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Published: March 24th 2010
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For anyone concerned about Joe's wrist after the last post: a month on, it's absolutely fine! The first photo is how it looked when the bandage came off after a week but it's now only a bit pink.
What he was most worried about of course was facing his parents who arrived in Sydney early Wednesday morning! It was great to see them and we spent the first day catching up and exploring the lovely flat Granny had found at Coogee Beach. The next day, Thursday 21st Jan was Charlie’s 4th birthday! Although he wouldn’t believe that it was when he woke up as he couldn’t understand why he wasn’t any bigger (think he expected to suddenly be 6ft tall!) After presents, cards, a cake and Skyping the UK, we set off to the City. First stop was Circular Quay and a quick walk round to the Opera House, then we doubled back to catch the ferry across to Lunar Park, nestled under the Bridge on the other side of the Harbour. Great views on the way across (as testified by the number of photos I took!) Lunar Park is an old-fashioned fun fair with merry go-rounds, big wheels etc
and the kids had a ball (OK, I admit we quite enjoyed ourselves too!) Ferry back and then fish and chips (Granny & Grandad’s first in Australia) and the bus back home.
The next day we explored the headland round the next couple of beaches although even by 5pm it was too hot for too much exercise. Saturday was forecast to be even hotter so we headed into the Blue Mountains where it was only due to be 35 degrees, as opposed to 39 in the City or 43 out west where Peter and Rachael live (so they came with us too.) We viewed the Three Sisters , travelled on the very steep scenic railway at Katoomba and drove to Wentworth Falls where we did a half hour walk in extremely windy conditions.
Next we had a fairly lazy day at the playground and on the beach, and on Monday we headed over to North Sydney to Judy Teal’s house (matriarch of a lovely big family who we know well) to catch up with Paul and Jan Teal who, in a feat of excellent timing, were heading over to the UK for the next few months (boo!) as
well as Evonne and family who we had stayed with in Brisbane, and who just happens to be Jan’s sister...
Tuesday being Australia Day and a bank holiday, Peter, Rachael and family met up with us again and we joined the hundreds of people celebrating on Coogee Beach. It reminded me very much of the type of event I used to organise on Twickenham Green - local bands, face painting, bouncy castle etc. It felt quite strange being there and not being the one running around like a headless chicken on the walkie-talkie dealing with various crises. The band played lots of traditional Aussie favourites such as Waltzing Matilda... Later on we headed to Darling Harbour which was absolutely packed, but we did get to see the Australian Idol winner and Leo Sayer sing!! And a pretty spectacular fireworks display too.
Another lazy morning followed, together with a walk along the boardwalk in the other direction. On Thursday we met up with Sonia (Sonny) who is Joe’s Aunt Terri’s sister and who had been up at Byron with us for Christmas. She lives in a lovely little old worker’s cottage in Newton, Sydney. We spent a really interesting
lunch looking at old photos and hearing family stories. She also brought out a large family tree book about the Peake family (of Peake-Freene biscuit fame) who she’s related to. We then walked through the old graveyard close by where some of the Peakes are buried as well as Miss Eliza Donnithorne who was allegedly the inspiration for Charles Dickens’ Miss Haversham.
On our last full day with Granny & Grandad we went back into the City and walked all around the Opera House, even peeking inside and using the toilets at Joe’s insistence (they were very posh, with interesting features!) We went right along the Botanic Gardens and round the grounds of the Governor’s House. We then caught the ferry back to Darling Harbour where we were scared by a dinosaur, who had been resurrected to promote a new exhibit, before wandering along to the Town Hall and the Queen Victoria Building where we watched the famous clock display (scenes from English history, including Charles 1st who unfortunately is beheaded every hour on the hour, poor thing!)
The next day we sadly said goodbye to G&G and dropped them off at the airport from where they were
flying up to Byron Bay, and we drove over to Balmoral Beach to meet up with my cousin Rebekah, her husband Paul, and their baby Amelie, who was teething but very cute. On Sunday after the meeting, we headed back to Aunty Judy’s house to gatecrash the Teal family get together! It was great to catch up with everyone, many of whom we had met over in the UK over the years. Caught up with some other people the next day, and then on Tuesday we headed into the City for the last time. I was really interested to go to The Rocks, which is the oldest part of Sydney, so we arranged to do a walking tour, even though Joe was convinced we had done something similar when we were there 10 years ago (obviously made a big impression!) I found it really interesting (again!) especially the pick marks on the sandstone bricks which were the illiterate convicts’ “signatures”, as well as the individual stories, such as the woman who got sent to Australia for 7 years with her 2 daughters for stealing a hairbrush and ended up marrying the coxswain who was also a convict that had worked
his way free and become a very important, and rich, man. It was also interesting to learn that there are 11 green and cream ferries at Circular Quay, because that was how many were in Captain Arthur Philip’s fleet when he originally sailed into the Harbour, and also that they have been given the same names as those ships. In the evening we caught up with Michael and Shoshanna Hindmarsh who had stayed with us several times on their way through London.
Spent another couple of days at Rachael and Peter’s doing jobs such as cleaning the car, sorting out flights and packing etc. Bella also got to go to school with Amber for one day which she really enjoyed - they learnt about Aborigines and also read a story about a family driving around Australia, who took almost the same route as us! It was interesting for us to go out to pick her up as we had visited the school (it’s a Christadelphian one) when it first opened in 2000 so we got to see how it had grown.
On Friday we set off with P&R to go to a house we had rented in Callala,
several hours south of Sydney, to make up for the fact we had missed out on the coast road to Melbourne a couple of weeks earlier. On the way we stopped off at Stanwell Park, a beautiful beach, although more for surfers, very rough with strong rips. Unfortunately it started raining as we headed further south and didn’t stop pretty much all weekend, so we spent most of our time holed up in the house, apart from a couple of brief walks. Finally on Sunday we headed to a soft play centre in South Nowra so the kids could let off steam whilst we steeled ourselves to finally say goodbye to our good friends - sniff sniff. In the end, however, we had to go as we had a fairly long drive ahead of us to get to Canberra....
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Scott
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Fantastic pics
Everyone seems to be having a great time, you all seem to be loving it - and why wouldn't you. Joe seems to have put on a bit of weight - too many VB's me thinks! only jealous!!!