Driving Miss Dulcie IV.

The beginning of a new month means another trip to the Doctors to pick up prescriptions.  The appointment was 9.40 am. Dulcie was up and ready by 8.15 am.I was pretty organised this morning. I ‘skyped’ Lewis and Nathan before I got up and then put a load of washing on before heading off with Will to work. When I got back with the car I hung the washing out and put on another load and then ‘face-timed’ Josh and Helena before breakfast. Before we headed off to the doctors I hung out the second load of washing and put a third load in. I have become a Domestic God!We set off at 9.10.I always drive very carefully and when concentrating deeply I am not good at conversation.“There are a lot of bloody big trucks,’ she said. ‘Yes,’ I replied. There were.I nearly said ‘That’s the legal brothel’ as we passed it...but decided to keep quiet.‘It’s very green,’ she said. ‘Yes,’ I replied. It was.‘There are a lot of trees,’ she said. ‘Yes,’ I replied. There were.‘That’s the way we go to Aldi,’ she said as we drove past the turn. ‘Yes,’ I said. It was.We arrived at the doctors at 9.20.‘There are a lot of people about,’ she said as we negotiated the throng at the shopping precinct. ‘Yes,’ I said....I was still concentrating on leading her there carefully and carrying the batch of anzacs Dulcie had made for them at the surgery.I left her standing at the reception desk, Marie was talking on the phone and, following instructions, headed off to pay the water rates at the post office.When I got back Dulcie was sat waiting. I sat beside her and almost immediately Marie said,“Would you like to follow me Dulcie?” and off they went. It was 9.26, nearly 15 minutes before her real appointment time.I was disappointed to see there were no new posters on the wall and none of the magazines caught my eye. There was a mother standing in the waiting room holding her daughter in her arms. I tried not to notice the inch of flesh that bulged out above her skirt and below her t-shirt. I adjusted my own t-shirt self consciously.Marie returned from leading Dulcie into the consultation room and carried the tin of anzacs into the back. A moment later she was beside me saying,“I feel a bit embarrassed giving you this tin back. It’s as if we are asking you for more biscuits.”“Oh, she loves making you them,’ I said.“Yes, she is a treasure,” said Marie returning behind the desk.“She makes a good biscuit, “ I said.“Yes,” said Marie...she was concentrating on something else.‘I love rock and roll, put another dime in the juke box , baby. I love rock and roll, so come and take your time and dance with me.’It was the radio.The mother was dancing and singing along to her daughter. The inch of flesh was wobbling.Dulcie came back. It was 9.30.Walking back to the car she said,“My blood pressure is good. He says I’ll get to 100...oh, I bloody hope not!”We headed to Aldi. As I took the turning she had pointed out earlier she said,“Is this the right turn?”I suddenly doubted it...but it was the right turn.Aldi required more concentration. I had to carefully and discretely manoeuvre the trolley that she was pushing away from collisions with people and shelves. Some people may have recognised her as they got out of her way pretty sharpish.First stop as always was ‘cereal ‘which must have iron. We found two varieties to her liking and blundered on to ‘flour and sugar’.“We need tomato sauce...there it is,” she said pointing.“No, that’s the tomato sauce that you put on pizzas or goes with pasta.” I said, “I can see the ketchup, over there.”“Well you go get it then,” she said. It didn’t matter that we would be passing it later on during the trip along the aisles....I just went and got it.There was a tricky manoeuvre where she reversed back out of an aisle round a blind corner that set my heart racing...I almost started ‘beeping’ loudly like a reversing lorry to warn unaware shoppers...they were all mostly elderly...I felt quite young.We got everything on the list and a few things that weren’t on the list that caught her eye and headed to the checkout.Typical Aldi, long queues at the checkouts and only 2 tills open. We stood in line quietly waiting to be able to unload our trolley onto the conveyer belt. Dulcie was leaning forward on the trolley handle.I was looking around nonchalantly when suddenly he was there right in front of me...invading my personal space....he looked a lot like this.....

 

It was the Nutter!He started randomly telling me about rechargeable batteries and how he had a ‘walkabout’ phone (How Australian?)and the batteries here would not fit.I turned to Dulcie and mouthed silently...“Oh, no! The Nutter.”She looked at me blankly, leaned further forward on the trolley and said,“What’s that Dear?”I was hardly going to repeat it louder.I turned back and he was talking about ‘Bloody Abbott only getting in by 1 vote and something about mines and the people starving...He had very bad dental hygiene and a strange, involuntary thing he did with his mouth, every now and again...which kind of reminded me of the thing Les Dawson did when he had no teeth in. He was very difficult to understand and I missed most of it and just nodded politely.“Well, I hope you find your batteries,” I said as I signalled the end of our conversation.Thankfully he took the hint and wandered out. Dulcie never battered an eyelid or said anything about it....perhaps it was just a normal Aldi occurrence.Next stop was the bank. There was quite a queue of people which we joined the back of.“There used to be a rail you could hold onto,” she said. I spotted a chair by one of the closed bank teller windows.“ Do you want to sit on that chair, while I keep our place in the queue?” I said.She went and sat down.When the next window became free the African man at the front of the queue waved her forward. She smiled and shook her head and waited her turn.When it was her turn she took my arm and I lead her to the free window and then stood away at the side until she had finished. The elderly woman that had been standing behind me finished before Dulcie and passing me, stopped and said,“She reminds me of my great aunt. She’s 98.”( I thought I won’t tell Dulcie that bit.)She carried on.“I haven’t seen her since I was 2. I am seeing her in April. (Just in time for her to add you into her will?....I suspected).“Have a good day,” she said and wandered off.She had the makings of a ‘Nutter’ about her.We finally got back home at 11.00.Dulcie was pleased to get it all over and done with. It had been a good morning...until she discovered the awful truth about the Kiwi Fruit she had bought in Aldi.“I thought these came from New Zealand,” she said, “but these come from Italy! I shall most likely put them in the bin!”