Here be dragons

Knowing that it was going to be another scorcher, I had an early breakfast before walking to Coles in Dee Why Grand. Liesel had sent a shopping list and I had a few bits of my own to get. I found everything I needed and was surprised at how heavy it was, altogether. I just hoped my plastic bag would take the strain for the walk back home.

It’s uphill going back and I was hot and sweaty. So I am eternally grateful to whoever discarded a shopping trolley on the pavement. I looked around surrepticiously, put my shopping in it and pushed it up the road. Let the trolley take the strain.

The trolley belongs to Woolworths and I hope it has since found its way back home. I only left it where I did because I had steps to walk up. And within 24 hours, someone else had indeed made use of it. The circle of life.

After lunch, I met up with Helen and we drove to Manly. We were meeting the other half of the family, Helen’s in-laws. Brent’s parents are Helen and Steve, known as Nana and Pa. His brother and sister-in-law are Liam and Megan. And Keiran’s cousins are Elliot and Ruby. And Ruby in particular was very taken with baby Keiran.

We met up at a bar called Felons, named after the American president and his coterie. I achieved a first today, not by intention. Twice I asked for half a pint of IPA, and twice I was given a full pint. I’ve not drunk two pints of beer in one go for a very long time, and not in the afternoon since about 1975. Still, it was nice to meet the wider family and to chat about Keiran, and maybe the odd other topic.

Brent arrived from working in Sydney, thus ending the first week in his exciting new job.

We’ve walked past the Ivanhoe Hotel in Manly many times over the years, but I think this was the first time I’ve been inside. The ten of us sat at a long table for dinner. I had my default, salad and chips, but even this I found to be too much, man. Very nice chips, it was a shame to leave them, but stomach said ‘no’.

We haven’t had an airport drama for a while. So here’s one. Liesel is joining me here in Aus for the last week of my trip. She flew from Anchorage to Portland, then to Honolulu. For some reason, she was in danger of missing her connecting flight from Honolulu to Sydney. The crew were aware and obviously did what they could to hold up the next flight. They did, and Liesel ran through Honolulu Airport, in the wake of two persons in wheelchairs heading for the same flight. Which was held for them. But we wonder whether it would have been held if the wheelchair users had not been first-class passengers?

Anyway, I monitored the flight as it set off, didn’t hear anything from Liesel so I was 99% sure she was on board.

Now that I could relax a bit, it was time to extract myself from the pit and get on with things.

First stop, breakfast, and I enjoyed the best fried egg roll I’ve had since the days of Unique in Chessington. Just what this relieved old body needed.

Then a return visit to the library for more writing. And other people were sitting at my table! What an outrage. It’s funny to see students studying with two or three screens in front of them. In the olden days, it would of course have been a pile of books with many bookmarks. But it was nice to see the art of hand-writing hasn’t totally been forgotten by the younger generation.

While writing, I realised that what this library needs is a char lady to come round with a tea trolley every so often. I just fancied a cup of tea and a biscuit.

I skimmed through the newspaper, Sydney Morning Herald and while a lot of it wasn’t good news, it was interesting to read about events and news other than Trump, Epstein, Mandelson, Starmer. And a really good, in-depth article about AI, far more detailed than anything I’ve seen in the UK.

And then I found the puzzle page. I was on form: I completed the cryptic crossword, the quick crossword and a sudoku. I left that page open for others to admire.

After what was by now a late lunch, I went for a wander around Stony Range Regional Botanic Garden, which is just over the road from where I’m staying, but with a busy 6, 7, 8 or 9-lane highway in between, it’s not easy to just nip over the road.

I saw butterflies, yes, plural, and heard the chirrups of many insects. I was expecting to see brush turkeys and/or their nests, but not on this ocacsion.

Having failed to get a decent picture of a butterfly, it just wouldn’t sit still, I sat down on one of the many benches, listening to the insects successfully drowning out the sounds of the traffic.

Then I felt something noshing on my laig. My ankles were being devoured by tiny ants, so that precipitated my hasty departure from the garden. Cue several days  of trying hard not to scratch my ankles.

Meanwhile, Helen, Brent and Keiran visited the family again in Bondi. After a fun visit, they set off for the airport to collect Liesel and her luggage. This was now a full car, and is the reason I didn’t also visit Bondi.

They brought Liesel straight back to our b&b where she had a shower straightaway and went straight to bed and straight to sleep.

And I think we both had a reasonably good night’s sleep, despite not having slept together for quite a while, and we’re not used to each other’s nocturnal noises nor habits.

We met Helen and family for breakfast back at SeaSprout, which also has very nice coffee.

Back at Helen’s, food was prepared for the afternoon’s barbecue. And of course it’s raining. All this way, and Liesel is greeted not with hot sunshine, but with rain.

Lindfield is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney and this is where Dan and Helen now live, more emigrés from Manly. It was about a half-hour drive, in the end.

Most of the afternoon was taken up watching the children’s antics. As well as Fern and Asher, we were joined by Nat and Rob and their two boys, Hamish and Seb. Fern was fully aware that ‘boys will be boys’ and mostly kept out of their way. As she said, they put the ‘boys’ into ‘boisterous’. Well, someone said it.

I think magnetic Minecraft blocks are meant for building, a real-life version of the much loved videogame, Minecraft. But these boys were a bit more destructive, magneticly sticking the small blocks together to make larger blocks, and then watching the construction explode as it hits the floor. The box in which these blocks are stored is labelled TNT.

I’m not saying Keiran was wide-eyed and legless, but he definitely wasn’t standing up 😉

Thanks very much to everyone for contributing some delicious food. Just a shame that the weather kept us inside.

After breakfast, Liesel and I walked over to Helen’s. I read some of my book while Helen and Keiran caught up on some sleep. We then drove to the Mall where Helen and Liesel were both surprised that I bought a sandwich from Subway. They both had something more exotic!

And then it was time to feed Keiran and of course, the best venue for this was the library.

At one point, Liesel and I had thought about going to the cinema but in the end, that idea evaporated like early morning dew. A short walk in the evening took us down the road to a nice little place for our dinner. Again, my meal was too big.

We rose slightly earlier the next day, we had places to be, things to do and people to see. After breakfast, we took our time crossing the busy intersection, the site of NSW’s 1000th set of traffic lights, and caught the 199 bus into Manly.

As we’d arrived quicker than expected for our massages, we had a coffee in the shop next door. While in there, Liesel spotted Helene, our masseuse, leaving the car park. Helene spotted Liesel too and said, “see you soon”. How great to be remembered and recognised after all this time. Helene’s probably seen hundreds of clients but Liesel’s seen a very few different massageurs.

Liesel was seen first, so I went to do my thing in Manly Library. It’s only a short distance down the road from the massage parlour, but of course, I walked round the long way (the wrong way?). Just to get some steps in.

My massage was wonderful, but boy, does she have strong thumbs and fingers. “When are you flying home?” she asked. “Sunday.” “Oh, plenty of time to recover, then.” I need time to recover? I fully expected to wake up covered in bruises the following day, but actually, I felt fine. I knew I’d been worked on, but in a good way.

While we were in Manly, Helen took Keiran for another Baby Sensory session. This week, they were celebrating Valentine’s Day.

Manly beach was more crowded than we’ve seen it so far, and plenty of people were in the water.

We walked along the very busy path to Shelly Beach, and between the dragons and the turkeys, it was almost a wildlife safari.

And because the modern fashion is for very teeny weeny bikini bottoms, I had to apologise to Liesel, because it’s very difficult not to look when walking along with some young girl’s arse is in your line of sight. ‘Must get some peaches on the way home.’

You know you’re in a civilised place when you don’t have to look too far for a water fountain. And we did need a lot of water today.

Yes, we saw other birds and other, smaller lizards on our wander, but the dragons and turkeys were by far the most interesting.

We joined the queue and enjoyed lunch at Norma’s Deli. It’s a popular venue, but I’m pretty sure we’ve managed to walk by it many times before, without entering its portal. And, for dessert, we visited the gelato place. And for dinner in the evening, it being Taco Tuesday, we returned to Freshie Mex for tacos. It was cool sitting outside and a friend of Helen’s, Cat, dropped by for a quick chat. It’s a small world, isn’t it! Except when you have to fly halfway round it…