Flowers

When I dropped B at work on Sunday at 12, I knew there was no way I was going straight home to work. The weather was too perfect. I knew I had two slim novels in my bag, one of them I was already half way through...
So I turned right on Cambridge, instead of left, and parked Little Car at City Beach. I bought two bottles of water, and when I registered how warm it actually was, and no wind either, I was grateful for my polka dot undies get-up as they can easily double as bathers. And so they did.
I settled in the wide open sunshine (and boy are the results painful!) and read.
The first book I finished was a Finnish novel that gave me a similar feeling to being in Helsinki...a sort of squeezing melancholy tinged with cold. It was a decent read, but not outrageously good.
Next I started a Helen Garner novel (I only just found out she was born in Geelong!) which was glorious. Full of real, meaty characters and longing and true friendship.

The other great thing that day, was that all these sentences were falling into my head like gifts, and naturally I had only my diary to scribble them down, but I'll fish them out, one by one, and see if they perhaps make a coherent whole.

I found it incredibly hard to get up and leave the beach, but my arms were starting to really hurt and I was hungry. So I ate greasy fish and chips with my fingers and finished the book.
The thought of home was still somewhat unbearable, so I thought I'd take a drive along the coast. It was crowded though and I smarted from the sun a little too much to want to sit out in it again. I did stop at Floreat beach though, or just past it, and walked up and down for a while, marvelling at my good fortune.

Some cleaning and baking later I picked up B and we ate my most excellent satay chicken for dinner.

This morning I had a message from CS inviting us for coffee, which morphed into lunch. After dropping B at work I settled into the stream of cars on the freeway, and felt happy. That road makes me feel like anything is possible, and although I haven't given in to my urge to just keep going, maybe one day after December 22nd I will...

So, CS and KS live in the most labyrinthine suburb I have ever seen. I think Nelly the GPS really struggled, telling me left or right or second exit fast enough. But finding them was easier than finding my way out. We drank cups of tea, sitting by their magnificent kitchen and talked and I was taken by the feeling of having really found (although I didn't even do the finding) real friends. A good, full feeling. Evidently not full enough though, because I managed to polish off three pieces of tandoori chicken and some excellent salad, replete with the tart kiss of onions. Yum. After more tea and conversation - and biscotti - I said my goodbyes and headed home. But the sly view of the lake in Joondalup made me turn off the main road and stop the car. And if it hadn't been for the all too insistent call (it was building up to a scream) of nature, I might still be there, walking around in the fading afternoon light, taking little photos of the beauty of that park.
I was filled with such joy on the drive home!