My first month in Oz

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So after a long flight we finally arrived in Sydney and we were picked up by David (Emma's father) he drove us back to the house where all the family where gathering for Christmas, it was lovely to catch up with everybody as we have not been overly good at keeping in touch with each other, just as we had finished our evening meal my phone rang (the replacement for the one I had lost in Vietnam), Anne, Emmas mother was ringing from England to tell us that Mama (Emmas grand mother) was very ill, Emma decided without hesitation that she wanted to return home, so ended the joyous reunion, we needed to get Emma back to the UK as soon as possible, the first flight we could book her on left at 4pm Christmas eve and landed back in the UK at 6am Christmas day with that booked there was not a lot else we could do but get Emma repacked and sleep.
In the morning we awoke with a lot of the sparkle taken out of our Christmas Eve as we knew that it was not going to be possible for us to be together over the holidays, we spent most of the day just prepairing for Emmas departure even though there was not a lot we could do.
We said our goodbyes and Emma was on her way home, in 25 hours time she would be back in England, arriving Christmas morning, I in the meantime returned to Jenny and Davids to have an early Christmas dinner with the family.
On Christmas day the house awoke early (about 5am) with Ben and Chloe on a mission to make sure no presant remained unopened, they where ably assisted by the timely arrival of Jasper (Claire and Barry's child) and the three children managed to rip,tear and pull there way through the biggest pile of presants I have ever seen, all in all a “ripping”good time was had.
On boxing day I was lucky enough to get an invite to a celebration in the rather exclusive suburb of Point Piper (which has a wonderful view of Sidney harbour), and from there I could see the start of the Sidney to Hobart boat race. In the afternoon I went for a walk along Bondi beach with Mark & Julia and had a meal at one of the beach front restaurants where we met up with Claire,Barry and Jasper.
A couple of days later David was very kind and invited me along to the James Craig (a tall ship, moored by the maritime museum), to help him and other members of the voluntary crew as they strung rope lights through the rigging, as the ship would be taking part in the new years eve celebrations, the next day David invited Pat, Kylie, Ben, Chloe and myself on to the “Lucy” (Davids own boat) for a days sailing to Quarantine beach, where we swam from the boat to the shore, also I was to be lucky enough to go out again on the boat new on years eve and get to watch the fireworks from out in the harbour, after all the fun was over all you could see was a long line of red lights as all the boats returned to there moorings (it looked as if there was a motorway on the water) we all slept over on the boat and on new years day I got to do some sailing of my own (well steer the boat), which was great fun. Shortly after Jenny and David went away for a few days and well earned rest and Kylie,Pat and the children went off to see Pats family whilst I house sat for them, during this time I got to explore the local beaches Bondi, Coogee and Tamerama (known locally as Glameramer as it is the place all the young pretty people go to). On my birthday Claire cooked me a wonderful roast dinner (Mmmmm lamb) and Daniel took me up to Center point to get the full view of Sydney from on high.
When David and Jenny returned from there little 10 day trip on the Lucy (which I am told was lovely) I was treated to a great late birthday treat, it started by going out for a days sail on the James Craig followed by a visit to the Sidney Opera House to see the Stomp, Lost and Found Orchester. As we left the Opera House there was a 15 minuite firework display .... what a perfect finish, to a perfect day. On top of which, Emma called to say she would be returning before the end of the month.

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Comments

[david lovett]

sunny oz
great to read about ourselves on your blog. It makes a happy memory of your time here for all of us. lovetts, crammonds, Nichols, Lonergans and Julia. David