For posterity

Nancy

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.

 

 

Angela Bensted Bw 1x1
Angela Bensted is a Brisbane-based freelance writer who likes to listen first and struggle with syntax later. She pitches stories to magazines and helps businesses produce compelling copy for print and online.
Connect with me: