Mamalade

Thursday 26th December 2002

Lombard Street

The sky was still grey, but it wasn’t raining.

“We could take a walk to Lombard street,” said Agnieszka. She meant the famous zig zag portion of the street.

I really wanted to see it but…

“Do you think I’d get up that hill?” I asked dubiously. The day we had walked to Fort Mason, Agnieszka had pointed out the approach on the other side of the hill in the distance. It was steep!

“We don’t have to go that way,” she reassured me. “We’ll take the easy way and go round it. It’s a 20 minute walk”

Believe me, there’s no easy way!

“I think I can, I think I can…” I puffed as we approached the crest of a hill. I think it was Jones Street. “Hey, I could see the underneath of that car as it came over the hill!”

Then… “Yikes!” the descent on the other side of the hill was so steep there were either small steps in parts of the sidewalk or grids in the concrete to ensure safe footing. We picked our way carefully down to the first intersection. The next block sloped even more sharply, with no steps or grids. But there was a row of trees planted along the edge of the footpath, “I’ll walk in line with the trees,” I said, “so I can grab them as I skid past.”

A car drove past us up the hill and we heard a “clunk.”

“Hear that?” said Agnieszka. “The car bottomed out on the hill!”

Just one more block to the left…

“There it is, up there!” said Agnieszka. “We’ve come down one block too far.”

“Yeah, the steepest block!”

“I think it was the most difficult way after all,” decided Agnieszka.

Never mind, it was fun! We puffed up the next street and joined fellow tourists who were standing in the middle of the street, snapping photos as the cars edged carefully down the zig zag street. A large car had trouble getting around the last bend and had to manouver it’s way out.

uplombard_400

downlombard400

We climbed the stairs up the side of the street and marvelled how people living on that hill could back out into the constant zig zag traffic. When we reached the top, we were rewarded with a spectacular view.After walking a bit further, (thankfully downhill) we came across an icecream shop. “It’s Ben’s favourite,” said Agnieszka.

There were so many flavours, but I think I chose the right one. The Swiss Orange Chip was delicious and kept me energised all the way to Polk street where we explored some specialty and antique shops. I loved the Faux Fur rug sporting a $860 price tag, but I left there and spent about $3 on cards in the half-price shop.

Finally we made it back home about three hours later. Agnieszka hadn’t reckoned on my snail pace up hills when she estimated a 20 minute walk.

We had a late lunch of Christmas leftovers and a quiet afternoon.

It has been an eventful week. Mum had a cataract operation on Thursday. She’s noticing colours she hasn’t seen for a long time.

“I wondered if this wool would be bright enough for my rug,” she said, displaying the afghan she is making. “But it’s a pretty colour. I thought it was grey, but it’s purple!” She looked at a picture on the wall. “I always thought the grass was dark green,” she said, “But it’s quite bright, isn’t it!”

She’ll probably get the other eye done later.

Kid Stuff

Frances’ friend Sharon developed problems and had to go into hospital a few weeks early to have her baby. Frances minded Sharon’s two children (as well as her own two) until their father could arrange some time off work.

“I’ll come round and mind the two little ones while you take Miles and Verity to Pre School.” I told Frances.

The two toddlers proved to be a handful. They were both good, but Hayley is only 13 months old, and Liam is about 20 months, so they need watching every minute. And of course, that’s impossible when they run off in opposite directions.

We started out in one room with a barricade across the door, but Liam just lifted it up with one hand and they both screamed when I tried to put it back. Then they discovered the little slippery slide that Frances had bought the day before. Babies that age have no concept of taking turns, so there was another screaming match, which grew in crescendo when I tried to remove the slippery slide from the room.

“This is a two-person job,” I told Frances when she returned from the Pre School. “I’d better stick around for a while.” So we spent the day chasing a toddler each. I was exhausted by the time I went home.

Frances phoned later to tell me Sharon had a baby boy.

Since Monday, Hayley has been quite sick, with very high temperatures. The doctor thinks it is a throat infection that is going around. I was at their place again last night. Miles had been watching “Mary Poppins.”

“Which part of the movie do you like?” I asked him. “I like the part where the kids snap their fingers and all the toys put themselves away.”

Miles tried to snap his fingers. “I can do it,” he said.

“Yes, but the toys are still all over the floor,” I said. “It didn’t work.”

“I know,” said Miles. “I’ll snap my fingers, and you pick them up.”

Nice try, but I didn’t fall for it!

I did it! I won the Interpretive Reading Contest at the Toastmasters Area Conference! I felt pleased about winning that one, because the other competitors were so good. The judges must have had a tough time deciding. They said it was close.

But the real winner today, I thought, was the member from our club who entered the Novice Speech at the last minute when someone else dropped out. No, she didn’t come first, not even or second or third - but I thought she deserved a prize for courage and another prize for improving out of sight since she first delivered that speech only a few days before at our meeting! It’s so exciting to watch the newer members develop.

At our last Toastmasters meeting, we gained a new member, who has transferred from another club. Our Table Topic Master sat beside him during the meeting, so I wasn’t too surprised when she mentioned his occupation when she gave him a Table Topic. He would have already told her a bit about himself, I thought.

The topic was, “Tell us about one of your more unusual experiences as a heart surgeon.” I was a bit surprised that a busy heart surgeon would join us! He spoke so convincingly and sincerely. He said that emotional trauma can be just as damaging as physical trauma. I was quite impressed.

I came home thinking, “Wow, a heart surgeon in our club! And wasn’t it appropriate that he joined when we had a “St Valentine’s Day” theme!”

The next morning, I looked at the business card he had given me and laughed out loud. I’m unbelievably stupid sometimes. It was a Table Topic, for goodness sake! He’s a salesman!

A pretty good one, I reckon.

It rained! It really rained! There were a few tantalizing showers on Sunday, just enough to make my back damp as I walked to the car after church. We stopped at my house to get pies out of the freezer to take to Mum’s. “I’ll just be a minute,” I told Mum who was sitting in the car.

“You’d better get changed while you’re here,” she said. “You’re a bit wet.”

I rushed inside, threw on another dress, and ran back out to the car.

“Did you get the pies?” asked Mum.

It’s a worry, isn’t it?

There was a steady downpour on Monday and Tuesday, thanks to cyclone Benny up north. It was the best rain we’ve had for ages.

Clean up

I’m glad we didn’t have the cyclonic winds here, because it was the council’s yearly Clean-up Week. There were piles of junk set out along the footpaths waiting for the pick-up truck. Just imagine the chaos if it had all been whipped up in a whirlwind! There would have been sheets of roofing iron, flying carpets, broken chairs and goodness knows what else hurtling through the air.

The truck came and picked it all up on the first day this time, and spoilt a lot of fun. They usually take about a week, which gives us a chance to keep adding to the pile and allows scavengers to remove whatever takes their fancy. It’s always fun to see which items disappear overnight.

Pre-Schooler Miles

My grandson Miles started Pre School today. He enjoyed his first day and is looking forward to tomorrow. When they went for their interview last week, Frances told the teacher that Miles is used to computers (they have them at pre-school now) and that he likes to install his own games. The teacher duly noted on his form, “Can install software.” At least they’ll know who to call on!

Baby Hayley had her first birthday while I was in San Francisco. She seems to have grown up so much. She is walking most of the time now and getting into things that Miles never even thought of. I don’t know how Frances gets anything done - watching Hayley is a full time job. I minded her yesterday morning. She was very good - she has such a happy nature, but she is very active. I came home exhausted.

Last week I went with Frances and the kids to the beach. Walking along the beach with Miles, we saw a seagull with one leg.

“The poor thing,” I said. “He’s lost his leg.”

“Come on,” said Miles. “We’ll find it for him!”

“But what would you do if you found it?” I asked. “You can’t put it back on.”

“Yes I can,” said Miles. “I’ll get some sticky tape.”

Starting back

All our usual activities have started up again after the long Christmas break. We had our first Toastmasters meeting for the year last week. I was timekeeper. It’s the job I dread the most. I always manage to press the wrong button on the stopwatch, then I have trouble resetting it. I don’t know why. No one else seems to have problems with it.

We also had our first World Vision Jumble Sale for the year. It was a very busy morning, sorting, pricing, selling, and trying to cope with an eccentric customer who insisted on expounding on her wacky beliefs until half of our helpers sought refuge and hid in the back room until she left. One of our ladies tried to escape out the back door, but had to crouch behind a parked car when she discovered the customer had gone outside and was waiting on the corner for her.

I’ve spent most of this week sorting more things for the Jumble Sales. It seems everyone has accumulated stuff while I was away. Every time I come home I find more bags left on my doorstep. It makes it hard to keep the house tidy, but at least life isn’t boring!

I haven’t had time yet to continue the saga of my trip to San Francisco, but I’ll get to it soon.

Ben and Agnieszka are back in Australia. They flew home from San Francisco this week and are staying in Canberra with Agnieszka’s mother for the time being, but will probably settle in Sydney or Melbourne.

“Is there any Canberra left?” I asked Ben when he phoned this morning. There have been dreadful bush-fires in Canberra during the past few weeks. Over 400 homes have been lost.

“It’s not too bad where we are,” he assured me. “But everything smells like a barbecue. The clothes we hung on the line smell like smoke.”

Agnieszka had been having trouble with the clothes dryer when I was staying with them in San Francisco. I remember saying to her, “You’ll be so glad to hang your washing out in the sunshine when you get back to Australia!”

But that’s a small problem compared with what so many others have been going through. I’m thankful that Agnieszka’s mother didn’t lose her home and I’m glad all our family is in the same country now.

There have been bush fires in parts of Victoria and New South Wales this week. The whole of Australia is tinder dry from our worst drought in living memory. It would only take one idiot with a match to set Queensland alight too.