Dodgem Cars

Do you ever find yourself overwhelmed with the desire to complete some obscure and completely unnecessary task? Just to clarify - by "completely unnecessary", I mean a task that is not essential to feeding or clothing your family at that precise moment. For example, reorganising a pantry whose contents is spilling out onto the kitchen floor. Or clearing out all of the toys and other debris from under the couches and vacuuming the poor, neglected carpet under there. Or ironing of any description. You know. Unnecessary.

The other day I was driven by some unseen force to clean out the toys, books, sippy cups and random collected rubbish in my car. I pulled out the foot mats, banged the dust out of them, and dust-busted the lot. When I had finished, not a speck, not a crumb, not a long blonde hair remained inside my vehicle. It looked almost respectable. And all the while, the Mouse slumbered peacefully in her car seat, the little angel. That girl can sleep through any noise...except my whispered voice at midnight.

This morning I was ridiculously grateful for having a clean car (on the inside, at any rate...). It could have been very embarrassing otherwise.

We pootled off to school this morning in high spirits, because I was to be the parent helper in Jack's classroom. He was so excited. We were stopped in a line of cars at a busy roundabout when I heard an almighty bang. Let me be perfectly clear - it was LOUD. Like a clap of thunder above the car. Looking in the rear vision mirror, I watched as a line of cars banged into one another...and then slammed into the back of mine.

Thankfully, I had left enough room in front of me so that when we jumped forward a metre, we did not strike the car ahead of us. According to Jack, when we were hit I "squealed like a little girl". I was just relieved my children didn't learn to swear like wharfies.

What had happened was, a work truck had hit a Hilux with a large trailer, which hit a (week-old) Chrysler, which hit us. The poor lady in the car behind us could see the car seats in my car, and had been frantically braking to avoid hitting us. She had been concertina-ed, and was in a very bad way. All of the tradies in the first two cars were lovely men, and kept checking on me and the kids every thirty seconds.

What with an ambulance with flashing lights and a siren, and a police car with real live policemen in it, my kids were in heaven. I thought they would burst with excitement when first a paramedic opened the car door to speak to them and admire their teddies, and then the nice policeman gave them a pep talk about the importance of wearing seat belts. Talk about fodder for Show and Tell!! Jack now has enough to keep him going for a term at least.

They were given the all-clear by the ambos, and we were escorted to school by Daddy, who had hurtled his way to us from school. After a quick visit to the doctor to get Mummy's whiplash sorted, the Mouse and I abandoned our plans for the day and went home to rest. Half an hour after taking some painkillers which made me a bit wibbly, I received a phone call from the sick bay at Jack's school...

So once again, Daddy came to Mummy's rescue, running to pick up Jack and Phoebe from school and kinder. Aunty Miffy came up and spent the afternoon dispensing hugs, drinks of water and cups of tea. Even though it was only a sore neck and shoulder, I felt soapy. Just vague, and a little bit...well, drunk. Jack's 'tummy ache' seemed to clear up pretty quickly once the dress-up box was flung open and Alice's adventures in Wonderland were on the box.

I had a moment this afternoon when I stopped and asked myself why I was so shaken. There was only minor damage to the car, which will be covered by insurance. The kids are fine. The medicine and lovely pain killers I got from the doctor will fix me up, no probs. But it was the thought - what if the Hilux and the Chrysler weren't there? What if that truck had hit us first? Everyone involved was very lucky that the trailer on the Hilux took the brunt of the impact. It was a very sturdy, quite large trailer full of metal fence pieces - and it was crushed badly. I cannot imagine what would have happened if my car was hit first. Actually, I can. Instead of a trailer being crushed, it would have been my three babies, who were singing together rather than fighting, for the first school morning I can recall.

So I am going to take my hot water bottle, my tablets, and a cup of tea, and crawl into my bed. You know the tiredness you feel when adrenaline leaves your body? That bone-tired, I-could-sleep-for-a-week exhaustion that pervades you after a shock? That's where I am right now.

Tired. Grateful. Weepy. Relieved. Annoyed. Tired. Craving chocolate. So, just a fairly average day, then. Night night.