Muffins and a Footy Meal in Mittagong (Part 2)

A Near Miss at the Exit

Binh didn’t finish work until 5:00 p.m. and that meant Keith had to head down, set the tents up and get everything prepared for their later arrival. A small catastrophe almost occurred when we were heading either out of the parking lot at Binh’s shop or out of the petrol station. There was a van already waiting at the exit to enter traffic as we pulled up right alongside it. Keith put his blinker on to turn left and we were confused as to where the van was headed as his blinker wasn’t on.

Without warning the van sped off onto the road oblivious of Keith’s car being right next to him. Keith’s car was only half a meter away from the van and as it turned to head left it came within a centimeter of swiping Keith’s car. The driver didn’t even know we were next to him as we also all thought he was heading right. The guy obviously didn’t know how to drive as Keith’s face was lay agape praying that he wouldn’t get swiped.

Keith had a chance to curse “Fucking hell” as the van sped out wildly onto the road and as the car was almost about to feel impact Keith tipped his wheels to the left and inched away from a collision. Obviously pissed off as Keith looked at us, amazed we came through unscathed, we headed up to Moore Oxley Bi-Pass, beeping at what I thought was an English driver and Keith thought was a Leb.

Speed Camera Nerves

From that little near-miss incident we gathered our collective thoughts, turned on the music and chilled for the next hour and a half as we made our way to Kangaroo Valley. The drive was long but it wasn’t tedious for myself as I sat in the front seat being my usual zany self. Shawn was sitting in the back taking my usual role of annoyance but his idea of novelty was to flick boogers at me and Keith. Ned was just sitting back there calming himself to music, probably contemplating how much grog he could drink for the night.

Speaking of alcohol, I’m not sure what the bottle was but both Keith and Ned went halves to buy a bottle of Whiskey or something just as potent, one of the large bottles. Through the night Ned managed to drink half of it with creaming soda but those little tales have plenty of time to be told. Anyway, my way of being bothersome and stealing the limelight for laughs as I tend to do was to stick the sticker reading ‘Do I make you horny babe’ on my lips. Keith tried to peel it off as I kept repeating the phrase creating amusement for my small audience.

Keith decided to speed a couple of times towards our destination as we were on the highway and at one stage we all noticed a speed camera take our picture as it was hidden on an overhead bridge. Ned had warned him to slow down beforehand incase the cameras were still working and it was a wasted effort of caution when the camera did go off.

For the next ten minutes Ned tried to comfort a distracted Keith by advising the cameras weren’t in effect anymore while Shawn and I kept feeding his insecurities. “How much points is that” we joked, “three points”. “Nope” Shawn replied in a tickling bellow, “it’s double the points this weekend”. For a little while the two of us kept his preoccupation as a burden of doubt but as all good things end, ten minutes was the buffer for our ceasing words of skepticism.

Muffins in Mittagong

Carrying on with the rest of our trip we made our arrival to Mittagong within one hour and as we wanted to take a breather we also thought it would be a good idea to stop and buy some items for our night of camping exploits. Arriving at a small shopping complex in Mittagong we pulled over in the carpark as I let Ned out of the backseat. This is where Ned headed to the bottle shop to buy some alcohol for the night and as I was waiting around I decided to head into the local grocery store.

Not sure what I wanted to buy or where exactly to find anything I headed to the frozen food section and upon passing a girl worker who glanced at me, we both smiled at each other. This is when I started to realize the truth about people who live up in the sticks, they’re a lot nicer and easier to get along with. Why wouldn’t you be though when there isn’t any bustling action at night and there is nothing much to do of a day.

Anyway, I made my way to the yogurt section but decided against buying any dairy products as I wanted to fill my stomach with some meat or protein. Heading back past that girl we smiled at each other again as I walked down every aisle looking for something to buy. Finally I made my way to the bread section in which I bought some muffins for the morning and some other muffin type things which everyone had a feast upon that night.

The girl at the cashier was just as pleasant to talk with as I began by asking her how long it was to head to Kangaroo Valley. She told me she wasn’t sure on an actual time but spruced up the conversation nonetheless. Paying for the food I said goodbye to her as I headed out, caught her last sincere smile and then I was off back into Keith’s car. Playful as I was from my two encounters of amiable smiles I threw one packet of muffins through the small gap in Keith’s window so that it hit him in the head.

As smiles came from all in the car Keith wound his window up before I could do it again and he tried to add his own flavor by locking the doors but his game was soon enough over. Jumping into the car I commented on how nice and approachable the girls were down in Mittagong but to their taught minds it was all just common knowledge.

The Footy Meal

Insatiable as I was with muffins in my hand and nothing at hand to eat we headed down a little alleyway and into the next street which harbored Macdonald’s. Gleaming was my excited response to the thought that we would finally get a chance to eat and as we headed through the drive through I noticed they had a special combo, ‘The Footy Meal’. Finding this intriguing as well as tasty I handed my money to Keith who drove up to the window and began ordering.

Figuring that all girls in Mittagong were as easy to talk to as the girls in the food store, I started being cocky as Keith was ordering but the girl didn’t find anything amusing. She wasn’t good looking either which could contribute to her uncaring attitude but I guess because there was a long line of cars she could only care about her stress factor. Heading to the next window I noticed a couple of blondes working there as well as a Lebanese girl who served us and as she walked away to take care of our orders I done my usual squeamish tones of satisfaction.

Being handed coca cola for my drink I had it exchanged creating a bit of a stir that Macdonald’s staff didn’t hear but all was fine and dandy once I received my orange juice. One of the hotter blonde girls from Macdonald’s headed out of the store and sat down on the tables just to the front and as we were told that there would be a short wait on Keith’s meal we had to drive around the corner ourselves.

Watching the Rear Vision Mirror

As I began eating I fixed up Keith’s rear vision mirror so that I could see the blonde and although she had her back to me and was probably only 18 I found her to be attractive. Not too certain if she knew I was attracted to her, she did look back upon the request of one of her friends who evidently noticed me peeking through the rear vision mirror.

While waiting for the rest of Keith and Shawn’s meals a lady walked up to my passenger seat almost from out of nowhere and uttered in what seemed to be an obnoxious prude tone “Can you move your car forward, I can’t get out of the drive-through”. Taking a look back we couldn’t understand how she couldn’t get herself out as she had a fair bit of space to maneuver but I guess stuck up people like her can’t drive.

Letting her through the rest of our food was received and making our way to a normal parking spot we ate in the car before deciding to head off for the rest of our venture. Mittagong was our first and only stop off point to Kangaroo Valley but I really needed the fulfillment of that burger, it done the job dramatically.