I live in a 'major regional city'. Which means you're often no more than 20 minutes from virtually anywhere you need to go to. That you can drive the kids to school and day care and be sitting at your work desk within 30 minutes. That you regularly bump into people you know when you're shopping at Coles.
Last year I was dreading bumping into the woman my ex basically left me for. I made certain decisions about places not to go to, people not to talk to, in order to minimise this risk.
But in all this time, up until today, I've only bumped into her once. It was so fleeting I almost missed it, except for catching one of her children having a full meltdown in public.
Today I was in Coles, with a trolley holding too much shopping given my online grocery shop the day before, with my youngest sitting in the toddler seat, my middle child standing up in the front of the trolley like a captain at sea, and my eldest pushing the the whole shebang. It was a rare moment of calm and perfection.
And then, I turned, saw her amongst the apples and encouraged my children to say hi to her and her kids.
She walked up to me, and we chatted, all smiles. I have never known an adult mouth to hold as many teeth as hers. It was civil, superficial, and all about the kids. We discussed paper planes and the challenges of shopping with children.
And that's why you never leave the house looking shabby, for you never know who you'll bump into!
