A Day Out.

When you have grown children & you no longer all live under the same roof getting time together is precious.  ODD, who works in the music industry, has a completely erratic schedule so even planned times together are subject to the whims of the industry, sudden changes of plan & the vagaries of work opportunities so when ODD rang to organise a *Mother's Day* outing I wasn't holding my breath, you know.  Everything is subject to...

Our first Friday cancelled out.  No surprises there.  We did manage on our second attempt. I went into Logan with the MOTH & he went in to class while I waited on the girl showing up because she was inextricably tangled in traffic but show up she eventually did & surprised me by stopping off @ Koorong ~ possibly her least favourite place in the whole universe because she can never get me out of there ~& shouted me a couple of books.

Now I never go into Koorong without a plan of attack & a list of things I'm hoping to find on their shelves so an unexpected visit meant I had nothing @ the forefront of my mind that I really, really wanted despite hours on Amazon because I had nothing that I wanted that badly.  Of those  Christian authors I really appreciate I either have their stuff already or it is no longer available.  To take a punt on an unknown author without time to really have a good look @ the book is to chance being landed with really poor theology & something like The Shack ~ don't get me started!

However, Koorong has recently been carrying more of Bethel's stuff ~ more charismatic stuff all round really ~ rather than the stuffy Baptist theology that makes me so wild & wonder how on earth they have landed where they have if they have read their bibles @ all?  Besides I like the way Bill Johnson teaches.  He is calm, logical, & I can see from the scripture how he gets where he is going so I took a punt on Hosting the Presence.  I'll let you know.

My other choice was something I thought I'd missed. Every time I go to Koorong I cruise the bible section: shelves & shelves of every imaginable translation in all sorts of covers & one of these days I am going to find an inter~lineal that makes sense & I can actually read ~ but I digress.  I was given, on my confirmation [being raised Anglican & all that] a soft covered, white, RSV which after 40 years of use literally fell apart on me & when I found most of Timothy missing with no idea where he had vanished too I decided it was time to invest in a new bible ~ but the RSV was no longer the newest, most up~to~date, hot~off`the~press translation  & not readily available ~ & I did not want the strange Catholic version, or mum's strange spare version with all those stick figure illustrations ~ yuk!! Or yet again all Jesus' words in red, which so disrupt the flow of scripture.  I am fussy about my bibles & for years have compromised so I don't read as much as I used to just because I do not really like the way the pages look & sound ~ quite apart from the fact that I am a word person & everything I know by heart is according to the old RSV so am constantly being tripped up by the strange wording of other translations ~ & we have a few: KJV; NJKV; NIV; NLT; ESV, GOOD NEWS... *sigh* Besides my eyesight is not what it used to be so I can really struggle with the print & LP bibles are generally cumbersome & not really nice to handle.

All that to say that last visit I spotted a ELP NRSV in a soft leather jacket but of course it was more than I could really afford so I went away to think about it & then expected it to be vanished into the netherland by the time I went back ~ but no, there it was sitting lonely on the shelf, the only one of its kind with it's nice broad pages, large print & nice wide borders for scribbling notes.  Gripe of my life: bibles you can't scribble notes in! Thanks ODD.  It will be well used.

It was then on to Trinder Park to pick up my MIL ~ first visit since she was taken into care.  She had no idea who either ODD or I were, no idea why we were taking her out ~ pretty much no idea about anything & she had forgotten her glasses, despite me asking if she needed them, so couldn't read the menu & our venue, on the recommendation of one of ODD's friends, was far too noisy to really carry on a conversation.

When we were notified where sGran had been placed the first thing I did was get on their web site & check it out.  So reassuring.  Lovely gardens.  Some bushland.  A man made lake. Everything looked rather nice but the reality left me depressed & rather appalled.  Gran is in the nursing facility: old, run~down, clinical & all these old dears in wheelchairs staring vacantly into nothing. OK, so a home~away from home is too much to expect but I did think her room would have some of her mementos: pictures, a painting or two, or a piece of the quirky art she so enjoyed.  Nothing. So sad. And she has no access to the lovely gardens & parkland.

We bundled Gran into ODD's new [to her] car & eventually found the recommended caf

We all ordered the Avo Toast:  Avocado wedges with pea + mint bruschetta, macadamia ricotta, semi-sundried cherry tomatoes + balsamic glaze on thick cut toasted sourdough rye.

It tasted as wonderful as it looked.

This was my choice of drink ~ so outrageous everyone had to taste it: a Hot Bae warm strawberry milk with whipped cream topped with fairy floss [yeah, I know!] & a side of iceream, strawberry sauce, a lone strawberry & 2 strawberry oreos.

Sadly our outing was rather spoilt for ODD dropped me first so I could get my lift home with the MOTH but found all hell had broken loose in the Nursing Home because the Power of Attorney had to be notified  that Gran had gone out & apparently she doesn't want any of our side of the family taking Gran out. Drama. Drama. Drama. The ODD has thought of all sorts of ways around this but sadly, due to Gran's dodgy health, we will not be doing this. The reality is it probably doesn't matter.  Gran is remembering less & less & it is probably best that way. The reality is bitter & sadly she is to blame for the outcome.  ODD swears she is bringing her to OT's wedding in July but I am rather doubtful that is is really up for such a long & exhausting day.