Wednesday
Rain rain rain wind wind wind – BMW stuck in carpark – Brookvale revisited

Another stormy Sydney day… I suppose some of you must be wondering why on EARTH I am not out and about doing more fabulous things with my Sydney time…well it isn’t easy! I would love to be riding my beloved bike, going for a brisk (or dreamy…walk), rushing about exploring the neighborhood – the marina is on the border of Mosman, a very salubrious suburb, with shops and things to look at within half an hour’s walk. But…it is such fierce and violent weather! Just going to the amenities (lovely showers! A choice of four toilets!) requires a fair measure of fortitude. I am quite happy, while Pete does arcane things on his computer. I read my Kindle, look at the internet, and, in slightly more useful vein, have cleaned and re-organised the kitchen (galley!) shelves and cupboards.

About three days, while I was at the laundromat, Pete found a poor man, sitting on a folding stool , huddled in ago the sleet, next to a small, silver BMW in the marina carpark. He was hunched over the door, with a set of pick-locks (lock-picks??). When Pete came back, over an hour later, the man was still there…patiently trying… Pete said, “Gawd, mate, that’s taking you a while!” and the man replied, “Oh yes, but I’ll get there in the end!” He did indeed manage to unlock the recalcitrant door…but the car punished him by refusing to start. The owner says, “Well nobody can ever steal this car, and that’s for sure!” It is still there, in the carpark, smugly refusing to start. I reckon the owner comes back every now and then, in the howling wind and the rain, to give it a swift kick, for its own good.

I had been thinking of going home for a few days…just to touch base and see my family for a few hours… But the Chilean volcano has conspired against me – no hope of getting a ticket, and even if I did, no certainty of getting back. So 2XS might set off for Lord Howe Island without me on Saturday. (NOT a good thought...) Also…if I went home, maybe I wouldn’t come back; the lure of familiarity, family, friends… No going back! I am very happy even though we are in a state of hiatus in windy sleety Sydney. There are lots of compensations – being neighbours with the Sydney Harmsens, living on the North Shore for a week or so, watching Pete do his complicated preparations. He is so very resourceful, and so very last-minute… I am in awe because my way (the boring, plodding Harmsen way…) would be to plot and plan months if not years in advance for all of the red-tape; Pete is doing it all NOW, with great success.

This afternoon we ventured out, in wind and sleet, to Brookvale, Pete’s newspiritual home. He darted in and out of toolshops and sailshops and boating supplies, whiel I sat an dplayed Boggle on my iphone. I did get out when we got to Warringah Mall because I wanted to buy ingredients for dinner. (The tuna-sloppy thing I made last night, in an unnecessarily vast quantity, has lost its pulling power for me…) So now I have a red pasta sauce (chilli, mussels, capers – Niece Jo’s recipe…) simmering on the stove, and Pete is playing very happily with a lovely new battery-operated grinder. And we have very sustaining G & Ts at hand… Life is good!

Tomorrow – who knows??