Saturday night, 6:15 pm
Just got home after a major walk! Top speed, there & back!
This was a much later walk than usual, because I’d dilly-dallied around home .... cleaning up, making a (slow cooked) curry for a friend’s visit tonight, and also I'd indulged in too much A2King ... This meant that I left for the video shop in East Brunswick at 3:40 pm. (That’s where I go for my movies now, since my brilliant local place -4 minutes walk away- closed down <sob> & was replaced by a damned fast food outlet! But that’s another story ....) Usually I drive there, but today being such a gorgeous day (Indian summer!) I decided to walk, even though it was pretty late in the piece.
Anyway, this meant I had to walk pretty fast, to get back home in enough time & before it got dark. Instead of the main roads, I took a zig-zagging course, through all the little residential streets I really love around these parts. I love to check out people’s gardens as I go, say hello to the odd sleeping cat catching the sun’s rays, see the place in a totally different way than taking the main (car) route.
It was an absolutely wonderful late autumn afternoon. Everyone seemed to be taking advantage of the unseasonal warm weather. People getting in a bit of late afternoon gardening, people out walking like me, & the dog walkers were out in droves! I don’t know how many dogs I stopped to say “hello” to & pat. I was starting to feel like a professional dog patter!
One man (who apologized profusely for blocking the narrow footpath) was walking FOUR dogs at once! Then I came across a woman (with her own dog on a leash) who asked me hopefully, (about the dog in her arms) “Does this dog belong to you?” Ah, poor lost doggie!
But onward to the video ship. I made it there in 55 minutes. Wow, was that speedy, or what? Made four quick choices (I’ll tell you about them if you’re interested, tsar) & then headed back north along Lygon Street at top speed. Wondering if I was going to make the distance back without flagging. This was really pushing things!
Lygon Street, in East Brunswick was very close to where I used to live, for close to 20 years. I loved it there. That bit of Lygon Street used to look rather like a sleepy village centre, but now! : Huge apartment blocks all over the place! Talk about inappropriate development! But anyway, onward quickly, as the sun was sinking fast in the west, sending long shadows across the little Victorian residential streets.
I made it back to my bit of Sydney Road just as the night street lights were coming on. It was almost (but not quite) dark, when I entered the home stretch. Incredibly good timing on my part, I must say!
I caught a glimpse of myself in the passage mirror as entered my house. Wildly disheveled wind blown hair, pink cheeks & a look of contentment on my face. Then I discovered the phone message ... C couldn’t make it for dinner tonight because of a huge drama with her daughter & she had to drive up to the country. (Why did I forget to take my mobile phone with me? Another message there, too.) Oh well, so now I have a huge slow cooker full of chicken, pumpkin & lentil curry. Anyone hungry?
But I must say, though, that was a terrific walk! I think I'll sleep very soundly tonight.
Did you go out of your "normal" way to pass the wharf? (Loved the almost b&w old structures on the water.)
