#2319 Where my feet lead me

I had the day to myself today, and I totally needed it.

All my days are so structured. Work, school drop-off and pick-up, after-school activity chauffeuring, then there’s the groceries, odd jobs and appointments, cleaning, cooking, washing… 🤯

So when I dropped off baby girl at school today, I was honestly a little lost. I had a decent to-do list, but I was awaiting a tradie to come and give us a quote, but didn’t know what time he’d be over, so I literally started driving… with no clear place to go.

Slowly, a plan formed. I would get some presents I needed to get while in the area…

But of course, the places I needed to look at weren’t open yet, so…

I found my feet leading me down the Main Street. I kinda knew where I was headed, before I KNEW where I was headed, if you know what I mean. 😆

Within 10 minutes, I had an egg and bacon toastie, a coffee, and I was sitting in front of this view:

I spent a good half hour there, eating, drinking, watching. Breathing too, that is important.

I love my town. I love it most when it is quiet actually. It’s often hard to imagine it as still as it was this morning, especially if you see it come peak period on hot days and over Summer.

But after school drop-off, you know there are only locals around. A handful of people walking their dogs on the beach, a few I exchanged good mornings with. A massive sea bird flew low over the water, its huge wings flapping slowly and deliberately, but with great strength.

It was all so grey, but so peaceful. It was beautiful.

These are the things I love to be still for, to witness.

I still got to do all my jobs, but in this short span of time that occupied the morning, I loved the freedom of letting my feet do the decision-making, of letting it lead me to where it needed to go. 🙏💖

#2211 Mills Beach Love no. 7

We headed down to our local beach today in the mid-afternoon. Just as we had secured a spot and started setting up our chairs and umbrella, I saw a familiar face heading towards me…

It was a fellow school Mum, baby girl’s friend’s Mum. After the expected surprise greeting – which shouldn’t be a surprise anymore since it is both our local and fave beach and when we take the girls out we ONLY go there – we had the following exchange.

Me: “Any jellyfish out there?”

Her: “No, not today.”

Do you see why I love it so? 😎🤗 Local vibes.

I don’t just love the fact that I’m a local, or that I bumped into a fellow local… it’s just the fact of living where I am.

I am truly comfortable where I am, and even after visiting other beaches both near and far in recent days, this one feels most like home. 💖😍🏖️🩴

#2020 I love Main street, and let me count the ways… no. 5

The savior of this lockdown number 6 for us will be, coffee, cake, and walks.

I felt like a semi-trailer rammed itself into my head today. All of a sudden after breakfast, bang.

I felt flatter than a pancake.

The feeling of sadness just overwhelmed me. All that talk yesterday about taking a path less travelled to feel better?

Well I had no motivation to get up at all, much less follow a different route.

The day was grey. I am 100% certain that there won’t be any lessening of restrictions next week, which leaves me to ponder, how much longer can we live like this? How much longer can we take?

Then there is the book I’m reading. Without too many spoilers (I will post a review in due time) I am charging through it, both because I really want to know what the big horrible secret is, but also because I can guess at it and it’s so traumatising that I must finish it quickly.

All of this was really messing with my head, truly.

After lunch, feeling some mojo start to come back, I insisted on leaving the house.

Baby girl and I walked the Main Street, where she had ice cream, and I got a big cappuccino and cookie.

And we just walked. There was nowhere to go, no shops we could enter. We bumped into her school friend, and it was SO NICE to see someone we knew. I started a full on conversation with a man as we were waiting for our coffees, so strong is my desire to connect and talk to people, even if I’ve never met them before.

He responded happily. He is feeling it too. We all are.

The house is wearing me down. It’s my solitude at night, but during the day, I can’t take it.

I need to get out.

The gentleman I spoke to told me his daily ritual, and I have to say, he’s got it spot on. We gotta do what we gotta do, even if it costs money, even if it puts kg on our bodies, even if we get super cold…

But he’s been getting a coffee in the afternoon, a cake, and then heading down to the local beach (also our local beach) to watch the seagulls.

Huh. There you go. A pretty cool ritual if you ask me, seagulls and all.

My kinda different path today, led me to a different person… that makes me think I must speak to strangers more. 💖

#1878 Young hearts at the fair

Guys, I know the secret.

I discovered it today.

How to feel instantly lighter.

ACT LIKE A CHILD.

This was easy for us to do, since we visited the fair that’s made itself at home in our town for these school holidays.

It was small, yes.

It was tacky, hell yeah.

But it was also WONDERFUL.

There is something very nostalgic about going to a fair, more so when you have your own brood in tow.

She was soooo excited. Baby girl squealed in delight as we drove up, spying the big old grand Ferris Wheel. It didn’t look too scary from down below…

But then up HIGH. Oh shit.

We freaked out only a little as suddenly we were treated to views of our town that only birds were privy to.

It was a really great and fun visit, full of games that gave plush toys as prizes, small-scale rides and BIG BIG smiles.

And I felt so, so free… like a child…

#1860 Sparkly market

Markets are great fun. You always come back with cute but also really random things, that you don’t usually come back from a normal shop with.

Like, a boutique cupcake.

A freshly-squeezed juice.

A half kilo punnet of local strawberries.

And…

SPARKLES!

Alas, face painting is not on at the moment…. but the sparkles, well the sparkles are covid safe, so they were layered on thick.

🤣🌟✨🎆🎇

#1800 Burritos

I had the most delicious chicken burrito tonight.

There’s this shop called Tacos! Tacos! Tacos! in Mornington. It doesn’t lie on the main street, instead sitting parallel to it a few streets back.

They are a small business that strive to keep their ingredients as organic and free-range as possible. And with non-GMO gluten-free Australian corn tortillas, and salsas made from scratch, you can be sure the difference in taste would be evident…

And it WAS. It was so yummy, something I can’t wait to have again. And unlike other takeaway, I wasn’t left with that heavy, bloated, sick feeling afterwards that happens so much with junk food.

This is the real deal! Woo hoo!

#1789 Beach playdate

After what’s been a few really mixed up weeks of weather (like I’m surprised with Melbourne and all🙄) baby girl and I headed over to the beach today.

But it wasn’t just us: it was a PLAY DATE.

😎

Why it’s taken this long to organise play time with someone from her school, I do not know.

Oh, that’s right… LIFE. 😂😂

It was so adorable as they first saw each other, and hugged warmly. Awww, just tugs at your heart strings.

And then as the day progressed, we saw one lot of school friends arrive…

And then some more! It was a mini reunion, and me and the other Mum were laughing how it was hard to recognise one another, since we were out of our usual school drop-off/pick-up environment…

With so little clothes! 🤣👙

As much as there are tourists abound in our town this time of year, it’s just as heartening to know a lot of us locals rule the neighbourhood roosts too.

🐓🏖

#1721 Day 223 of getting there: back to it all

Today was an exciting day.

WE GOT OUT.

Escaped from the confines of our home.

No, it wasn’t cleaning all day,

finding a board game to play,

then pruning with waters glistening in the horizon on the bay.

NAY.

WE WENT OUT.

Baby girl and I hit the Main street. Shopping. Excited with, “look, SHOPS ARE OPEN!”

We stopped at my 10/10 coffee place from the other day, Flowergirls and co cafe –

YAY –

and had a great coffee and babycino break.

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And gingerbread man. 😉

People were milling around EVERYWHERE. EVERYONE was out.

We continued the fun this evening when we went out to dinner at one of our fave restaurants, The Royal Hotel.

HOORAY! Wine! I haven’t drank it in about 2 months. I was firstly going through some health hell, then I was terrified of drinking anything that wasn’t water, so I stayed away for so long…

Until tonight.

That one glass of red made me go all YIPPEE in my head, and immediately, I loved everyone. I missed everyone.

I mean, I do love and miss everyone, and by everyone I mean only those people I care about.

HA HA HA. (Still some alcoholic effects I see?) 😜

But seriously. Cheap drunk alert. I was happy happy, LA LA LA, my seafood linguine was NOM NOM NOM, and then we walked across the road, to the best view of them all.

Ahhh.

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All in all, today was a great way to get back to it all.

Shop. Coffee. Dinner. Beach.

Relax. Happy. Grateful. YAY.

REPEAT.

#1703 Day 205 of getting there: A Zest for dinner

We had some really yummy takeaway tonight.

I’ve been wanting to try this place out for ages, and it baffles me that I’ve known about them for the whole of lockdown (BOTH lockdowns) but only tonight we got to enjoy the delicious food.

LemonZest Catering. They are local, home-made, authentic Vietnamese food, and are so so SO close to home.

Baby girl and I picked it up tonight. We got the tasting box for two plus some extras. There were bao buns, rice paper rolls, spring rolls and the san choi bowl – the most tastiest ever!

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We inhaled it all. And we don’t want them to move, ever ever ever.

#1606 Day 108 of getting there: The Last Cuppa

Ok, so for 6 weeks.

Not forever, clearly.

But today we headed out to grab our last, in-store, sit-down, cafe experience…

Along with the rest of the town.

I mean, really July. What trickery are you fooling us into? How gorgeous was today? And it’s meant to continue for 2 more days… only for the sunshine-y days to return again next week!

Ahh, Winter. You’ve made me kinda like you again.

You know, I have to say… it is A BIT annoying. And I think I am allowed to say this, because last I heard, our shire had NO current cases of coronavirus.

NONE.

And yet we are suddenly part of ‘metropolitan Melbourne’ (only when they want us) and yet our neighbours across the Port Phillip Bay in Geelong have 2 CURRENT CASES, and are exempt from this lockdown.

Kilometres wise, they are further from the city than we are.

It does not make sense.

I’m not gonna focus on it too much though. We have to do what we have to do. And if too many shires are given reprieves (ahem, Geelong) well then no one is going to listen, and they won’t be happy, right?

I’ll suck it up.

Baby girl took my cue from the other night, and had stuck this note on our bedroom door last night:

I mean, we couldn’t say no to a 6 year-old, right?

Everyone was out and having their last lunches, last drinks, last cuppas…

They were all still social distancing. Counting numbers inside and outside the cafe. Sanitiser was within reach. It was very much across the board.

And the coffee was GREAT. But, it all felt a bit surreal. I mean, you could tell people were getting in their last whatever’s before midnight tonight. I could hear the cafe owner telling loyal customers they would be open for takeaway every day.

We enjoyed it. And then we left. Walked down the main street…

And to the PARK.

Poor baby girl. Poor all kids. They have to go through this shitty time again. Look I get it, we have to do this. Baby girl is actually amazing and totally understanding of what we have to sacrifice again.

But, I wanted to let her run. I wanted her to play.

And she did.

I’ll see you all on the other side… but stay for the gratitude journey, of course, as always. 🙂