It was meant to be the family weekend of a lifetime. Finally, everyone was going to be together, not in a rushed fashion, but for three days. Together enjoying the fresh air and countryside, with not a worry in the world except for how hot the chicken is! Bliss. My family has all become incredibly distracted over the last few years, distant. The only time we ever see each together is at a rushed dinner that was thrown together last minute, or at some large event where we exchange words at the buffet. I had the idea a few months back to plan a country getaway for all of us to reconnect.
After months of rigorous planning I finally had everything sorted; everyone was coming, all the cottages were booked. I had even planned entertainment for the kids. At 9 am the morning before we are all supposed to depart I get a call from my eldest brother. His son, Joe, wasn’t feeling too well and they weren’t sure they could come. I pretty much scream at him that unless Joe needs to be hospitalised they were coming. I had packed medical supplies and there were comfy beds for him to sleep on. My brother relented and agreed to come. I thought all was going to plan until I got a call from my Mum.
She has an arborist coming because they needed urgent tree attention and she couldn’t possibly arrange to have her stump removal in Melbourne done at any other time. I told her that it was unacceptable. I had spent too much time and money on this trip to have her blow it off because of a hazardous stump in her garden. I hadn’t had a conclusive answer from her. So the next morning I woke up raring to go and got a call from a tree felling company based in Melbourne who wanted to know when it would be best to remove my mother’s tree stump. I told them I could would pay them double if they did the tree removal that afternoon. They declined my generous offer but were there that very day.
House parties are