This is Life

I went to lunch, rather unexpectedly at a very posh restaurant a few years back, my companion was paying and she’d asked me to choose a restaurant I’d like to go to – “Choose an expensive one”. She said.
I chose the Bathers’ Pavillion completely unaware of just how expensive it was.
Rather than make a deal out of it in the course of the meal, on the way out I apologised rather ashamedly, that I’d never have suggested it if I’d realised that it was going to cost quite so much. And her reply to me was something along the lines of.
“Life is the sum total of your experiences. It isn’t how much you spend, it was worth it to have the experience.”
I’ll never forget it, the experience itself or that she said this. It has really stuck with me.
I had one of those experiences this evening. I’d been browsing the events guide in June and noted that my best mate’s favourite musical was on. I gathered the details, suggested we go for her birthday.
And tonight we went.
The show was ‘Blood Brothers” which is not a lovely, happy clappy, romancy production. It’s a dark look at the English class system.
And it was playing in Newcastle. Which is about 150km from the Northern Beaches – (given the major urban factor of where we are, it’s conceivably a 2.20hour trip).
One Way.
Which wouldn’t be in the least bit crazy if I hadn’t just spent the last 3 days with one eye closed behind the viewfinder of the camera, photographing our latest ‘Big Thing’ or if I’d realised that this was the weekend daylight saving finished, effectively doing away with an hour of the already very short night’s sleep I was anticipating. Or if we’d booked a night in a motel to save the effort of driving all the way there and back for an evening… But there were kids to come home to, and I’ve got to hit the books again today… so, it was a flying trip up the freeway for us.
On the scale of crazy this probably doesn’t even really rate a 5… not as daft as dropping everything and driving 4 hours for a hamburger, or other things I may or may not have done as a teenager (I’m thinking about an alleged night of ledging around the War Memorial Museum in Auckland – nearly made it ALL the way round… but not quite).
And so, my life is richer for having shared this experience with Kirk. Getting onto the wrong roads for sheer distraction at the import of our own conversations, fortuitously getting there on time in spite of our complete lack of knowledge of the local area… Driving all the way back in the dark talking about the stuff girls talk about.
I’d do it again in a heartbeat… I’m all for adding to the experience of life… and not just letting it happen… so Shoe, if you’re reading this, get ready. We’re going to Dubbo for a weekend in November…