Time for the car's annual service. I put it in early that morning and rather than heading home went to Thirroul library where I was studying my maths textbook ahead of a belated tilt at a specific university degree. (Before proposed "reforms" send it down the US path of being less about higher learning and more about the acquisition of life long debt, but I digress.)

Libraries are traditionally places of study and quiet reflection but somehow in the Illawarra they double as childminding centres so I was doing that to a background of three year olds singing nursery rhymes, but again I digress.

At lunch time I wandered along the road to The Shack, the recently re-branded café on the main road which was formerly known, for obvious reasons if you're there, as the Tin Shed café. I studied the menu and was about to order when another woman stepped up to the counter. OK, fair enough, I assumed that she already had her order ready whereas I was slightly short of a final decision. Except she didn't. She hemmed and hawed and changed her mind then changed it back again then... I should have taken it as a sign.

After about 10 minutes of this I finally got to place an order (the fact that I had to ask for a table number was another less than good sign); a light lunch of poached eggs on sourdough toast and a fresh orange juice. Which turned out to be two pieces of lukewarm almost toast with two almost frozen solid self serve butter sachets with two of the blandest tasting eggs I've ever had and a liquid which was orange in colour but had all the taste of textured water.

To paraphrase General MacArthur, I Shall Not Return Any Time Soon.

Oh, and the car service cost $1100 since it needed 4 new tyres to pass registration.

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