(In the tune of Alice Cooper’s Famous Song) School’s Out for Two Weeks!

Today (Monday, July 07, 2008) marks one of Australia’s school holiday breaks. Life here changes drastically during this time. All prices on travel multiply at a fast rate. Car commuters enjoy their drive to work. City Rail commuters struggle to find seats on the trains. I don’t know why but not only is there an enormous increase of children and mums roaming the city, but the elderly as well. It’s like we are in a different country all over again. I ventured out today for groceries. I think after today I will stick to ordering them online unless it is one or two items. It can be quite difficult just to complete a list of five to seven things without a cart, without friendly fellow customers, and without Scott. Today I was surprised when a young teenager came over to ask a question - an American who needed help finding what snacks were good. I felt so bad for this girl. Before I knew it, I transformed into the 10 year old Australian, Katrina, as I fired away question after question. These California natives would be in town for the week attending the Hillsong Conference. Hoping that anyone from her eight member family standing close by would join into the conversation, I was quickly disappointed. They were not friendly at all. They actually blended right in to everyone’s mood in the store. The cashier was very helpful and patient with us – even when I said “shhhh!” in her direction. Morgan was talking to me while I was paying the bill, the same time the cashier was talking to me. I thought for sure there was going to be an international incident! But she realized I was talking to my chatty daughter. I managed to get home 2 two liters of water, 2 two liters of diet lemon drink, 1 two liter of Diet Coke (which by the way – a 16 oz is $2.99 where a 2 litter is $3.01! Drives me crazy when I order Diet Coke at restaurants. They charge the same price!), 1 litter of milk, bagels, jam, peanut butter, and eggs without spilling, breaking or cracking an item. And remember the elderly… never have we ever had to wait for the lift. As we got off the train, it felt almost like a zombie movie. OK, I don’t mean ANY disrespect for the elderly, but it was kind of creepy as I looked around to see slow-moving people surrounding us in all directions, pushing us to get to the lift. To please the Zombie mob, I decide to sit out until all of them had made it down the lift. You know what though, almost each one of them said thank you for that. We didn’t have anywhere to go, and it’s important to teach children to respect their zombies, oops I mean elders. ;-)