Oh yes – that
was Pete and me. Yesterday. Happily frolicking beside a tinkling, cool
waterfall in a beautiful national park.
Today – not so
much…there are no photos; we are hot, bothered, exhausted…
Pete has been
working on the boat all day, in the hot HOT sun, with a strong, capable
mechanic called Darren who – mercifully – turned up and worked like a Trojan
all day to fix the water pump problem.
He has a similar morning ahead of him, working on – those pesky
rudders!!
I had a plan
for the day…it involved an accomplice:
Denise and
Cameron are in Cullen Bay Marina but they are Darwin-ites and they have a
car!! And they very generously offered
to help people like me scamper about doing far-flung jobs. I find it VERY hard to ask for help but…I
couldn’t see any other way of getting from place to place without having to
accept Denise’s very kind offer. (Yes I
could have hired a car but…how much do I want to drive around an unknown city
in the heat? Not very much…)
I had a lovely
walk into Fannie Bay to catch the bus – I didn’t think Denise would really want
my folding bike on top of all of my other purchases. And the bus turned up, within minutes, just
like magic. I do know other people have
had problems with the buses not turning up, or driving straight past, but Pete
and I have had a magic run, with buses turning up at crucial times and allowing
us to get from Fannie Bay to Bunnigns to Casuarina to the city and well
anywhere we can think of, really.
I trotted along
to Woolworths for the first part of my mission, just stopping briefly to snap
another of my favourite colourful buildings
And then I
worked that trolley, up and down the aisles, like a velociraptor! I didn’t have Pete there to say, No we don’t
need quite so many…insert here an item of
non-perishable food which I consider to be indispensable…
So I staggered
through the checkout with an alarming load.
My check-out chick was extra kind, extra helpful, and at the end she
said, “Well I am giving you a discount; I think Woolworths can afford it!” I was very grateful and tottered out through
the doors with my teetering load. Just
as Denise arrived to pick me and my load up…crash tinkle…I lost two jars of
whole-egg mayonnaise (my favourite!) and several other smashable items…My new
bestfriend – a young bloke who had cadged $2 from me a few minutes earlier-
rushed to my aid, and produced paper towel out of nowhere while I said OH NO (repeatedly) quite loudly in a
slightly high-pitched voice.
He and I
managed to get everything into Denise’s car and we went off to do tasks at
Spotlight (mosquito netting and Velcro) and Officeworks (rubber stamp, to
impress officials in Indonesia.)
In record time
we were back at Spot On Marine, where Pete was labouring away with
Darrell. I spent a good hour unloading
and unpacking and carrying stuff (Packaging!!!) to the handy skip.
Here is just
some of the shopping:
My afternoon
was just as productive if less frenetic.
I had a dip in my own personal pool and then – cooking time!!
And just in
case you need to know: degree of difficulty?
Well 2XS was leaning quite a lot at the time; also Pete and Darrell were
banging and crashing in the engine hatches, which was just mildly alarming…
Oh and I also
did a nice big load of washing- so, an entirely Stepford Wife day – shopping,
cooking, cleaning, washing!!
And here, to distract us, is a NT dingo!
...bottles of soya mayonnaise... ? Perhaps? xxx
ReplyDelete