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September 2024 (Melbourne)

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  ^My Dad as a young man My final words last month, “Looking forward to a quieter September” ended up meaning  something different than I had intended. First of all, we celebrated my Mother-in-law’s 80th birthday. Twenty-one of us had a lovely  lunch at Crown and then another, smaller lunch on her actual birthday. After a recent health  scare for her and a couple of nasty surgeries, it was lovely to all gather and to celebrate her  life together. #Trigger warning re death# My Dad, who received a terminal cancer diagnosis a year ago ended up going to hospital by  Ambulance on 10 September with Covid. That became palliative care and, on 27 September, he passed away with me at his bedside. There is a lot more to say but I will leave  that for now whilst I process his passing and the wider family angst and drama that has surrounded it. Suffice to say that I spent 17 days in The Alfred Hospital. Dad never complained but he had  good and bad days. He was able to say goodbye in person to each
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August 2024 - Croatia, Istanbul, Melbourne and Papua New Guinea (there's an unlikely combo!!)

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^Kayaking in Dubrovnik The Croatia cruise was……AMAZING! It was with Azamara and called “Croatia Intensive.” Starting in Venice, stopping in Opatija, Zadar, Šibenik, Split, Korčula, Dubrovnik, Kotor (Montenegro) and finishing in Athens, there was only one sea day and one amazing destination after the other. Coupled with amazing weather – cobalt skies every day – and glassy seas, it was divine! We had a lovely dinner in Venice and both got up the next morning a bit nervous. It was my first Press trip. What would the others in the group be like? What was expected of me? Would I be run ragged? Would I be excluded by the others as I was so new to all this? I needn’t have worried. The entire group – one couple from London and the others all from Sydney or Melbourne – was lovely and welcoming and excited! We all gelled from the start and had a lot of fun! Yes, it was busy but it was fun busy. We had a few “mandated” dinners together and one “mandated” activity. The dinners were fine dining in
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July 2024 - Europe (Italy, Turkey and Croatia)

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^ A photo taken by one of my Press Trip colleagues before dinner on "White Night." It radiates the "new me!" Thank you Tash! It has been a busy month of catching up with emails and family in the morning (Europe morning and Australia later afternoon and evening), sightseeing most of the day, dinner and bed. The heat has been relentless. Every day 30 -35. Although we knew that’s what the weather would be, I often feel like a wilted lettuce! We have now started our Croatia cruise with Azamara. This is a Press Trip and we are part of a group of 11. I was apprehensive coming in. Not only suffering “imposter syndrome” but worrying that the group would be cliquey and unfriendly. Nothing could be further from the truth – one pair is from London, the others a split of Melbourne and Sydney. Each person is lovely and interesting and friendly. We are fast friends already 😊 The cruise itinerary is busy plus there are shore excursions and group dinners and I am not sure I will h
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June 2024 - Europe (Italy and Malta)

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^The Grand Canal, Venice I survived the ASTW event (everyone was very welcoming!) and, a couple of days later, Andrew and I flew to Milan via Singapore. Given that we do not have the constraints of work or school terms any more, we decided to break the journey and transit in Singapore. We thought that meant not leaving our Singapore airport hotel but there were actually two, different, free tours we could choose from which both had different Singapore sightseeing opportunities. It sounded like a great idea to me but also to a few others as the tours were booked out! The hotel worked well – we arrived in Singapore late so went straight to bed then wandered around the airport for a while in the morning and spent the rest of the day at the hotel (outdoor) pool. We had rented the hotel room for the 23 odd hours we were there so we showered and flew to Milan late that night. Our cases were checked through from Melbourne direct to Milan so we did have to plan what we took with us in our day
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May 2024 - Palm Cove, Melbourne and Noosa

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^Choosing a few photos for this month's blog entry made me realise this has been the month of the Queensland beach walks!! What a privilege to live in a country where there are such beautiful, unspoiled beaches which are also accessible to all. We started the month in Palm Cove. Our last group who stayed with us are a couple we have been friends with for almost 40 years! It was lovely to spend a few, relaxed days together. Dropping them off at Cairns airport on a Monday morning, we started the almost 3,000 kilometre drive home to Melbourne. I wanted to be home by the Friday as I had concert tickets booked for Melbourne for the Saturday night and it was Mothers’ Day on the Sunday. We had also been away for almost three weeks and we were less than four weeks away from a two month trip to Europe (sorry, that’s a lot of numbers!!) The upshot of all that is that we had no time to wind our way down the East Coast. It was basically point the car and drive. And drive. And drive. We have a
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April 2024 - Melbourne and Palm Cove

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^What 56 looks like 😊 April started with Easter. Well, it didn’t really as Easter Sunday was 31 March but I’ll claim it for April. We had the extended family to Rye for lunch and the weather turned it on! The kids all stayed with us for the entire break which was lovely. Just after Easter, Andrew set off for Palm Cove. By car! He wanted to tow his boat and keep it at the local marina for a while. His Mum kept him company for the first couple of days. They parted company on the Sunshine Coast where one of her daughter’s (one of Andrew’s sisters) and her family are having a sea change for a year. He drove the last couple of days on his own and then had a few days fishing in beautiful weather and calm seas. Fillets of delicious coral trout were brought home and eaten at our next family “shindig” which was my birthday in mid April.  Andrew was away for about 10 days and I enjoyed the time to myself in Rye and then back in Melbourne. Easter signalled the last of the beautiful Autumn weathe
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