Time: 10pm
Place: Glenfield Rd
"Some little pricks just dumped and set fire to a car right in front of our home. Grrrrr" ~ from a familiar voiceAs rain continued for the last whole week, yesterday of a Friday, the weather showered us with clemency and the sun came out for a change. The air was warmer and I lost my mobile phone to what I believed I dropped where I stood while waiting for the bus, close to my daughter's home.
Last Wednesday night, I witnessed a late night drama happening on that same street where I stood by and where I lost my phone.
I was already in bed reading books and magazine and scribbling notes, when suddenly I smelt a rotten and pungent odour of a burning tire, so strong I thought there must be a fire somewhere. I did not move and went on reading when my daughter hurriedly opened the door and told me to shut my window. There was a fire! I jumped out of bed and did as I was told.
She asked me to mind the sleeping baby - so unfazed and unperturbed in her sleep amidst commotion and noises from the outside. There was a fire blaze from a car parked right in front of their home. A leathery burnt smell was wafting around the neighbourhood and a thick black smoke kept whooshing on the air. It looked like a turbulent spout of a tornado!
I stood motionless watching the poor mini blue car swallowed by a raging fire and the scary part was - what if it exploded and hit the nearby Eucalyptus tree. Eucalyptus trees are volatile and once the fire hits them, there's no doubt the whole shebang would be in a colourful blast of red conflagration of that late night.
The fire brigade instructed everybody to stay in their place and that no one must come out of their homes and no one was allowed to get near the burning car, so I heard. Garbage bins were standing in line along that road and many were in the position parallel to the burning car. I thought someone must pulled them away least they melted.
As the fire rapidly consumed the car, we patiently waited for the firetruck to arrive. I was frozen to death, unable to move, didn't think of taking a photo, I was just there standing behind the glass door watching helplessly and worried that the hissing tongue of fire would reach the heated trunk of the Eucalyptus tree and cause a possible bigger fire to break out. Such a freaky night!
The firetruck came and the firemen were steady, calm and collected as I watched them do their work and soon the fire was put under control. The traffic was halted and it was getting longer on both sides going east and west.
When the blaze was finally squashed, the firemen opened the boot with the use of a long iron bar and more smoke came out, same when they broke the front glass shield and the engine compartment.
It was my second time time to witness such a terrible vehicular fiery scene, only this one happened on a night and near the new houses.
That was the most tiring night I had having experienced insomnia and yet, the next day, I miraculously sustained some strength to mind the growing baby whose bank of energy seems endless to be able to cope with her.
Thankfully, she had been so wonderfully perfect that she let me do few things around the house, so I was able to clean up: the fridge, the stove, the pantry and even get to wash her clothes by the hands.
The couple came home late and the two of us (baby and I) were sitting quietly on the lounge watching a DVD Dora, the Explorer. She was really really extra good. I thought I would send her to bed early but it did not work because she started crying. Guessed, she must have had missed the mom and dad. So we went downstairs again and played her Dora the Explorer to quieten her.
She watched it again and again and again!
When I left them yesterday, she was half-crying. But the DVD as always makes a tear quencher. Then as I was standing by the pole waiting for the bus, I noticed Au rang me but missed it. So I sent her a text that I was at Noemi and that I was on the way home. That's where I lost my cell phone.
It took me an hour to travel from there to Blacktown (I had to go to the bank to deposit the cheque) and then dropped in at the Information Centre to grab some historical postcards of Blacktown.
Earl, the Receptionist of the day by permission.
From there, I stopped at the Fruit and Vegie market to buy fresh Gala Apples which is affordable at a price of A$1.50 a kilo, grabbed a tub of Alfalfa and a couple of truss tomato in a vine and finally headed home.
The owner/operator himself in action by permission.
Soon as I got home I rang my daughter about my lost phone. Because I moved to another Bus Stop further down where there was a shade, it was there that I had accidentally dropped my little gadget. As they are coming later tonight, I will then get reconciled with my lost little boo peep.
I could not sleep, so I thought I would get up and check messages. Earlier, I worked on my postcard album. This time, I painstakingly added captions which I copied from the back of the postcard for descriptions.
Anyway, later today, it will be my Flower Roster for the Sabbath. So I hope I will still hold that same stamina as I had while minding my little girl with all her contagious energy that helped me keep going for the day!
Coming down the steps oozing with confidence!
She is really growing so active and happy and am having fun with her, playing with her. She loves books and numbers. She is starting to warble words that I haven't experienced with mine. The girls never did any baby talk at all. Both talked a straight sentence the moment they opened their mouth. So strange! No wonder, they were referred to as little persons especially my Lily.
Since Lilibeth and Selima are both April babies, I can see similarities of the two. Selima is pretty sharp in her age to think she is still under two. Very matured in her ways, and surprise, surprise, she walked down and up the stairs all by herself .... without aid. Very confident!
But the sum of it all was that awful mid-week late night scenario that still haunts my imagination!
Aftermath of a fire blaze before this car was towed away the following morning.
