This morning on the Kings Highway on the way to Batemans Bay, I looked over to my right and there was a woman in a brandnew Holden Calais, doing 110km/hr with her face up next to her rear-vision mirror, putting on her eyeliner. I looked away for a couple of seconds and when I looked back, she was halfway over in my lane, still working on that makeup.
As a man, I don't scare easily but she scared me so much, I dropped my electric shaver which knocked the meat pie out of my other hand. In all the confusion of trying to straighten up the car, using my knees against the steering wheel, it knocked my mobile phone away from my ear which fell into the coffee between my legs, splashed and burned Big Jim and the Twins, ruined the darn phone, soaked my trousers, and disconnected an important call. Bloody women drivers!!
Actually, none of this really happened but as I now have your attention, let me tell you about the rest of my day:
Last weekend was a Long Weekend with Canberra celebrating 'Canberra Day' although I have no idea what they're celebrating: their public servants' fat-cat salaries and lifelong tenures perhaps? It was a good time to stay off the road as the Kings Highway claimed another five fatalities. It's just an hour-and-a-half from Canberra to the coast but some wannabes try to do it in under an hour - and then spend months in hospital or a whole lifetime in the cemetery.
Today all the public servants are back in their offices and doing what they do best, looking out the window and counting down the hours to the next weekend, so it's safe to be on the road again. We drove to Ulladulla for our weekly aqua-therapy and then visited our favourite Vinnies shop. I mean, where else can you buy a video tape of the golden oldie movie The Thomas Crown Affair for 10 cents? And they offer a huge range of all sorts of books, too, for just 50 cents each. I picked up a clean paperback edition of Tim Winton's Cloudstreet.
It was a warm and sunny day and we thought we have a homemade sandwich in the park at Burrill Lake but our favourite bench was already taken. So instead we had a big cooked lunch at the Ex Servos Club's Sea Salt Restaurant, followed by a glass (or two) of Chablis, which rounded off rather nicely another day in paradise.
