Tuesday

Back at Latimers. We have missed it - but we couldn't go straight home after M picked us up, an hour early, from the airport. We managed to secure an appointment at the doctor's for the sick S. She has been prescribed some antibiotics and a puffer to help her breathe and she will have tomorrow off (just a shame it's her birthday!).
We made good use of our final day in Sydney for this trip by visiting the Art Gallery of NSW where they have two things worth seeing - the new Kaldor modern art gallery (an eponymous gift) and the Archibalds. Oh, and the other "thing" worth seeing is my mate T who works there. Unfortunately she was in "meetings" for most of our time there but we did get to see her and catch up following our Vivid engagement last night.
We had a moderately late start and eschewed the buffet breakfast at the hotel for a la carte in the cafe - which was quite different from yesterday's - they must have different chefs on the weekend. The field mushrooms yesterday were the size of dinner plates - today they were the size of 20-cent pieces - well, maybe a bit bigger - but definitely not much.
L dropped in to the hotel while we were having breakfast (another reason for not doing the buffet) to deliver a birthday present for S - and even though mine was months ago now, one for me as well.
For her birthday this year, L and M are spending six weeks in America (West Coast). They have, for as long as we have known them, been toying with the idea of living over there for 12 months - and now L is to the point of seeing if that would be realistic or not - given that she feels the cold so badly - by going in December, Winter there, she is hoping to assure herself that she can cope with whatever blizzards and snowstorms they have to offer!
There are so many things we didn't get to do in Sydney - but we did fit in as much as we could - so David Jones Food Hall, the Minh-Hai Restaurant, ChinaTown, my brother G and his family, soap-maker D, and laksa-mate C will all have to wait until next time we head down that way. Running out of time while visiting is not an uncommon occurrence - nor is the feeling of pure joy when you disembark the plane at Coolangatta airport and realise you are home ... and that even though the ride-on-mower is at the Deere Hospital, M has used the good-old fashioned standby, the motor mower, to do the front lawn and some other areas.

Monday June 6

We drove back to a colder Sydney this morning and called in to see L who we had last seen when she came to visit Latimers at Christmas-time (and believe it or not, I can't recall if it was last Christmas or the Christmas before - it must have been this one!). We had a lovely visit with her and tried her seed and pumpkin bread as made in the kitchen which is new since last we visited her. She took a photo of our surprised looks - that kitchen has been a very long time coming.
Then lunch with E and L - and returning E's car before she gave us a lift into the City (back to the hotel). She was able to find a park and have a final coffee with us before we saw her on her way so S (who is still sick) could have a nap before we set off for tonight's Vivid light show with T and T. And it was amazing - and incredibly Vivid. The most stunning display was at Customs House where the building appeared to reshape at one stage, and to crack and crumble away at another, and then finish off with some heavy breathing (read: gasping for breath) a cough and crash to the ground - before it all started over again. We watched the entire sequence twice before heading off to a very nice dinner at a little Italian restaurant T and T know just across the road from the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Dinner finished (who knew they would serve chips as a side?) we continued our tour of Vivid - althiugh because we wanted to make the 9 o'clock fire show at Campbell Cove, we weren't allowed to stop and take photos on the way there. And we wanted to because, and T was right about this, the best vantage point for viewing the Opera House sails was from the Cove. I could not believe how many folk were set up around the Harbour with their cameras and tripods - or how many photos there are now of the lights! I know I took nearly 300 shots - but to be fair at one stage I was on burst mode so the camera just kept taking shots - and hopefully I did get the shot I was after.
Back at the hotel, I settled in for a bath and S settled into bed, feeling exhilarated but a little worse for wear because of all the walking involved (very hard when you can't catch your breath properly) and the exposure to the chill (but not freezing) night air. But she says she is really pleased she went!

Sunday

Sydney again. We are settling into being all over the place - but were very pleased to have been in the place where the concert was last night. It was magical, wonderful and just plain fantastic - covering 20 years of the Choir's existence and the community's growth. They brought the Choir on to stage in year groups - and there was no year without representatives which makes you realise the dedication of these people who have been fronting up for choir rehearsals for twenty years - that's a lot of Thursday nights and weekend camps before concerts.
We had breakfast with L and E - although there was a slight delay as E had to take the bears home. Bears? Bears? As part of the display in the foyer of the concert venue - the Sydney Town Hall - there was a table of Teddy Bears. The Teddy Awards is the Choir's annual event where people "win" Bears for their achievements - and the bears are "dressed" - depending on the person being awarded the bear, the prevailing recording artists of the day, and the whims of the people dressing the Bears. Post-Concert, the Bears needed to be taken home to the Choir's rehearsal venue ... but when E and L arrived there after 11pm last night, the Hall was locked ... accessible only by key and keypad code. They didn't have the key - and the person who had it was at home, sick, in bed, in Annandale. L and E made the decision to bring the Bears back to the Hotel where all of us were staying - not arriving until after midnight when the nearest parking stations had closed. But at least they were able to get the Concierge to take charge of the Bears so they were out of the car. Alas, their luggage, our luggage, the spare programs, the Bears and all of us were not going to fit into the car for the next leg of the journey - which is how E came to take them home ... and then come back in for breakfast, and to take them home, and hand over the car which she was kindly loaning us for our trip to the Central Coast to see family. After visiting S's Mother, we made our way to my brother's where we spent the evening with the family, toasty in front of their combustion heater and marvelling that a good part of the dinner was being cooked on it.
Meanwhile back at Latimers, it was Sunday Markets - but we're not sure if they went ahead without us. What we do know is that this evening we received a text from M saying they were all at M and F's where they were looking at F's photos from his Jordan trip, having dinner and <sniff> missing us. Ah well, only a few more days until we're back at Latimers.

Saturday

Well, we have left Latimers behind us today and are in ... Sydney! M did a great job of getting us to the airport in time this morning ... but we all knew I would be stressing out about something ... it's a general condition of flying for me until I am actually in the plane and on the way. This time it was the length of the line for the bag drop and then the amount of time to get through the security screening point especially since the metal detector seemed to be giving false positives with most people in the line in front of us having to be scanned with the hand wand or just having to go through the archway again - sometimes wearing the same, sometimes with their shoes off, or their belt off (that was me). But we did make the flight in good time and settled in for the trip to Sydney - knowing that M had taken herself off to a beach at Coolangatta to wait for New South Wales to open.
When she texted later in the day, it was, as well as a general update re Em, to say she had been on the mower and the news was not good. I wondered if it was the battery playing up again but apparently not. It seems to be something to do with the "cuttng deck". I don't think that sounds good - and from the tone of the text and tbe "Grrr" included, it doesn't sound as though she does either.
S is still sick and we took the opportunity of getting her some cold and flu tablets - which she took with a nap at the hotel this afternoon while I took Nick out to do some photography in the city. For me there's no better way of checking out how a new camera works than taking it to where you've been before.

Friday

It was an interesting day today not least of all because this afternoon we went over to M and F's to meet F's sister, B. She is an Islamic scholar and had agreed to answer any questions people might have about Islam. As I said to S as we emerged from the car, I know very little about Islam but it just seems if everyone made an effort to understand more of other people's religions, we might all get along better together here on Planet Earth. I can't believe how lucky we were to have this opportunity. B is staying with M and F waiting for her husband to arrive from Jordan - where F had just been to collect her so she didn't have to travel alone - and where he also made his wife very happy by bringing back new, very stunning rugs which are now spread throughout the house. From here B and her husband will go to Sydney where they will give lessons. He, too, is an Islamic scholar and is currently working on a project to translate thr Koran into English. Unlike some other translations which only translate the Arabic, they are also working to translate the context which is as important as the words - more so in some cases because it is the context which helps determine the meaning of the words. It is a long term project - and their team is averaging about three pages of the Koran a week.
There were some very interesting points of similarity with other religions with which I am familiar - perhaps the most surprising of all that Islamic folk believe in Heaven and Hell - and a Day of Judgment. I ended up not asking any questions but a wide range of topics are burbling away in my head trying to resolve themselves into intelligent questions and I am hoping to have the opportunity to discuss them with B next week while M and S are talking with her husband about Sufism (one of his special subjects).
S is not well but she did manage to get the laundry done today so there will be clothes to take with us to Sydney tomorrow. Not there will be much time to pack - we didn't get home until nearly 11 pm and we need to be at the airport by 8:15 in the morning ("need to" means: prefer to just in case there are any traffic or other delays on the way - no need starting the weekend stressed!)
We didn't seem F this afternoon/evening. I can only think that because this was a "female only" event (and thank goodness because it allowed a degree of openess that would have been difficult if not impossible in mixed company) he was at his brother's place and waiting for the "all clear" call before coming home. He's usually pretty tired on a Friday night so I hope E had a place for him to "assume the position" and push out a few zzzzzz's.

Thursday

It was supposed to shower today but there was no sign of rain ... and hopefully there will be no sign of rain tomorrow either because S is planning to do the laundry so we can take part of it to Sydney with us on Saturday.
While the mowing remains undone (again), I did manage to find time to get up to the shed this afternoon when I arrived home to see if the ride-on mower would start following its flat battery and recharge. The good news is that it did ... the bad news is that at this rate, I'm not going to get a chance to do it until next Wednesday afternoon. (Is someone still doing "long" range weather forecasting?) But at least its not peak growing season otherwise we wouldn't be able to see the stables by now!
No walk up to the road this afternoon but I still managed to clock almost 10,000 steps in the GCC. Sigh ... to think with that walk it would have been almost 12,000 - but as always it's the time - and that sometimes it's just easier to choose coffee at Zarraffas rather than coming home while it's still daylight (and, of course, the days are getting shorter in the run-up to 21 June as well).
The mist in the valleys in the morning is breathtaking! Some days only the tops of the trees are visible (a bit like the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco in the summer) in the pre-dawn light. It makes it a little difficult to see the bicyclists out and about on their training "runs" at that time of day so you have to keep your wits about you. And there's the joggers - luckily most of them wear reflective vests so it's easy to spot them but it's not a drive you want to do on cruise control.
S has hit the "three-month-wall" at work and at this stage she is seriously talking about looking for other employment opportunities - ones that probably don't involve charities and telemarketing. Both she and M have done very well there since they started ... from what they tell me it seems like an exercise in rejection and pretence - people pretend they don't speak English, or that they are just running out the door, or that they've just put their significant other in an ambulance (although that one might have been true - but really, would you be answering the phone at that point?). It's hard not to take a "no" personally and given they make upwards of 250 calls in their 5-hour (including 15-minute break) session, they're usually receiving more than 225 no's in one form or another - answerphone; no answer; hang-ups; abuse; or, yes, we'd love to help (by buying tickets to the charity) but times are tough and we can't at the moment ... maybe next time. But, as S says, and she was saying this the very first week they started doing the job, what she has learnt is that there are people out there who can say "no" nicely .. and perhaps people need to know that it's okay to say "no". I think there's a lesson in there for all of us.
The other thing I learnt today - and Pearl and the other animals will get the benefit of this (thanks M) is that if you are going to praise or chastise furry people, it needs to happen within one and a half seconds of the "event". Hmmmm ... wonder if that's the same for human people as well?

Wednesday

The first day of Winter ... and it feels like it. There is definitely a chill in the air and it is still getting darker in the mornings - which is to say that even though I am leaving just a tad later (well, some mornings at least) it is getting darker. I envy M and S and all the cats and Pearl still being tucked up nice and cosy in their beds. But coffee and toast awaits me at Zarraffas - wouldn't want to have them at Maccas given the bad press they have been getting recently about their bad coffee - so much so they have apologized to the public at large (and elsewhere). None of us could see in the reports whether the bad coffee was coming from the McCafes or from the general store.
Even S was up early this morning though because I was taking her into Broadbeach so she could meet up with M who had taken advantage of hotel accommodation to stay the night there. And we did have an early start because I was able to drop her off in there and still be at Zarraffas within minutes of the normal time. Hmmmm ... some would say that I am a creature of habit.
And speaking of creatures, I saw some the other night - although up until the point M called them creatures I had been thinking of them as animals. I spotted them as S and I were driving home and had just turned off Gilston Road - two of them, one bigger, one smaller - and they appeared to be dark brown (although it was nighttime and fairly hard to tell in the glare of the headlights) and round - and rolling along the street - and up the slight incline towards the corner. I had never seen anything like this and I was sorry that S hadn't seen them. We thought about going back but I knew that by the time I found a place safe enough to turn around in, they would be long gone. I'm chalking it up to just one of those mysteries of life ... and wondering whether this would be in the field of a cryptozoologist - those folk who are engaged in the study of hidden animals. Am I saying that I thought I saw a cryptid - the equivalent of a Yowie or Bigfoot or even the Loch Ness Monster - on the back roads of Latimers Crossing? I don't think so but I know I haven't seen anything like them before.
I remembered to take the ride-on-mower battery off the charger this morning and M says we will need to try it out fairly quickly to see if it working. That will be a job for tomorrow as it's too late to be starting a mower in the valley now. It would be a nice night for mowing though, although the gentle mist that has settled over the Latimer surrounds is probably making the grass wet and unmowable. The stars are nice to look at though but there were no cats or Pearl doing it tonight ... by the time M and I arrived home from Broadbeach, S had successfully put Latimers into lockdown.