or - "There and back again..."
The drive there...
Within an hour of leaving home, we witnessed a bizarre smash on the road, in which a car careened into the back of a semi @ 120kph (prob'ly asleep at the wheel) and the semi went on driving as if he didn't even know he'd been hit. This did much to unsettle our poor nerves, and meant that we had to set aside our new Burt Bacharach compilation for a few hours until happy music seemed appropriate again. The first day was v eventful, with bibical scale locust plagues, cows on the road, Ruth Rendell CD-novel murder mysteries, and temperatures in the high 30's as we made our way to Mildura for the first night .
Arrive at the city of churches and after many family reunions, we start to slide into holiday mode. Went to Victor Harbour, relaxed in a pool, on the tennis court, played with nephew, caught up with brother and Mi-chan, and incredible shrinking parents (parents have both been losing weight).
Back to 'delaide for much to-ing and fro-ing between parents' houses, allergic reactions to pets and dust on sofa beds, and poor communication between all parties about what is going on, when. (We are going to stay in Siddonee for Christmas this year, we've decided). Watched tense, Mother/daughter-in-Law dynamics evolve everywhere we looked. My god, why can’t mother-in-laws let partner/wife of their sons do things their way and accept it as being “different” rather than “wrong”? Why do people lose their ability to put "issues" in perspective where extended families are concerned? I guess it's one of those things that will never change.
The nephew...
Oh how cute yet exhausting. Best moments include:
- nephew bowing (Japanese style) at mannequin dressed as airline pilot outside travel agent
- 5 fully grown adults dancing to ABBA at 11pm in effort to wear out 20 month old, but only suceeding in wearing selves out.
- look of pure delight on his face has he has his first proper swim in the ocean @ Balmoral. Didn't want to get out, despite lips going blue.
I have decided that being an Auntie is fun – you get to try out being a parent, without the full responsibility (no nappy changing). Can act like a silly git, and most of the time a sub-two-year-old will laugh at you adoringly.
Home again, home again, jiggeldy jig!
Drive back home was uneventful, save a spectacularly stuffed up pub meal, in which…
Meal took over an hour to produce, despite there being only 2 other parties in the dining area. Our 2 steak sandwiches somehow got served to someone else, who apparently didn’t realize it wasn’t their lamb cutlets and chicken kiev (how???). Waitress looked extremely stressed, and offered us the latter meals, which was not a good compromise given the lamb cutlets were DEEP FRIED (I kid you not), and so possibly was the Chicken Kiev (although it could have been bathed in oil before baking).
Things now getting ridiculously late, embarrassing and irritating (staff had no skills to deal with mixed up orders), we asked for part of our money back and took the chicken, thinking we could at least cut the chicken out from greasey casing. But we were WRONG WRONG WRONG!! C-chan cut into it, and grease poured out, putting at risk the only remaining edible foods on the dish (cauliflower cheese, chips, carrot, baked potato). Ate what we could and snuck out the side door….
No comments:
Post a Comment