Today is a town day.

It was earmarked as such before the plumbing problem was discovered earlier in the week, to coincide with Farm Girl’s turn to stay home in the rolling teacher strikes (incidentally not at all popular amongst all her teachers who worry about exam prep) but allowed us to inspect the repair was doing as it should.

Town Days generally mean going to a mall – not a favourite pastime of mine but next week, Farm Girl’s penultimate week of secondary schooling, is Spirit Week so some minor purchases requiring her exclusive attention were required. More on that in later blogs save to say the purchases were successfully made, groceries picked up, and bread supplies for the Homestead freezer stockpile replenished. Then back to the City Campus where the first item on the agenda was a walk around the block for Colin and Shirley.

They’ll be the first to tell you it’s all very different in town. The block we walk around is just over the size of The Homestead and aside the several houses, blocks of flats, and townhouses, is also home to a primary school, swimming pool and recreation centre, and the original Divine Cakes. There’s so much to sniff and investigate for your average farm dog but no loitering in front of the cake shop; that’s the number one rule. Rule number two is no barking even though the roads are always busy and there’s lots of sirens and cars playing boom-boom music . The second rule sorely tests Shirley but her frustration is nothing compared to Colin’s humiliation at having to stand patiently at the end of the lead while a plastic bag is pressed into service. Sorry Colin; things are just different in town.

But there’s really good stuff about coming to town too.

Like catching up with people who work just around the corner and like talking as much as you do.

In short, coming to town is yin and yang; it’s sun and moon.

It’s the other side of the coin.