THE QUINTESSENTIAL SYDNEY SUNDAY

ONE DAY into my time here in Oz, I will write about it shortly. First, clearly the day to travel out of the US to Australia (Oz) is Thanksgiving Day and this may well be true for the reverse direction. After a most pleasant and enjoyable Thanksgiving Dinner with longtime friends out at Walnut Creek, I took the Bay Area Transport train out to the airport, with hardly anyone on board. The airport departure halls were very thinly populated; when I got to the United Airlines Departure Gate, once again not many folk were in sight. As I had adopted a leisurely approach to boarding, I thought most had already boarded (as indeed was the case) but the coach section was only half full. I scored three seats from the aisle to the window and was able to enjoy five hours of good sleep,  considerably shortening the tedium of the almost 15 hours of hours of confinement on the flight.

The flight delivered me into Sydney around nine on Saturday morning and it took only two hours to be united with my Sydney family. I got as  much sunlight as possible on the first day to adjust to the local tempo. It really helps to arrive in the morning to have almost the whole day getting about. Even so, I crashed early in the evening being overwhelmed by a good three hours sleep.

And so to Sunday morning…when we all went off to Bondi Beach around eight. My two grandsons are enrolled in the Surf Life Saving Club and were involved in organized games and training exercises. I was suitably ‘slipped, slapped and slopped’ with T-shirt, hat, and sunblock and survived the four or so hours of exposure.  How pleasant to watchwatch these activities and observe the variously garbed (and not so garbed) several thousand Sydney-siders disporting themselves in on the sand, in the surf, and under the sun. As I remarked above, a typical Sunday morning for the many Sydney folk who live near the beach. A contrast to the sub-zero temperatures and possible snow showers today back home in Corning!

The only mar, later in the day,was the news that my son, while on his scooter, was brushed by a car cutting a corner on a narrow road.  He sustained minor abrasions and a very nasty skin tear just above the elbow.Luckily, his scooter is still serviceable. As an owner of not a few motorbikes, most of which I fell off at one time or another, I well know that one’s first thoughts fly to the bike! It was not until late in the evening that we caught up on the details, when he returned from outpatient care.  Fortunately, desipte the narrow space, he took effective evasive action and avoided more serious injury.

Sydney continues with visits with friends and family and then it is off to Adelaide

THE LAST WEEK!!!

JUST ONE MORE WEEK BEFORE I head off to Oz.
Autumn is well and truly here.  I never have seen so many fallen leaves. How do the trees do it? I wonder.  So I have been busy making compost and bagging up leaves I cannot use just now but will become very handy in the Spring when the lawn will need cutting once more and the only leaves I will have are those stored in large black plastic bags.  Compost has been massive this year and I have two piles going.

The highlight of this month has been my 'Visit Robert's House' party the first Sunday afternoon of this month.  What a blast!  Must have had over forty people in the house at one point.

Many of you will have been wondering how much Corning was affected by Hurricane Sandy and the later storm.  The answer is...Hardly at all.  We got some good winds and some rain for two or three days but little damage.  Power was out for folk who live up in the more hilly, and therefore more exposed, areas.  Here in the valley, we were pretty snug.  Precluded from outside work, I read prodigiusly around the next posting for another blog ('BeliefAccordingTo...').  This has turned out to be really hard work but I hope to complete that posting this week.

The rain and cold (we have days now when the temperature is below freezing) have held me back somewhat on the last House Project, concreting and tiling around the front of the Sunroom,  This will stop the mild intrusion of moisture and reflect more winter sunlight into this room.  It will function as the rear entrance and mudroom once I am back in early February.  I am looking forward to sitting there in the warmth while the snow lays round about (smooth, and crisp and even, as the carol goes).  The story of this last outside project I will tell in a posting on the 'HouseAccording...' blog.  I should have the tiling finished mid-week or so when I will be able to post photos of that little bit of work.  Did I say, 'Little bit of work'?  I have had to mix the concrete by hand (oh, how miss that nice electric motor driven mixer I had back in Oz!).  I have done that for five separate slabs, not to mention the earlier work for the underlying fill and the excavation before that.  Today I put down the first nine tiles and felt very satisfied with myself.

So, it will be off to Oz early next Monday morning.  First to San Fancisco to stay with friends for a few days, until Thanksgiving Dinner with them, after which I will hop on the BART out to the airport to disappear into the big tin bird then to emerge on the following Saturday morning in Sydney.  Not looking forward to the long flight and it is a wonder to me that I can do it.  But then, I have had lots of practice as I have been making that flight about one a year since 1987.  Now that I am getting to be an old chap, perhaps I will make it less often.  Speaking of old chaps, one of my brothers just had his 87th birthday.  The other is a year or two older.

This time I will see all my family... my son and daughter and their partners (in Sydney and Adelaide), my sister (in Adelaide) and five of my six grandchildren, especially anticipating meeting for the first time my third granddaughter, Pepper.  Also, along the way, lots of old friends to revisit and catch up on things. On the way back to Corning, I will detour via Colorado to catch up with my elder daughter and eldest granddaughter.  Of course, there will also be some skiing.

I will write news along the way.