off. Flashbacks to when Tim broke his shoulder blade and I had to get his bike into the car to drive him to hospital. That bike needed more doctoring that he did to get it back in working order after I was done with it. With my stress levels at exploding point, I got the wheel half off which meant the bike could no longer even be wheeled along, let alone ridden. I used brute force and wrestled the bike into the back seat where it stuck out at one side. Drove home with the car door slightly open, to find Aiden waiting but fine. I was probably silly to stress so much, but I honestly don't know what he would have done if he was waiting for a long time. We don't know any neighbours and we hadn't discussed it. I don't envy Tim trying to put the wheel back on the bike, I may have left some random parts behind in the gutter.