My dearest dad works as a courier for uncle David’s
packaging company, Shanrex. The period leading up to Christmas is the busiest
time of the year for the company, where my poor dad often doesn’t get home from
work till like 8pm, but conversely January’s the quiet time for them and often,
dad will take a week off work to take mother and I for a short holiday
somewhere, usually up to the Sunshine Coast or down to the Gold Coast.
Last year, however, dad took mother and I all the way down
to Sydney and back!
We’d made the long trip once before – two DECADES ago! Yup,
I was only a little five year old brat, and dad had fun reminding me, “Em, that
morning, you were so small and sleepy, did you remember, I CARRIED you to the
car!”
Twenty years later, I think I’m way too fat for dearest dad
to carry me to the car, so I said to him laughingly, “How about we just hold
hands and walk to the car together?”
So that’s how things roll. Dad and I walk to the car, and
after mother demands dad pray for us before we begin the trip, we’re off! It
being so early, I just return to sleep, zzz…
Suddenly, something wet wakes me. Huh, how come the top of
my pants are wet? Oh, dad has strung a rope through the top of the 4WD and
through the window, and since it’s been raining, the wet has been dripping
through my pants! Dad pulls over, mother slips a tissue into my pants to soak
up the wet and the drive continues. I nod off again … my Bear Bear is the
perfect sleeping companion! ^^
Later, when I wake again, I sleepily ask mother, “What’s the
time?” she glances at the clock then replies, “Just after midday.” Ooh, midday!
“Are we there yet?” I immediately whine, laughing. “Are We There Yet?? ARE
WE THERE YET???” Mother roars back, “SHUT UP! Yes, we’re almost there.” XD
And soon enough, dad pulls up alongside some motel, where
we’ll be spending the first night.
Hmm … look, because the trip was almost one year ago, not to
mention that the cruel and unfaithful god has left me with such appalling
memory that I can scarcely remember what I had for dinner the night before, let
alone something almost one year back, let me just note down special highlights
of this trip:
-Every time, before we left that motel that we were staying
in, I would comb through our living space one more time to see if there was
anything free we could take home that mother glanced over. She forgot heaps! I
took with us shower caps, instant coffee packets, sugar packets, etc. Dunno why
mother refused to take the equal packets, but hey, no biggie.
-One morning, we ate a buffet breakfast! Alas, though, with
mother around, ‘buffet breakfast’ doesn’t mean ‘all you can eat’, rather, just
‘one plateful and no more’. *sigh* That’s alright, she’s like that. I’m used to
living with all the restrictions that she so gleefully imposes on me…
-We caught up with Letty! Think she was working at Tamworth
Hospital; we picked her up, then
had yummy dinner at like some sport’s bar. Afterwards, she invited us back to
her place, and while dearest dad dozed on the sofa, us ladies chatted, and from
memory (probably incorrect, but hey XD) letty fed me a chocolate Paddlepop!
Gosh, I seriously haven’t had one since primary school, like, 1999!!
-my definite highlight of this trip: I RODE A CAMEL!!!! :D See,
one afternoon, after enjoying lunch by the beach, mother and I are walking back
to the 4WD after a loo trip when I notice some tents pitched on the sand below
us. “I wonder what they are for?” I ask mother, pointing, who replies, “Well,
there are some benches nearby; you sit and I’ll take a look for you.”When she
returns, mother tells me, “They’re offering camel rides.” Obviously, I’m
immediately hooked, and squeal (ok, so I don’t squeal, more like, say excitedly
XD), “Ooh! I wanna ride a camel! Please please please can I try??”
Mother’s doubtful that I can manage a camel or not (me being
the useless, disabled young woman that the cruel and unfaithful God has
abandoned me as ><) but goes down to ask the lady in charge, explaining
to her that I want to ride a camel but am physically disabled. She asks would
it be alright if she sat behind me on the camel and held me tight, to help me
feel safe? She’d pay for two people, of course. The woman says sure, go ahead,
and mother brings me down to the beach, where I’m already fair bursting with
excitement! The man’s partner wanders over, sees me, and decides, “Oh, she’ll
be alright on her own camel; I’ll just put her on one of the smaller ones.” Oh
cripes, poor mother was stuck! Having already offered to pay for two people,
she couldn’t jolly well back out now! XD As for me, I really couldn’t care less
that I’d be riding a smaller camel, just that I was gonna ride one!! :D
Camels are actually lying down, their legs folded, when you
mount them! Then they stand, and from memory (prolly incorrect, but allow me to
be cheeky XD) mother SHRIEKED when her camel arose! My came’s name was Pally,
while mother’s camel was called Sydney,
which led my dad to cheekily ask Emily (yes, the woman guide had my name!),
‘How come Emily’s camel isn’t called Brisbane?”
XD We learnt some interesting things when the camels were ambling along the
beach, such as that camels could actually drink salt water and that Pally, the
handsome beast carrying me, was actually a RACING camel! I was obviously very
grateful that Pally kept only a slow, plodding amble while I was astride him.
XD Actually, one really scary thing happened while we were having our camel
adventure, and that was I began sliding off pally! O_O “Emily, help!” I squeak
(okay, so I don’t squeak, I probably talked with my usual tone XD) “I feel like
I’m sliding off Pally!” Emily jumps off her camel (didn’t catch it’s name,
sorry), walks over to me and says, “You are a little bit skew whiff, aren’t
you? Here.” And she pushes me back fully upright in the middle, before teaching
me to squeeze in with both my calves to remain centered. Afterwards, I had no
problems. We even went for a short walk into the shallows of the water. Me
having no left side side-vision anymore (just another thing that the cruel and
unfaithful God has taken away from me ><) didn’t think about this until
we were just about out of the water, before suddenly realising, “Dad! Your
shoes! They must be drenched walking through the water!” Dad just laughs, brandishing
his shoes triumphantly. “See? I’m smart. Took ‘em off before we went into the
water.” XD
After Emily had supervised me dismounting from Pally, I
walked to the front of Pally and gave him a big kiss on his forehead, thanking
him for being such a good camel for me. Only afterwards, when mother laughed at
me, saying, “Thank goodness your camel didn’t spit at you!” did I remember that
oh yes, camels were good at SPITTING! XD
Dad had taken a short clip of the camel ride from his
mobile, and that night, using the wi-fi from our motel room, I proudly put the
video up onto Facebook. One of my UQ physios, Jess, left me the comment, “I’m
glad SOMETHING finally got you to squeeze in your left calf!” to which I
cheekily replied, “Jess, you bring in a nice, tame RIDEABLE camel into the NAB
clinic, and I will show you how well my wonky left calf can do!” XD
-One day, we were at the town centre/tourist information
place. While dad asked someone for maps and instructions on how to get to a
certain touristy place, mother and I browsed the souvenir shop. I saw the most
adorable little blue octopus covered with rainbow coloured swirls, and even
better, he was only like $8.95! Mother kindly bought him for me, and I called
him Swirly (yes, not a very creative name, but hey, I’ve improved over the
years; my favourite teddy was just called Bear Bear. XD) Swirly seemed rather
nervous; every morning when I woke up, he would demand that I count his legs
for him, just to check that he still had all eight. One morning, I was still
groggy from sleep, and counted only seven. Poor Swirly wailed, “What?! No, I’m
supposed to eight, quick, count them for me again!!’ I obediently counted
again, and yes, my apologies, Swirly; you’ve got eight legs, not seven. XD
The next night, after enjoying a delicious dinner somewhere,
back in the car, feeling full and pleasantly sleepy (in canto, say ‘farn hei
gong sum’), I counted Swirly’s legs for him, and somehow, he’d managed to end
up with NINE legs. Poor Swirly panicked again; had he somehow grown an extra
tentacle while I’d been out having dinner?? I counted his legs again, more
carefully this time, and reported back to Swirly that yes, like all octopuses,
he had eight legs. XD
Hmm … from memory, I think that’s all the highlights of our
family holiday from last year. I’ll try to manage another post after we come
back from our next family holiday, otherwise apart from that my next post should
be a movie review! Yup, Fi So Bao and I went and watched Ronin 47 together
recently, and I’m looking forward to telling everyone about this movie!
Righteo, until then~
Cheers,
Em. ^^
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