Where are they now?

We arrived back in Australia, leaving Endellion in Belgium, in late August and headed off to our little bit of heaven on the Hawkesbury River, Milsons Passage. Our house on the river (boat only access) was a bit overgrown ... the garden that is .. but in reasonable shape considering it had been rented for short term stays for almost twelve months while we were away.

It was still cool enough to light the fire in the evenings and pottering around the garden, digging, pruning, clearing and planting was great fun. Catching up with neighbours .. taking the occasional boat trip for the paper and groceries, off to Spencer (the centre of the universe) for an egg and bacon roll .. all part of our River life. And attending the monthly Fire Brigade meeting .. essential especially given the forecast for one of the worst fire seasons ahead of us.. everything is extremely dry and the weather forecast is for one of the hottest and driest summers on record.

Our house and the boat shed at Milsons Passage

Hire boat shown here so there are guests at our house for this photo.

Our Milsons Passage Fire Brigade crew – off for exercises .. not a real fire thankfully.

The centre of the universe: Spencer village store.

Dust storm .. view from our deck to the boat (left) at our jetty.

And we had one important visitor .. Richard (nieces Steph and Mandie’s dad) came to stay for one night .. by train from Steph’s home at Quakers Hill .. a long way off. Richard was great company .. shared my traditional drink (blue) and took the traditional walk with me to the ridge above our house.

Richard came to tea... I mean Blue Margaritas

1 1/2 oz 1800® Tequila

1 oz Blue Curacao liqueur

1 oz lime juice

coarse salt

Richard at my favourite spot on the ridge above our house, looking out across the Hawkesbury River and Berowra Creek.

Main event for Richard’s trip here from Cornwall was to see his daughter Steph graduate with her Masters in early childhood.. and of course to see his other daughter (Mandie) who is currently living in Brisbane.

Steph with her mum (left, sister Tammy) and sister Mandie.

Steph with very proud dad.

The garden on the River now organised and a massive cleaning finished so we can leave our River house for guests who will be in at the weekend.. and then a major dust storm arrived. This coated everything in a layer of red dust from western NSW.. and so everything had to be cleaned again.

We finally returned to the city late September .. after our tenant vacated. It was a relief to get back into the centre of activity but more importantly to a cool apartment (very efficient air conditioning system) as the weather is heating up making MS unmanageable without it.  Also great to see my sister Tammy and the ‘girls’ and Steph.

Now we’re back in the city it’s time to do all those things that are city oriented. We didn’t attend the picnic on the Harbour Bridge, but on the same day I did take off for the 25 kilometre walk, crossing seven bridges, which started in sunshine and around half-way through we had the forecasted torrential rain making it a very uncomfortable last 15km.

The green, green grass for a picnic on the bridge. Can you believe they closed the Sydney Harbour Bridge to traffic (against the wish of motorists of course) and put grass turf on the road surface to make a comfortable place for picnicking! All part of the Sydney October festival called Crave Sydney.

Above is Barangaroo Park .. well it used to be Patrick’s Wharf, a huge container and cargo transfer business, but now closed and about to undergo a massive redevelopment. Our building is the dark one of the left of the high rise row above. Photo take on my 25km walk for the Seven Bridges.

The Seven Bridges Walk .. view from half way (almost at Hunters Hill)

The rain bucketed down...

Jane, a dear friend of our Nicki from Woolgoolga, visited Sydney on her tour from the UK. I suggested we go to the annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition starting at Bondi Junction through to Tamarama Beach. I’m not sure if Jane really did enjoy focusing on almost every single sculpture, 114 in all, as I read from the program who the artist was, what the concept was and perhaps what it was made of! But I had a brilliant time and I think Jane did too.. very hot but brilliantly sunny so a most spectacular setting.

This life-size sculpture is made from rattan .. it is amazing .. overlooking Tamarama Bay. Australian artist from NSW.

Another ‘sculpture’ overlooking Bondi Beach .. from an Argentinean artist.

‘The Eight’ .. memories of the Thames.

‘The ability to imagine’ reminded me of our planning before finally taking off with ‘Endellion’.

Meanwhile, Stewart has been totally captivated by the Trocadero at Newtown. This building, below left, reminds us strongly of the Flemish-style buildings which are common in the area we spent most of our time in Belgium and France. It is being renovated for the company Stewart is consulting to, Fuel VFX (digital special effects). It has a brilliant history although it’s been empty for almost thirty years – it was a purpose built roller skating rink of the late 1880’s. At the time it was built it was reputed to be the largest and most elegant rink in Australia. How fantastic it is still with us!

Stewart has organised a film crew to record this new phase in the life the Trocadero and the crew is made up of old mates from his ABC days, cameraman Pieter De Vries and producer/director/reporter Tim Clark. The film clip will be ready to upload to YouTube very soon.

The amazing Trocadero in Newtown, Sydney

Film crew inside the Trocadero

Christmas and New Year 2009

We spent Christmas and New Year in this great city of Sydney. For New Year we had a close range view in saturation position for the fireworks celebration, right by the harbour bridge. In the photo below right you can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge directly ahead, to the right you can just make out the Opera House below the high rise building.   We hope to be here again next year .. and we have plenty of room for friends to share the view!

Christmas in Sydney with Stewart’s mum Jean - all slightly squiffy with seasonal 'spirit'.

Fireworks, New Year's Eve, Sydney - from our balcony.

January 2010 - Sydney Festival

We love the month of January in Sydney .. just non-stop (if you can stand the pace) entertainment and education. The Sydney Festival opens just after you've recovered from Christmas and New Year, on the 9th January. A special change for us this year, we could book all of our theatre by calling one telephone number and Lucy looked after all our bookings for wheelchair access. In the past we've had to call each theatre separately not like those not needing wheelchair access who can book online and get a good discount for bulk bookings. This year all is fixed for wheelchair users too - thanks Lucy and the Festival organisers.

Major highlights were Hamlet (outstanding performances from the Schaubühne Berlin theatre, and fabulous set, in German with English surtitles), Ruhe (very unusual and thought provoking, set in the Great Hall at the Sydney University) and Patrick Watson and band, absolutely fabulous music with very striking vocal and percussion under the Famous Spiegaltent in a thunderstorm!

Photos from the Sydney Festival website.

February 2010 - Birthday month