Two Drifters

^Dressed up for our son's wedding - a perfect day! We finished our coastal voyage, spent a night in Bergen and flew out early to Tromsø. We’d booked five nights (four full days) to maximise our opportunities to see the Northern Lights. We found walking around that first afternoon hard in the icy, slippery conditions. Our hotel, the Scanic Ishavshotel was pricey and the room was small but it was right on the water and super close (max five minutes’ walk) to where all our excursions left from. Best of all, we had an enormous window that looked at the water and across to the mainland (Tromsø is an island). The view was to die for even though most of the view was during pitch-dark hours. Tromsø is in the Arctic Circle. When we visited at the beginning of December it was bright (sort of!) at about 10am and dark again between 1 and 2pm. It was so strange yet also amazing to see. The first morning where we woke up in Tromsø, we woke to falling snow which continued to fall for the next fou...

^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...

^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...

  ^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 wa...

^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...