Sabbatical Soundings

I can’t believe it’s my last full day in Australia… it’s 24 days since I left home and I’ve experienced and done soooooooo much, yet it’s also hard to think that time is coming to a close tomorrow. But that’s tomorrow evening, and today has, once again, been great.  After the wonderful, rich and long day yesterday, we all slept relatively late and enjoyed a different pace today ~ though not quite as sleepy as Jasper perhaps… Late morning Em and I headed out to a small place on the banks of the Hawksbury River called Mooney Mooney ~ I confess, all that kept going through my mind was the Billy Idol song! We had arranged to visit Broken Bay Oysters and Pearl Farm and join their Oysters Lovers Trip. I found it fascinating as I knew very little about how oysters grow and develop, and learnt about different kinds of oysters grown in different places, whether for pearls or food.  The experience included an hour’s boat trip, looking at different oyster leases; at natural rock oyster c...

As I type, it’s just turned midnight, so technically, this is about yesterday, but as I haven’t slept yet, it’s still today, Tuesday! We got back to Em and Jeff’s about 11.15pm from a full day out in wonderful Sydney. Em left for work really early, so Jeff and I leaving at 8.15am to head in seemed quite a slow start! 15 hours, 15km and over 22500 steps later, we’ve had quite a day. Jeff and I caught the train into Central Station, which takes about an hour and a quarter from their nearest station. Then a quick hop on the light rail to meet Em in the foyer of where she works ~ Australia’s National Maritime Museum. And then we left the museum to find decent coffee! My ‘baby’ sister is rather accomplished. Em is the Creative Producer for the National Maritime Museum, which means she dreams up fantastic exhibitions ~  ideas, researching content, devising wonderful creative ways of communicating things, using as many different interactive and funky means as possible. I’m sure I’m not do...

You’re spared a long post today as we’ve had a gentle and lovely day. My only venture out was taking Em and  Jeff out for lunch at a restaurant run by a friend of Em’s called Fisherman’s Wharf in nearby Woy Woy. We enjoyed a lovely meal in the warm sunshine, chatting and watching the pelicans. It brought back memories of when I was here 8 years’ ago with Paul and the pelicans were eating our fish and chips! Quite a lot of the rest of the day, Em and I embarked on a creative project. Some of you will know that Em has produced some beautiful pieces using drift wood or frames with wire art. Here are a couple of examples of her work… Well, I’ve not tried this before, but with her guidance, I have been working on a scene with three wire little penguins, mounted on driftwood. A creative reminder of Em and I going to watch the little penguins come in to roost when we were in Melbourne ~ that feels like soooooo long ago, but in fact was only just over 2 weeks’ ago! It’s not yet finished, b...

This morning dawned clear and cool, but the sun soon warmed things up. Em and I headed out fairly early to visit another of the beach-side towns locally, called Avoca ~ which reminds me of when Paul and I visited Avoca in Ireland a few years’ ago! The reason we headed there, was first to have breakfast, and then explore the monthly Avoca Markets, a fab and colourful collection of stalls along the edge of the lagoon and beach. We wandered amongst the stalls, lots of artisan foods and drinks, local crafts, music and a great crowd of people ~ and dogs! We then sat by the beach for a few minutes soaking up the sunshine, before we had to head off. I have learned that on Saturdays there’s lots of kids sporting clubs, and on Sundays, it’s the adults’ turn. So I had the privilege of standing on the sidelines and watching Em play soccer. She plays for one of the Umina Eagles women’s teams and today were playing away. She told the team they had to win as I’d travelled a long way to watch them… a...