Maybe it is the slowly retreating typhoon we’ve experienced over the past few days, but more likely, our slightly deflated mood is due to the rapid onset of that necessary evil, work. Our week back has been very relaxed, and while we’ve been officially at work this week, the workload has been light and we’ll experience the full force of hundreds of bright happy people when we walk through the gates tomorrow! Because the typhoon closing the campus on Friday, Cass has had to do a half day’s work at school today, much to her horror!What an unreal holiday we had again this year. We both think it was one of the best we’ve ever had. A flying visit to HK for Coombsy’s wedding was a special way to start and our unit was all fixed up and felt very luxurious due to a few improvements that took place through the year and during the break. We had a magic trip to New Zealand to see Ross and Ains followed almost immediately by a cleansing yet very eventful week away on the Harley. The surf at Merewether was consistently powerful and fun and the clean blue water matched the sunny skies most days as well. We got to see our families and friends as well and feasted on lots of fine foods and wines. It’s always great to get back home and see little Virg’n Mary who were equally excited to see us and to get ensconced again in our funny little island in the East China Sea, but Australia was hard to leave.
Our unit was spotlessly cleaned by Chris and Val in preparation for our arrival and we sank into the sumptuous new carpet and enjoyed the “real” look of the place compared to the previous leaky walls and bare cement paint splattered floor in places. The shutters out the back added an extra touch of class and we just turned appliances on and away we went. The extra special present we gave to ourselves was our super thin wireless Sony TV to hang on the wall, purchased so we could re-configure the lounges to take even more advantage of the view. Our unit really felt like a home when we put the new table back on the deck with the BBQ…we just needed to sit back and enjoy it all, and we did that very successfully!
Our tradition of seeing Ross and Ains once a year saw us travelling to NZ for a week. From the moment they picked us up at Dunedin airport to taking us back there a week later, we had a wonderful time. We enjoyed seeing them in their house, which is just beautiful and felt right at home with all the fine Chinese antiques. We did a few little touristy things but mainly enjoyed having a chat about all things under the sun, usually over a bottle or three of top shelf local wine! Ross and I went surfing at Smail’s beach as I was keen to experience the arctic conditions he needs to endure to get a surf…it was pretty intense!! Our trip to their holiday house in Queenstown was fantastic too and we enjoyed the “extreme” ambiance along with really getting a feel for their lives. It was great to see them and we’re already tentatively planning where to meet up next year.
Firing up the Harley to go on our annual trip was thwarted by a flat battery at first, where I was rescued by Chris and Val bringing the caravan battery down to charge it! We spent the night in Port Macquarie satisfied that we’d fully charged battery on the way up but alas, it was dead again the next day. Friendly guys from Port Macquarie motorcycles rescued us then and replaced the battery. After that drama, we really enjoyed a succession of days doing exciting rides through the hinterland of the mid north coast and enjoyed some tasty lunches at chic country restaurants before heading back to our hotel base. We enjoyed visiting sleepy little towns and villages and taking every “tourist route” we could spot…it was just so blissful to purr down picturesque country roads under sunny skies before chugging up winding mountain roads and visiting little art galleries, cafes, lookouts all along the way. The battery problem reappeared necessitating a clutch start after lunch on our way home and the subsequent repairs discovered a number of other things going wrong. All fixed up, the bike was then washed to a sparkling clean and ridden up to the bay to be garaged ready for next year.
We had a great chance to catch up with nearly all the family when we hosted a BBQ after we got back from the bike trip. Cass cooked some unreal desserts of crème caramels and a very popular Pavlova! It was a little surreal to see how sophisticated and grown up our nieces Ellen and Lily were and Michael and Lucy were equally “grown” as was even little Duncan. It was a treat to see the kids and catch up with my sisters and Mum especially as we always seem to be elsewhere for the other big family gathering at Christmas in recent years. We had lots of meals out with Chris and Val and Mum along with a last visit to the Northern Star with Jen, Vince and the girls just before we came back.
We had various get-togethers with different groups of friends over the 2 months, as well as some more regular contacts with some, especially Thurza and Mark, as they were both often enjoying the charms of the beach! Photos: just a sample of some of our adventures, I hope they’re fairly self explanatory. I'm reading "Bad Money" and Cass has gone back to the" ...Kelly Gang"
