Happy little accidents

(Princess cake at Ikea - this image is from here.)

It was my cousin's birthday on Wednesday, as she lives 2 and a half hours away, we had planned to meet at Ikea, which is kind of half way. We would have lunch, a bit of a shop and generally have a nice day together.

But things don't always go according to plan, do they?

Day One

I rang her at 8.00am to wish her Happy Birthday and tell her that we were leaving. She said she had to take her two older kids to the Gold Coast and that she would meet us at Ikea at 10:30am. That was fine by me, as I had wanted to stop at a few other places on the way, anyway.

However, we got stuck in very bad traffic and it ended up taking us two and a half hours instead of one and a half hours, to get to Ikea. I pulled off of the highway just before the Ikea exit. I wanted to stop in at an old haunt, to stock up on my favourite Swedish berry jam. From here I rang my cousin and said I will be at Ikea in 5 minutes. She then told me, that she hadn't even got to the Gold Coast yet and had decided to turn back instead - she too, had been stuck in traffic. OK, not the best start to the day, but we would get there eventually.... or so I thought.

I drove 100 metres down the road, the clutch on the car started to stick, the gears wouldn't change, a high pitch screeching noise filled the car and then there was, smoke!

RACQ came, my cousin came, a tow truck came, at the mechanics a man almost reversed into my recently towed, parked car. Once the car was safely inside the mechanics workshop, me, my cousin, her two older children (who were supposed to be at summer camp), my kids and her baby girl headed off to Ikea. It was almost 1 pm.

It was lovely, we ate lunch, followed by princess cake and daim cake and a well earned coffee. I put my kids into the play area and off we went for a shop. Then the mechanic rang. It wasn't good. The cost was going to be astronomical and we wouldn't be going home tonight.

Time to ring Mr Moo.

With our Ikea shopping done, we all piled back into Karen's car and headed to her farm. While driving we watched as the sky turn black and the winds pick up, minutes after arriving home, a storm hit and the power went out. It did not come on again until the next morning.

We were able to hook up a hose to one of the tanks (no pump) and get some water. Out came the barbecue from the back shed to boil water for the childrens baths. We stuck the hose through the bathroom window to fill the bath and then I brought in the water. I think I lugged about eight pots of boiling water though the house. There were seven children to wash and 3 adults. The same boiling water heated the baby's milk and cooked soft boiled eggs for the kids dinner. It was a crazy, fun night. At 8:30pm, the big kids, the little kids and one sick husband were all in bed. My cousin and I sat down and ate a chicken and salad sandwich by candle light. We also tried her latest batch of homemade feta and enjoyed a glass of wine. I don't think I can ever remember a glass of wine tasting so good.

(Daim cake from Ikea - this image is also from here)

Day Two

We woke to a paddock blanketed in fog. This lead to a hot day and another furious storm. We kept our power this time, but my ears are still ringing from the biggest bang of thunder I have ever heard. We just hung out waiting for the call that my car would be ready. I got the call after 4pm.

We collected the car a 5:30pm. More storms were brewing, I knew that it would be at least two hours before we would be home. Down the road from the mechanic was a KFC. The kids had their first and last KFC. I hadn't eaten this for at least 15 years and I now remember why, but it was just there and we were racing against the clock. The drive home was harrowing. I rarely drive at night, so driving through pouring rain and peak hour inner city traffic at night was not my idea of fun. I was nervous that we would be faced with more storms, thankfully, it was just rain and a lot of lightening.

I pulled into our driveway at 8 o'clock, relieved to be home. In our absence, Mr Moo had put twinkle lights in the trees in our front yard. It was a nice greeting. The kids were both fast asleep and were transferred straight into bed. They were hot, sweaty and still wearing the same clothes they had left the house in yesterday morning. As for me, I had a long hot shower, flopped into our soft couch and with a tub of Maggie Beers ice-cream and a period drama on the TV.

I was happy to have spent some lovely time with my cousin, but also happy to be home.

Sorry for the epic length of this post and sorry that I have no photo's. I did take one (very bad) photo of our kids happily playing together, then my camera battery went flat.

Of course it did!