Welcome back, Winifred!

Yesterday I went by train into the CBD, then hopped onto the first bus that came along.  It was headed for Little Bay and the hospital there, Prince Henry, is where my father died in 1969, aged 61. Here's a pic of the building, which is no longer a hospital, but just sits there empty, though a small part is a museum, open only on Sundays.

The bus trip took about 45 minutes, as Little Bay is at the furthest point south on the map, at the entrance to Botany Bay:

Have a look at a map of Sydney:  http://www.sydney-suburbs.com.au/


Of course, it brought back some sad memories.  I had not been out that way in all the intervening years.  I was pregnant at the time with Philip, who arrived after his grandfather's death.

The area is being developed, with lots of duplexes and apartment blocks which will have beautiful views over the golf courses to the ocean.  What prime real estate!


Lovely to find your comment just now, Winifred.  Tell your Philip he absolutely MUST come and see us when he's in Sydney.

Cheating just a little bit

Feeling very pleased with myself after yesterday's blog attempt, I set off a while ago with my camera to take photos of trees/gardens/parks in Hornsby, the next suburb.  But I can't figure out how to save them, so got these two (which are quite similar to the ones I took myself) from the Internet:

There's no doubt about it, Sydney councils do great work with parks and children's playgrounds.

Welcome back, Michael!

 What a relief to find your comment just now, Michael!  I was on the point of sending you a card via snail mail, but now I don't have to.  You can't imagine how frustrating it is to have lost contact with everybody!  It seems Philip is still working on my old computer but he doesn't tell me when I'm likely to get it back.


Since I don't understand if I can save photos anywhere on this new machine, I haven't taken any, and am trying to put one here from the Internet, but so far it seems to have floated off into cyberspace as it certainly hasn't appeared here.  Bear with me and I'll have another go.

Golly, it worked this time!  That's great.  This photo of The Rocks represents what I plan to do over the next few months:  explore in minute detail all the suburbs of Sydney.  Most of my friends are shooting off all over the globe - at great expense and discomfort, if you ask me - while I'm going to do mini-journeys.  (Somebody else had the same idea and the photographic result is currently showing at the Museum of Sydney.)


I really am in love with Sydney and can't believe my good fortune in actually living here again.  It is a joy to just pick a spot and wander round.  (Have a look for yourself: 
http://www.sydney.com/.)


Nor can I believe how many trees we have!  It's like living in a forest.  (Again, have a look for yourself:  http://www.google.com.au/search?q=trees+in+sydney+streets&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1026&bih=469)

It's almost 1pm and I'd better get dressed, ready for my exercise class, HeartMoves.

Back from the dead!

After all this time I've found my blog again!  Truly, I'd been wondering for ages what it's called as I'd completely forgotten, and I finally came across it just now after searching every blog in cyberspace, for hours and hours.  No pic today as I truly wasn't expecting to find it so quickly, but the last one will do just as well, as it's raining again today.  I think it's been raining for weeks.  Cold and windy, too, which is only to be expected as it's winter in the Antipodes.


A virus attacked my laptop ages ago and when I told Philip he rolled his eyes and did what any IT person would to - put repairing it at the bottom of his List of Things to Do.  But after watching me suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms for weeks on end, he eventually softened and walked in one night with a smaller version of a laptop.  All very well, but of course it doesn't have any of my old files, so I no longer have anybody's email address.  So if that's you, please email me so I can get it.

Pool on a rainy day

I had my first swim yesterday since I got sick weeks ago, then a fierce wind suddenly blew up from the gorge, followed by thunder and rain.  Since the living room still has a few boxes in it, I carefully avoided them and took this photo for you from the inside out, showing the pool in the rain.  It is absolutely gorgeous sitting here with a book, listening to the pitter-patter of the raindrops.                                                             



New kitchen!

I'm very happy with my new kitchen.  All that remains to be done is the tiling, which Philip will do.  (You can see one white tile resting behind the sink.)  And he will paint the top of the wall the same lemon as the rest of the room.

I'm absolutely exhausted.  There was lots of cleaning up to do after the tradesmen drilling through brick walls and so on, and then I had to unpack another thousand boxes and put all the stuff into drawers and cupboards. Philip chose a combination microwave/convection oven which I will have to learn to use, and an electric stove top.  (That's my old white microwave/grill on top of the chest of drawers.  Don't want to throw it out as it's perfectly good.)

When I get the other end of the room tidy I'll put up a pic of that, too.



A few catastrophe-free days...

I'm almost afraid to turn the news on nowadays in case there's been another catastrophe somewhere in the world.  Mind you, when I got back home last night after a few days in Goulburn and Canberra with my sister and niece, I heard Sydney had had six weeks' rain in a day!  (I had wondered why the train I got into at Central had running water!)  Philip had had to pump several centimetres out of the pool as it was close to overflowing.  Amazing.



The lovely ball in the top pic hangs in the air outside the National Gallery where we saw the Ballets Russes costume exhibition.  http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/BalletsRusses/

An electrician is here right now, doing the work for my new kitchen (which might go in tomorrow).  He's on his mobile, speaking a language I can't even identify.  Makes me think of the other day when I was in a new suburb - well new for me - looking for Spotlight (a fabric/curtain/etc shop).  I couldn't find it for over an hour and desperately needed a toilet, so drove into the local HUGE shopping centre where I hoped I'd find a toilet and directions to Spotlight.  There were two women in the lift, so I asked them but neither could speak English.  The first four women in the toilet couldn't speak English, either!  Fortunately the fifth one to come along could.  That is a bit unnerving...

Muffy's very much at home...

I'm very happy Muffy has settled in so well.  Just took this pic of her sunning herself again on the table beside the pool.  She's made no attempt to go up the driveway and seems content to make the pool area her world.

Words fail me re the tsunami in Japan.  I've had lots of enquiries about the in-laws' side of the family and can reassure everybody they are safe.  I think this catastrophe teaches us we have nothing to complain about at all.

I think I'm over the bronchitis, but have good days then bad.  Yes, I'm doing as I'm told and resting a lot.

It's a hard life for some...

Yes, you're right, Winifred, it does take a long time to recover from a chest problem - you've just been through it yourself, so we're both in the same boat.  I got up on Saturday morning feeling like death warmed up, but showered, dressed and even put makeup on ready for our piano lessons.  Philip came downstairs, took one look at me and ordered me back to bed, so I obeyed.  I slept from 10am to 2pm, woke briefly and ate the breakfast that had been left for me, then went back to sleep till 5pm, had a bite to eat then slept the whole night through till 8am!!!!!!!!  My body must have been really exhausted.

Yesterday I ventured out with the family to a local nursery and today I'm actually out of bed and and attempting to clean up.  It's a gorgeous autumn day and I've put doonas and pillows on the line to freshen them up and washed sheets, etc.  Just took this photo of Muffy, who thinks she's in paradise, sunning herself beside the pool.

Local street scene

I do apologise for not having blogged for such a long time but I have been sick with bronchitis and a displaced pelvic bone and stuck in bed for a couple of weeks.  It is awful being sick!  Just now I went back to a physiotherapist I discovered a few streets away and took this photo while I was out.  (She told me she didn't need to do another treatment as the first one had fixed me, so she just took the binding off.)  In just over an hour I take the last of the antibiotics which seem to have got rid of the bronchitis, so hopefully I'll be back to normal in no time.

Sydney is such a beautiful city I can hardly believe it.  The north shore is filled with trees and when you travel between Hornsby and the CBD you'd think you were in the bush!  They are not called the leafy suburbs for nothing...

Good to find your comments again, Winifred.