Drive to Wollongong

Yesterday we had a relatively short drive- only four hours- to get to Wollongong.  As we passed Newcastle, crossed the Hawkesbury River and approached the northern outskirts of Sydney I felt myself becoming nostalgic.  The sandstone cuttings and the familiar bush were so reminiscent of the times we visited my Oma and Oom Theo in the Blue Mountains and of the bush around Long Point Camp. 

Dew covered spiderwebs in the grass.

Philip, who grew up in Sydney, began to point out familiar landmarks. In Turramurra he suddely exclaimed "That's the corner where the lady fainted"  and proceeded to tell the story: while visiting his father a few years ago, he was withdrawing some money from an ATM and said to an elderly lady standing behind him that he wouldn't be long.  When he finished his transaction he turned around to find her lying on the ground, out cold!  Preparing to put his first aid training into practice and check her airways, he was suddenly shoved out of the way by a middle aged passerby.  "I'm a nurse!" she declared and thumped the lady's chest with her clenched fist.  Philip asked whether it might not be a good idea to check first if she was breathing, but she said, "I'm a nurse. Stand back and call an ambulance."...  A few minutes later we crossed the Parramatta River at Meadowbank, where he grew up.  Pointing at the railway bridge upstream, he told of how as a boy he used to climb up the pylons from a rusty steel boat to take baby pigeons from their nests.  Arthur, our bird-lover, liked the idea of hand rearing young pigeons and asked "Can you teach me how to do that, too, Dad?"

I would have liked time to visit my little sister... I'm glad it's only a few weeks till the summer conference!

Fairy Meadow...

After a smooth run through Sydney we arrived at Wollongong around lunchtime.  It was nice to catch up with Philip's sister, his niece and her family. 
Until now it just hasn't felt like Christmas.  I bought a few Christmas CDs which we've been playing in the car, and we've started reading the Christmas story from the children's Bible, but it was still a surprise to see the decorated tree when we arrived here!  But yesterday we sampled Aunty Marian's Christmas trifle for dessert, and this morning the children were given their first presents and I keep hummimg the tune "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"...

  This morning Philip has taken the car to his sister's mechanic for an oil and filter change and we hope to be on our way again later today.  As we're starting late we'll have to break the journey somewhere overnight, but if all goes well we should be home tomorrow!