My recent car-related behaviour makes me think that I need to change my ways.
Last month I took Ivy to Hobart for the weekend, to visit Chloe & family, and to be an only child for a little while. It was her first time on a plane, Chloe has two big boys and a baby plus a trampoline, and Ivy slept in a little cute bed-let on the floor that Chloe compiled for her, complete with tiny felt chickens and a Maisy doll. So it was a brilliant weekend. We had a lovely time, and then we arrived back at Tullamarine.
On our way in, we'd been running just a little bit late. I'd parked the car in the long-term area, and then we hooned over to the bus stop. An orange bus came to take us to the terminal, and our weekend started.
On the way back, it was not so easy. The flight was fine, but as we came out of the glass doors, the bus left. We had to wait for ages for the next one. As we waited, I slowly slowly realised that I could not remember which bus stop we had parked near.
It's a big carpark.
It was about 6:30pm when a bus finally came and took us to the carpark. I was deliberately trying not to think about the car's location, hoping it would shimmer up from the green depths of my stagnent pool of a mind.
I remembered the path we had taken from the car to the bus stop. If I found the right stop, I could easily navigate to the car. But which stop?
I picked stop E, because it had seemed like a long trip from the stop to the terminal. We got off, and Ivy took my hand. She was pretty tired. I had a little wheely suitcase with a long handle, and we commenced to search.
The car was not near E. I put Ivy on my back, and we searched near F. No car. I moved Ivy to my left side.
Had we really parked this far down? The car was not near G. Shifted Ivy onto my back again.
We totally did not park around here. I searched around H just in case. Made Ivy walk for a bit.
Then we searched around G again, and F again, and E again, then D again.
We'd been looking for 45 minutes, so I went into a bus stop and rang the emergency number. A man would be able to come out and help me in another 45 minutes, Right now he was doing a census of cars, and could not come. I said I'd call again if I needed him.
We kept looking. Ivy said "Mummy, my legs hurt. I'm tired."
Trudi rang to see what was going on. She'd expected us to be home an hour ago. I confessed. She said she was going to get Hazel out of bed and come get Ivy, and leave me to search. I said I would look for a bit longer, but yes let's do that if I get no results soon.
As we talked, I saw an abandoned luggage trolley. Joy! I piled the flippan tiny suitcase onto it, and balanced Ivy on the top, and off we went. So much easier. Look around D again. No car of mine here.
I was sure it was no use, but by now we were quite close to C, so we did a quick check.. and there it was! Got in the car, phoned home, drove, Ivy fell asleep in the car, put her to bed at home with no trouble, all's well that ends well.
Next time, I will write the bus stop letter on the parking card.
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