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

Two days in Sydney

Our first full day with the Hopper Juniors and Minors.  The minors went off to 'school' - that's daycare to the rest of us and Andy & Naomi took us to Girigal Park.  This was one of Andy's  gentle, undualting walks!  In reality, a really steep downhill walk with some of the path having been washed away.

Fortunately for me, he decided to go back to fetch the car on his own and meet us further on into the park.  There were some really interesting 'rusty' rocks.

We have never visited at this time of the year and so have never seen that the Eucalyptus tree sheds its bark.

Underneath it looks like clay with finger marks.

There was also a small waterfall.

On Wednesday, (another childfree day), Andy & Naomi took us to their favourite cafe at Clontarf.

We then drove to Manly.  We walked along to the centre of Manly where we found a great restaurant for lunch.  Sadly for them, but nice for us, we were the only customers.

Andy & Naomi left us in Manly and drove home.  We went for a walk.

Afterwards we took the Manly ferry back to Circular Quay in Sydney.

I have loads of photos of Sydney from all our visits so I didn't take many that day.  Just enjoyed being there.  We got the train to Rockdale and Andy picked us up at the station.

We had a Lebanese takeway with one of their friends, Sam.  He is a writer and I love following his blog.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice