March 2024 - Home in Rye and Melbourne

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, I was envisaging a little plane and a tiny airport like we used last year in Naxos, Greece. Nope! We flew IndiGO and it was no different from flying Qantas or Virgin domestic. Next time we go to India, we’ll look at more domestic flights and less long, dangerous drives.

We flew home to Melbourne on an evening flight from Delhi so we had a few hours to spend in Delhi. The day dawned drizzly and we thought about just staying at the hotel. I am so glad we didn’t. We took an UBER to Humayun’s Tomb complex. Humayun’s Tomb is the inspiration for the Taj Majal. It is a beautiful tomb which is shaped similarly to the Taj Mahal but is made of red sandstone rather than white marble. We had a lovely couple of hours wandering around and then flew home.

In family news, our second son, N, and his partner, K, bought their first home – an apartment. Very exciting for them and another one leaving the nest for us. 

It still doesn’t sit quite right to me that, at the time my kids need me the least, I am not busy working. The nine years we had our legal business I was slammed for time at the same time that the kids were all living at home and at school or uni. I wish that I had been less busy then and I often wish that I am more busy now! 

We arrived home from India on 3 March and we have had a lovely, quiet month. We have spent most of it in Rye and enjoyed beautiful weather. We saw a fantastic production of “Wicked” and we caught up with family and some friends. This coming weekend is Easter and we have all the kids coming to stay at Rye (yeahh!!!) and extended family coming for lunch on Easter Sunday.

(AFL) footy has returned too after the Summer break and we excitedly went to the MCG to see Collingwood’s 2023 Premiership flag being unfurled. We have not had much else joy footy-wise as Collingwood is currently zero wins for three matches! Oh well, maybe we’ll sneak a couple of weeks in Palm Cove in September?!! We’ll have a few pennies in the pocket if we don’t have to shell out for Grand Final tickets! Silver linings!!

I would be remiss to discuss a "home" month without discussing our beautiful fur babies, Albus and Harry. They bring us a lot of joy and 24/7 time with them is a great bonus of being home.

In Writing Wins, I was accepted as a Member of the Australian Society of Travel Writers. I am looking forward to seeing what Membership of the ASTW brings.

I had a travel article published in GoWorld Travel Magazine - https://www.goworldtravel.com/how-speak-australian/ - and a short story published in Café Lit  titled, Mr Morton’s New Pair of Shoes - https://www.cafelitmagazine.uk/search?q=leonie+jarrett&max-results=20&by-date=true 

The travel article is a slightly tongue in cheek piece and it was very exciting as I was commissioned by GoWorld to write it! The short story was one I wrote for a competition where there was a mandatory first line, namely “Mr. Morton needed a new pair of shoes.” I love the variety of the things I am writing. Sitting puzzling over words is really my happy place 😃





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

November 2024 (Hunter Valley, home, Oxford, Norway)

Image
^Polar me!! I write this from the Havila MS Pollux on the Southbound voyage en route to Tromsø, Norway. A little queasy but more on that later. Andrew and I drove to the Hunter Valley. We could easily have flown (Newcastle airport is the closest airport) but Andrew wanted to go fishing and play golf so it worked better to drive. He bought himself a fishing kayak and we towed that too! I attended a Pre-famil (meaning a Press Trip) before the Convention. This was organised by the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association and was a genius move by me, even though I hadn’t realised it at the time! Rather than attending the Convention where I would know one other person (the PR who convened the Azamara Croatia Press Trip), I was able to meet seven other people. It made attending the Convention much less intimidating. The Pre-famil was a whirlwind (mainly of wine tasting!) and we had the red carpet laid out. It was a great learning experience and I already have one accepted travel story in t...
Read more

January 2025 (Rye, Mornington Peninsula)

Image
Isn't she a beauty?! A shorter than usual entry for me this month as I am in “holiday mode.” I have spent most of the month at my happy place in Rye (where I am writing this). My first trip outside of Rye is 30 January when I fly to Perth ahead of flying the following day to the Cocos Keeling Islands for a week! Look for photo spam on @2_drifterss (Instagram) and for a rundown in February. Very excited for this incredible opportunity. Rewind to this month..the weather has been incredible in Melbourne (very stable and sunny). We have happily pottered about at our house, in the garden, read, watched the Australian Open, watched cricket, had a couple of lazy winery lunches, had family time, swam and generally lolled about. Perfect! On my first morning here, I went to Polperro Winery in Red Hill for a morning outdoor yoga class – blissful. Sadly (!!), that was the beginning and end of my yoga for the month. Oh well, one class is better than none!! Our lovely winery lunches were at Port...
Read more

October 2024 (Melbourne)

Image
^24 year old me with my Dad. I married Andrew in the Kildara Chapel, Malvern, Kildara was my secondary school. Sadly, the Chapel, Convent and school were all demolished a few years later. Well…this month has also been dominated by my Dad’s recent death. I typed “death,” thought it sounded too harsh, erased it, typed “passing” and then thought…Dad didn’t pass (by)…that sounds transient, like he passed by on the way somewhere. Maybe that’s what has happened..I don’t know.  I erased “passing” and typed “death” again.  More concrete; absolute. Final. As is my stage of life, the sadness of Dad’s death has been coupled with the excitement of my eldest child who has relocated to Oxford to study an MBA at Oxford University (very proud parents!) and the happiness of his fiancée who has joined him for the year. We will see them both next month. Also occurring was the happy event of our youngest’s 21st (and her long-time boyfriend’s as well). G’s 21st was sandwiched in amongst funerals b...
Read more