JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED

It's a lovely frosty morning here in Brisbane ( no, not literally frosty, we don't have that very often, probably somewhere around 11 or 12 degrees) - and I've been cuddled down under my lovely doona thinking.
You know how you just lie there and your mind wanders around in the fuzzy warmth, flitting from subject to subject in a meandering sort of way while you revel in just enjoying the morning with no pressure to leap up and DO things.
I've been contemplating how things can change.
One minute your life is just mooching along.
 Nothing much happening - housework, job, visiting friends, going out for meals, family dinners, gardening ...............
Then suddenly wham !

That's what it's been like here.
I guess with three parents over 90 it had to come  - and come it has!

First with Dad and his heart - happily that has all settled down for now . He's back to tootling along and enjoying his days at the Retirement Village with Mum and, for them, life is good.

But things have gone rapidly down hill with the other 91 year old and we've had a month of daily visits, doctors, multiple phone calls every day ( many of them at all hours of the day and night and very delusional ) all culminating in what will probably be a prolonged, unhappy stay in hospital while we wait for relocation to a Nursing Home ( head for the hills when THAT subject is broached !!).

The phone calls still come at all hours of the day and night  ( from the phone beside the bed !!!) and it is all very stressful to say the least.

So yesterday it was time for a break.
And the only way to do that was to leave town !
We flew to Sydney ( about 600 miles away) to visit (our son) Brett and Sarah for lunch.
We pretended they lived just on the other side of Brisbane and took ourselves off to have the day with them.
Lovely!
The weather was cool and sunny.
We grabbed breakfast at the airport

(the usual airport food !)

and arrived in Sydney at 10:30am to clear sunny weather and temperatures around 21 degrees C.
Lunch was late - too much chattering and playing with his dear little dogs ! - but delicious Thai which is our favourite.
It was a day for trying new things so we ordered soft shell crab for an entree. I'm not very good at eating whole animals. I prefer them cut up into pieces so that I am not reminded of the whole beast and I have never been able to eat things like a baby octopus, but today was the day.
It helped that the crab was covered in a very light batter which sort of blurred its shape ...
but I have to report it was  delish ! ( sorry no photos, we were too engrossed in the experience !)

After a lovely lunch we moved from the Thai restaurant to a place called Cheeky Chocolate across the way for coffee and dessert.

Are you loving the sound of this day?

Doesn't it sound like just the thing to do after a stressful month?

Now the place we went to - the Cheeky Chocolate - is a specialist dessert cafe run by a wonderful chef  (Adriano Zombo )  featured on Australian Masterchef two years ago.

This is heart attack territory folks.

 Sugar overload !! But what a way to go !

We tried another first  ....... macaroons! 

Yes there were 10 of them and 4 of us !
salted caramel, orange chocolate, raspberry chocolate, banana passionfruit
and just plain chocolate

salted caramel !!!!!

Oh lordy, lordy!

We had a lovely break.
The kids are great and life is going well for them.
It was delightful to spend a relaxing day with them and have a few laughs.

Back to the airport ( Sydney traffic is never ending ) , a few hot chips and a softdrink  ( thought we'd finish ourselves off with a dose of fat and salt !)  then back in Brisbane by 8:15pm.

A Lovely day !

The crazy phone calls started again at 8 o'clock this morning.
Hey -ho !