Back to chaos

Gee, I'm glad I enjoyed that three hours of peace and quiet when I last posted, because there hasn't been any since. The pansies have been sprayed with a combination of water and tabasco - but we have to wait until the flowers come back to see if they get eaten. And I haven't conquered the fire lighting yet, but I'm giving it a red hot go. Get it? Red hot? Oh hilarious. 

Last weekend my husband's parents, sister and her family, and aunt and uncle, were in town for the Last Post ceremony for his great-grandfather who died in WWI. The Australian War Memorial has the ceremony every day, and they commemorate someone who died serving in the defence forces, and tell their story. There are usually quite a few tourists, and visiting VIPs, and a piper and a bugler and an ode. I don't really go the War Memorial at all, but trotted along for this one, and it was just lovely. They had a picture of Private Greer, and the family placed wreaths, and then an Army corporal talked about him and his service, and family. It was beautifully done, and very moving - they look after the family very well, making sure we knew what to expect. Here is my husband and number two son after placing a wreath.

 

So after that we went out for a meal, then Saturday night everyone came back to our place for dinner, which was fantastic, although did involve vacuuming the dog hair off every surface. The dog loved it (she loves visitors, and hopes for dropped food). 

 

Then number one son had to be in Sydney first thing Monday morning, so instead of putting him on the 3 am bus I drove him up Sunday afternoon. We spent the night in a hotel, then he went off to his thing and I went to the art gallery. It was a beautiful clear Sydney day - cold and crisp.

 

There were about as many people looking at 15th - 19th century European art as you would expect on  a sunny Monday morning in Sydney. I had a lovely couple of hours, then went to a wool shop, then son texted to say he was finished so we had lunch and drove back home (an hour later than we should have because we caught a bus back to the hotel and missed the stop by FOUR KILOMETRES so had to catch a bus back the other way, except my Opal card had run out of credit, so had to find a shop to recharge it .... it was a comedy of errors except by this stage NOT FUNNY.) 

 

This giant metal Captain Cook is not 19th century European - actually by a NZ artist. He is quite cool, just relaxing there.

So today  I went for a run, did the grocery shopping, laundry, and finally finished off the taxes after FIVE conversations with Red Cross, who are having difficulty issuing an accurate tax invoice. I am quite concerned about their lack of ability to keep track of money, but they got there in the end.