11th April - Sydney - Manly ferry - Clontarf - Archibald Prize

Thursday 11^th April

I am halfway to 2XS…

Pete rang yesterday.  James and Rachel have flown the coop, and he is an orphan on his boat, at the marina on Hamilton Island.  And…it is cold, wet, windy… The rain is pouring down and he is surrounded by very disgruntled would-be holiday makers.

Meanwhile it has been lovely in Hobart, and it is even more glorious here in beautiful Sydney.  I caught a train from the airport and was son on the manly ferry.  It is not the first time I have sobbed a bit, on the Manly ferry… The first time I cried because it was just so overwhelmingly beautiful; the second time because of – well I won’t say why, but I was VERY sad.  And this time because I had said goodbye for the final time to my darling family…

But now I am with Karen, my wonderful sister-in-law.  We are having a cup of tea and then we will have a walk along the beach, where I can see dogs frolicking, pelicans sailing about in a majestic way, boats bobbing, the whole glory of Sandy Bay Road, Clontarf.  We spent a few hours this afternoon looking at the Archibald Prize exhibition, which I enjoyed very much – it was my first time.  Pete and I tried to go when we were on our way back to Hobart last year but…strangely, the gallery closes at 5.00 and we got there at 4.55… (I say strangely because Pete was astonished; he thought it would be open till at least 7.00; I was a bit less optimistic.)

Just so you can see why I shed a few bitter tears…here are my four granddaughters, with me, on the waterfront last week…

10th April - ethics of blogphotos

Wednesday 10^th April

More goodbyes…oh dear and oh no…

Over breakfast at Ginger Brown’s – delicious baked eggs, by the way – in South Hobart I brought up the topic of ethics, re putting up photos on this blogsite.  Some were firmly of the view that nobody should have a photo put up in cyberpsace without their permission.  Fair enough – but what does this mean??  I can ask someone on Budi Budi, midway between the Solomons and the Louisiades, if they consent to having their photo uploaded onto a blogsite and…what will they say???  What concept would they have, re these arcane words??  Other opinions were – no photos of children.

For example – this photo…  Maybe I should never put up any photos of children???  I do feel it will all be very boring, if I only put up photos of scenery…or of Pete and me, oldcodgering around on the boat…

9th April - MAC101 - class time - pooping areas - technological issues

Tuesday 9^th April

The good news is…2XS is not lost at sea…

I had been very mildly worried; not to the point of panic but when Cam rang from the Gold Coast, very concerned about Pete and Crew and Boat, I notched up the anxiety just a tad.  All unnecessary; they were only out of phone range.  James occasionally had a few bars of reception, and he had rung Bron, so I got a bit of reassurance from her.  And this afternoon Captain Pete rang, from Brampton Island, in the Whitsundays.  They should be at Hamilton Island tomorrow, ready for both James and Rachel to return to real life in Hobart.  I rather think they will all have fairly highly-coloured stories to report…and they possibly will conflict, one way or the other…

This morning I went to Lauderdale School to talk to Wonderful Mr Whelan’s Grade Five.  I had met this group a few weeks ago when I spent a few hours with them on a Ten Days on the Island school excursion.  I had been very impressed with their charm and enthusiasm.  Angus is in this class; he thinks Mr Whelan is the Best Teacher Ever.  I had a great hour with the class, showing them a few photos of children in the Solomons and the Louisiades.  They had lots of questions and opinions.  They were – this was no surprise – particularly interested in toilet arrangements, and they were highly amused to hear that both John Miedecke and I had swum right into toileting areas off various islands, only to be sent back by small children in tiny canoes, saying, “No swimming here.  This water is for pooping.”  They loved the photo of the children in the canoe at Twin Waterfall Bay in the Solomons – one teenage babysitter, Gwendolyn, and six, I think, very small children, all balancing confidently in a shallow, narrow, leaky canoe, which Gwendolyn confidently paddled across deep water to visit us.

You may have noticed I have a new technological skill: I can include photos!!  I spent a very profitable hour and a half with my Mac 101 man, Gary Waterson.#  He was very kind, patient and helpful and I can do NEARLY everything he showed me… Sigh sigh not quite everything but…putting photos on my blog was close to top of my list, so…all is well!

# Gary Waterson – helps with all manner of Mac/Apple issues:

0402 917 751

info@mac101.com.au

8th April - take what you want - saying goodbye

Monday 8^th April

There is a Spanish proverb which goes like this;

Take what you want and pay for it, said God

So very true…

The price I pay for my good luck, good health, love, fun and life of adventure is…I have to keep saying goodbye, over and over, to people I love and care about…

I won’t dwell on this.  Too painful, and possibly boring, to hear me go on and on…

As for The Adventures Of 2XS – well, still no news.  I can’t get through on the phone so I can only assume they are still on the high seas making way surely and swiftly towards Hamilton Island.  Today I ran into Pete’s daughter’s father-in-law, who said, “Goodness they are having a rough trip of it, aren’t they?”  I was quite astonished.  Are they??  If so I didn’t know…

7th April - slowcooking - practise not practice

Sunday 7^th April

Another busy Hobart day…trying not to have to say final goodbyes…

I decided to cook a particularly delicious meal for Katy and Jeff, based on their wonderful wedding anniversary Peppermint Bay menu. 

Something not at all in my repertoire…slow-cooked lamb shoulder… I carefully downloaded a recipe from the internet and set off for the supermarket at crack-of-dawn (nearly…)  Without – oh no – my reading glasses… I rushed back, got out the slow cooker and loaded it up with carrots, onions, passata, stock, bay leaves, onions, and…the lamb shoulder…  When I got back at 4.00 I peeked into the slowcooker expecting…well expecting slow-cooked lamb shoulder.  What I found was something pale, strange, white, fatty… well bugger me…I crept out to the bin and unearthed the wrapper…I had indeed read shoulder correctly and a four letter word before it but what I had cooked, in a not very yummy way, was… pork shoulder… 

And what else is news??  Well my very clever pickypedant father has pointed out I have mis-spelled practise in yesterday’s blogpost…so I am going to correct it pronto, with apologies to our fellow pickypedants…