Today’s challenge is to write something and not edit, allowing for the occasional backspace to correct spelling. Because that’s how I wrote the 1979 diary. Fast and furious. And pithy. The 11-year-old me knew her stuff.
So today was Fun Friday. And it was. But I also spent much of the day in the car, which is not so fun. I’m wondering if, in 20 years’ time when I look back on these years, I’ll remember how much driving my life involved.
For the sake of posterity I’ll diarise it, starting with the first thing I did today.
Sleep
1:20am go to bed after finishing the previous day’s Daily Note, which turned into a reminiscence and a commentary and required a photo hunt. That’s ok. Sometimes you have to go where the writing takes you. It’s just a shame the journey finished so late in the day (or early in the following one).
6:15am get up, shower, dress in coolest clothes possible because it’s so stinking hot and unplug phone from charger on way to the car.
Neurologist
7:00am drive to city, dropping The Ballerina at school on the way.
7:30am accompany The Socialite to her neurologist appointment to discuss her progress battling chronic migraine.
8:05am grab coffee and toasted banana and raspberry bread from kerbside cafe and guzzle same in car on the way home.
9:00am hug The Bestie when she arrives at your door, quickly, because you need to be back in the car and driving to the Valley for hippy dippy yoga.
9:28 score hero park behind yoga studio.
Yoga
9:30 commence yoga.
9:40am be yoga-shamed by teacher because you can’t sit on your heels. “Grab a stool from the back of the room. It’s OK. You’ll warm up.” Think to myself “if only shredded cartilage could be fixed with heat”.
11:00am finish excellent yoga class (initial misgivings and knee embarrassment notwithstanding) and perform Cinderella moves, emerging from studio dressed for lunch
11:10am drive around the block a few times in Teneriffe looking for another park, eventually landing another hero spot near cool cafe du jour.
Lunch
11:15am laugh and sigh and talk non-stop with The Bestie. Share a pastrami and pickle sandwich on store-made, gluten-free bread and a lamb flatbread with chili sauce and yoghurt dressing. Drink tomato and mint soda. Talk some more.
12:30pm walk along the river with The Bestie sharing stories about your children and your sex lives.
1:30pm stop for a coffee and talk some more. More laughing too. And another toilet stop for The Bestie, who has a pea-sized bladder.
2:15pm reluctantly return to a furnace-like car, then gab all the way back to Ashgrove, desperately clinging to the dying moments of Fun Friday.
2:40pm wave good-bye to The Bestie.
Driving marathon
2:50pm receive pleading text from The Ballerina begging to be picked up from school, the same school you drove past 30 minutes earlier on your way home from Teneriffe.
3:30pm collect The Ballerina from school then drive to the Valley to buy new pointe shoes.
4:30 pm drive to Teneriffe to sit by the river, sew ribbons to pointe shoes and chat to The Ballerina about boys, slightly amazed that she asks you for advice.
5:00pm drive The Ballerina to dance class at Newmarket.
5:45pm drive to Ashgrove vet to buy dog food.
6:00pm take dog food home, kiss husband, hand him the menu for take-out curry and return immediately to car to drive to Red Hill to collect The Ballerina’s bestie for a sleepover.
6:30pm drive to Newmarket to collect The Ballerina. Return to Ashgrove and drop two nattering friends at home.
6:50pm collect curry from local restaurant.
Fun Friday resumed
7:15pm recommence Fun Friday with glass of riesling and bowl of kashmiri kofta mopped up with garlic naan, breaking self-imposed wheat ban in the process.
8:00pm watch movie City Island with Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies. Enjoy it.
10:00pm commence Daily Note.
10:46 finalise Daily Note (subject to photo choice) just as rain begins to fall, bringing a blissful cool change through the office window.
