beach trip 2013

Several Saturdays ago, aunty A took mother, Anna and I for a road trip!

Lol, first, I should clarify: ‘Aunty A’ is the nickname I affectionately give aunty Ada, who’s been my church Sunday school teacher on and off (well, more on than off, she’s only skipped several years) for like the past two decades! When I first started calling her that, she’d been mock-furious, denouncing me as ‘lazy’ because “my name is already very short, just three letters long: a-d-a, but you’re lazy enough to shorten it? How DARE you!” however, I persisted with calling her that, and she’s since given up on admonishing me for it. Even my dad calls her ‘aunty a’ on occasion, now. XD

Anyways, several weeks ago, aunty A had an ADO/RDO and she took Anna (Mrs. Slam), mother and I on a road trip!

I’d been very mock-emotional, wiping away a false tear, when she opened up the front seat door for me to sit in. See, NOBODY gets to sit besides aunty A usually! I suppose aunty A realised that us three ladies all cramming into her back seat wouldn’t be very comfortable and so opened the passenger car door with some reluctance. Of course, I made a beeline for that very seat; it’s quite possible that I may never get to sit there again! XD

So around 10am, aunty A started tootling us down to Tweed Heads, down in NSW! She listens to 4BH; may I call her an old fart? XD

Once we’d taken the exit off to Tweed Heads, aunty A announces, “I’m hungry,” and starts looking for a place where we can have an early lunch. Passing by a Maccas, I say helpfully, “There’s a Macdonalds here if you want food, aunty A!” only to get told off by mother, “Emily, how long have you known aunty A for? Obviously, she’s not gonna eat Maccas!” Oh, yeah, that’s right. Of course. XD

Suddenly, rounding a corner, we enter a large shopping centre called Tweed City. “Oh, that’s good,” aunty A says. “There’ll be lunch here. Ling and Emily, I’ll just drop you guys off at the entrance first, and then find a car park.” Oh, I forgot to mention: idiot me forget to tell mother to bring along my disabled parking permit; by the time I realised/remembered, aunty A was just boarding the highway. *sigh* That’s okay, I have an explanation for why I’m so stupid: I was dropped on my head as a baby. True story! Seriously; ask me about it one time and I’ll tell you. XD

Anyways, before mother and I find seats at food court for lunch, we both go and pay the water bill first. Lol, Anna, being from Singapore, doesn’t know what ‘paying the water bill’ (say that in canto) means! Mother laughs, and then orders me, “Emily. Explain what ‘paying the water bill’ means to Anna.” I laugh myself then tell her, “Anna … my mum, she wants to … PISS!” XD

After a loo trip, mother and I both take a seat and wait for Anna and aunty A to join us. When they both arrive, mother sends them both off to buy themselves lunch, before leaving me seated to buy lunch for us. “Mother?” I call her back. When she turns back around, I beg her, “Chips, please! I haven’t had any this week!” she nods and says. “Share only.” Well, duh. I fully understand the parents whenever they restrict me from eating a decent portion; they don’t want my weight to balloon. I already know for certain that mother will only come back with a small chips for us to share, but hey, I’m cool with that.

Anna returns first, with Maccas. I think she had a McOz burger; personally, I don’t understand why people like eating beetroot; I mean, the stuff BLEEDS! XD aunty A returned next with Chinese takeaway; come on, this is aunty A I’m talking about here; of course she’ll eat Asian food! You just try mentioning to her about having Maccas/KFC/some other western food for a meal and she’ll just pull a face at you. XD

Surprise, mother returned with Maccas for us! Of course, she’d only gotten us a small chips to share (but that was expected) and the smallest possible burger (chicken and mayo) and we drank a small orange juice each, but hey. Personally, I like the chicken and mayo burger because it comes with lettuce!

After lunch and one more loo trip, we returned to aunty A’s car and we went not to the beach, but to some jetty! The three ladies all got out of the car; I stayed in my seat but opened the car door and enjoyed the view. Blue skies, a river of some sort, beautiful … I also struck up a chat with some man in another car; he told me that he was from NSW and I couldn’t help but rib him about the origin: “have you heard the new team sponsors for next year (this beach trip happened before 2013 arrived), sir? Queensland’s new sponsors are Seven UP; NSW’s new sponsors are Coke ZERO.” XD

When aunty A, mother and Anna returned, I thought we’d finally hit the beach, but nope, there were markets to be browsed next! I scored a catch – ‘The Best of Human Nature’ album! Can’t remember if the other ladies bought anything …

Finally, with the markets all browsed, aunty A decided that we’d hit the beach. That was when disaster struck!

“Hey, my car won’t turn on,” aunty A said, repeatedly flipping the ignition. “Oh, crap, I forgot to turn off my headlights before, the battery must’ve run flat!” (A/N: aunty a was speaking canto; I have zero idea what ‘oh crap’ is in canto; she probably said something like ‘aiya’. XD)

Anna digs RACQ’s number up from her mobile and aunty A rings them. When she gets off, she tells us, ‘RACQ says they’ll be here within thirty minutes.”

Hmm, were we all just going to sit inside aunty A’s car for thirty minutes and wait for RACQ? Turns out nope, coz PIG mum spots a café down the road and takes Anna and I there for drinks. The funny thing is, the moment we arrive, this waitress comes out and says something like, “Oh, did you wanna order anything? Coz we’re closing soon.”

Then something amazing happens! RACQ suddenly arrives! Lol, mother is full of praise for God, who sent someone to fix aunty A’s car battery so quickly. Me, I’m not as forthcoming with my praise; a day without car troubles would’ve been better, but hey.

Finally, with aunty A’s car up and running again, I turn around and ask her, “Please please PLEASE can we all still go to the beach?? Coz that was the main purpose for this trip, right? Please say it’s not too late for our beach trip!” aunty A considers awhile, then replies, “Alright. I’ll drive us back to the Surfers Paradise beach.” Awesome!

There’s quite a long look for an available car park, and after one is found, quite a long hike down to the sandy beach itself. At first, I’d been hoping that mother would lug my beach chair down for me, but she refused, saying ‘twas too far for her to carry and I could just sit down in the sand.

“But if I plonk my butt down into the sand, I’m gonna need someone to help haul me back up,” I warn her. “The sand’s too soft for me to get up on.”

“Don’t worry,” mother laughs, “aunty A and I are too skinny to help you up, but Anna’s strong. She can help you up.” And after checking with Anna to confirm this, I happily plonked my bum down into the sand. “Yeah, sandy bums!’ I cheer. “Mum, Anna, come join me and we can all have sandy bums together!” XD aunty A, however, flat out refused. ‘I don’t want to get my bottom dirty,” she’d explained prissily. Her solution? She’d bought along a picnic blanket to sit on. XD

While we were all relaxing in the sand enjoying the good weather, some bloke with a metal detector wanders along! He seems particularly interested in aunty a, XD telling us that he’d found three dollars both last time and the time before, but finding nothing where we’re seated, continues along his way. I laugh to mother, “Next time, bring along some coins and I’ll bury them in the sand for anyone with a metal detector to find. XD

So the day begins drawing to an end. Our tummies rumbling, aunty A and Anna decide we’ll have dinner at some Japanese restaurant calledAanimoto before heading home.

We share some udon, chicken katsudon and fried dumplings before leaving. Actually, reading the menu, I’d asked mother, “Please please please can we all share some ice-cream? There’s green tea ice-cream and black sesame ice-cream here!” Originally, mother agrees, but aunty A suddenly decides she’d rather me walk to some ice-cream shop. Fair enough; I’ve often said the legs are willing to put up with some stress just for a happy tummy. XD

Anna says the ice-cream shop is about fifteen minutes walk, and we head off. Fifteen minutes later, she’s totally lost! XD Luckily, there’s a park bench nearby and I plonk my weary butt onto that while Anna makes a phone call to find out where they are. She comes back triumphantly. “Found them!” she says. “Follow me.” An extra four more minutes of walking and finally, finally, I have reached a Baskin Robbins store! I enter and peer at every available flavour before deciding on something called chocolate chip cookie dough. Once I’ve decided, I return outside and sit with Anna and aunty A while mother goes and buys the cone for me. And not just any cone, but a yummy waffle cone! When it arrives, I make sure to share some with her.

The night finally draws to an end. Originally, I’d promised aunty A I promised to walk all the way to the ice-cream store and all the way back to the car, but mother looked at me, decided I was well and truly buggered and so asked aunty A and Anna to go bring the car back and pick us up. To be honest, I think I would have preferred the walk! See, after my disability, I do most things sitting down now (I even shower sitting down) and I can walk short distances when required, but the hardest thing for me to do’s just stand there. Oh wells.

Anyways, when aunty A and Anna came back with the car, mother and I piled in and aunty a tootled us home. I had great fun listening to my new Human Nature CD – in fact, that was the first time aunty A has ever used her CD player! “How does it turn on?” she asked me suspiciously, like as if she suspected the CD player would spit acid into her eyes or something. I only laughed and replied, “Just jam the disc in. it’ll start playing.” XD

The most amazing thing was that I still remembered almost all the lyrics for some of the songs! Well, I’m only suffering from short-term memory loss; my long-term memory’s perfectly intact. XD

Anyways, back home, mother still demanded I shower before I finally hit the sack. I was absolutely buggered, yes, but I’d had a great day! Wonder when aunty a will next have another day off… XD

Next post here … well, it should come fairly soon! See, tomorrow night’s book club! And the special thing’s that we’re doing not one, but TWO books! Righteo, until then~

Cheers,

Em. ^^