Well it's bloody typical. Not a single squeak from him the whole time CI was home.
So now he thinks I'm making it all up!
Today I took a trip to Casuarina, which takes about half an hour by bus and has a big (by Darwin standards) shopping centre, to look for CHEAP workclothes, not having found any in Darwin city centre.
I really enjoyed the journey out of the built-up city and through the residential suburbs full of huge tropical plants and palms and houses up on stilts. We passed the Darwin Oval, the Botanical Gardens and a couple of schools.
At one stop a bunch of schoolkids with yellow and green tops (they reminded me of those indigenous budgies) all piled onto the bus and as it pulled away, all moved towards the window and started peering out at something, chattering away to each other and making the bus lean precariously to the left.
"There she is, there she is!"
"Hahaha she's not going to make it!"
"Look at her, look at her, hahaha she is bright red!"
"I told her not to start walking to the next stop, she's going to miss the bus now and it's her own stupid fault! Hahahahaha!".
And sure enough, as we sailed past I spotted a worried looking schoolgirl doing the 500 metre sprint, with rucksack bouncing, arms and legs flailing everywhere and hair flying in the wind.
A wave of faces turned to face the driver:
"Stopppppppppp!!!!! Stop the bus and wait for her pleeeeeeeeeeease!!!"
One little voice piped up:
"Noooo, don't stop, it's her own stupid fault, the stupid idiot!"
We all watched the driver intently to see what she would do. At the very last minute she swung the bus into the layby. We clung on for dear life.
A big cheer went up along the bus. The budgies all watched out of the window and flapped about in excitement. We waited for what seemed like an age.
"She's coming, she's coming!"
"No, she's not. I can't see her."
"Yes, she is, she's nearly here!"
"She's here, she's here!"
"Haha look at her running! She'll prolly have a heart attack! Hahaha!"
We all craned our necks to see out of the back of the bus, but nothing yet.
We waited for what seemed like another age, the budgies all squawking and flapping about, and then finally a huge cheer went up along the bus!
The windmill of flailing arms and legs crashed up the steps of the bus and collapsed in a heaving heap on the floor.
The budgies all leapt up and down and screeched with delight. I turned round to look and the whole bus had erupted into laughter!
Out the bus pulled again throwing us all sideways, the budgies tumbling about and squawking loudly, and off on our white knuckle ride we continued. It all felt like a bizarre cross between the Simpsons and a Nightmare on Elm Street.
I managed to find my cheap workclothes in K-Mart. I love K-Mart! I also found a purple saucepan for $2. I thought of a friend of mine who is purple-mad. Her whole house is purple.
Big W is pretty good too, I think it's some relation of Woolworths. There I found a curtain pole for $4 so that I can hang some voile up at the window. I haven't opened the curtains since I moved in as you can look straight in at the bedroom from the carpark.
On the way home I thought I'd have a fight with the bus driver over my curtain pole but he just waved me on.
A friendly lot these Darwinian bus drivers!
