An averagely good day

My alarm slept in and I woke up late. Like a giant Kangaroo, I leapt from the bed straight into the shower.
Dressing upping, 'breakfasting', daycare bag-packing and good morning cuddling for baby were crammed into 12 minutes. 2 extra minutes, nay 3, were employed for hello-ing and goodbye-ing the hubby, kissing baby and sprinting across the road to the bus stop.
I made the bus - ticket in hand, hair brushed, face devoid of makeup and ears devoid of earphones. Makeup was applied on the bus (as usual) and a decision was made to defer earphones until lunch time.
The day was looking good already. No one was sharing the bus seat with me; the sky was blue with blobs of white clouds; the sun was not too far away and the streets had been kissed by a drizzle of rain; the wind was playing with the leaves and the bus was making strides in good time. The wind reached out for me when I got down at the bus stop, the trees swayed in greeting and the sun was smiling as I walked to my office. Yes, there was no doubt that this was a good day.
The day was going to be spent playing, nay, working on budgets and answering a lot of questions.
Sure enough, budgets and emails were part of this good day, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea followed each other almost too closely. A sudden sniffle became a good excuse to avoid the gym and head home for a comforting cup of hot chocolate.
Cuddles from baby; hugs from hubby; a 30 minute dose of the Flinstones show; 1 episode of the In the night garden kid's program and a hot dinner were only 2 bus rides away and a welcome way to conclude such a day.

Help! There's a monster in my kitchen!

I woke up the other morning and was greeted by a monster that was happily sitting on the kitchen sink. Here's what he looked like:



I almost ran out of my house screaming and pulling my hair, but being the mature woman that I am, I calmed myself down, went and had breakfast, watched some Seinfeld, had a bit of a read from one of my many half-read books before venturing back to the kitchen area. Believe it or not, the 'head in the sand' technique worked and I realized that I had exaggerated the monster's size because this time he looked more like this:



oh and he was very well behaved because he didn't mind being stuffed away in the dishwasher.

I had been on holidays from doing dishes for the past 10 months because my mother-in-law was visiting us and she helped out with the dishes (and many more things). It was such a relief coming home from work without worrying about who was going to do the dishes or if there would be enough dishes to justify using the dishwasher.

Trying to remember how life was before I ever had to do dishes is much like trying to remember a past life on another planet. I recall that I was about 9 or 10years old when my mom excitedly informed me that I was going to take on some responsibility in the family. Boy, was I impressed with myself. I felt like I had landed a new job. Previously, I was always too young to be in the kitchen and much disliked being shooed away from that area. Now I was responsible for doing the dishes after lunch. What an important task that was. Needless to say, the novelty of my new assignment wore off after a few weeks and I began to learn that most times, responsibility couldn't be shaken off your shoulders just because you no longer found it enjoyable.

As we all know, the older we get, the more we have to take on, so very soon, I happily relinquished the lunch dishes to my younger brother and took on the heavier burden of the breakfast and dinner dishes. How heavy this was! I quickly discovered that dinner was usually the most elaborate meal of the day because there were always millions and millions of plates, pots, pans, spoons, and other strange utensils lying around and waiting to be washed. In our days, using the dishwasher was out of the question because it spoiled the children. So it was usually with a solemn and despondent disposition that I ventured into the kitchen every evening after dinner.

Life got better when I became much older because I now graduated into making either lunch or dinner so my younger siblings now took over the dishwashing role. How sweet! I didn't think twice about using two extra spoons even if it was unnecessary just to pay them back for the years they sat and watched Sesame Street while I was slaving away in the kitchen! Yeehah!
When I left for Uni, I said goodbye to doing dishes for the rest of my life. Afterall, I was going to get married after Uni, buy a dishwasher and never do a single dish till I was 99 years old. Alas, I was wrong. The first few places we rented after we got married did not have dishwashers and we weren't about to buy one in a rented apartment. Many arguments centered around whose turn it was to do the dishes and why the person who made dinner had to use many unnecessary utensils! Life with a dishwasher would be paradise in my home.

We moved out of our apartment into a house and yes there was a dishwasher but it came with the added responsibility of paying for water! Isn't life funny? So, now I've finally got a dishwasher, but I also have to wait till I've got a full load of dishes before I can use it else I will be wasting water! If I waited till I had a full load of dishes, there would be nothing to use and my kitchen will stink. Far out! Do you know how hard it is to be doing dishes when the dishwasher is sitting around being idle and staring at you from under the sink? The English language will not adequately describe the feeling so your imagination will suffice.

Life goes on. I have my dream but I can't live it to the full. I wonder if my husband realizes that the days he gets over 10 "i love you"s from me are those days that he does the dishes. On the other days, I patiently wait for my 15 month old daughter to become older so she can take on some more responsibility in our family. Till then, it's hands to the dishwashing liquid for me. C'est la vie.

Hello, Morning!

(Greet The Morning by phatpuppy)


Yep, I'm definitely a morning person.The morning is my favorite time of the day. On sunny mornings, the sky is so blue; the little puffy clouds look so soft and fluffy up there; the leaves reflect the sun and the flowers in their vibrant colours make me want to twirl around in a colourful girly dress with arms wide open and chirp like a bird. Since I'm mostly on the bus heading to work at this time of day, I don't do this, so i resort to taking a deep lungfull of the lovely morning air and giving a big smile to everyone (except late bus drivers. Refer to an earlier post to get my view on late bus drivers). Yeah! its a beautifuuuuuuuuul day.

(Don`t you ever get grey overcast days? by Johh Frisch)

I also love overcast mornings when it looks like it's going to storm. I imagine the sun trying so hard to peek through the big dark clouds (like Izabelle trying hard to see the TV when I've deliberately blocked her view). I can almost hear the clouds going, "geez sun, what is it with you? you've been at our backs all morning" and the sun going, "if only you'd just let me peek through, just a tiny little bit so I can see what's happening down there, I'd quit bothering you so much". I like to think that when the clouds give in is when you see rays of sunlight peeping through the cracks in the clouds on an overcast morn. :)

(rainy day by whatafriarlife.blogspot.com)

Oooh, I love rainy mornings too. I try to take my extra large umbrella so i can enjoy the rain, otherwise, the worry of getting drenched will spoil the day for me.
Have you ever listened to Enya's song "it's in the rain"? Brilliant for such days.
Anyway, I love the rain because it makes me feel like curling up on the sofa with a cuppa and a good cartoon or Dr Seuss movie (oh delight!). Although, I usually can't indulge on workdays, the feeling usually suffices and I hope for rain on the weekend. (sorry shopping addicts)
Oh, there are lots more I love about the mornings...

(A new leaf by Catalog of Visual Interestingness)

The morning is a new leaf with new opportunities...its just as exciting as when you're in the middle of your favorite novel and turning a new leaf to the next page is even more appealing than a cone of ice cream (the middle is usually fantastic because you've past the beginning where there wasn't much action and you're not at the end where it's all about to end...you're just at the perfect bit!). We all apply the "new leaf" concept to serious things in life like our careers, relationships, etc, but stop for a minute and think about all the frivolous but nonetheless important things that we can apply this concept to: every morning presents a new opportunity to explore new make-up...after all, its not the usual custom to change your eyeshadow from green to black around 11.00am in your office bathroom, is it? No! You've gotta wait for the next morning, right? Also, when you've just purchased new items for your wardrobe, you've got a couple of exciting mornings ahead to mix and match outfits because you can't wear it all at once.

Yeah yeah, i know the last couple of lines sound shallow but come on, most of us girls (and dare I mention guys?) consider such things, so I just had to put it out there.
When I've got something so incredibly exciting planned that has had me counting the number of sleeps till the day, imagine the tingle of excitement and anticipation that peaks on the night before the morning of the D Day? OHHH, its enough to light all the light bulbs in the world for 61 seconds. I find that I can hardly sleep through the night and in the event that I wake up to go to the bathroom, it's almost 100% likely that I won't be able to go back to sleep.

(Excitement by nataliedee.com)

Oh my gosh, I can remember the morning of our wedding...oh, how insanely thrilling...I couldn't believe that the day I would wed my beau and live happily ever after had finally arrived...oh the dreams...oh the possibilities...oh my, oh me, oh my! (bunnytown, 2009). It wasn't quite the same though on the morning I had Izabelle. Perhaps this was because I was in ACTIVE Labour? hmmm....Maybe hubby was incredulously excited for me, seeing as I was certainly too 'busy' to be actively excited.

Mornings in a new country are usually a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I normally can't wait to get out and experience the life there. Do they hang out at cafes in the morning? Are the streets full of crowds of workers finding their way to work? How early do the markets open? What is the main occupation? Will there be more people going to an office job or heading to the mines or farm? Whatever the case, mornings will always feel different in different countries.

(Saturday Morning by Monica S Carnesi)

My 'bestest' mornings are Saturday and Holiday mornings. I wake up in a gooey happy mood with a song in my head (but then I always wake up with a song in my head and on workdays, i play the song on my ipod on my way to work)...ok, so on weekends and holidays i wake up with a song in my head and then lie awake trying to remember why I'm happy...hmmm.........nope, I'm not getting married today, I'm already married....hmmm....nope, we are not buying a new house........hmmm....is something interesting going to happen at work today? WORK! That's it! It's the "no-work day today". Woooooooooooooooooo
This is the point where I jump out of bed --> GooooOOOD MornnnNNING, Morning!

Living with the Intruder

If you're like me then this has happened to you.

You were looking at a baby (yours or someone else's) and the memories of when You were a baby came rushing back. Suddenly you could remember the first day your parents brought you home from hospital and how you looked the entire house over and wondered if this was the house you'd have to live in for the next 15 years! Then you remembered how livid you were when your mom tried to introduce formula...what was wrong with breastmilk...you didn't remember complaining about it. And it felt just like yesterday that your mom snatched the weekend newspaper from you...why did she do that? Afterall, you were only trying to be like Dad, who was reading it a few moments ago and she didn't snatch it from him.
The most persistent memory though was the fact that everyone seemed to want to stop you......when you tried to come up close to the TV just so you could touch Pooh bear - NO! COME AWAY FROM THERE....when you decided to keep crawling even though you were at the edge of the bed - NO! STOP BABY!.... when you saw some exciting insect specimen on the carpet and decided to orally explore it - PUT IT DOWN, NOW! One too many STOPS! naturally began to make you a little bit apprehensive...you couldn't wait to grow up and stop being a baby that got carried around all the time to places you didn't really want to go...like the doctor's clinic for those immunisation shots. You were pretty sure that when you grew up you would be free to do whatever you wanted to do. You could get as close to the tv as you wanted, and you could read the weekend newspaper (or shred it if you so wished).

Well, I did grow up, albeit in stages. Different stages of growth came with varying amounts of freedom as well as restrictions. The great thing about being 3 years old is that you no longer need to sleep in the cot so you don't have to keep trying to climb over the bars. The not so great thing about being 3 years old is that you most likely have been introduced to the Intruder.

'Intruder: someone who is present where he/she is not welcome'.

When I was a baby, I was innocent (some of you might find this fact hard to believe, but its true) and I was full of trust. I trusted my parents and I trusted the world. This was why I would let anyone carry me; I would eat anything from anyone; I would smile at anybody; I believed everyone liked me (I was a baby, I was cute, I was cuddly. who wouldn't like me?); I used to try and hold big dogs by their ears; I wasn't afraid of anything. By the time I was 3, I had learned not to talk to strangers; not to eat anything from just anybody; to tell Mum if someone touched me in a way that made me feel uncomfortable; that some people didn't like me for some reason; that I couldn't cross the road without an Adult because I could get killed...I had been introduced to the Intruder - Fear.

Age 5 - I was in Kindergarten and I hated the ordeal of having my Mom or anyone else comb my hair. When I combined this attitude with managing to get lice, it was the last straw for my Mom, so she cut my hair. Monday morning I was driven to school and it was the worst day ever. Some bullies in my class gathered around me and sang horrid songs and I began to fear school. School meant bullies. They were monsters that came to school everyday and made life miserable for you. I considered ending my education at that point but my parents had other ideas.

Age 15 caught up with me in high school. Most girls were trying to be noticed by the boys. If you didn't dress a certain way, you were destined not to have a boyfriend and this meant you were uncool. Needless to say, my Mom made sure that my skirt was always way below the knees, so I didn't have a short enough skirt to be cool...and I didn't have a boyfriend in highschool. I got introduced to the fear of what my peers thought.

Age 19 saw me at Uni. I had reached a point in life where I was not living at home and I was quite shocked to suddenly discover that I now had to make choices. Bad choices could even lead to the end of my life (or at least life as i knew it back then). I always heard of people who had made a bad choice and gone off with a guy they didn't really know and were never seen again...or people who got infected with HIV...or people who got kicked out of Uni...or people who got into gangs and got shot. It was all overwhelming...there was just a lot to fear and there were no parents to protect me. I felt like my life was now up to me and I had no one to blame if I took the wrong turn. Good friends and a doting boyfriend helped. Oh, and my parents had friends who seemed to be at every nook and cranny of the Uni and who I could count on to tell them if I had been seen doing what I wasn't supposed to be doing. They made me worry a lot actually.

Age 23 turned up and I had finished Uni. Yay. At this point, even though I knew there were bad things happening all around the world, none had happened to me up till then and this was a good sign. There was nothing in the world to be afraid of....but then I went and had a car crash. I was traveling on a National assignment and the driver lost control of his vehicle. I was sitting in front and I can't remember much of the crash except that I lost a few teeth, had a deep cut on my knee, couldn't walk or talk for weeks, and sustained minor bruises to my spinal discs. Great! I was not transferred to a location that would not involve traveling so I had to deal with this new found fear of traveling (mostly for 6 or 7 hrs at a stretch) to this post for the period of 12 months that I was on duty.
Till date, I can't really sleep when someone is driving me and I have not gotten my license yet. I have to fight the Intruder to be able to do these things.

When Age 24 came by, I had finished my 12 month posting and I had just come back from one last (safe) road trip. I did not need to do any more road travels. I only had to hop on a plane to Brisbane in about 2 weeks and there was nothing to fear. Air travel is one of the safest means of travel. Then the Belview airline crashed. OMG talk about bad timing. CNN decided to air a time-line of all the plane crashes that have ever happened in the world...and I became pretty worried about spending about 25 hours on a plane from Abuja to Brisbane. I can still feel the butterflies in my tummy. I stopped watching CNN and switched to Cartoon network. I hopped on the plane to Lagos enroute to Brisbane and when I got on my Emirates flight, I looked at the screen and noted that one of the Planes that left Abuja around the time I left had crashed at Port Harcourt. Great. In fact, some of the Kids I saw milling around the airport were gone. What perfect news to receive at the start of a 25 hour long flight. Needless to say, I made that trip with the Intruder close at hand. I fought hard and long during every turbulence and when we spent hours over the Atlantic.

Age 25 was pleased with me because I decided to marry that doting boyfriend of mine. About time. I traveled back to Nigeria for a small and quick wedding and spent roughly 2 weeks with my beau before coming back to Brisbane - ALONE. I was now married...and the Intruder whispered this to me...'the risk of being a widow is now real'. Scary. No,nothing can happen to my husband, we've only just got married. His parents are still married and alive and so are my parents. It runs in both our families. But the Intruder lingered. My husband called me almost everyday and when he went on travels (which he seemed to be doing all the time) he would tell me of ordeals he went through on some and how others were fine. My mind seemed to be able to filter out the good stories and retain the bad stories. So I worried. When I realized that worrying wouldn't do me any good, I switched to praying for him everyday when I woke up and before I went to bed. He joined me 5 months later. Phew.

Age 26 saw me get pregnant for our first child. Life was good. We got married. We live together. We were going to have a baby! There wasn't much to fear...till we lost the baby. Then miscarriages became a real and potent fear to us. I had to deal with this fear for 6 months until I felt bold enough to try again. I'm happy I tried because I now have Izabelle. However, the 9 months were spent fighting the Intruder on various issues that worry pregnant women - Oh God, I pray that my child will be healthy; I pray that I won't loose this one; I'm trying to eat well so that all will be well with my baby; I pray that my baby will not have down syndrome or any other syndrome....Believe me when I tell you that 9 months is a long long time when you're pregnant. Time only seems to go in the 5th gear after you've had the baby. which is probably because the babies can't wait to grow up. :)

You probably get my gist by now. Life is full of things to fear. The Intruder lurks around every corner and you don't even have to turn on the TV to see it because it's on the radio. Bomb blasts, air crashes, car crashes, kidnappings, fires, serial killers, natural disasters, cancers, health issues, arrrrrrrrrrgh!!! MAKE IT STOP!
We have all met the Intruder and we have learned to either live with it or deal with it. We can't achieve our highest potential if we are held back by fear. We have to take risks.
The highest feeling of fear for most people is the fear of death. For some other people, the fear of being rejected and worthless surpasses the fear of death, hence the push to commit suicide in some cases.

My encounters with the Intruder is not a sad ending story though. I have discovered that the opposite of fear is trust. If I trust you, I won't fear you. If I trust a driver, I won't fear when I board his car or bus...and so on. I have chosen to trust that even though I live in a world were I am exposed to a lot of dangers, I will be safe. So for me, it boils down to doing what I can do, and leaving the rest to God.
This is the reason that I have stopped being scared if a visibly Muslim man or woman enters the bus and sits beside me. I have stopped worrying if they're going to blow up the bus. I didn't stop because I trust Brisbane's security, I stopped because at that point, there is nothing else I can do except deciding not to go to work (which is not an option). The only thing I can do is trust God.

Recently I asked my colleague if she was ever scared of flying and she said that it didn't bother her. When I asked her why, she replied that since one would still die someday, what does it matter which way someone dies, death is death. She wouldn't let the fear that she might crash keep her from travelling on holidays or for work. After all, the odds are in her favour that she is more likely to land safely...moreover, if one decided to keep away from things that had the potential to kill like cars, planes, etc, then life wouldn't make sense. I like that attitude and I am trying to wear it. You've probably noted that I'm particularly nervous about flying, but I will fly. I will need to. I can't say that the butterflies would be gone the whole trip, but you know what? If the Intruder won't go away, I'll do life AFRAID. If you've noticed, when you do life, the Intruder slips away.

My Conclusion? Lets do life...don't let the Intruder intrude. Just do it.

Girlie Wisdom

1. A friend of mine confused her Valium with her birth control pills... she has 14 kids but doesn't really care.

2. One of life's mysteries is how a 2-pound box of chocolates can make a woman gain 5 lbs.

3. My mind not only wanders, it sometimes leaves completely.

4. The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes.

5. The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don't know what you are doing, someone else does.

6. The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body and your fat are really good friends.

7. Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today.

8. Sometimes I think I understand everything, and then I regain consciousness.

9. I gave up jogging for my health when my thighs kept rubbing together and setting fire to my knickers'.

10. Amazing! You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks 2 sizes!

11. Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like...'You know sometimes I forget to eat!' .....Now I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name and my keys, but I have never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat!

12. The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing and then they marry him.

13. I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are eating too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day!

SEND THIS TO 5 BRIGHT WOMEN YOU KNOW AND MAKE THEIR DAY!!!


LIVE SIMPLY.....LAUGH OFTEN....LOVE DEEPLY


** I didn't come up with this so I hereby acknowledge whoever did. She did a good job**

On a business note...

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Direct store link: Store

Ok, don't get sidetracked, blogging activities continue below. :)

Reflections of an irate bus passenger

The Setup

Its only 12.00am and I feel like I've just been woken up for the 500th time in 1 hour...what was that noise? *sigh* its my alarm clock. Why is it waking me up at midnight? Who's been tampering with my phone? I have a look at the phone. Far out! Its 5.00am! Seriously, I'm only sure because I just checked my phone. Gosh, I feel like I've only just gone to sleep. *sigh*
I don't feel well at this time in the morning, I wonder if I can call in sick? No I won't do that, but i'll feel better after I rest some more. 5.26am!!! Gosh!! I better get up, I can't afford to miss my 6.44am bus!

6.40am and onwards

Its freezing cold but I didn't really mind because my bus should be here in the next 4 minutes.
6.45am...Awww Nancy, he's just a minute late! My bus was late yesterday, he arrived at 6.50am so when we got to Indooroopilly station, I had missed my connecting bus. I arrived work at 7:45am. I prefer arriving around 7.30am but 15 minutes later doesn't bite.
OK, when the bus hadn't arrived by 6.50, I was sure of two things:

1. It was definitely the same driver who was late yesterday; and
2. I was going to frown at him when I hopped on the bus (like he cared or would even notice!)

I kept on feeling cold and kept on checking my watch in between feeling cold. It was soon 7.00am and I was certain that our driver had decided not to show up. I sent hubby a text saying that my bus was late, then I sent him another one correcting myself and informing him that the driver did not even bother to show up. His reply? "OK. At least you found one. Have a good day." My mental response? "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (that was me screaming in my head)
Some minutes past 7.00am and a bus driver arrives so we all hop in. He said good morning but I did not respond. I hoped he realised I was livid because I had woken up early for nothing! I might as well have slept in!



OK, so a bus has FINALLY arrived, I've hopped on, I'm sitting down and I'M FUMING!
Below is a snapshot of what was going on in my hot little head.

The reflections

Gosh, I'm so upset....why are you upset? Well, for starters, I'm supposed to be at work by 7.30am. You are not SUPPOSED to be at work by 7.30am and you know that. Well I like being at work that early because it gives me 30 minutes to 1 hour of working alone without being interrupted.
*fume* I feel like giving the driver a piece of my mind. And what would that be? Hmmmmm...just watch and see. (I begin to imagine a confrontation in my mind) --> {I walk up to the driver and......
Nancy: Oh hi Driver, did you know that this bus was meant to arrive AT 6.44am?
Driver: What? Speak up, I can't hear you love.
Nancy: I asked if you realised that this bus was meant to arrive at this bus stop AT 6.44am?
Driver: No mate, that was meant to be the driver before me. What's your problem?
Nancy: Well, its just that unlike some other people, some of us NEED to be at work on time and we've been standing at the bus stop under freezing conditions for the past 30 minutes. *pause for a response but get none so I push on* Would you know why the other driver didn't show up?
The driver starts getting impatient because he's driving and I'm not supposed to be talking to him when he's driving, however, I'm too angry to care...until I notice that every other person on the bus is looking at me and listening to the conversation. The school children are snickering and whispering among themselves...One student speaks up, "Go back to your country if you don't like it here" and I snap back, "Well this IS my Country because I was born here just like you were. Moreover, even if I wasn't born here I shouldn't be listening to you because millions of Australians live overseas as well!"...At this point, I can't help but compare the bus system here to the one in some Nigerian cities - 3 come to mind: Nsukka (I begin to remember those yellow buses with yelling harmattan riddled conductors hanging from the bus from Barracks to Ogige Market) Not a good comparison so I make a mental shift to Lagos (lots and lots of buses with conductors yelling unintelligible destinations, I also begin to see the 'one chance' buses in my mind, and then I remember standing at a bus stop without knowing when and if a bus will come...then I almost re-feel the frustration I felt when a bus arrived but the driver decided he now wanted to go to another destination because there were more passengers going there!!!!) No this is worse than Nsukka and I almost have to shake off the bad feeling I'm getting...is there no city with a good public transport system in Nigeria? Aha Abuja (I remember that it wasn't too bad hopping on a bus from Wuse II to Kubwa, there always seemed to be a bus unless I got to the bus stop at a certain time in the evening) Oh well....by this time the school children are bold enough to giggle and giggle, other older passengers are staring at this crazy crazy lady, so I decide to go back to my seat. At least this driver now knows my thoughts about 'NO - SHOW' drivers and will perhaps have a word with the other absentee. } yeah right.

Ok so the above scenario didn't actually happen, it only happened in my mind so i'm trying to let off some steam and the reflections continue...

Why don't you listen to some soothing music on your ipod? It always makes you feel better. Aha, why didn't you mention it before! hmm what shall it be *i'm flicking through my playlists as its too much work to try and figure out what genre I want to be listening to* Ahhh, Enya and Yanni. Sweet. So I start listening to Yanni's End of August and my bus has just gone round the Sinnamon Park roundabout and is trying to merge with the Highway. What!!!Traffic congestion and we can hardly get on! Everyone is creeping, I mean EVERYONE. Oh, did I mention that I have known this all along which was why I decided to start taking the 6.44 bus just to miss the traffic? *exasperation* I wish I could stamp my feet. I can't so I just have to be satisfied with an eye roll. I'm fuming again! Our bus finally gets on the highway and we start creeping successfully. We cross the bridge and when I see the river the good part of my mind reminds me:
"Be thankful for what you've got"
"and what would that be?"
"Life. Its better to be on a late bus that on a crashing airplane"
"Well, yeah"

That seems to mellow me down a bit.

Enya's May it be begins to play just as we're driving past the Forest-like vegetation. I allow my mind to wander and the song makes me feel like I'm on vacation at a Rainforest location. I check my time and its 7.25! Gosh, I was supposed to be at Uni now. Enya is still playing and I am at cross roads in my mind. Should I wander away to my Rainforest vacation or should I keep fuming in my mind? I feel like a holiday, so i'll go for one in my mind, at least I don't have to worry about getting on the plane yet. Cool.
So I'm back at this Rainforest resort and its a lovely day. We are in a cabin and I'm about to make breakfast on this lovely lovely morning....Yanni's Santorini starts playing and I'm still looking out of the window in the kitchen of this cabin in this Rainforest getaway. The sunlight is dancing with the leaves in the wind. It's quixotic. The song gains momentum and I begin to feel like Greece. Greece. Ok, so I decide that we've made plans to travel from this resort to Greece and explore the historical sites. Did I mention that I know that Yanni is Greek? Oh yes, Greece will be lots of fun!...In reality I'm still on this late bus to work and my bus has just stopped to pick some passengers at a bus stop...all is well, I feel quite happy from my mind trip to the tranquil rainforest resort, then I just catch a glimse of my connecting bus zooming past us...COME ON DRIVER, MOVE IT! Catch that bus. No, the traffic isn't letting up. Wait, he's gotten back to the road and we're on the trail of my connecting bus. Woooooooooo...ouch, that was short lived because we're stopped by the unrelenting authority of the RED LIGHT and I watch my connecting bus get farther and farther away into the distance.
*sigh* Oh well.
......
Green light, our bus is moving again, Enya's The Memory of Trees begins to play and I'm actually feeling happy now. Life is great. I'm sitting on this bus, the sunlight is in eyes, God's love is in my heart and I feel alive. I've got a wonderful family to go home to at the end of the day and I'm going to have a PERFECT day after all!
.........
We're at the connecting bus stop now and 3 connecting buses have just left without me because I'm still trying to get off Bus #1. I touch off my Go card on the machine then I smile at the driver and say, "Thanks Driver" before getting off to face this Perfect day!

8.05am, I get to the office, mutter something about absentee bus drivers to Lizanne and hop on my computer.

Late bus? At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter.