We're just back from 3 days of camping. I finally decided not to go too far afield and camped at a beautiful surfing beach in a National Park only an hour or so away. While 'eco' toilets and firewood are at the campsite, campers have to take their own water. Although I'd rather have a shower to wash the salt water off, the upside is that the lack of water puts a lot of campers off, so it's not too crowded which is a big bonus in my books. Rain a few days before we left meant fire bans were lifted so campfires were our night time entertainment.
The vaccination reminder for the dogs arrived the day after my post, so I hadn't forgotten them. I always feel good when I'm proven to be less daffy than I feel these days! As their vaccinations were still current I was able to leave them at the kennels (which was the most expensive part of our little getaway), at least they are washed as part of the service, so they smelled better in the car after we'd collected them than we did!
Not only did I deliver the children's sermon last Sunday, I'm doing so again tomorrow. (Which is why I'm blogging; avoidance and all that!)
I did buy a 21 year old Mazda 121 for Zinni and now I'm enjoying (?) teaching her to drive a stick shift. Zinni has logged the necessary 120 learner driver hours, but still has another 3 months before she can sit her test. If Zinni sits the test in an automatic car (which is what our family station wagon is), she will be restricted to driving automatic vehicles for the first year. In reality though, if she doesn't learn to drive a manual now, it will be much harder as by the time her 12 months of driving only automatic transmissions expires, Zinni will have left home for uni. Truth be known I'm enjoying having a little car to buzz around town in. It's a great little car to drive. It's also a very Zinni car. She didn't want a girly bubble car, so this lime green box is fine by her. This little Lime Splice is the means of me having some freedom from all the ferrying of offspring around next year once Zinni has her licence - without a second car to go with the second driver I'll be driving everyone everywhere anyway!
This is not Zinni's car, but it's the same model. Zinni's is beautiful lime green remember! (And we bought it at a private sale from people who live around the corner from me.)
We didn't go to the Global Carnival because it was raining, which suited my finances just fine!
I also still haven't contacted my widow friend Monica who lives in Sydney. Monica has just passed her 4th mark of this crappy status and I will ring her next week, for she too is on holidays and the chances of me being able to catch her at home are increased.
So, there's the wrap up of last week's worrying.
When we arrived home from camping (where we were out of phone range), I found a message on my answering machine from my dear friend Will who was best man at our wedding and who gave an hilarious and gut wrenching eulogy at Rob's funeral. Will's younger brother died on Wednesday, aged 40, less than a week after being diagnosed with cancer.
He had cancer in his lungs, liver, kidneys and probably bone and brain. How can this insidious disease take over so completely with no outward signs? Another family sinks into the morass of grief as they try to remember how and why to breathe.
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