I didn’t see much of my cousin Val when we were growing up. In later years, we’ve met mostly on special occasions, like family weddings or funerals. But she has just spent a week with us and it has been a wonderful opportunity to get to know one another. Amazing too, to discover how similar we are in many ways.
We have been on the go all week.
At the vets
Our first outing was not as we had planned. Mum’s cat Panther was clearly unwell, so the three of us accompanied him to see the vet. I just dread visits to the vet! But Panther was reasonably well behaved this time. Val was intrigued by the varieties of animals at the vets. Dogs of all shapes and sizes and even a pair of ducks! The vet looked in Panthers mouth and said he had Gingivitis. He gave him a cortisone shot and some antibiotics. Getting subsequent doses into Panther is another story…
We spent the rest of the day showing Val some of the local landmarks.
Meetings
Our World Vision Club had its Annual General meeting this week. Val was interested to see how we ran it, since she belongs to a couple of other organisations. She said she’s never seen the election of officer bearers run the way we do it. I’m not surprised. Our club is very informal and not quite like anything else! (We use a secret ballot for nominations – that way, people can secretly nominate themselves if they want to, then we have another secret ballot to vote on the nominations.) I took Val to a Toastmasters meeting that night. Luckily one of our most experienced members was chairman that night and Val saw how a meeting should be run. The two organisations are completely different but both are fun.
Val went to K.Y.B. (Know Your Bible) with me one day. She belongs to a K.Y.B group at home and they were doing the same study – Joseph ( O boy, didn’t he come from a dysfunctional family!) We were in the middle of our lesson, when the room suddenly began to shake slightly and the crockery in the cupboard rattled. We thought it might have been caused by the heavy machinery up the road, where a house has been getting raised onto higher stumps, but later we learned it was actually an earth tremor! It had registered 4 on the richter scale and was caused by a F1 11 jet that had broken the sound barrier just off the coast. Something to dowith atmospheric conditions and inversion – whatever that is.
Shopping
After lunch, we went to one of the big shopping centres. Val drove us in her car. (Remember, I only drive round our local area.)
“You sit in the front,” Mum told me, “so you can show Val where to go.”
Hah! I directed Val to go straight ahead when we should have turned right and took her quite a bit out of our way, but she managed to get back onto the right road. There was another conflict of opinions when we got back to the confusing intersection where we had gone wrong.
“Straight ahead,” said Mum.
“No,” I said, “Turn left.”
Val turned where I said. For a while I really thought I had led her astray again, but Mum said suddenly, “This is it!”
“There!” I said triumphantly. “Aren’t you glad you brought me?”
It was a quick shopping trip, because we wanted to be home before my sister Jan came for a visit after she had picked up Shea and Callum from school.
Bus Trip
Up early on Thursday, for a bus trip to Boonah with a group from our church. I had offered to pick up a friend on the way to the church. After I picked up Mum and Val from Mum’s place, my car started to make a chugging rattling noise.
“I don’t think we’ll get as far as the church,” I said. We made it to my friends house. Luckily her husband was home and he took us the rest of the way. When I saw all the heavy traffic on the round-about, I was glad I wasn’t driving. I usually only travel that way on Sundays when there’s not much traffic, but this was peak hour, with everyone rushing to work! We arrived just as everyone was boarding the bus. Phew!
rosefarm
It was a pleasant trip. The countryside was very dry and brown, but still beautiful. Jacarandah and Silky Oak trees added colourful blue and gold accents. We stopped for morning tea at Colledge Crossing near Mt Crosby. Then we went on to Kalbar and visited a Rose Farm. There must have been hundreds of rose bushes in full bloom, but it was too hot in the sun to look at them all. I was glad to find shade under the magnificent old Jacarandah trees.Boonah, where we had lunch, is a small countrytown. Some of our group had lunch at the tavern. One of my friends put her head in through the doorway and said, “It’s hot and noisy in there. Let’s go somewhere that is just hot.” We found a seat under a tree in a hot little park in the main street and ate our sandwhiches. It was a very hot day.
We returned through Beaudesert, stopping at Yatala for an icecream and to stock up on some of their famous pies. Our bus driver played a cassette of hymns on the way home – the old favourites that go right down and soothe where it itches.
Joel and Frances’ house is just up the road from my friends place, where I had left my car. “Let’s pop in and see Frances and the kids,” I said. “Val hasn’t met them.” My poor old car clunked and rattled up the street.
Frances drove Mum and Val home. Just as well – I don’t think my car would have made the distance. I stayed for dinner and played with Miles and Hayley while Joel looked at the car. It ’s the head gasket, he said, and there are so many other problems, it really isn’t worthwhile spending more money on it. He finally drove me home to feed my reproachful cats who insisted they were STARVING.
South Bank
Val drove us all to the station the next afternoon and we caught a train to South Bank. My sister Relle met us there after work and we explored the markets. We found it hard to go past the stall with the laughing witches. Every time someone clapped their hands, the witches eyes glowed red, they kicked their legs and laughed with a maniacal cackle. It was impossible not to laugh with them. It was quite dark by the time we looked at all the stalls. We strolled along the path by the river and admired the city lights.
On the train home, I wondered for a moment if it was Halloween. We sat opposite a group of teenagers dressed in black, with the weirdest punk hairstyles and rings through their lips and noses. We had another interesting encounter when we got off the train. Mum went with Val in her car, while I walked further down the road with Relle to where she had left her car. A man was lying on the footpath not far from the car. He waved a bottle at us and called out, “Where are you lovely ladies going?”
“Jump in quick,” Relle told me, as she unlocked the door.
We waved to the man as we drove off. “I don’t think we were in any danger,” I said. “He didn’t look as though he could stand up.”
“He must have been pretty drunk,” said Relle. “He called us lovely ladies!”
leatrees
The next day, Relle took Mum, Val and me to visit my other sister Lea who lives on the other side of the city. The house is in a beautiful bushland setting that is so peaceful. Six-year-old Matthew challenged us in a game of chess. I was amazed to find he not only knows all the moves – I couldn’t beat him!And now Val has gone back home. I’m feeling very tired after going out every day for a week. I can’t go far this week anyway, with no car. Joel took me to look at some used cars on Saturday. There was one I liked, but we might look around a bit first.
Meanwhile, guess what …its raining! Real wet rain, like we haven’t had for months and months. It started to rain on Sunday and kept on all day yesterday, and more today. Wonderful!
