December [week 3]
Laura & Mark - 13th December 1999
Laura was up bright and early again this morning and by seven o'clock she was putting stock out in the shop. Despite being tired, the nice memories of the weekend filled her head and chased out all thoughts of sleep, so the day passed surprisingly quickly. At three o'clock she had finished already and was making her way down the street where she would wait at the traffic lights for Paul to pick her up.
Unfortunately, being very tired after all, the driving did not go all too well, and Paul advised (or ordered) her to get an early night. Laura replied that she'd love to, but they would be entertaining guests tonight and seeing a film, so perhaps another time.
We had asked Sarah to drop by any time between half past six and seven o'clock, and we would be eating chilli con carne. Sarah was very impressed when we'd told her that we could cook, and she especially loved the name "Chilli Con Carne". She'd never had it and thinking it would be fun, agreed to let us cook it for her. Ben and his girlfriend would come after we had finished eating and would join us to go to the cinema.
Sarah called a little while before coming over to ask if two of her friends could join us, and as there was plenty to eat, we were happy to have more people. Sarah really enjoyed the meal (or so she told us), and although one of her friends was vegetarian (oops, "con carne" is not a good sign then), her other friend did try some too. Ben and Amanda (his girlfriend) came in just as we were finishing, but before we headed off, we tucked into the pudding Sarah had brought: chocolate something (it was lovely, it was a frozen version of a lovely chocolate mousse with biscuit base pudding that Laura's mum makes).
We left the dishes in the hope that the ants would take the hint and wash them up for us, and went off to the cars. We would actually be driven to Marion shopping centre which felt like real luxury. But then we did choose to go in Ben's car which contains more rubbish than our bin at the flat, so the luxury faded a little. At least it was free.
We arrived at Marion in what seemed like minutes (the bus route contains far too many detours), and went up to the cinema to choose a film. We chose unanimously to see Mickey Blue Eyes (well, unanimously except for Ben), and bought tickets. As there were still a few minutes before the film would start we went to the amusement centre and played a few games of pinball.
When we went into the hall where the film would be shown (one of the thirty that Marion had to offer), Mark and Laura headed straight for the front row as usual. After a little reluctance everyone else followed, but once the film had started they were all quite pleased with he effect of sitting so close.
Hugh Grant was irritating as usual, but the script was pretty good, and we were definitely entertained. Only Ben and his girlfriend were really non-plussed by it. They got up immediately with the credits and mumbled something unpleasant to each other. We listened to their complaints on the way out of the cinema, but never mind as the rest of us had enjoyed it.
Despite conflicting opinions of the film itself, we all agreed that it had been fun and Mark and Laura vowed to do it again sometime.
We whizzed home in Ben's car again and were in bed a little after Paul would have liked, but early enough for us.
Laura & Mark - 14th December 1999
Today is another of those days that just passes without you really taking much notice. We both went to work, we both came home, ate, played cards and went to sleep. That isn't something we remember vividly, it's just something that we did. It's one of those days that you need in between the busy days in order to prepare you're mind and body for more excitement.
So we'll move on to concentrate on days when that excitement takes over.
Laura & Mark - 15th December 1999
What we may have forgotten to mention is that we had another encounter with the strange Dutch businessman (the one we met the day we went to the play). We ran into him again a few days ago now in the food court while we were having our lunch. He talked at us again while we continued to eat our lunch. At the end of the "conversation" as Mark and Laura made their escape, he called them back and asked if we were interested in doing some baby-sitting for his children who would be arriving later in the week. Mark wrote our phone number down for him and we went back to Cheap as Chips before we were held up any longer.
Well, yesterday Mark had a phonecall, and it turned out that this Dutch man needed a babysitter for tonight, so Mark accepted the job. He would go up to the man's house at around 19.00 and would stay for 3 and a half hours.
So as Mark would be dashing off almost immediately after Laura got home, we arranged that he would cook a pizza in time for us to eat together still. Laura got home after doing another 07.00 - 15.30 shift and a driving lesson and was completely exhausted. They ate the pizza together and as Mark went off to catch a bus, Laura settled down to watch a little TV and write her Christmas cards.
When Mark arrived at the man's house, the three kids that he had to babysit for were waiting for him in the lounge. He was introduced to them and then the parents went off to enjoy their night out (after tucking the youngest child into bed). The two other children showed Mark their coin collections and talked about their lives. At 20.00 they went to bed too and Mark started to write the commentary on the back of the photos they'd had developed. At about 21.00 the youngest started making lots of noise, so Mark went to check on him. The boy couldn't sleep so Mark read him a couple of stories and sang him some Sinterklaas songs. This made him tired quickly and he went to sleep.
It was already about ten o'clock by this time, and so the parents would be coming home soon. At twenty to eleven they came back and gave Mark the $30 for his singing and story-telling.
Mark ran to catch a bus home, but still just missed it. So he walked all the way into the centre of town, where he caught a tram home.
By the time he got home at 23.30, Laura had already been asleep for 3 hours, and so Mark went to bed too.
Laura & Mark - 16th December 1999
Mark and Laura enjoyed another ordinary working day today, and another lazy, relaxing evening.
Laura & Mark - 17th December 1999
It's finally reached the last day in the 11 long days of work for Laura. She whistled as she worked and smiled to all the customers (many of which thought she was crazy for exactly that reason), and when it came to the end of the day, did she rush home? NO. Laura stayed in the shop for another twenty minutes and helped to pack things on register 2 while she chatted to Sarah. People thought she was even crazier at this point, as she was no longer wearing her tell-tale Cheap as Chips shirt while she wrapped glassware in newspaper, and put things in bags. During this time, Laura and Sarah managed to finalise the plans for the following day: Beach volleyball and Lasagne.
In the meantime, Mark too was hard at work, and when we both got home this evening we were well and truly exhausted. Should we have an early night then? NO. BECAUSE ITS WEEKEND!
Laura & Mark - 18th December 1999
Laura got up for her driving lesson at 8.00am this morning, while
Mark slept on a little. Before she got back though he was up and out of bed, ready to hear how it had gone. It hadn't been the best lesson, or the worst and there were only 2 more lessons to go before the test, so Laura was getting a little worried. Mark went off to work for a few hours, and Laura went to catch up on her e-mail correspondence and the internet diary. She then had to do some shopping and buy some food for the evening's festivities. She bought a bottle of wine, some French bread and the missing ingredients for the lasagne she had yet to make. She then hurried home as there was tidying and cleaning to do too. When she got there, Mark was waiting for her, having come home early from work to help her with the cleaning. We washed up, tidied up the mess and Laura made a lasagne to put in the fridge for cooking later. Then we relaxed as we waited for our guests to arrive.
At 17.45 Sarah and her friend came to our door, and we went down to the beach with the volleyball to meet two other friends of hers for some sport. We played for about an hour before fetching the bodyboards and a tennis ball to take into the sea with us. By this point it was beginning to cool down, and so we only stayed in the water for just under an hour before rushing back to the motel to cook dinner. We put the oven on and chatted (with people having a quick shower in between), while we waited for the lasagne to cook. When it was ready, we opened the wine and we feasted. It was all very tasty (even our guests agreed), and we chatted for a long time afterwards. Then they all reluctantly decided that they had better go, as they'd promised another friend that they would go and see her tonight still. Mark and Laura were left alone to relax and play some games, both of us looking forward to a real lie-in tomorrow.
Laura & Mark - 19th December 1999
We woke up late this morning, but not as late as we had expected considering it was the first lie-in  for about 3 weeks. We were up and having breakfast by 11.00. We made pancakes as we had run out of bread (and we felt like pancakes), and we ate them while we watched one of the more original TV versions of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas carol". At this point we decided not to bother doing anything today as we both needed to laze around for a while. We went to the internet centre and sent some electronic Christmas cards (for an hour!) before we swung by the supermarket on the way home. We only really had to buy bread and a little basic food, but the trolley was loaded with all sorts of delights by the time we were finished.
We got home (as planned) just in time for The Flintstones' "A Christmas carol" and sat down to watch it and play cards. We then watched a couple of Christmas episodes of Home Improvement, after which we felt so festive that we went to the beach. We played a couple of games of pinball in Magic Mountain, before walking along the foreshore to the square by the jetty. Here we decided to try a new site of interest: another amusement arcade, where we immediately became addicted to the pinball version of "Demolition Man".
This evening we decided not to go all the way into town for Adelaide's main Carols By Candlelight concert, and instead we ate our dinner in front of "The Santa Claus". We also chatted to our parents for a long time, another long-awaited indulgence. Then it was time for bed already, as tomorrow was a working day.