Two Drifters

The first couple of days of March were spent in India – in Jaisalmer and in Delhi. We left the tour in Jodhpur and hired a driver to take us to Jaisalmer which is in the desert. It was a five or six hour drive from Jodhpur and I had a doze (I sleep very easily in the car!). I woke with a start to Andrew yelling, “That’s enough. Pull over!” Andrew had been watching our driver‘s head nod. When the driver also took his foot off the accelerator and started to move across the road, Andrew yelled out to wake up the driver. No harm was done but I didn’t fall asleep again after that!! Jaisalmer’s claim to fame is a magnificent fort where people still live and work today. We told our driver to rest and we hired a TukTuk to take us there. It was probably the hottest day we had - about 30 degrees – but the narrow streets atop the Fort were shaded and we had a lovely meander. I even managed to buy a few gifts (colourful scarves) and a couple of dresses. We flew from Jaisalmer to Delhi. In my head,

We started with a lovely couple of weeks in Rye. The weather was good. This is always the way in Melbourne - school starts back and the weather heats up! We had quite a few gatherings of friends and family, even some old work colleagues and the days passed very easily! Mid February, Andrew and I set off for India. Andrew had been to Mumbai 20 odd years ago for work but I have never been so we were both excited and a little nervous. We started with two days in Delhi then went by car to Agra, Jaipur, Bikaner, Pushkar, Udaipur, Chandelao Garh and Jodphur. The tour included an English-speaking Driver and Guide and they looked after us very well. We kept being told that, in India, guests are “like Gods!” so they couldn’t do enough for us. In Jodphur, we left the tour and hired a different car and guide to take us to Jaisalmer. At the beginning of March, we will fly from there to Delhi and then back home to Melbourne. I’ll leave the descriptions about what we did where as GoWorld Travel Maga

Another year has started and, with it, we kicked off our first trip – a cruise on the Viking Orion from Sydney to Auckland. My Dad had booked this cruise but was not well enough to go and asked us to go in his place. We didn’t need to be asked twice! We missed our eldest’s birthday (he turned 28) but he and his fiancée were holidaying in Singapore anyway so I didn’t need to feel badly about that! Their wedding is at the end of the year so I will have a married child this time next year. Wow – when did I get that old??! The cruise was fun. The timing wasn’t great as it coincided with the other 3 kids and partners being on holidays. We ordinarily would have had lots of family time at Rye but, instead, we were sailing the High Seas! Also, we would not have chosen to cruise so soon after the cruise to Antarctica. Having said all that, we enjoyed it. We flew to Sydney (an adventure in itself as wild storms closed Melbourne airport twice whilst we were there!) By the time we arrived at the V

Buenos Aires (pronounced Irez; not Aries) was amazing – crazy weather whilst we were there. We both also suffered from jet lag for a few days so our sightseeing was sometimes a bit foggy but we enjoyed Buenos Aires for the cosmopolitan city that it is.  BA is a contrast of neighbourhoods, architecture, colour and weather! In a few days, we had both    searing sun and drenching rain. We saw suburbs of grey and suburbs of vibrant colour, Parisian-style chateaux and brightly-painted timber buildings, grand buildings and boulevards and narrow, cobblestone alleys. We lucked in with Jacaranda in full blossom so there was a beautiful sprinkling of purple everywhere.  We learnt that Argentina had been a very rich country but is now in real danger of “going broke.” Inflation is crippling and the new President has some big challenges to face.   We stayed in a wonderful hotel which opened in 1922 – the Alvear Palace. The central lobby was inspired by the great Ocean Liners of the time and every m

A very quiet month which we divided between Melbourne and Rye. The Spring weather was as unpredictable as ever and we were in jeans and long sleeves more than we were in t-shirts!  We spent some time catching up on household jobs and did some Spring gardening. Two houses and two gardens to maintain is a lot but it keeps us busy. Andrew has tackled some bigger gardening projects and hung some artwork - an example is pictured below!! L turned 23 and N turned 26 so we had big family dinners. We also had all the kids (except N) at Rye over the Cup Day unofficial long weekend so there were more big gatherings!   I finished my travel writing course (can’t recall whether I had mentioned that but it was an online, self-paced course). I enjoyed it and I have implemented quite a few of the lessons but Editors are still ignoring me. Ah well…persistence hey?! I actually had a little reflection about not having teenagers any more published in “The Australian.” No payment of course and the paper did

30 September 2023…a day that will live in Infamy ha ha!! Not only was it our anniversary of finishing employment but it was the day that our beloved Collingwood won the AFL Grand Final. Collingwoooooooood (as the crowd chant goes!) WHAT. A.DAY!!  I have been lucky enough to attend three Grand Finals in my life – 1990, 2018 and 2023. I was 22 back in 1990 and only obtained a ticket because Andrew’s Mum had a work connection to Collingwood. Andrew had been to a few Grand Finals before 1990 and Collingwood had lost each of them so, when they won in 1990, he told me (repeatedly) how lucky I was! It was a fabulous experience. Little did I know that I would wait 33 years for a repeat! Collingwood was in a few Grand Finals between 1991 and 2009 but lost all of them. We had no money and/or small children so we watched them all on TV. In 2010, we were in Bali on a family holiday as we watched the Granny on the TV and were stunned when it ended in a draw. We arrived back in Melbourne before the