Trolley confidential

I seem to do most of my socialising in the aisles of my local supermarket these days. It’s a heady whirl of smiles, waves and chats that add at least another 20 minutes to the trip. It can also result in being too distracted to ask for cash out at the check-out or forgetting some vital ingredient for dinner that night, but it’s a generally positive experience. It makes me feel like I’m part of a community. I belong. Prior to Sprog 1 starting kindergarten I’d decided my social circle had finished expanding. I divided my limited free time – after work and child-rearing duties – between old school friends, pals picked up from Husband and various work-associated buddies I’d collected over the years.School changed all that. Suddenly there were regular class dinners, soccer mums’ dinners, class playdates in the park … Fortunately, there were some very lovely people at these gatherings who I wanted to get to know better. There were moments after a few glasses of wine that I felt I might have let them get to know me a little too well too soon (I am a terrible gossip/blabbermouth/confessor when slightly smashed), but they seemed happy enough to see me when I next ran into them (although there was the daunting mandate to be as “hilarious” as I’d been last time around, gulp). Now, with supermarket catch-ups, school drop-off cups of tea, after-school playdates etc, I’m entering a whole new phase of intimacy with my school social circle. One that doesn’t leave much time for all the jobs I planned to accomplish around the house (those boxes of whatever-the-hell-is-up-there in the attic keep chiding me for my slackness). But I figure socialising myself and my kids can be first priority for a while. It might even lead to less Easter-Island-statue-like behaviour by Sprog 1 around her peers, while Sprog 2 may learn to be less bossy on playdates so kids feel less intimidated about returning … as for me, I’m hoping to develop friendships – and not just with the school mums – that aren’t just squeezed into a 2-3 hour catch-up every six months or so, or don’t rely on telling crazy stories to win people’s hearts.   

TONIGHT’S MENU: Sprog 2 won the “lottery” at school on Friday, which entailed a bag of produce from the school veggie patch, so I’m turning the proceeds into a roast chook stuffed with lemon, olives & herbs, with some creamed silverbeet on the side. Better go and stuff the lemon wedges up its butt now (forgive me Henny Penny, Fluffy, Nibbles & Pecky …)