The Crossroads
Without Prejudice
I am in my fifties and am facing the "Crossroads" again. You have to love that whatever the age you are there will always be Crossroads. I can do one of three things. I can earn myself some good money and go back to Purchasing in Automotive in Melbourne, I can sell my script to the highest bidder and I can open up my own web site and counsel other women like me for money.
So many choices. As I speak one daughter is packing up her life in Melbourne, more than willing to jump and when I return I will help her drive her and the kids here and settle her in for 3 months or so. Then I can return to Melbourne and do what I want knowing she is happy. That's one plan and that's easy. I've driven more times to Queensland than I care to remember and it's 24 hours out of your life, basically.
I once did it in Cedric, my old station wagon, the screw came out of the Drive handle and I stuck a big nail in it about 50 kms out of Melbourne. I had my Grandson in the car who had his learners and I thought he might be able to spell me when I was tired at night. He fell asleep and I just kept driving. 1,300 miles later, the car and he and I made it but not without some teeth gnashing from me.
That is one big long lonely boring trip and believe it or not, you do have to watch out for kangaroos. But then they have bounded across the road at The Police Paddocks in Melbourne, scaring the life out of me there in the suburbs. It's just an endless trip through the back of New South Wales where garages are few and far between and are staffed by tired faded people that look like they were last seen playing duelling banjos in Deliverance.
Yesterday I was contemplating my crossroads when I saw the man next door to my brother's house. He's in his 90's, wears hearing aids, walks stiffly and is covered in liver spots on his face. But when you look in his eyes, as I did when we had a chat, he is ageless.
He had a store once at Lyndhurst in Melbourne, long before it was the pricier suburb of Lynbrook that it is now. I remember it, his shop, only building for miles around. His eyes light up when I say I too am from Melbourne's outer south east.
The eyes never lose the sparkle as he talks to me through the window of the car, parked as I am in the middle of the road. This is Queensland, and traffic is fairly non existent around here.
I see him take his daily constitutional every day and he kindly brings in the bins as well when they are out on the grassy verge. He is still tall and his posture is ramrod straight, this ex grocer from Lyndhurst. He shares a double story house with his wife who is as elderly as he, though she seems more spry.
She seems to dart rather than walk. Their kids are all grown up and gone. The kids think they should move into the bottom of the house but they defy that, for now.
I love the ageless. I love the way this mans eyes light up at female company, any female company, my Dad was the same. Didn't matter if they were 1 to 100, Dad's eyes would always light up when a female entered the room. He genuinely loved females my Dad and for that fact alone I was very blessed.
This older man is the same, probably has daughters and grand daughters and great great. We enjoy our little tete a tete in the middle of the road in the Queensland sun where he has come to retire, 30 years ago..
I wonder if he thought he would last this long. I wonder how it feels to be him, does he plan for the future or just live day by day? I wonder what it's like to be him, wearing hearing aids and knees a bit stiff in the mornings, when the mornings are cold like they are now. The ill winds of chill always blow at this time of the year. Round about "Ecca" time in Brisbane. They blow for three weeks and disappear.
Then the long slow amble back towards the hotter days again as Queensland slips into Spring. Queensland is nothing like the Southern States where a marked change in season is felt. Here, there is only Winter and Summer and honestly if you didn't know better, winter slips right by you altogether. The leaves don't turn brown, orange, gold and shed. They seem to stay the same all year round. The foliage is always healthy and growing.
There are some cold mornings but nothing to whimper about. Some cold nights but not that bad either. There can be rainy days when a heavy pour comes but even they aren't that bad. I've noticed Queenslanders are a stoic lot anyway. Weather is not a big point of discussion like it is in Melbourne. Everybody in Melbourne waits for the weekend and its more than likely to be crap weather. So it is along with house prices a bit point of discussion.
When you get a great weekend in Melbourne its a high point in your life. Not like here where its common place and no one except us Southerners exclaim at it's beautiful warmth. I guess I'll retire here when I am starting to feel the cold seeping into old bones. Hopefully I too will still have a twinkle in my eye when I see a male personage, no matter what the age.
And I won't be the one facing the crossroads then, just like Keith next door is not facing one in his. For him it's enough to wake up to just one more precious sunlit day, walk the road up and down and yarn to me about all things inconsequential and yet to him, so much.
Love Janette
The Daughter
I am in my fifties and am facing the "Crossroads" again. You have to love that whatever the age you are there will always be Crossroads. I can do one of three things. I can earn myself some good money and go back to Purchasing in Automotive in Melbourne, I can sell my script to the highest bidder and I can open up my own web site and counsel other women like me for money.
So many choices. As I speak one daughter is packing up her life in Melbourne, more than willing to jump and when I return I will help her drive her and the kids here and settle her in for 3 months or so. Then I can return to Melbourne and do what I want knowing she is happy. That's one plan and that's easy. I've driven more times to Queensland than I care to remember and it's 24 hours out of your life, basically.
I once did it in Cedric, my old station wagon, the screw came out of the Drive handle and I stuck a big nail in it about 50 kms out of Melbourne. I had my Grandson in the car who had his learners and I thought he might be able to spell me when I was tired at night. He fell asleep and I just kept driving. 1,300 miles later, the car and he and I made it but not without some teeth gnashing from me.
That is one big long lonely boring trip and believe it or not, you do have to watch out for kangaroos. But then they have bounded across the road at The Police Paddocks in Melbourne, scaring the life out of me there in the suburbs. It's just an endless trip through the back of New South Wales where garages are few and far between and are staffed by tired faded people that look like they were last seen playing duelling banjos in Deliverance.
Yesterday I was contemplating my crossroads when I saw the man next door to my brother's house. He's in his 90's, wears hearing aids, walks stiffly and is covered in liver spots on his face. But when you look in his eyes, as I did when we had a chat, he is ageless.
He had a store once at Lyndhurst in Melbourne, long before it was the pricier suburb of Lynbrook that it is now. I remember it, his shop, only building for miles around. His eyes light up when I say I too am from Melbourne's outer south east.
The eyes never lose the sparkle as he talks to me through the window of the car, parked as I am in the middle of the road. This is Queensland, and traffic is fairly non existent around here.
I see him take his daily constitutional every day and he kindly brings in the bins as well when they are out on the grassy verge. He is still tall and his posture is ramrod straight, this ex grocer from Lyndhurst. He shares a double story house with his wife who is as elderly as he, though she seems more spry.
She seems to dart rather than walk. Their kids are all grown up and gone. The kids think they should move into the bottom of the house but they defy that, for now.
I love the ageless. I love the way this mans eyes light up at female company, any female company, my Dad was the same. Didn't matter if they were 1 to 100, Dad's eyes would always light up when a female entered the room. He genuinely loved females my Dad and for that fact alone I was very blessed.
This older man is the same, probably has daughters and grand daughters and great great. We enjoy our little tete a tete in the middle of the road in the Queensland sun where he has come to retire, 30 years ago..
I wonder if he thought he would last this long. I wonder how it feels to be him, does he plan for the future or just live day by day? I wonder what it's like to be him, wearing hearing aids and knees a bit stiff in the mornings, when the mornings are cold like they are now. The ill winds of chill always blow at this time of the year. Round about "Ecca" time in Brisbane. They blow for three weeks and disappear.
Then the long slow amble back towards the hotter days again as Queensland slips into Spring. Queensland is nothing like the Southern States where a marked change in season is felt. Here, there is only Winter and Summer and honestly if you didn't know better, winter slips right by you altogether. The leaves don't turn brown, orange, gold and shed. They seem to stay the same all year round. The foliage is always healthy and growing.
There are some cold mornings but nothing to whimper about. Some cold nights but not that bad either. There can be rainy days when a heavy pour comes but even they aren't that bad. I've noticed Queenslanders are a stoic lot anyway. Weather is not a big point of discussion like it is in Melbourne. Everybody in Melbourne waits for the weekend and its more than likely to be crap weather. So it is along with house prices a bit point of discussion.
When you get a great weekend in Melbourne its a high point in your life. Not like here where its common place and no one except us Southerners exclaim at it's beautiful warmth. I guess I'll retire here when I am starting to feel the cold seeping into old bones. Hopefully I too will still have a twinkle in my eye when I see a male personage, no matter what the age.
And I won't be the one facing the crossroads then, just like Keith next door is not facing one in his. For him it's enough to wake up to just one more precious sunlit day, walk the road up and down and yarn to me about all things inconsequential and yet to him, so much.
Love Janette
