Me at Agape Restaurant for organic high tea
My mother in law is lovely. She’s always very thoughtful, so it really shouldn’t have come as any surprise when she interrupted my organic high tea yesterday with a phone call:
Hey, L… I have a little problem that I was hoping you could help me with.
Oh yeah?
Yes, we have a chicken in our front yard and I thought you might want it.
A chicken?
Yeah, I heard it clucking earlier, but R (father in law) thought I was mad. Then we went outside later, and it was in the front yard.
Hmm, I’m in the middle of high tea at the moment and P is babysitting the kids, so I’m not sure I can help, but thanks of thinking of me. I’ll give you a call later to see if it’s still there.
So I continued eating my yummy treats and drinking coffee in a very high-tea-spoil-sport kinda way.
Today was Sustainable House Day, and I’ve been looking forward to visiting Nev and Linda from Under the Choko Tree for months. Nev and Linda have been pursuing a sustainable lifestyle in Western Sydney for 25 years, so their house was bound to be packed with great ideas. Their block is not a whole lot bigger than mine, so I hoped I could learn a lot about how to improve my garden and energy efficiency. Sustainable house day runs from 10am to 4pm, so it was a perfect outing for the family after morning church.
This morning J had a blast eating chocolate cupcakes and making a paper model of Jesus walking on water. Afterwards we bundled both kids into the car and headed down the M7.
We were just 5 minutes away when she started vomiting. Luckily she contained it to her lap and didn’t cover her brother. She seemed to feel a bit better afterwards.
“I had a chocolate puke…” Difficult to maintain a sympathetic straight face.
So my heart sank, we turned around and headed for Grandma’s. I thought we’d give her advance warning of the incoming disaster, so called her mobile.
“Hi, we’re in your area, and J has puked in the car, so we need to borrow your house to clean her up”
“Yes, the chicken’s still there”.
Must have been a bad line.
“No, J has been sick in the car, so we need to gave her a bath at your place”
“How do you think you can get it home?”
“No, we don’t want the chicken”.
By this time, P is laughing so much that I’m worried about his driving, but we sorted out the miscommunication and made our pit stop to their empty house, using the hose, the bath, the washing machine etc.
And sure enough, the chicken was still there.
So then we headed over to P’s sister’s place to do some computer maintenance, leaving the chicken behind. I reckoned if it was still there when we got back to pick up the washing, then it was fate and we were meant to be together. P had a different interpretation.
So not wanted to leave P without our car, I borrowed his sister’s (manual) one and headed over to Nev and Linda’s place. I managed to avoid bunny-hopping down the street like an imbecile, albeit barely.
So I arrived in St Clair not to long afterwards and had a great time chatting to Linda and other members of the family. They seemed to have a steady stream of visitors, even at 2pm when I arrived. Must have been an exhausting day for them. I tried to refrain from taking photos in their backyard, but I snapped one of the front of the house, where they have wicking beds, bananas, herbs, dwarf fruit trees and a huge mulberry.
I learnt about chooks, solar power and cooking, growing water chestnuts and making your own seed raising mix. It was really worth the visit.
After I arrived back to my family, J fell asleep on the couch, so I really should have know something was wrong. When she woke up she stopped talking entirely, so that really should have been my red light warning. She then puked all over me, herself and her aunt’s brand new lounge.
We left sheepishly with borrowed clothing and a bucket. We dropped by to pick up the washing, but alas the chicken was gone. I guess we just weren’t destined to be together.
Before we put J to bed tonight, P taught her how to use the bucket if she needed to puke during the night.
I think the message was somewhat lost in translation.
J sleeping with bucket, precious toys stuffed inside
500m2 in Sydney 