Jiggedy Jig

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig.

After a morning of playing hide n seek with Chicklet, it was then time to leave.

The Bare-chested Chef and I took Vegan Chickie and Chicklet to the bakery, where we said our goodbyes and then he and I drove to Cooroy, where he dropped me off with my luggage and I spent a very pleasant morning browsing and shopping and savouring a delicious fresh juice made with beetroot, celery, cucumber, spinach, apple and ginger. I also bought some fresh fruit to munch on. The red grapes were divine!

When I made my way to the train station, there was, just like my last trip, a large group of young people waiting for the train.

They were part of an adventure tour and were heading to Rockhampton, where they would disembark and travel further north. This is information that I caught by listening to snippets of conversations. All of them had back packs and other assorted travel bags, which covered a large area of the platform.

One of the girls was sitting beside me on a bench seat and asked if I had a pen that she could borrow. As I searched through my handbag for a pen, she pulled out a beautiful leather bound journal. She expressed overwhelming gratitude when I handed her a pen, explaining that she had lost her pen at the last place where the group stayed.

She had a Canadian accent and it was obvious that she was keeping a journal of her travels in Australia, so I told her to keep the pen. Again, she expressed her gratitude and I know, without a doubt, that my pen went to a good home!

A second group of young people arrived at the station, but without a leader. They had been told that the train arrived at 1.40pm, so half of them walked across the road to get food. By this time it was 12.40pm and train was actually due at 12.58pm. So there was a mad scramble to get them back to the station.

The second group had no idea where they were even going, so the leader of the first group decided to take charge, made some phone calls to Queensland Rail and found out how many there should be in the group and what their destination was.

By the time the train pulled into the station, she had everything under control. She was a high energy kind of girl, not that much older than the people in both groups and she was loud! With 35 young people in their late teens to organise, I guess she had to be loud.

I had a seat to myself on the train and I attempted to read one of my new books, but I just couldn't get into it, so I was a sticky beak and watched and listened to an older woman talking to a younger man about her tattoos.

She may have been a professional tattoo artist because she was scrolling through her phone and showing him photo after photo of tattoos. It seems her favourites were the eagles and she talked about taking pride in the feather detail.

Other than that, even though it was quite full, my carriage was very quiet. I decided to listen to the radio for the remainder of the trip.

The train was running about twenty minutes late, but Adoring Husband was there waiting. It's always so good to see his face when I step onto the station platform at my destination.

The psychotic dogs were happy to see me and I was happy to be home.

I'm looking forward to seeing the girls for morning tea tomorrow. I might even get to bed at a reasonable hour!

Nite all.