Wednesday 28 May, Community Centre

It's going to be a hot one today with temps expected to reach into the 30s. I wander off to the community centre to help Diane prepare today's lunch. I am put in charge of putting the pizzas together. Diane has set up a production line of all the toppings for the pizzas, most of which we prepared yesterday. I finish spreading the tomato sauce on the pitta bread and then begin my sheltered workshop task to add each topping. Being slightly OCD and taking my job very seriously I am most particular about adding the toppings evenly and neatly. Diane has a laugh at me being so particular as she says that she usually just kind of throws them all towards the middle. That will never do while I'm on the job! I am so pleased with my first effort that I rush to take a photo.

It is then I realize that I've left off 2 toppings! Diane is really having a chuckle at me now... I did consider deleting the photo and not admitting my rookie mistake but have decided to use this as a learning experience to not get too big for my boots and accept that I am still am apprentice pizza topper, not a master. And voila, my first tray of pizzas with everything are ready for the oven.

The pressure is now on a I work in the next tray. A lady comes in and asks if she can have a vegan pizza. We aren't even open yet but locals wander in and out at will. Diane assures her that we can, but we don't have began cheese. The woman says she will bring some back so I am now put in charge of preparing a vegan pizza. Oh dear Lord, the pressure. However, I am wearing my big girl pants, so step up to the challenge and make a mushroom, capsicum (oh alright, peppers) spinach leaves and her pretend cheese topped pizza. I'm keen to hear how she likes it but she then returns later to collect it, once it is cooked and we open at midday, and takes it to go! Oh well, I can only assume that it didn't poison her as there was no call out for the ambulance during the afternoon. And now the locals start wandering in and ordering their pizzas, dessert (that I had nothing to do with), coffee and pop (soft drink to the rest of the world). Diane has now put me in charge of the cash register! I have to get used to the different money. At least the notes are different colours but their$5 note is the same colour as our $10 note which is a trap for new players as I have to double check myself each time that I'm not giving back twice as much change. I'm sure the locals think I may only have primary school level maths as I keep counting out the change aloud as I hand it back to them. I'm sure Diane must think I'm in the spectrum. But, I manage to redeem myself when I manage to correctly insert the paper roll into the EFT machine, something she was unable to do. However, everyone gets what they ordered and I even do some table service fetching and carrying.

Shirley arrived in time to get desserts sorted as neither Diane or I wanted to be the one to cut and serve equal portions of the blueberry cheesecake, the smores cupcakes or bread pudding! She then did all the dishes so I was free to have lunch and enjoy my pizza. With all the kitchen cleaned up and the locals well feed, Diane said I could finish up now if I wanted, but it was almost 2 o'clock and I had been invited to play crib with my sister and a couple of others so instead I settled in with Kate and we were soon joined by Vicki, Jaquine (a retired criminal lawyer from New York) and Billy (a retired archaeologist and museum curator). I instantly knew I was out of my depth in offering to play crib with these people. They may have sensed my fear as it was quickly agreed that Kate and I would play separately and the other 3 would play each other. Kate very patiently talked me through the game and although I eventually understood the aim of getting cards to add up to 15 or 31, I struggled to count the different points earned, especially when 2 counted were being used to record the points. This probably reinforced local opinion of my low level maths abilities... But as luck would have it I won the game against Kate with no idea how I did so. Vicki won her game too. I was then asked if I wanted to play again but my brain was hurting at this stage from concentrating too much, so declined and I think I heard a sigh of relief from the others, but I'm not sure. During our high stakes game, Alexandra the librarian, had come into the back of the hall and was setting up tables of books for the big book sale tomorrow. We were allowed to go and have a sneak preview so Kate, Vicki and I were having a look around. As an avid reader I found a number of books I would love to grab but I am also mindful of how little room I have in my suitcase and books aren't light so had to put the books back on the tables. Alexandra wanted to take some photos of the tables to advertise the event on the local Facebook pages so guess who ended up being poster girl for the event?

I am now being claimed by some locals as a Hedlite but I remain unconvinced that Hedley is ready for 2 Robinson women to be here full time! It is now time to head home and it is already after 5pm. Where the heck has the day gone as I've been out since 10.30am? Time for a wine and sit down. Diane has sent me home with a couple of pizzas so dinner for the night was pizza, noodle salad and stuffed zucchinis. We ate like kings on our left over dinners! Watched a movie (which was considerably better than last night's offering, something we reminded Joe of) and time for this little black duck to head to bed. It's been another big day in Hedley. The temp got to about 36 today so my upstairs room isn't too cool, but the fan is on and I'm sleeping at the other end of the bed to take advantage of the breeze. All is well in my world.