Tuesday, July 6, 2010

A bit of luck...

A few weeks ago, our children spent the day with their grandparents and the Handsome Australian and I managed to duck out for a lovely lunch together. We hadn't planned on going to lunch necessarily, but when we realised our day's errands would take us past Carrington Road, Box Hill we couldn't resist. We both love a bit of Vietnamese food and Box Hill is one of a few Melbourne hot spots for Vietnamese cuisine. Carrington Road is home to quite a few tasty Vietnamese restaurants. Our favourite amongst the bunch is Indochine, but on this particular day, we thought we'd try something new. So we took at table upstairs at Tien Dat.

We spent the next little while in the sunlit dining room amongst families of all different sizes and cultures enjoying a lovely Sunday lunch. There were mixed spring rolls to start. A warm pot of tea to take off the chill of a winter's day. Then we stuffed ourselves with a lovely Chicken salad and Bun with Lemongrass Beef. With our tummies contented, we made our way downstairs to pay the bill and continue on our merry way.

As I stepped outside the doors of Tien Dat and began to make my way down the footpath along Carrington Rd, I looked down and saw this:



A coin lying on the footpath. I didn't think too much about it, but then I looked again.


To my surprise, on the ground in front of me lay not just any coin, but an American penny (1 cent piece). Immediately, my mind was transported back to my childhood and this little rhyme began playing in my head, "See a penny, pick it up. Then all day you'll have good luck." So I reached down and picked up this little penny and gleefully showed it to the Handsome Australian. "Look! Look what I've found here. It's an American penny! A real American penny! That's amazing! What is an American penny doing lying on the footpath in the middle of Box Hill?" Then I proceeded to sing the rhyme to the Handsome Australian. After which, I deemed this penny my "lucky penny". I read the date on the penny--1988. "Was 1988 a good year?" I asked the Handsome Australian. He seemed to think '88 was a decent year. Honestly, I thought to myself, what are the chances of me, an American, walking along this particular footpath at this particular time and finding this particular coin? It definitely seemed like destiny to me.

I tucked the penny in my pocket and when we picked our children up later in the day, I told them all about Mommy's new lucky penny. They were very impressed and wanted lucky pennies of their own. I told them sagely, "One day, your lucky penny will find you somewhere when you least expect it." After all, that's exactly what happened to me.

6 comments:

Mimi and Joe said...

Cute!! What a great story!

Annelise said...

It makes me want to send a penny to them in the mail! But I guess that would not be a found penny. I may have to plant them around the house here for the next time you visit. How about I make the year the year you and the Handsome Australian were married. That would make a good year for sure!

emseedubya said...

My husband found a dime in the gutter on his run yesterday. A dime, randomly, in Moranbah... what are the odds! Your story is cute though. You should submit it to the expat women story contest. :)

suzinoz said...

@ Mimi-Thanks!

@Annelise-They've already started hunting pennies in our house. It's very cute.

@em-I'm amazed he saw the dime while he was running. They are very small coins. I didn't know the expat women were running a story contest. I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip!

Dorian Speed said...

How fun! When I saw the first picture, I thought, "HEY! A PENNY!"

I am trying to cure myself of the annoying habit of reporting to people what the word verification for a comment is, but I must tell you that mine is "werocked." We DID rock, Suzinoz! We did! We used to go eat at The Purple Garlic! And there was that one time you made everyone Spanish tortillas!

suzinoz said...

@Dorian-We rocked? Did and still do, thanks very much. Spanish Tortillas, yes those were the good old days. I still whip one up every now and then, but my Tex Mex is my true calling. I may bust out some tapas this week for the World Cup Final though. Keep ya posted!