day tripper

It turns out it was no big deal after all. I guess I was taking it much too seriously. In the end, because of the massive storm that had rolled in from out of nowhere yesterday, we decided that the contact visit should take place at my house, because it's more hospitable than the house my dad almost finished building... So, Harley got to spend some quality time with his father and also met his two half-sisters, who were sweet little girls. My sister took me down to the boatshed cafe for the duration, where we had big cooked breakfasts and read the Sunday papers--in peace for once! now I get it!--and drank those famous "frothy coffees". It was lovely and cosy in this cafe on the water's edge, sitting at wooden bench tables and watching the lone rowboat flipping around out on the gray lake. The storm also blew in a few other recent seachangers who burst through the doors in rainslicked jackets and woollens, and as we all sat around chatting I felt again that strong sense of community that I never felt in Sydney.
The cafe hangs artwork by local artists and my sister embarrassed me by telling the owner that I paint and they harangued me to bring some paintings down. As I've mentioned before I love drawing, and think my nudes are okay, but I'm a terrible painter; every couple of years I buy a canvas and after admiring its blank beauty for a few weeks, ruin it with paint. I did one the other day and hid it in the spare room but my sister really liked it. Still, I may try taking the drawings down. You never know eh? They also had some windcheaters for sale, designed by a local company, but oddly they had no "house" teeshirt, so I thought I might try my hand at designing them one they can sell in the tourist seasons.
Anyway, back to just me and the kid now. And the storm still raging outside.