We had a wonderful day today. When we went to pick up mum was resting from doing her strengthening exercises in the gym. She looked tired and out of breath. We took mum from the hospital after we filled out her “Kidnapping the Patient Forms”. The Physiotherapist lent us a wheel chair and off we went. Mum’s always loved the florist in Donvale – It has received many Awards over the years, and she used to take groups of friends just to admire the floral arrangements and the beautiful gifts they have in the shop. This shop is located 200 metres from where mum’s rehabilitation hospital is.
We enjoyed the sunshine and mum’s spirits picked up the minute she hit the fresh air. The sun was shining and there was no wind – just perfect. We wheeled her to the shopping strip and had a leisurely time looking at tall the gift shops and a lovely long time in the florist where I took lots of photos so that I can bring the florist to her hospital bed – via my computer. She will have a slide show to relive all the joy, whenever she wants of all the beautiful bouquets and floral arrangements she saw today.
Loretta bought mum some lunch because the hospital food was too spicy (even for me – let alone a patient whose appetite is reducing by the day) and then we left her to have a long awaited afternoon rest. We were happy to hear that because with the long stream of visitors and some visiting for lengthy periods of time, she’s been quite tired. We will have to be a bit more protective when she comes home, because we want her to conserve her strength.
I walked from home to Mya’s school stopping on the way to sit in a cafe by myself in the warm sunshine and just reflect on the happiness and gratitude mum had today.
Mya’s school is the primary school that was attached to my secondary school (the latter was pulled down due to the greediness one of our Premiers, who sold out education to real estate developers by demolishing schools and selling school land privately - he made a healthy surplus for his government). Mya’s school is a very rare gem. There are only 100 students there and it still has all the facilities found in the whizz-bang modern large student number schools that are more common today. When I arrived I found I had overestimated the time it took to walk to school, as I was ¾ hour early – I must have dawdled when I was a teenager.
I volunteered my time to the office staff, and they put me in the library to sort books. I’d finished in 15 minutes so I stacked books and tidied the entire library, then washed down all the shelves and bookshelves. Ahhh it was a good workout. The librarian will be surprised tomorrow morning to find the “library fairy” had visited.
When Mya was dismissed from class she took me in to show me her classroom. She loves the corner with all the kids’ size lounge furniture. She said “Mum, I love this school.” WOW what a relief.
We had a bus ride home, because Mya was already exhausted by the time we got to the first bus stop, let alone getting all the way home. It was an adventure for both of us. I can’t remember the last time I got on an Australian bus, maybe 15 years ago. I had to ask the bus driver how I bought a ticket. Of course with my Aussie accent he was totally confused as to why I wouldn’t know.
Tonight Mya made pizzas for us all, getting ideas from the kid’s recipe book I borrowed for her from the local library. They were really delicious. She was so keen to ring her Yaya to tell her all the news, of her mum’s spring cleaning the library, the bus ride home and her cooking. Mum later reported that the nurse who answered the phone was really chuffed to hear Mya speak a few words of Mandarin to her.
All in all it was a really good day today, as we were wheeling mum to her favourite shop, we knew what a special and memorable day this was.
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