Home and Smiling

What a day!

The Bare-chested Chef drove Vegan Chickie, Chicklet and I to Tewantin, where we girls shuffled into Zabe Espresso Bar for our morning coffee and some breakfast.

This cafe is a bit retro/nostalgic where the decor is all mismatched furniture, old lounge chairs that look like they came straight from Grandma's house, old leather sofas, distressed timber tables, wireless sets and radiograms from the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, record players, timber cabinet stereo units and an old upright piano in the corner right in front of the window.

The numbers for the tables when you order are old 45 vinyl records in their covers. The walls are plastered with old news articles from every decade that you can imagine, one wall covered in different music sheets, while the floor is polished concrete.

We ordered coffee, a bacon and egg frittata for me and a reuben toasted sandwich for Vegan Chickie.

It was quite busy, so the only seats available for us were a couple of old two seater granny lounge chairs that were backed onto the music sheet wall and were separated by a small round timber table. It wasn't very conducive for chatting but was reasonably comfortable.

The coffee was DELICIOUS (just as it was the last time I was there) and the food was nice too, but I am unable to chew at the moment - having lost all of my back top teeth and the gums still stitched up.

Apparently, chewing with the front teeth covered in porcelain veneers is not an option - taking a bite is ok, but chewing is not, so I attempt to soften and mash my food with my tongue and the roof of my mouth. My food options are limited and it's quite possible that I will lose some weight over the next few weeks until my mouth is filled with usable teeth!

There was an elderly man sitting across from us who drew our attention to an even more elderly lady, who had just seated herself at the upright piano. He told us she was 94 years old and there she sat in a blue pants suit and a white crocheted beret with her granny trolley parked beside her.

Her first song was 'Keep Your Sunny Side Up' from way back in 1929 and almost immediately, my eyes filled with tears .. I have no idea why she affected me that way! Her next song was 'It Had to be You' and still I felt emotional.

She was so old and frail and hunched over that keyboard, yet her hands and fingers just glided over the keys so naturally.

I thought I remembered that there was a florist next door to the cafe, so as we left, I was relieved to see that I my memory hadn't failed me. I stepped inside and with Vegan Chickie's help selected the biggest brightest, sunniest yellow gerbera from the bucket. The woman behind the counter wrapped it in clear plastic and tied a bow around it and I returned to the cafe, waited til the old lady finished her song and then presented her with the gerbera.

I thanked her and told her that she played beautifully and that she had brought me such joy and had made my day (mind you, I said this fighting to hold back my tears!).

She was so pleasantly surprised and thanked me profusely, telling me that 'I' had made 'her' day. She told me that she almost hadn't made it there today because she had a terrible night of cramps in her legs. She said 'Lucky I don't need my legs to play the piano!'

We then walked across the road to a little boutique where Chicklet began to try on all the lady's shoes that were at her level. Vegan Chickie started to tell her to leave them alone, when I said "Leave her alone! That's MY girl!" (I'm passing on my shoe fetish!). Chicklet then piped up very loudly "Yeah Mama, leave me alone! I'm Bozzy Wozzy's girl!"

Every time she tried on a pair she would announce "These ones look good on me!"

So after a little retail therapy - read - buying Chicklet a thousand and one stickers from the cheapie shop - we headed up to the park that was being redesigned and constructed for three weeks, six weeks ago! It's still not ready!

We sat down at a picnic table and called the Bare-chested Chef to come pick us up.

There before us, slowly gathered a group of middle-aged people with musical instruments. Banjos, guitars, ukeleles etc setting up their music stands with iPads and soon they were all playing and singing together. There were about ten of them.

We gave them a round of applause at the end of their first song and them climbed into the car to head home.

The rest of the day was spent playing games with Chicklet, watching the 'Bolt' dvd, creating pictures with the newly acquired stickers.

The Bare-chested Chef drove me to the train station and kindly waited with me until the train arrived (5 minutes early!) and I had a very peaceful and relaxing trip home with only 5 of us in the end carriage.

Adoring Husband was waiting, as always, with open arms and now I am home safe n sound.

Boy, I sure fit a lot into three days. It's now 1am and I NEED to sleep!

Nite all.