We had, as you may remember, a lovely time house-sitting for an artist in the bush in the run up to Christmas; we arrived in Fremantle (it claims to be Perth's sister city, but really its arty and upmarket suburb) on the 23rd into the welcoming arms of Liz, Nigel and their three (grown up) children. They're friends of my parents, but I hadn't laid eyes on them for, we worked out, precisely 10 years and Alice had never met them, but we all got on very well, and Liz was a wonderful host. After lunch we quickly scooted off to the airport to pick up my parents, Sue & Gary who flew in from Adelaide where they'd been doing a quick tour of the south east. After Richard (Chris's brother) arrived on Christmas eve, the
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