Walking?...Walking?...On what? Surely you have to take the car?

Yesterday morning I woke up and found that we were out of fresh fruit and veggies in the house. As Andy had taken the car to work I couldn't take the car and go to the supermarket so I decided to see what I could do without a car. After a bit of research I found that I had two options. Either walk up to the Stop and Shop that we normally go to, about 1.8 miles there and 1.8 miles back, or catch a bus to the Shaw's supermarket a bit further away. As I hate trying to catch buses with the stroller, I figured that if I caught the bus Lexie would have to be in the wrap then anything I purchased I would have to carry by hand, that didn't sound like a great idea so I decided to put Lexie in the stroller and walk to the stop and shop. It actually turned out to be an easy walk, about 30 mins, nice and flat all the way, with a good foot path, however just when I thought it was all going well we hit a snag......At the junction of Taunton street and Highway 1, within view of my goal, the footpath stopped. I had no way of getting across the highway and even if I did there was no where to walk on the other side. I managed to run across the highway without too many problems (avoiding the policeman on the corner as I wasn't too sure what their laws on Jay walking are), but then I had a real problem, on the road leading to the supermarket there was absolutely no where to walk, no shoulder of the road, no verge nothing so I ended up just running down the road when no cars were coming....really safe. I just don't understand, they all complain about how terrible the petrol prices are, yet they make it impossible not to use a car....I was so annoyed. When it came time to go home I decided that the safest way to navigate the area was just to get to the island in the middle of the road and walk down that. I got quite a few weird looks, but hey! what can you do. But it looks like I wont be able to try that again. Next time I'll try the bus to Shaws..... On the other hand their supermarkets have implemented this new system which makes it much easier for me to shop with a Lexie in tow. It's calle Easy shop. As you walk into the store you swipe your savings card then it allows you to pick up a hand held scanner. You grab some bags then as you go around the shop you scan your item then put it straight into a bag. Totally eliminates the need to go through the checkout. Once you have all you want you can go to the self service check out , scan end of shop and pay as you would normally. I'm still not sure how they stop people form shop lifting, they do do random checks but it would be so easy to shop lift if you wanted to. But for me it eliminates that whole having to get everything out of the cart, then packed into bags and back into the cart whilst having a big lump strapped to my chest. On another note, it seems that Lexie has picked up a cold. Nothing serious, just a nice runny nose, a little cough and extra tiredness. Shes doing lots of "creaking" but other than that it doesn't seem to be bothering her too much. Hopefully it stays that way. Its a long weekend here this weekend, Andy has taken a couple of extra days off as well so we have a nice 5 days of relaxing in front of us (assuming Lexie lets us of course). Hi all, just want to add a little extra. Thanks to an Aussie friend who was visiting here, we got a "care package" from Australia. Tim Tams, Jaffas and Minties. Yum! But still no Bundy Rum. You can't get it imported. Full stop! Someone has to carry it across with them (duty free). It's available in Canada from a few places, but not here. And we can't import it from there either. So if anyone plans to come and visit...BUNDY RUM PLEASE!!! We've found a site that supplies all Aussie products for prices that are really quite cheap. And they ship anywhere within 24 hours. Vegemite is freely available so my advice for any visitors planning to visit us is... don't waste valuable luggage space by packing it. Save the space for something good. And I'm still trying to get my head around maple syrup-flavoured peanut butter. A disturbing mix but it tastes great! On another note, we've been advised that the swimming pool in our complex closes September 1 for the season. It's still usable (if it remained open) but the temperatures here are getting distinctly cooler, so pool-use is definitely dropping off. I remember being in Dallas in October and wanting to go for a swim after days of 35C temperatures, only to find the pool there had been closed for the season. That was a stupid move-pools in that part of the world are still usable right into November! Anyway "don't mess with Texas" is what I've been told and I plan to follow that. I'm currently writing a letter to the Texan people to apologise for the comments I just made in this blog, in the interests of international detente. I'll let you know how that pans out.