Unexpected day

Today we'd planned nothing. So we ended up with an unexpected day.

To start with I unexpectedly slept in to 9.30! I guess I must have been tired and must be feeling relaxed too. My brain was pretty fuzzy after that, though, so it is good that David took charge and got us all out of the house. While I ate breakfast he made a picnic lunch.

Soon after that he shoved us all out the door on an unexpected adventure. We stopped at the local shopping centre to post three more boxes and then searched for a bookstore. None there, so we drove on. You see we're such book lovers that we find this period of in-between libraries very hard. So we dashed into a second-hand bookstore that we found along the road (much cheaper than our original plan) and found a book for our 11 y.o. to read on the plane.

Then we headed off for New Farm Park, which has become our most favourite park in Brisbane. We parked under this tree that the boys instantly claimed as their own. And had a picnic lunch nearby on the grass. Then we headed over to the location of the most terrific playground we've found in the city, only to find it shut for renovations (same thing at South Bank the other day - didn't anyone tell them that it is school holidays?). Huge disappointment! Nevermind...plenty more trees to climb.

Nearby was a place we knew existed, but weren't sure what it exactly was "The Powerhouse". David had it confused with a museum in Sydney called by the same name and I thought it was a theatre. Turned out I was correct, but I'm glad I went to check it out anyway because they had a free performance for kids starting about seven minutes later. Very cool group called "Clocked Out".  Based around percussion, it was a fabulous and free 30 minute performance, followed by another half and hour of exploratory hands-on music creation for the kids (picture on left is of the boys making waves like sound waves as demonstrated in the performance).

Of course, to get back to our car we had to explore every climbing tree on the way. I doubled back to use the loo (bathroom) and had one of those unexpected encounters I wrote about the other day. Except this one was fairly pleasant, if rushed. Someone who'd gone to my parents church while I was in Brisbane studying in the early 90s. We parted, vowing to catch-up on Facebook. Gotta love Facebook!

The way home was straight past our new favourite second-hand book store. David had got to thinking he'd like a book on the plane too and I wanted one too, so we stopped. I then had to do a very hard thing - chose one book! I'd much rather borrow several from a library, then there is no pressure to read or even enjoy a book. I can choose different genre and pick up the one that suits my mood. BUT be restricted to one choice!?! It took too long and the boys were complaining, but I found something that will have to do. The whole concept of travelling with my children on a plane AND being able to take my own book is quite a foreign one!

Now we're 'home'. The day has been both unexpected and pleasant. The children are watching DVDs prior to some kind of dinner that I have to manufacture out of almost nothing. Oh, we do have 2 minute noodles, that's something I guess.