Note to self

I'm becoming my mother. That's not entirely a bad thing except in her twilight years she couldn't remember much of what happened 10 minutes ago. I will explain why this has me worried.

I went to get some groceries today, just a few, John started work this morning and we realized there was nothing in motel room for him to eat prior to his 7-5:30pm shift. I drove him to McDonald's (known here as Macca) to get a quick meal and then dropped him at the Bundaberg Base Hospital for his first day. (More on that when he gets home and can tell me what it was like.) So.....I decided to venture out to Woolworth's, which is a large grocery store chain here. I only managed 2 wrong turns and 2 u turns, which when everything is on the left isn't that easy. BUT, I did get there. I parked. I thought this was just a big grocery store like a Pick N Save but I was sorely wrong. This was a Big W, basically a mall with the grocery store being one of the anchors.

Proof 

So I parked the car and entered the mall. I did pay attention, or thought I had, to where I parked. I then thought, "I'll just walk around and see what this Big W mall is all about".  Everybody who knows me knows I love to shop and this was my first venture out alone checking out the goods. No great stores here, just a lot of them, and all kinds of hallways, and a Big W and a Woolworth's, and a food court or 2, and all kinds of shoe stores that looked alike, and discount this and that all blurring together and disorienting me to where I had entered. So I found the Woolworth and the groceries for which I had come to purchase. Here's some of the Australian super foods I found.

Yummmmmmmm (this is for Joe)

Anyway, 

It comes in different sizes, one for home and one for travel!

So I got the granola bars and apples for the good doctor and water and hair products for me and I headed out the door. I thought the car should be right there but it wasn't and the way I parked the car, you know straight or at an angle wasn't right. There was a covered carpark, which I knew wasn't right, and nothing looked familar to what I remembered. This was a Seinfeld episode with a dead fish at the end, I was really ready to panic as even the car wasn't one that I could pick out of a line up. Holy Moly, what if I can't find it? This is where my mom comes in....she had lived in Oak Park for 35 years and spent one very long afternoon (4 hours) trying to find her way back to her house. This was before cell phones and her pride wouldn't let her ask anyone. I guess I don't have any pride because after 15 minutes of walking in and out of doors, checking the photos I had taken, and generally reworking my path I could not find the darn thing and almost convinced myself it had been stolen. I even asked this sweet lady who worked at Woolworth or Big W, if there was a back entrance I could have used without noticing, she laughed, I wasn't the first American who had gotten lost there.

Thankfully there would be no dead fish at the end of this story as I walked down an aisle and saw this discount liquor store which I remembered thinking I should check out as I leave the mall. Yea! I found it, passed on the wine, thinking I didn't need to kill anymore brain cells and committed to doing crossword puzzles everyday to boost my memory. By the way, my mom's last day of driving by herself was that day. From now on I will take a picture of where the car is parked and have it as reference on the phone. Another day in Australia finding my way, I'll blog more about the driving soon. Lots of material there!