Well, the fact is I don’t. I could be out cycling I guess, or cleaning up the kitchen as I promised Linda I would do, or tidying up our overgrown garden or better still be back in bed from whence I was unceremoniously dumped earlier this morning! But the fact is I’m too lazy to jump right to these things and would rather be here writing, even if I have nothing particularly profound to say.
I arrived home last night to find Linda in bed watching television and I was silly enough to watch the end of a movie with her until 11.30pm. This isn’t unusual for me although an earlier night would have been appropriate given that I am suffering from a slight cold which in turn is inflaming my asthma a little which always makes me feel a little heavy headed and tired.
So, this morning, only half conscious of the happenings around me I was shaken and stirred and asked by Linda to drive her to work as she was leaving a little later than usual and would not get a park in her usual spot. Thus, it is easier to get a lift in and a lift home.
Now I don’t mind at all but I was looking forward, as my thoughts wandered through the greasy haze of early morning delirium, of rolling back over and having another hour or so of sleep. It was not to be.
It was one of those moments where you have been disturbed and you lie motionless, knowing that you have to get up yet, like a car which is struggling to start on a cold morning, the thought process has not yet infiltrated the rest of your body until, finally, recognition of command is completed, you look at the clock and realise you only have fifteen minutes to roll out of bed, get dressed, go to the toilet (as it might be a longer than average trip) and make sure you are attentive enough to be driving in Canberra’s peak hour traffic.
I was soon up and at em’ and made aware that we would be taking Megan to school as well, a ten minute journey in the other direction and as we were only just on our way the young lass decided to ask if we could also take her friend who had missed the bus. Luckily the friend lives on our course towards the school and so from being slumped in bed a mere half hour before, looking forward to recharging my batteries and renewing my strength for the coming day, I was thrust into battle on Canberra’s early morning roads, a place where Maximus himself may fear to tread.
The short trip down to the college in Tuggeranong was uneventful and even a little calmer than it is most mornings. The days I have taken her to school have been about half an hour later than we were today and it is amazing to think that thirty minutes can turn the drive from Wanniassa to Tuggeranong Town Centre from the serene stroll that it was this morning into a battle for survival that the best V8 drivers may find a struggle to survive as it is on other mornings when I have been subjected to it at the later hour.
So the first leg of our mission was complete and we were soon on our way to Civic via Woden, Linda’s preferred route. We hustled and bustled, switched and turned through the morning traffic, past the Town Centre in the Woden Valley, past the Lodge where Julia lives, past the embassy precinct, onto Commonwealth Avenue Bridge and down to our destination, marvelling the whole way at the terrifying exploits of P-plate drivers, at least four of whom we saw this morning exhibiting a death wish for all to see or so it seemed.
One can only wonder what causes such behaviour in young drivers. Youthful exuberance of course must be a factor but one would think they would be much more mindful of conditions and laws than us older folk of years of experience given they have only recently graduated to full-time driving and thus should be more familiar with rules recently taught to them. They are after all in command of vehicles that can become lethal weapons in a split second. Will they never learn?
Of course you can add to that the older drivers who tailgate, fail to indicate, attempt to intimidate or drive at ten kilometres an hour below the speed limit while merrily winding their way through the city in the right hand lane of the dual carriageway! All in all, a stressful experience.
I drive home, after dropping Linda at work, back along the route from whence I have come, rolling out of the surrounds of Deakin, progressing towards Woden once again where I have to make a choice of which way to go once I reach the big roundabout near the Yamba Sports Club. The first option that pops into my head is to go right, back along Melrose Drive, past Westfield Woden once again, intersecting with Athlon Drive where I turn right which takes me out of the Woden Valley, across the divide and back into my own stomping ground in the Tuggeranong Valley, Wanniassa, conveniently being the first suburb I encounter on this route. This is a longer route than the alternative but probably quicker. It is the way I have taken to coming home from the city on most occasions. But today, I have a brain fade.
To go straight on at the roundabout, past the Woden Valley Hospital is the shorter route but a bottle neck nearly always appears in the short kilometre or so as one makes their way past the hospital, several sets of traffic lights and an unusual amount of traffic conspiring to make a trip which should be quick and clean into a plodding nightmare.
Alas, as I approached the Woden roundabout in the right lane, a truck moved in front of me and slowed me down and, exhibiting a lack of patience I zipped into the left hand lane and decided to take the shorter route home via the hospital. I was soon sucked into the aforementioned vortex of traffic and lights and only extricated myself after a few frustrating minutes, kicking myself for falling prey to my emotions.
I arrived home an hour and ten minutes after I departed, feeling tired as I hadn’t had any breakfast and with body aching from being cooped up in the car and enduring the tenseness of the morning rush hour. I could never live in Sydney and endure the peak hour there which slows traffic to a crawl.
Now as I relax at home I realise I have wasted most of the time which has passed from then to now and still haven’t achieved anything, except perhaps bore to tears anyone who has read my blog today expecting to find something written which may be useful to their lives. If that is so, I apologize.
So, I will hop to it, fullfill the tasks which are calling my name and venture deeper into the day where the torture or work awaits. And I bid you all farewell until next time when I will once again beguile those who are interested with tails from a life less ordinary.
Have a nice day.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 