What a Week!

Does life imitate art, or art imitate life? This past week had all the elements of a novel. Leaving home in the wee hours with the MOTH (Man of the house), travelling in the truck with him to Port Macquarie, both of us tired and concerned after hearing a friends  mother was very ill. Switching to my son Day's truck to get to Seaham where my good friend Jo lives. I spent a lovely couple of days with Jo, her partner and her son. We laughed a lot, drank too much and generally had a good time.
While at Jo's I got word that our friend's mum had passed away. I also got a call from another son Matty, to tell me that a young girl who had been at primary school with my two younger kids was in a car accident and drowned. It was difficult not being at home to comfort my children, particularly Cassie who shared many classes with the young girl. However, the children all have many mutual friends, including Jo's children so they were of support to each other using social networking and phone calls.
On Tuesday afternoon, Jo and I headed up to Hawkes Nest to meet with another very good friend of mine, Bonnie. Bonnie and I had been trying to plan a few days away for some months and we finally organised it for last week. It was the MOTH's idea that I combine visits to Jo and Bonnie since I rarely get away for leisure.
We arrive at our motel apartment which was basic, but quite nice. Sitting out in our courtyard that evening, beer in hand, cheese and bickies at the ready we were primed for a good time. Next door to us, a group of young lads (perhaps early twenties) were staying for some kind of golf tournament. There was some posturing from them, a few lewd comments and a threat to show us their 'packages'. How we laughed at that! I'm not sure whether they were intimidated by our 'not fazed' attitude or perhaps they just didn't have our stamina because they were all inside with the lights off by 10pm! LOL, There's life in us old birds yet!
Jo went home the next day while Bonnie and I spent the rest of the week enjoying the scenery and each other's company.
The funerals for our friends mum and our kids young friend were both on friday. The MOTH drove down to Raymond Terrace with Matty and Cassie, picking me up from Hawkes Nest on the way. We left the kids with another friend, Dee, who would take them, along with Jo's son Dan and her children Stephen and Rachel to the funeral. The MOTH and I then continued on to Sydney, where we attended our friends mum's funeral.
Following the service, we drove back up to the Terrace, picked up the kids and completed the trek back home around 10pm.
As you can see, it was a rollercoaster of a week :)
Rest in Peace, Merle Holmes and Danni Thomlinson xxx