Rosie comes to Tea

Breaking my Duck

Must...blog...again!

Back in sunny California (Stefan swears it rained every day I was away) I looked up 42 degrees Celsius, and it was 107!! No wonder I was having trouble with the heat in Oz!

My blogging difficulties come from backlog, especially since I had such trouble downloading my photos. I want to start at the beginning which is so far back! So first, Sydney, where I stayed with Paddy in her achingly chic new apartment in Edgecliff, then we drove through Berrima, had lunch in Bowral with Minty, then drove on to Yass to visit old school friend Helen, and meet up with ditto Annabel (the cleverest girl in the class) and none of us had changed a bit...

The next day we went to the Impressionists in Canberra, then to the National Portrait Gallery and marvellous modern Supreme Court - curious juxtaposition born home by a self-portrait of Alan Bond. We spent the night in a family-run motel in Wadonga then set out to visit my brother Colin in Gisborne, which shall be another chapter.

Code

A sudden thought, and an urgent email home: THE ARTICHOKES ARE IN THE PAINTING CUPBOARD!  Paddy rolled about laughing, said it sounded like the sort of message used to mobilise the Free French.

Sydney!

I am staying with my dear friend Paddy in her glamorous flat in Edgecliff, and since I arrived we have been gallivanting. Yesterday we walked across town to meet Norma and Angela at the art gallery, the lunch at Danks and enough amazing housie shops to make my head spin.

Earlier in the week I took the ferry across the harbour and spent the day with June in Mosman, all morning in the se at Chinaman's Beach, then mangoes, blissful. The next day met up with old school friends for lunch, and the day after that up to the Hawkesbury for a fish feast that Siena had been fantasising since she came back from Laos.

Next week we road-trip, with Margaret for the first part of the journey through Bowral, Yass and Canberra visiting friends at each port of call, down to Gisborne to visit my brother, then I fly to the Gold Coast to see my mum!