Look, to tell you truth, I’ve not had much in the way of spoons this week and so trying to do anything has been a monumental amount of effort and frankly, the word NO features heavily in my vocabulary ..
That said, I am here with this week’s promised blog – Albeit a short one.
Here it is in dot points:
I have new clothes! Hooray!
I am getting more confident using Eleanor Whillie – Yay!
I have sent all the emails, text messages and made all the phonecalls
Am watching the 2nd Season of ‘The Wheel of Time’ .. It’s OK. Not what I expected but it’s OK – watchable at least.
I am currently a size 20. This is the biggest I have ever been . I need to work on that and get to at least a 16 by years end.
Hubby goes back to work on Monday ( Where did those 3 weeks go?)
I seem to have injured myself again – but what else is new?
Have not long gotten home from doing the grocery shopping with Hubby and running a few errands down at Chirnside Park.
For those not familiar with Chirnside Park, it is one of many local shopping precincts near my house ( I live near 4 such places) and while its smaller and doesn’t boast as many shops as the others, it is the most disabled friendly by design and thus I get to zoom along in Eleanor Whillie and join in the fun.
Today I also purchased a new handbag ( one that’s easier to carry while going out and about) a new hat ( more about that in a moment ) and a quick pit stop at SpecSavers to get my glasses adjusted, cleaned properly and get a quote on some potential transition lenses or sunglasses.
Todays weather has been nothing short of spectacular and to be able to go out in it – despite the obstacles I currently face (and believe me, there’s a lot) makes me very happy.
However, I digress. Today’s outing is not the purpose of today’s blog. By now, I would wager, you’re probably wondering what the title of today’s blog has to do with my shopping extravaganza and the answer, dear reader, is nothing. Absolutely nothing.
It has everything to do with what I got up to yesterday!
( And if you’ve read you’ve read this far, then I congratulate you for sticking it out with me)
Park Orchards Market is held the 3rd Sunday of every month 10am -2pm at the local Primary School
It was my first time at a local market and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. It was also my first trip back to Park Orchids (it’s literally 15 minutes from my house) since 1995. Back then, it had one bus that travelled there every hour and it was one of those small *blink and you miss it* places that no one really paid any mind to – unless you had to go there.
In the 20 years since it has grown to be quite the affluent suburb where the locals know everyone ( and their business apparently .. but you didn’t hear that from me) and houses are worth in the vicinity of $1 million dollars + on any day ending in Y .
The people of Park Orchids seem to be quite the snobs .. what, with their fancy cars, designer dogs ( in lieu of designer children) and the suspected illicit affairs taking place right under your nose – just as you sit down for lunch. (Long story, I’m getting there, I promise)
That is, except the lovely folks at the Park Orchids monthly market. As I have already said, it was my first time at a Market like this and I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw there.
Through my NDIS plan, each fortnight I am granted Community Access with a support worker. I have an allocated 5 hours whereby I can go out and do some small activity independent from my Husband -who is also my full time carer – and give him a break from taking care of me. I can pretty much do as I wish – Go to the movies, do some shopping, visit a reserve, go out for lunch, visit a friend – any number of activities as long as it’s none to costly and can be completed within the allocated 5 hours
Yesterday’s choice was the Market. There were plenty of things to look at and peruse as well as live music from a local musician. Entry was free (bar a gold coin donation) and plenty to eat and drink .
Members of the CFA popped in ( For my American Readers – CFA stands for Country Fire Authority. They are a group of volunteers who are trained as Firefighters to assist during our Summer bushfire season) which kept the little ones entertained for hours!
Myself and my Support Worker “Miss B” spent a good few hours there . I went away with a lovely scented candle, some homemade Baklava and Turkish Delight and a jar of Christmas Pesto (your basic basil & pine nut mix combined with sweet chilli and cranberries – Bloody delicious!)
Pleased with my purchases, Miss B and I decided to go and find a local Cafe for lunch.
We found a small place just down the road and around the corner (Eleanor Whillie and I had an interesting time navigating the wee bumps, cracks and dips in the pavement) and although they had no disabled access to speak of – they were soon able to rustle up an extra table from inside and bring it outside.. which was nice of them.
We placed our order ( Two Chicken Schnitzel burgers) and waited. ….. And waited ….. And ..waited. Almost an hour after we placed our order our meals finally arrived. We thanked the waitress?? Owner?? I dunno .. and began to eat.. Only to discover we were not given any cutlery! Not a knife. Not a fork . Not a spoon. Nothing.
Thank God for fingers .. am I right?
So there we were eating our meager meal, with our fingers, in the well do to suburb of Park Orchards, surrounded by snotty nosed well-to-do’s with their designer doggo’s (OK, so the one we saw was cute AF and super friendly) all the while listening to ( not deliberately I might add) a guy who spoke a few too many decibels above fucking reasonable – discuss his vacation plans with his (future ex – I could just tell. Girl was bored and annoyed as hell) Girlfriend/ Wife/ Fling to Singapore over a cup of coffee.
While I won’t go into anymore detail – because frankly, it’s none of my business but ….Some things are best left discussed in private, you know what I mean? Not loudly at a Cafe with no cutlery ( did they even get a spoon, I wonder?) on a Saturday afternoon in a place where everyone gonna be knowing your business by the time you ask for the cheque.
Over all, it was a lovely afternoon and I am seriously thinking of going back. Everyone was super friendly there and I was so sorely tempted to buy one of everything!
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