Monday, July 12, 2004
Absent Friends
Well a typical over-statement from me. It's been almost a whole week without a post - is it a record? I can't be arsed checking. Probably not. I'm not one for record breaking. Unless of course it was the time my sister and I wanted to play at wild child antics and smashed up a very unwanted classics LP.
The fun didn't stop there. Once we played at mountain climbers. I tied a rope from my waist to hers and set off to climb up and over a four foot retaining wall in our garden, using a tree stump as our first stop - unfortunately even this minor height proved too much for my younger sibling who decided to return to base camp. It was at this point I realised my folly of tying us too close together and she, in her retreat, took me down with her. Onto the Cactus plant. I was still pulling out cactus needles months later.
I wasn't a very graceful child, I'm not a very graceful adult. You would think being on the right side of 5 foot 6 inches I might have been blessed with an elegant gait but I trip over my own shadow and can't walk down stairs without hanging on very carefully to the railings. Stubbed toes and grazed knees were the fashionable accessory to my youth.
I was however a sneaky child and once convinced my sister to eat laxatives by telling her they were imported Swedish chocolates. I even ate some too, cunningly hiding them under my tongue. My best friend and I used to 'fake' seances for her also. By this stage however, she was onto us and let us pretend we were really being mediums.
Of course it wasn't all me being the horrid older sister. My penance was that I had to take her with me wherever I went. "Mum, I'm going out" was invariably followed by "Take your sister with you". It's no wonder we turned to hijinks and trickery for entertainment.
I remember long hot summers riding around with my friends on our bicycles along newly built roads. No houses mind, just bushland. We'd build cubbyhouses and forts and have gangs and hide precious things. We'd walk to the beach after school and someone's parents would collect us. We'd have fancy dress parties for no good reason. Dressing up and eating sweets and icecream. And I remember it was hot. It will be the thing I recall most vividly; the sound of the summer, the dry grass, the crickets, the way you could see the heat eminating from every surface.
Why this nostalga trip - who knows? I logged on to fill you in my previous week and instead i've gone back 20 years. Dear God Alive. How did I get old enough to have recollections that go back so far.
Perhaps in my delusions of grandeur this is the first stage of my autobiography. Adriana: The Early Years.
Stay tuned, tears, tantrums and teenage angst coming soon.
The fun didn't stop there. Once we played at mountain climbers. I tied a rope from my waist to hers and set off to climb up and over a four foot retaining wall in our garden, using a tree stump as our first stop - unfortunately even this minor height proved too much for my younger sibling who decided to return to base camp. It was at this point I realised my folly of tying us too close together and she, in her retreat, took me down with her. Onto the Cactus plant. I was still pulling out cactus needles months later.
I wasn't a very graceful child, I'm not a very graceful adult. You would think being on the right side of 5 foot 6 inches I might have been blessed with an elegant gait but I trip over my own shadow and can't walk down stairs without hanging on very carefully to the railings. Stubbed toes and grazed knees were the fashionable accessory to my youth.
I was however a sneaky child and once convinced my sister to eat laxatives by telling her they were imported Swedish chocolates. I even ate some too, cunningly hiding them under my tongue. My best friend and I used to 'fake' seances for her also. By this stage however, she was onto us and let us pretend we were really being mediums.
Of course it wasn't all me being the horrid older sister. My penance was that I had to take her with me wherever I went. "Mum, I'm going out" was invariably followed by "Take your sister with you". It's no wonder we turned to hijinks and trickery for entertainment.
I remember long hot summers riding around with my friends on our bicycles along newly built roads. No houses mind, just bushland. We'd build cubbyhouses and forts and have gangs and hide precious things. We'd walk to the beach after school and someone's parents would collect us. We'd have fancy dress parties for no good reason. Dressing up and eating sweets and icecream. And I remember it was hot. It will be the thing I recall most vividly; the sound of the summer, the dry grass, the crickets, the way you could see the heat eminating from every surface.
Why this nostalga trip - who knows? I logged on to fill you in my previous week and instead i've gone back 20 years. Dear God Alive. How did I get old enough to have recollections that go back so far.
Perhaps in my delusions of grandeur this is the first stage of my autobiography. Adriana: The Early Years.
Stay tuned, tears, tantrums and teenage angst coming soon.
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