First Morning of the Trip 12/09/09 – Shileen and Jason’s house

The 1st morning of THE TRIP started at 6 am., with Darren leaping out of bed to go to get the last of the rubbish from outside our house, which was to be rented that day, and to put it in bins around Manly. It had been previously arranged that Shileen would drive Darren in her car to do it, but Darren was up NOW, it was 6, and there were doings to be done…
Darren decided he could easily collect the rubbish, and distribute it around the public bins of Manly in our car WITH the caravan towing behind it – it would be SIMPLE. He also needed to take some money, which Shileen had, to Ralph’s house.
This made him pause. Shileen was in bed, like any normal human on a Saturday morning.
Both she and I could hear him pacing like a caged lion, outside our bedrooms, wondering what to do. Eventually he decided to disturb Shileen, get the money and make his escape.
I heard the car starting, and then urgent movement in the house as Shils ran out to stop Darren going in ‘the rig’. Dressing gown half on, hair askew –
“Darren… Darren…DARREN!”
(‘Welcome to my world’ I thought, and closed my eyes tighter under the duvet.)

Later…
Darren and Shileen returned from surreptitiously putting the rubbish in bins in her surreptitious new Holden V8 – much better than towing the caravan.

A small gathering came to see us off. Johnno and Sophie arrived first, then Neil, without Lynsey, whom we had destroyed the night before with red wine after her detox, Then Dickie and Becky with Fletch. We had champagne, the first sip at 8 am was rather painful, but we soldiered through it. Shileen and I watched Darren go over the caravan with Neil. Shileen hoped that he had checked the gas bottle. We laughed, how we laughed!
Then it was time to be going, 9 a.m., hugs and kisses and we were off!