The lethal 'unplanned' stop at the shops!

So today was my first test….a shopping trip and not just any shopping expedition but the lethal ‘unplanned’ stop at the shops! Uno, the ones where you have no specific reason to be at the shops but nether the less find yourself there!  Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

A little background info to set the scene………..

I live in a small regional community in Western Australia with a population of around 800 people. Shopping here is restricted to:

·   a limited grocery store

·   a post office

·   a farm supply shop

·   a road houses (that sells the standard Bay Marie delights, white bread sangers and a few essential goods such as bread, milk and 2 minute noodles)

....and aside from the tourist info centre and pub this is the extend of my down town reality! Woohoo!

96km away, on the coast is Geraldton, a small regional city with all the fruit, several large shopping complex’s with most of the big stores and delightful little shops housing all sort of divine shinny new things!

…..and the ‘unplanned stop at the shops’, you might well be asking how is this possible when the shops are an hours drive away. Well, I’m a volunteer Ambulance officer, yes I know, a foreign theory for those of you not living in WA but the St John’s Ambulance - Country Ambulance Service is serviced by volunteers (http://www.ambulance.net.au/content.asp?id=114) , which means I’m often find myself in Geraldton delivering patients to the Regional hospital…and as these call outs generally take around 4 hours, a meal/coffee is generally on the cards….but more often than not one of us will need something at one of the many little buildings sheltering all those divine shinny new things. 

I was hoping only to grab a few fresh groceries but my colleague wants to go to Bunning’s (oh how I love thee sweet Bunning’s, lovely wide isles bursting at the brim with cool hardware equipment and materials to make things, truly an artists haven),….… I stay in the Van!

Right now I’m grateful for air-conditioned vehicles and the distraction of texting!

…and so, we get to the shopping centre and as I glide (well its not really a glide, more a stop/start robot type motion, looking like something from an 80’s blue light disco scene) past the Sanity store sporting masses of DVD’s on Sale, I head to the supermarket and hope that there are not too many sexy un-needed specials waiting to tempt me!

I'm grateful for good humored colleagues! 

(thanks for keeping me laughing Lorraine!)

I'm grateful for a smile found in a time of extreme suffering.

 (You are brave and beautiful!)