A year ago today

On this day one year ago, the U.K. went into the first lockdown.  It was also the day that we got back from Australia.   You can read about it here: Coming home to a different country.

And if you are interested, you can do some armchair travelling reading about the rest of our trip.

Travelling during a worldwide crisis

Puffing Billy

Phillip Island

Thursday and Friday

 Crossing the border

Two Days in Sydney

In the back of beyond

During this last 12 months I have often looked at my photos from this trip.  They have cheered me up whenever I have been disappointed about the lack of being able to travel.  But foreign travel is a privilege, not a right.  

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Sunset

I thought I'd show you some photos I took of a sunset when we were in Australia in March.  I took the photos without a filter but this is what the camera took.

Which is interesting, because I took the next three after the first two but not directly at the sun.

Suffice it to say, it was a lovely evening.

I love taking photos of sunsets.   What's your favourite subject to photograph?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Travel Journal

Do you remember right back at the beginning of lockdown I shared my holiday in Australia?  Today I thought I'd share how I recorded that in my Word of the Year Journal, rather than have a particular travel journal.

I wrote in the journal every few days.  I also had a notebook that I wrote in each day so that I noted what we had done that day.  I also had some post it notes with me to leave gaps for the photos.  When I got home I printed out the photos and stuck them in.

I went back to my March calendar and filled in what we had done!

I'll share some of my other journal pages next time.  I'm recording the things I've done each day through lockdown, just so I can feel I've achieved something each day.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Coming home to a different country

Our final morning in Australia.  Andy took us all to Oatley Park where Roger & I went for a short walk and met back up with the family at the river's edge.

Andy was teaching Crusoe to swim.

After lunch Andy took us to the airport and we started our journey home.  The night before Singapore Airport had announced they would not be accepting transit passengers after midnight on the Monday.   Fortunately our flight for London left at 11.45pm on that Monday.  Although it did turn out that if you arrived before midnight and your flight wasn't until the next day then you could continue your journey.

The flight was almost full but Roger & I had a row of three seats for the two of us.   The flight was almost normal, apart from no hot flannels!  Or magazines in the seat pocket.  Hardly essentials!

We arrived in London as originally planned and collected the car.  The roads were quiet but it was 6am so it was hard to tell if things were different or not.  However whilst we were flying home, the Foreign Office had recalled British Citizens home.  Some are still stuck abroad as airlines closed down their services.  Currently 90% of Singapore Airlines flights are grounded.

Also whilst we were flying home, the lockdown announcement had been made.  So we arrived to a very different country.

I know that lots of people are finding it difficult.  Especially those who are worried about their finances as well as their health.  Roger & I are very fortunate to be healthy and to have our pensions.  We are only vulnerable apparently because of our age.  I was a bit miffed about that.  Earlier in the year much had been made about how healthy over-70s could be volunteering with various charities etc.  And now we're vulnerable!  But I understand there's a need to draw a line somewhere.  The government might have chosen 65 like some of the states in the US.

Roger is still shopping once a week.  We don't come into the category that allows us to have supermarket deliveries.  We both have a variety of hobbies and to be honest much of my life is the same as it was.  Obviously the church building is shut down so there's no church meeting or open studio time.  But the church leadership has risen to the occasion with livestreaming on Sundays and a daily 45 minute zoom prayer meeting.  Lifegroup is also via Zoom.  To be honest I've had more contact with church in the last 2 weeks than I normally do.

This is my last post about our holiday.  I am truly thankful that we managed to do everything we had planned and that we spent a week with the family.

I will be continuing to post here.  I will be back to sharing my creative endeavours.

Keep smiling.
Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

In the back of beyond

At this point in our trip I was keeping an eye out for emails or texts from Singapore Airlines and information about returning home either from the Australian government or from the UK.  I had seen that Singapore Airlines had cancelled three flights for the next Monday, but that ours was still on track to fly out of Sydney.   SO we continued with our plans to stay at an Airbnb place Andy had found in Capertee.   Coincidentally I had just finished reading The Finder which featured Capertee.

We set off on Thursday morning, stopping off at The Three Sisters viewpoint in the Blue Mountains.

I tried taking photos as we drove along but not all were successful

This was the beautiful three-bedroomed, two bathroom cabin in its own grounds.

And fabulous views.

On Friday we went to Mudgee and had a walk round.  We found an excellent playground for the children.

We then travelled on to Gulgong where Andy, Roger & I went round the Pioneer Museum. It was absolutely packed full of items.  To be honest it looked like everyone for miles around had decluttered their houses and farms and dumped everything with the museum.

Lots of lovely rust though!

Then we went on to Lowe's winery for lunch.

On Saturday we drove to Rylestone where we bought food for a picnic.

We went to Wollemi National Park where Andy & Crusoe went in the water.  Sadly the flies were so annoying that we ended up eating our picnic in the car!

The rock formations in the park were interesting.  Lots of the tops looked like roofs on rock houses.

The countryside we drove through to get back to Capertee was fascinating.

Andy loves to build a fire.

And the beautiful sunset.

On Sunday we packed up and started the journey back to Brighton-Le-Sands.

We stopped for lunch at Bilpin Cider where we had pizza.

By now we were checked in for our flight home the next day.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice