We drove to the BIG town today. Atherton, Queensland, has maybe 15000 inhabitants, and it's the giantest city around. It's about an hour's drive north from here. It's a pretty long drive for just going grocery shopping, but that's my mom's lifestyle. That's where the store is. I suppose I would adapt, but it's really hard for me to imagine, given I have a hard enough time working up the gumption to go downstairs to the store in my building.
Shopping becomes an EXPEDITION. This combines with the need to compare all the prices and choose the exact right brand. I simply don't do this, in my own life – decades ago I decided it seemed to be more stress than the savings procured were worth. In essence, I pay a "premium" or "tax": I pay in the form of not necessarily getting the best bargain on any individual product or purchase, and in return for this premium or tax that I pay, I experience very little stress for day to day shopping. I just grab the things that match my vague notion of what I need, and NEVER look at prices. I still end up spending very little for groceries, I think, compared to many people, by the simple expedient that I never buy stuff I don't actually NEED. And even given that, I hate shopping. I think if I tried to hunt bargains, I would never shop again.
Alien as it is to me in my current incarnation, she navigates her lifestyle quite competently, though. Actually, I was pretty impressed with my mother's driving skill on the drive up to Atherton and back. Her age doesn't show in her driving at all, that I could see – she seems the same as decades ago.
In Atherton I walked around a bit, and saw a VW microbus. I have always had a weak spot for old VWs, so I took a picture.
There are flowering trees in the background (it's Spring here, after all), and on the hill behind you can just make out a store called "Big W" behind, which seems to be a kind of Australian version of Wal-Mart, roughly (though there's no relationship to Wal-Mart, despite the "W" – the "W" comes from Woolworths, the huge Australian retailing conglomerate).
[daily log: walking, 3km]