Propositioned Twice in Two Days. [Thinking about BJs ! ! ]

Summer Diary 2013 – Week 8.

Friday August 16^th.

Wooh Hooh! I had a lie in this morning. I stayed in bed until half past seven! I guess it was the two bottles of wine at the Tavern then the half bottle of Australian Port back at the apartment that did for me. At least after being blotto I haven’t woken up next to a complete stranger which would have been very embarrassing, to say the least. Mum was zed pushing for almost another hour, so I washed the floor of the apartment, dusted everywhere, cleared out the rubbish and at twenty past eight was starving – so I cooked up a load of bacon. Sure enough, the smell of grilling bacon was enough to drag Mum from her pit.

She asked, “Did we talk about what I think we talked about, last night?” I had to reply, “I don’t know, I can’t tell from here what you think we talked about!” Her reply was, “Oh. Right!” And that was it. I have decided it would be far too revealing to write out what we chatted about last night after all. Suffice to say that last night I was a shocked daughter and she was a shocked mother and that will be enough said on the matter.

We decided to forego the wine tasting today. I looked at my finances after cleaning up [isn’t internet banking great?] and discovered I had spent a fortune this week already! I had to tell Mum that I needed to take a hard serious look at my expenditure for the next few days. We have bought three cases of wine between us at not inconsiderable expense in the space of three days! Luckily Mum agreed. The latent Scottish thrift has started to kick in.

I told her how nice Dunsborough was, and Canal Rocks, plus we could Visit Cape Naturaliste lighthouse and the Yallingup chocolate factory. There could be loads to do without spending that Italian chap [Armado Leggi]. That was the plan.

After an enormous fried breakfast followed by a swift visit to the bookshop to pick up a book Mum had reserved, we headed for Dunsborough and had a good explore. It really is archetypal Australian modern really, but its location makes it seem very special. We had a stroll through the shops and went to the craft shop [the one where Jill did her course at Christmas]. Mum and the craft shop owner hit it off like long lost buddies and we were there for almost an hour (well Mum was)! The owner used to be a teacher but packed it up to turn her hobby into a business. She and Mum just gossiped and gossiped and gossiped. I said I’d be back in an hour and went onto the beach for a stroll. As is common in Australian winters, the beach was deserted. There was a very attractive foreshore park / garden where I took a “tea to go” and contemplated life, the universe and everything as I sat at one of the picnic benches.

I can’t believe it. No sooner was I seated than this bloody guy appeared and asked if he could join me. The cheek of it. He was quite attractive and fairly youngish. I think he was just trying his luck with the solo blonde on the beach, to be honest. Now, if he’d tried it last night at the Settler’s Tavern he may have succeeded but on this cool Friday morning in July, sat waiting for Mum who was having a chin wag with a complete stranger, he had a snow ball in hell’s chance. His opening line wasn’t too bad, though: “You’re not from round here, are you?” I kept my replies monosyllabic and he had a pretty hard time of it. He kept firing questions at me but I just couldn’t be arsed to be polite back. In the end he gave up and wandered off along the shore.

I almost dragged Mum screaming and kicking from the craft shop so we could go to Canal Rocks. This is just a spitting distance from Dunsborough and is a series of gulleys made in the harder rocks along the shoreline by wave erosion. It is quite an extensive complex and as it was low tide we were able to have a really good scramble about on the rocks without too much effort. Even Mum, who is fairly nimble for her age, had a good old work out climbing several of the more interesting lumps. She used to rock climb a lot when she and Dad were married, she sort of abandoned quite a lot of the things they used to do together after the divorce - rock climbing was one of them, sailing was another. As the tide turned we retreated a bit as some of the rocks made a good splash back for the waves and we were beginning to get drenched by the spray. Mum produced her magical flask of tea – I didn’t know when she’d made it because I didn’t spot her at the apartment – and two sandwiches each! Good old Mum, again. It turns out she’d remembered how good Aussie delis are and had her flask and the sangers prepared at the deli near to the craft shop as a sort of thank you for me putting up with her spending so long in there.

We zipped along to Cape Naturaliste light and Mum started laughing when she saw it. If Leeuwin light is Arnold Schwarzenegger, then Naturaliste is Danny De Vito! It is one of the smallest lighthouses I have ever seen. Mum’s laughter summed up this contrast perfectly. We had the tour and the climb to the top [Mum pretended to run up the steps]. The view wasn’t as spectacular as from Leeuwin Light but was pretty good nonetheless. The guide told us that in the last few weeks humpbackeds had been spotted from the top of the light and from the specially built viewing platform on the cliff edge. Duly informed we went to collect the binoculars from the car and headed to the platform. We spent about an hour there and saw lots of whale sprays and several flukes breaking the water. OK, we had seen whales close up from the boat, but actually viewing them from the shore was something unique for both of us.

Looking at the clock on my phone I realised we needed to scoot off we were to make the chocolate factory before it closed. We didn’t scoot fast enough. The place was closed when we arrived. Damn and blast! It means we’ll have to go there tomorrow on our way home or give it a miss altogether. I was planning on taking Mum to the Dolphin Discovery Centre at Bunbury on the way back so we will have to make a choice in the morning.

Our evening meal, I am afraid to say, was in the Settler’s Tavern again. We were pretty early but it was already filling up as it was a Friday night. The waiter who thought we were sisters was serving again and he seemed genuinely pleased to see us, perhaps he was harbouring thoughts of having a threesome with us? From our last night’s conversation I have a pretty good idea what my Mum’s thoughts on the matter might be! Personally, I find it tricky enough having sex with someone when my Mum is in the same building; in the same room would be a nightmare; with the same guy at the same time unthinkable. OMG.

We rolled home less inebriated than last night, didn’t have a nightcap either this time, and pretty soon I was away in the land of nod. I dreamt about having to rescue Callie from a locked lighthouse, which became a rowing boat once I’d broken the door down. I don’t usually remember dreams but I remembered the frantic feeling I’d had thinking I wouldn’t be able to get to my dog! The human psyche is a weirdly shaped fish, isn’t it?

 

Saturday 17^th August.

We had the brekkie at the bookshop after packing up the car and getting it ready for the off. We went to the Yallingup Chocolate Factory and bought a few treats for the kids back in Warnbro. I bought myself a kilo of their plain chocolate coated nougat. It has to be the nicest nougat I can remember since we went to Montelimar when I was a teenager. It was so soft and sweet with a definite cherry after-taste. On the drive back we decided to forgo the Dolphin Centre for a walk along Busselton Jetty instead – something Mum hadn’t done for ages and ages. We caught the little train to the end of the jetty and walked back. It is 1.8 Km long so it is no mean stroll. She told me I had been a babe in arms the last time she was here. Naturally I can’t remember that at all. Busselton itself is pleasant enough but once you’ve been on the jetty (and under it in the aquarium) that’s about it.

We made good time back to Warnbro, arriving at about 2pm. The kids were pleased to see us and their chocolate treats! Jeff was no longer strapped up and was raring to get playing AFL again next weekend! We put all the wine into the bar area in the formal lounge, the white and rose went into the drinks fridge. We instructed S & P that these would be our evening wines until they ran out, so they needn’t use their stock at meal times for a while. They are as pleased with the wine as the kids are with their chocolate.

Mum went for a snooze. I surfed the net and sent replies to several e-mails. Including one from Nadia offering an abject apology for her words in Perth. [I know, I said I wasn't going to have anything to do with her, but she's Nadia. She is mad!] It was too early to Skype Laura [still early morning in the UK] so I amused myself on Y!A Australia for a while. It was out here, I first found Y!A and have been an avid user ever since. I actually found myself nodding off in front of the screen so I went for a snooze too. I wanted to be reasonably fresh for Alex and Chris’s party.

The party was a huge affair. It was much bigger than I was expecting. Alex has a fairly big plot, in Baldivis, and his house is at right angles to his triple garages. This is important because he had rigged up a huge tarpaulin from the telegraph poles at each side of the garages down to the roof of his house, making a huge undercover area between the garages and the house. Why was this important? He had booked a band and they had set up in the garages with all their equipment. The tarp would mean the audience stayed dry if it decided to rain [which it did, BTW] so both the band and guests would stay dry!

There were over a hundred guests, so I didn’t even bother trying to remember everyone we were introduced to. I had another long jersey dress on for the evening. This was grey with the word “Love” printed on it all over in handwriting. It was a much more clingy number than the one I wore to Swan Lake and so I left off the bra and wore seamless undies so it looked as though I could be totally without underwear underneath. Oh, I hope I never put on weight, not being able to feel as marvellous as this in what I am wearing would be awful.  Going bra-less in a jersey dress causes much less trouble to my nipples as the fabric is so soft, rubbing against it doesn’t make them sore – some material plays havoc with them! I borrowed one of Jill’s denim jackets as a cover-up if I needed it. It was a bit too small which was just what I wanted. The ensemble was finished off with sandals that had a slight heel.

I thought I looked pretty neat, sexy without being tarty. Annabelle did a clone copy of me in a jersey dress of her own [bright red] and her own denim jacket. Of course she has no bosom to speak of underneath her dress. Unlike her aunt who after a while was seriously beginning to wish she had worn a bra! If they were smaller they wouldn't cause this problem.

The party was great: lots of booze [probably enough to float a battleship]; masses of food [savoury and sweet]; really pleasant guests and the band were good too. They were another covers band, like the one at The Settler’s Tavern, only the lead singer this time was a woman and she could hit the top notes very well indeed. They played loads of classics [according to Mum and Suze] and they went down a storm.

Chris had ordered a cake for Alex, made in the shape of the number 50, but she decided against having 50 candles, instead it had five sparklers – one for each decade she said. The band played “Happy Birthday to You” which we all sang along with and then everyone was given a piece of the cake when it had been cut. It was chocolate cake with a chocolate butter cream filling and top. I thought it was lovely and had a second piece.

I shuffled around with the girls to some of the tunes and chatted to loads of people. As I had been their guest for seven weeks or so I told Suze and Pete I would be their driver for the night, so they didn’t have worry about their alcohol intake. This meant I was on soft drinks all evening and didn’t get bladdered at all. I was drinking a concoction I’ve only found in Australia [made by Schweppes] which is Angustura Bitters, lemonade and lime juice. It is a hideous, childish pink colour but it tastes really, really nice. I found four litre bottles of this in the kitchen, so I hid them away so no-one else would drink them, was that naughty?

I met loads of Dad’s rellies, some of whom I had never met before at all. Alex is so like my Dad in his mannerisms it is quite uncanny. Standing watching him from the verandah it was quite easy to mistake him for Dad. This guy came up as I was watching my Dad’s brother do a very bad dance [just like my Dad does!] and asked me how I knew Chris and Alex. My god, he was absolutely gorgeous. I mean stunning! He had short tousled brown hair; a pleasant face with square chin; he was quite slim and looked muscular without being gross and over the top. His waist was tiny and his bulge was,  erm.. bulging! He introduced himself as Connor -a cousin on Chris’s side of the family. That explains why I had never met him before.

We exchanged a few inanities until he said, “I bet you have nothing on under that dress, have you?” I told him he’d never know. He said that was a pity as he’d got something for me that might fit quite nicely into what I had under the dress. I should have just slapped him and walked away. I know I should. He continued with, your ears might not like what I just said but it looks like part of you is excited by it. My sodding nipples had turned into awkward bumps through my dress! “They look like they need a little loving attention,” was his next line. “Not from you,” I told him. [I was thinking just leave Vicki, just leave. Go now.]

The bloody drongo reached across and caught hold of the button holed edge of my jacket, his thumb on the outside edge and his fingers inside. He muttered some crap about how it was a nice jacket and how nice and soft the denim was. It was good it was so small, it made my assets look more attractive underneath….  He started to run his thumb and fingers up and down the open edge of my jacket, the back of his hand slightly rubbing against the hat racks in my dress! I mean, right out there under the verandah this stranger was attempting to caress my boob! I told him that was enough and would he please take his hand away? His reply was, “Your mouth is saying that but I don’t think your body is.” It was like I had been hypnotised by his small talk and calm, softly spoken words; part of me was tempted to reach across and stroke his package through his trousers. Part of me was screaming out knee him in his bollox! I didn’t do either. I stepped backwards and pulled my jacket out of his hand so he wasn’t near my breast anymore. I had stepped back ready to swing a left palm as hard as I could at his smiling, lecherous face but at the same moment Chris came out and spotted him. She called to him saying something like, Connor, your wife’s looking for you. There’s a problem with the babysitter!

Oh. My. Fcuking. God! I consoled myself, afterwards, with the thought I had stepped back before aunt Chris came out. I had stepped away from his horrible, fondling hand. He hadn’t technically fondled anything, merely let his knuckles brush against my nipple but his intent was obvious. I admit, there was something about his manner, words and attention that was seriously flattering: I would have liked to give him a bloody hard slap across the face but also there was a worrying thought that giving him a BJ might have been nice!  

Chris came over and linked arms, taking me out to the area where the food was arranged. She told me that I ought to watch out for Connor, he was as good looking as Adonis but was a cruel bastard and a serial cheat on his wife!  She knows about me and Laura, but she also knows about Richard and the fact I am not exclusively homosexual. I must’ve coloured up completely. Luckily, the way we'd been standing, nobody could see what Connor had been doing.

She and I strolled around for a fair while longer and had a good gossip, about Connor and his infidelities and also about Alex and Dad. We touched on Mum’s divorce. She asked me about what I’d been doing so far on my visit. We watched as Connor and Dawn left the party. I didn’t know what to expect about Connor’s wife: she was as slim as Laura and as tall as Connor himself. She was absolutely beautiful with long, wavy, brown hair hanging in that loose carefree way you just know has cost a fortune to get like that at the hairdresser’s. She had a white two piece on, a mini dress that showed off legs to die for and a tailored matching white jacket which looked amazing. She must easily have been the most beautiful woman at the whole party, and there were some very pretty girls around! Why was Connor was prepared to cheat on her? Why? It just goes to show that men definitely do have their brains in the trousers.

I felt really annoyed for putting myself in such a position but then reflected I hadn’t known what he was going to do and while his attention was flattering I had instinctively started to take steps to protect myself and get out of the situation. More worrying than anything was the thought of BJs. I haven’t given one since Alan nearly a year ago. Maybe I miss a man more than I thought? Am I being unfaithful to Laura by having a thought like this? It was quite an upsetting feeling.

The party continued for several hours and I forgot about Pervy Connor and thoughts of a lewd nature, I just got on with enjoying myself. By about 3am I seemed to have lost the kids. The last time I had seen them, they had all been in the family room watching videos and when I looked for them they’d disappeared. I tracked the girls down to one of the bedrooms where they were fast asleep on one of the beds. Jeff was asleep in the back of S & P’s van. I circled the party to see if the rest of them wanted to go home but Suze and Pete were still happy to stay and Mum was too. I went back to the bedroom where Annabelle and Jill were asleep and joined them…..

Sunday 18^th August.

I was woken up at about 5.30 by Mum shaking my shoulder and saying, “Vicki, have you been drinking?” Well, thanks Mum, for that vote of confidence. She was rounding us all up for the journey home. I sort of understand why she thought I might have had a swift snorterino or two, being fast asleep at a party, but she quickly realised I had just been tired.

I drove everyone safely home and they all disappeared to their rooms for a long proper kip. I was bright eyed and bushy tailed again, so I borrowed Suze’s bike and cycled down to Rockingham beach travelling the reverse of the route I had walked the other week. I wrote what I was doing on the kitchen whiteboard and went out to meet the Australian morning. The sun was rising above the eastern hills and the sky was cloudless. It promised to be another glorious winter’s day.

The early morning air and the brightness of the day gave my mind a bit of clarity and I was able to think seriously about Connor. How much of my reaction was a result of the moment and how much was because of a repressed physical need? Do I really desire a penis? I have been using them since I became sexually active over 11 years ago; is having sex with Laura leaving a gap in my sexual needs? I think this may be a quandary to which I need to devote some serious thought. I love Laura. I know I do. I feel for her the same way I used to feel for Richard.  I will have to wait and see. One thing is for certain, I have to talk about this with Laura – face to face, not using Skype. It will give me time to come up with a solution, perhaps.

I was the only person on a bike I saw all morning. What a set of lazy buggers Australians are! I had a cup of tea and a bun at the shopping centre on Rockingham front [I was quite surprised it was even open so early] and then turned around and cycled back. Chaos Castle was more like Sleeping Beauty’s Castle when I got back. They were all still fast asleep. I think I enjoyed the cycling of the route more than I did the walk. I suppose it is because I was a bit higher up on the bike and I could sit down but still be travelling.

In order not to cause a fuss, I very silently prepared that night's dinner in the kitchen. I was doing a chicken dish with tomatoes and pasta which goes down very well. I did it a couple of times at Christmas and they loved it. I even made a huge pile of rosti which I can reheat in the oven. [I know that you shouldn’t mix pasta and potatoes really, but rosti are scrumptious with anything.

Generally today was a laid back and chilled out sort of day. When the revellers emerged from their pits they were content to do as little as possible. We sat and watched the Dockers demolish Melbourne in round 21 of the AFL at the MCG. Not as many points as the week before but still almost a hundred clear points win again! Rah, Rah and indeed Rah! They will now definitely finish in the top four!

Nobody mentioned swimming today. Wonder why?

 

Monday 19^th August.

We did swim this morning although Suze claimed to still have a sore head. How much did she drink on Saturday Night? Mum heard that I had met Connor. She and Chris had been discussing him apparently. She offered me a piece of advice, “If you ever see him again, take a taser with you!” It seems his wife puts up with his indiscretions because he always comes back to her! What a doormat!

We decided to visit the Bunbury Dolphin Discovery Centre tomorrow. (I think Mumsy may have been feeling fragile as well as her oldest child!)

As it was quite sunny and fairly warm I decided to see if the pool was usable yet. It isn’t! Bloody hell, it was cold. I waited until about 3 o’clock before venturing in. It must have been the quickest dip in the history of the pool. Mum just hooted. She thought it was so funny. She made a point of broadcasting what I’d done to the family at dinner time and I was met with all sorts of imprecations: Shall I fetch a doctor? Are you a secret Eskimo? You’ll need more blubber to stand the pool in winter (thanks Sis!).  I think she’s still hypothermic… You get the picture? I told them I was doing scientific research and I was now able to tell them with absolute, verifiable, empirical certainty the weather was too cold to use the pool in the month of August. If they wanted I could give them a copy of my report once I had it approved by the Australian Academy of Science.

Mum did dinner tonight. We had lamb. It was delicious. She’d done one of those crown of lamb things with rosemary and oregano. She even put the little hats on the end of each bone in the crown. The girls had never seen anything like it before. We broke open a bottle of our Margaret River wine to have with it (the kids had some heavily watered down samples). Jill and Annabelle thought we were mad paying good money for something which tasted so horrible. Suze and Pete approved our choice.

The kids had requested another of my chocolate pineapple upside down cakes for dessert, which I duly produced. This time I served it with a slightly spicy custard. It was another wow. Not as much as the crown of lamb though.

Tuesday 20^th August.

The end of my holiday is drawing near, tomorrow will be the start of my last week out here. Sob sob.

We went swimming again before dropping the kids off at school and motoring off down the highway to Bunbury. We took the coastal route through Mandurah which was a good choice. Mum has hired the car for another two weeks, which seemed a bit silly to me as there is the spare one at Warnbro. However, I learned that Pete was going to sell his car (now he has the van it is surplus to requirements) and put the cash aside to have enough to buy a runabout for Jill when she’s old enough – that will be next year. I was a bit miffed to hear this from Mum rather than Suze and Pete themselves. It seems they’d been discussing it at the party on Saturday. I had also been the topic of conversation, it turns out, me and the impending arrival of Laura into my home in September. Well, thanks Mum.

S & P think it is a lovely idea. They are all for it. Having someone to care for and be with will stop me turning into a frumpish spinster. [I got annoyed at this, but she was just kidding!] They also talked about whether I would ever be a mother. I mean, this is getting very personal. Their joint opinion on this was it would be one hell of a waste if I didn’t. The girls here, apparently, hang off my every word and deed. They love my company and think I am the coolest thing since sliced bread. Even Jeffrey thinks I am OK, which is huge praise indeed. I am not quite sure why Mum was telling me all this, but it was certainly nice to hear. I told Mum what Annabelle kept telling me (wanting me to be her Mum) and my Mum replied, “Well there you are then!”

I don’t think she was angling for a commitment to produce another Grandchild or whether she was just chatting. I told her there was plenty of time if I decided that is what I wanted. I also told her about how the research findings proved that fertility didn’t drop like a stone in your thirties as previously thought. I cited the article from the BMJ and how that idea was based on flawed data. That seemed to cheer her up.

We had got through all this before we even reached the Dawesville Cut. Arriving in Bunbury at lunchtime we found somewhere to have a bite before heading to the Dolphin Centre. I drove her past Fawlty Towers, which made her smile. It was good to see it was still there and trading under that name. We arrived at the centre with twenty minutes to spare before the afternoon cruise set off. This was just a boat trip around the inner harbour and Koombana Bay, not the swimming with dolphins the girls and I did at Christmas. Even so it was really good.

The dolphins are bottle nosed and very inquisitive. The guy in the boat said he was sure they knew the boat’s timetable and came deliberately to see it each day. There were over fifteen altogether in the harbour area and Koombana Bay - a couple of them even put on a free show, leaping out of the water for us as though they’d been trained to do it. Mum was really impressed. So was I to be honest. They didn’t do that at Christmas. (Actually, they may have done but we were in the water with them and so might have missed it.)

Mum wanted to go up the Bunbury Tower next, so that’s where we headed. It is like a lighthouse but without a light and is made of steel. It is painted with black and white hoops, so it looks like a lighthouse and it has one of the beacon lights for the harbour on top, (So in a way it is a light house, I suppose?) The view from the top is very good, especially to the north, as you can see right over The Leschenault Inlet. There are a load of lakes stretching between here and Mandurah but the locals have not developed them or used them in any noticeable way. Maybe they are too buggy for development? There is a settlement at the Mandurah end of Lake Preston, called Preston Beach but we went to have a look on the way back home and it is pretty tiny and non-descript, TBH.

We arranged our return time so we could coincide with the girls cooking tonight’s dinner. They did a pretty good job, they had cooked scallops and king prawns with a pea and spring onion risotto. They’d made my instant Black Forest trifle as a dessert (that was actually Jeff’s contribution). We told them we were very impressed, it was the truth. The scallops were done to perfection!

Between the main and dessert Mum muttered, “See what I mean?”

I sort of did.

 

Wednesday August 21^st.

Another swimming and school run start. Mum and I then went out to Point Peron. We haven’t been out there at all so far. It is a limestone headland between Rockingham and Shoalwater. It is lovely. Mum and Dad used to bring us here all the time when we came to Aus. It was one of their favourites. I suppose Mum hadn’t wanted to come in case it brought back memories she didn’t want.

I couldn’t stop my memories, though. I asked her if she remembered the time we’d buried Dad until only his head was left sticking out of the sand? She gave a wistful smile at that. I was probably eight or nine at the time and Suze hadn’t been with us on that trip to Australia, just me and Phil.

Phil cut his toe open on one of the limestone rocks at Point Peron on the same visit [it does make really sharp jagged edges when the sea gets to it] and we had to find him a doctor to get it stitched as we couldn’t stop it bleeding. He had to play hop along for a while after. Plus he had to have one of those stupid rubber socks on his foot if we went anywhere near water.

There are several old World War 2 defences on top of the hill at Point Peron so we trudged up through the sand to the top for a good look. We found three bright green lizards sunning themselves on the way to the top. The defences had collapsed even more than I remembered and some of them were fenced off with “Danger” signs hung from them. Each of the fences had holes in them and all of the signs were covered with graffiti. Just goes to show, eh?

The view was really good too. Apart from the one due west, which has the vast expanse of uninterrupted, never ending ocean. To the south are the little islands of Shoalwater beach and to the north are Garden Island, Carnac Island and in the distance Rottnest Island. They looked idyllic in the glistening sunlit water of the Indian Ocean.

From here we went to Rockingham Beach and had a walk around the shops, then on to Rockingham Park, where we did the same. These were just how Mum remembered them and on impulse we decided to do something we often did at Rocky Park: play the lotto. We each had a card and $10’s worth of entries for the midweek draw. We used to do this religiously every time we came to Australia. Funnily enough, it is something I have never done back home in England.

I bought a huge pile of mince at Coles and we went home to make a shepherd’s pie for Dinner. The kids haven’t had that since I was last out here at Christmas. Mum got a whole load of fresh fruit to make a humungous fresh fruit salad as dessert. Dinner was very retro and very English tonight.

 

Thursday August 22^nd.

We were all set for a quiet relaxing day at Chaos Castle. We were ready to be chilling after swimming, reading the papers, catching up on the Radio 4 programmes which get broadcast on ABC over here. This was all going to plan until we got back from dropping off the kids at school. Then we discovered Mum has had a win on the Lotto! I can’t believe it. She has just won $4,995.60. What a fluke!

It was the ticket she'd bought on Wednesday at the shopping centre but we hadn’t bothered watching the lotto draw TV show, we just looked in this morning’s West Australian at breakfast (after swimming). Mum had forgotten about it until I asked her if her lotto ticket had been lucky. She went very quiet and went “Oh My God”.  She then handed the paper and ticket to me and said, “Can you check that please?”

Five numbers and a supplementary one means she has won just under $5K. We hooped and cheered and danced around the room. The kids and S & P were at school or work and we didn’t know what to do with ourselves.

It will pay for her trip out here and other sundry expenses. I always have felt a bit guilty about Dad and us siblings inheriting money from Gran’s will but Mum not getting a penny. I’d thought it was because they were divorced but Chris didn’t either, even though she was married to Alex so it was fairly distributed I guess. Dad did give her a five figure sum from his amount, which he didn’t have to, but was a touching gesture. This little windfall won’t make much difference to her retirement. She got a fairly hefty lump sum when she finished work and has a monthly pension which is more than my new salary will be when I start work in September, so she won’t be a pauper! I have just never met a lotto winner before.

Once we’d calmed down we contacted Lottery West and they told her what she had to do. Basically the ticket acts like a cheque. The prize is a division three prize but she is still going to have to go to Lottery West HQ in Osborne Park to collect her winnings. That is from 8.30am to 5 pm Monday to Friday.

We picked the kids up and said nothing. We waited until Suze and Pete came home and still said nothing. When we had finished tea [Chinese style stir fry, cooked by YT] Mum announced what she’d done. We were almost bursting by this time trying to bottle up the excitement. Everyone was as delirious as we were this morning. They all want to come with her to collect her winnings. They have never known a lotto winner either, even if it is only $5K. We have planned to go on Monday straight from school. It is about 60Km from the school and we’ll get permission to collect them a few minutes early (about 2.30 to 2.45). It shouldn’t be a problem. Then Pete will drive us all in the van up the Kwinana Freeway, across Narrows Bridge to Osborne Park. The only worry is hitting rush hour traffic near the bridge, but setting off early means we should avoid it.

I know it is hardly much money at all, really, it is just the thought that she has won some which has got us all excited.

If she’d got another number the prize would have been just under $20K and all seven numbers would have won a jackpot of $10 million. Nobody won the jackpot. God knows what she’d have done if she’d won that. Actually, I do know. From what she has said, I think she’d buy something out here and spend her days flying between the two locations. I think it’s what I would do, if I had the money to do it. Perhaps I ought to start doing the UK Lotto? You never know your luck.

I wasn't meaning to imply I was God, just then. Honest.