Australia! - Part two - Sydney.

Having left Hong Kong we flew on to Sydney.  I don't think until you've flown over Australia for HOURS that you begin to appreciate just how big it is.  Having flown for hours we arrived tired and then faced our first big challenge.  How to fit 5 suitcases, a buggy, 4 adults, a baby and all our small bags etc into one car.

The car was an Audi Q7 which is a lovely car, 7 seats plus boot space which we increased by folding the extra 2 seats down but packing it was a nightmare.  If you've ever had one of those puzzle boxes filled with bricks of various shapes and sizes that you empty out and then have to work out how to put it back together you will get the idea!

A tip for anyone in this situation - move the middle row of seats forward - we worked that out AFTER we'd been in Sydney a couple of days and it made things so much easier!

Great, the car was loaded, Becca nominated me to drive, all we had to do was go.  Or it seemed press the START button in the car.  Right?  Wrong!  Well you do have to press a button (no key required) but you also have to have your foot on the brake pedal or it's not going anywhere.  Who knew?  Not me.  We eventually found someone from the car hire office who enlightened us.  And finally we were off and navigating our way out of the airport to our first Air B & B.  Thankfully Australians drive on the same side of the road as we do and the signage is very similar, that plus a satnav in the car meant it didn't take us too long to get there.  We'd also arranged an early entry into the house as it was still only mid morning.

We were staying in Bronte Bay which is a beautiful location and the house was lovely and roomy.  We had 8 nights there which was good because it gave us time to recover from jet lag, do our sightseeing and also have some down time when needed.

The highlights were some lovely coastal walking - we walked north from Bronte Bay  up to Bondi Beach.  We also drove south and then Nick and I walked back while the girls drove.  We explored the city centre, relaxed in the Opera House Bar, catching up with 2 of our nephews who are there now.  Nick and I also caught up with an old school friend of his.  Gerry and his family emigrated when he was 13 and Nick hadn't seen him since.  They'd made contact recently on Facebook and we caught up with him while in Sydney.  We enjoyed a meal out with him one evening and then he took Nick on a pub crawl and on the Saturday we visited his home and met his wife, Leonie.  They live in Ramsgate, a suburb to the south east of the city.  We also took Nathan to the aquarium, visited Watson's Bay and Manley. Here are a selection of the many photos we took.  Coming soon, part 3, Blue Mountains.

Nathan enjoying the Aquarium

Catching up with old friends

Pub crawling

The obligatory Opera House & Bridge shot

 

Nephews meeting Nathan

The house garden welcomed many birds every morning

Friday's Fave Five - 5th January 2018

Fridays are a time to look back on the week and share our blessings.
If you want to join in or check out the other participants pop over to our host Suzanne's blog at Living to Tell the Story

1.  Thankful to be back to blogging!  The extended holiday and Christmas/New Year period meant very little time or inclination to blog but now we're in the New Year I'm determined to get back into the swing of blogging regularly and I think I've made a good start.

2.  Our wonderful holiday.  Yes that's a bit old now but we did have a great time and I'm grateful that I plucked up the courage all those months ago to say Yes, let's go.  If I could have borrowed Dorothy's red shoes to get me home in a flash it would have been perfect.

3.  Family time.  We've seen all our kids over the holiday period and last weekend we had a get together with lots of hubby's family.  We met up at our local club and enjoyed fish and chips from a new shop that's just opened.  It was really good.

4.  Not having to work.  I've picked up a cough from Nathan that started as just an irritation but has now developed into a real hacking cough that's also making me feel quite unwell.  I'm grateful that I'm able to just relax on the couch, blog, read, knit or sleep - definitely sleep!

5.  More grandchildren on the way.  (Sorry this subject will probably get a bit boring over the next few months!)  Both my sons expect to become Dads in June.  It's so exciting.

I hope everyone in this group had a good Christmas and wish you all a Happy 2018.

#Jusjojan 5th January 2018 - Memories

Today's prompt is Memories.

Just Jot It January is hosted by Linda H Gill - here's the link to her site where you will find all the rules and the place to leave your link to your own post if you decide to join in, plus links to all the other participants.

Memories are so important but unfortunately, as I've witnessed, can become elusive.  I think one of my reasons for blogging is to create a written memory of life.  Something that can be revisited without the struggle of delving into my head for a temporarily (hopefully) forgotten moment.  It's also why I'm determined to sort out my photos and get prints of some of my digital ones.  A work in progress.

I was fortunate to gain lots of my Mum's photos when she died but also lots of my Grandmother's photos and I love looking back at them.  Last weekend Hubby's family gathered together and his sister passed on lots of photos from his Mum.  We had a good laugh looking back at those, especially some of the hairstyles.  The kids especially loved looking back and having a laugh at our expense over our antics and dress sense.

Of course there were quite a few baby photos of the youngsters too so we also got to tease them about how skinny/chubby/bald/hairy etc they were.  Happy memories. 

Australia! Part One

If you'd told me a few years ago that I would be holidaying in Australia I would have laughed in your face.   Me?  The me that didn't like to venture far from my comfort zone.  The me that had to be in control of everything?  Right.  No one was more suprised than me when invited to join my daughter and her wife on a trip to Australia, I found myself saying yes!

Of course the prospect of our, as then unborn, grandchild being with us and it really was a no brainer.  I was going.  Fortunately hubby wanted to come too and despite his untimely early arrival Nathan was ready to experience his first long distance trip.


We set off on Thursday 9th November flying from Heathrow to a stopover in Hong Kong. 

Nathan pre boarding the plane

 Admittedly we weren't there for very long, arriving on Friday and leaving on Sunday, so we didn't have too long to spend exploring, but it definitely wasn't a favourite place to visit.  We stayed in a very nice hotel (Mandarin Oriental) on Hong Kong Island and the service couldn't be faulted but everywhere you look are high rise buildings.
 

 
Travelling with a baby means taking a lot of luggage.  Fortunately for the girls they had amassed enough air miles and perks that they were able to fly business class to and from Hong Kong so it was more comfortable for them with Nathan.  We endured economy class and although it was a night flight not much sleep was had.  We shared in the perk of having transport provided by the hotel to and from the airport - we were met as we came off the walkway from the plane and whisked through the airport on a motorised cart, assisted through immigration and then transferred to a people carrier to travel to the hotel.  It was all very smooth.  Exactly what we needed after the long flight.

It was late afternoon by then so we had a rest before eating in the hotel.  We explored the local area but were more than ready for our beds before too long.

On the Saturday we took the ferry to Kowloon on the mainland to do more exploring.  It is a very busy area with lots of shops!  In the afternoon we met up with friends of ours from home who happened to be visiting their daughter who is currently living in Hong Kong.  We found a bar overlooking the waterfront but it was quite overcast and windy so we retreated inside. 

Later we went out to eat but taking Nathan out in the evening is not the easiest thing to do, especially when he's tired - it involves a lot of pushing the buggy backwards and forwards to get him to sleep. Hard to get cross with him though when he's in a smily mood.


Our friends were also able to enlighten us as to what was taking place in a huge underpass near our hotel.  When we walked through it earlier in the day there were lots of young women on either side of the walkway, gathered in small groups, talking, playing games, having a picnic etc.  They had spread out cardboard boxes and blankets on the ground and we wondered if they were perhaps waiting for an event.  Apparently though, these young women work for families in Hong Kong during the week and then at the weekend they meet up with their friends and congregate in the underpass.  It was clearly a regular thing because there were people giving out the flattened cardboard.  I'm not sure if they spend the night there or not as we didn't pass by in the evening.

Sunday was very wet so we didn't actually venture out.  We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel.  Watched a Remembrance Day service from the window of our room and then prepared for the journey back to the airport.


I'm glad that we broke the journey up because it's such a long way to Australia and I'm glad to be able to say I've been to Hong Kong but I wouldn't be rushing to go back.  (Except of course we did on the way home, but only to spend a few hours in the airport as we changed planes.) It was interesting to see how, although the Island has now reverted to China, there still remains evidence of when it was ruled by the UK such as the Remembrance service.

I realised once I started this post that it would need to be several as we visited so many places and if I tried to cover everything in one post it would be very very long!

Stay tuned for part 2!