3rd Jan 2012 - 14th Jan 2012 - I Still Call Australia Home
Checking In - Still in Sydney
Hi all, Time seems to be whizzing by and I am not sure what I have to show for them, however, the sunny days have been wonderful and I am so appreciative of the mild Summer we have had this year. Today we have our first rainy day for a couple of weeks and I guess it is a good chance to catch up with everyone in the blog. I am not sure that I have been doing that much - it seems that I am busy every day, but when I look around there are so many things I still want to do. I had a lovely week on my own, simply pottering around de-Christmas-ing the house - now that is a task and a half. I am still finding ornaments, gifts and decorations that I have forgotten! The Christmas tree is finally down and will make wonderful fragrant firewood for Winter - Chris can rev up his chain saw for that job! I have had some wonderful finds with my Family Tree searches. I came across a woman in England, who has postcards written to my Great grandfather and my own grandmother in the early 1900's. She has scanned them all for me and it is so real to see what they wrote between each other and kind of strange that a woman in England should have them - apparently a relative visited her from Australia and gave them to her as her husbands' great grandfather was the recipient or the writer (he happens to be my great grandfather as well) We have discovered some interesting (to me) things in the searches and I am enjoying this enormously - one of my relatives was a Tower of London Guard! And with my maternal grandfather coming from the coal mines of the North of England and seemingly overnight becoming a NSW Policeman, this sure balances out all the convicts on the other side for Jen and Chris. Jenny had a wonderful time in New York and a few days in San Francisco, but her return home was a bit of drag - she arrived in Sydney after flying through from New York via LAX, only to discover that none of the transit bags had been loaded on to the flight in LAX. So, no bags.... We then got in to the car and less than 2 miles down the road, we had a flat tyre. Jen had a flat tyre a couple of months ago, and had not had the spare repaired, so we had to sit on the side of the Airport Drive for over 2 and 1/2 hours while we waited for a very rude NRMA tow driver to come and get us. It was hot, Jen was tired and they kept giving us ETA's and then missing them - I could have caught a cab, had the tyre repaired, returned and changed it myself had I known it was going to be so long. Finally, after being towed to a tyre place, where they just whisked the car away and hey presto!!, new tyre, we arrived home at around 2:30pm from a 8am arrival!! Poor Jen, she was exhausted. This week have been doing the hospital thing as I have a friend who is unwell and in need of support and some practical help. (You know me - the inveterate clothes washer!)That has kept me more than busy as she also stayed a little while with me while we waited for a hospital bed to be available and I accompanied her to all her doctor's appointments. In between times, had a lovely overnight visit from Patsy, who I went to school with - she was having a well deserved break in Sydney from Coffs Harbour. Crazily, I have decided to start to organise our School 40th Year Reunion (how sad is that number!) and we spent a lovely afternoon looking through old school records, and remembering when......Then last Friday, Patsy's brother Tony and his wife Cathie came over for lunch too - they have just become grandparents for the first time, so this was a lovely way to spend an afternoon in the sun. Chris has returned today from his skiing holiday in Aspen and a couple of days also in San Francisco - it seems that the apartment there is a great hit with both Jen and Chris - pity they can not get jobs in the US as I am sure Chris, especially, would love to live in SF. However, the head-hunters advise against it due to the terrible state of the US economy. And Chris has just been made Associate Director where he is, so he reluctantly is staying put in Oz for a bit longer. I also spent a considerable amount of time running around after My Personal Concierge clients - very lucrative and I am convinced it will be a great business once I fully ramp up. I have had to put my 'launch' on hold, though, as I have some 'real' work in the US in February consulting with some groups and I don't want to rev things up here in Australia if I have to leave, unless I had someone who could manage the business here while I am away. Things are so new, I am reluctant to hand it to someone else. So, my plans now are to return to the US some time in early February, finalise the consultancies and then when I get back to Oz, to really focus heavily on getting the Personal Concierge business ramped up. And between now and then, I am crazily going to take an overnight trip to Mailtand (Greg's family) and Bulahdelah (my Dad's family) to take photos of the graves and also the houses, etc for my Family Tree. I am officially a Family Tree Addict!! Talk soon. Deborah
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