Dad, Kate and Mum here at last - stood with the Kangaroos in Brisbane!!

Mum, Dad and Kate’s Visit

On my birthday this year I got some news that was better than a present, I found out that mum, dad and my sister Kate were flying over to Australia in just a month’s time!! It was totally unexpected and fantastic news! They were to fly out on the 8th of February and fly back a month later.

Then began a month of intricate researching, planning, timetabling and booking by myself in a quest to make their trip an unforgettable and thoroughly enjoyable experience. I had all my leaflets out (that, to Andy’s annoyance, I collect from anywhere we go) and the internet usage was sky high as I gathered information and made online and telephone bookings to slowly but surely create a calendar of events to occupy my family for (almost) every moment of their stay here in Oz! Every day Andy returned from work to have me excitedly tell him about my latest booking or plans, until it wasn’t physically possible for them to do anything else in the 3 weeks they were to be with us! The longest I have ever not seen my family is probably 3 weeks when we have been on holiday, so 7 months was such a long time for me. Particularly when those 7 months were spent at the other side of the world with a 10 hour time difference! Apart from our night out with Kelly who I used to work with, they would be the only familiar faces we had seen since leaving England too. Hence I got so excited about the visit that I could hardly sleep for the few weeks before they arrived! It would be so strange to have them here in our house and show them little things like where we take Ben for walks, where we work, where we shop, where we go swimming, what our garden looks like etc. etc. I was also almost fanatical about hoping I’d got everything organised alright and that I had arranged everything sufficiently so that there was something for everyone and they would all enjoy themselves. I did enjoy planning everything though, as I love doing things like that and it was a good escape from working at Coles!

They arrived into Sydney late night on the 9th February and stayed in a hotel I had booked for them in the Rocks area right near the Opera house and Harbour bridge. When we spoke on the telephone at around midnight that night, they were all just going swimming on the roof of the hotel with views of Sydney!

The next day they flew to Narandera, South West of Sydney, to meet up with Roy and Pam – who have lived in Australia for around 30 years, but Roy used to work with dad when they lived in England. They were to stay with them on their farm near Whitton for a week and then fly up to Brisbane to meet us. It was so strange knowing that they were actually in Australia, but still a long long way away from us. They had an absolutely fantastic time with Roy and Pam, who showed them all around their farm (or station as they are called in Australia) and took them to see the local towns and attractions. I couldn’t believe it when they phoned to tell me they had seen kangaroos in the wild already! I think by the end of the week they had had so much fun and excellent hospitality that they weren’t really bothered about coming up to see us anymore :-( !!