Arrival -Wednesday 5th October

At around 8am local time we wheeled our suitcase-laden trollies out of the lobby of Kingsford-Smith airport in Sydney. So ended a 32 hour journey from North Devon via Heathrow and Bangkok with about 19 hours flying time. Thanks to British Airways for a safe, comfortable and punctual journey. Tash and little Ollie had been at the arrivals lounge to meet us. Two and a half year old Ollie was delightful and full of chatter. Tash was huge with child. Due date is on 17th. It was not warm. Probably about 10 degrees C. It took us about two and a half to three hours to drive from the airport, up the Newcastle motorway to Tash's home on the Central Coast in the little town of Umina. After unpacking our 110 kg of luggage we had a brief rest before heading round to "The new house" to meet Will. More about the new house in a later posting. After a sandwich lunch together, we bade him our farewell and drove down to the only decent pub for miles - in the pretty little town of Patonga at the mouth of the Hawksbury River, with it's Norfolk pines seemingly always topped with a whistling kite. We ordered me a Carlsberg export and three teas with an orange juice for Ollie and went to the terrace for a relaxing afternoon with only the resident brush turkeys for company. These large black birds with the permanently fanned tails and bare red and yellow skin on their heads, wander round the tables hoovering up any crumbs that fall from the tables. They are remarkably tolerant of human proximity. Above our heads, the sweet whistles of the kites could still be heard. I say sweet because it is just that- a very sweet whistle, not at all as you'd expect from a big, butch raptor. I got one in my bins and marvelled at how well camouflaged they were. Drop the bins and the kite disappeared. Amazing! No other notable avian sitings to report. The usual Patonga list - pelicans and crested terns offshore, silver gulls on the beach, a kookaburra calling in the trees behind the restaurant and the usual mynas, noisy miners, wattlebirds, crested pigeons, and sulphur crested cockatoos around the streets and gardens.
Ollie ran off and had to be restrained and bribed with "am beam" (his own peculiar words for ice cream). He can now pronounce it properly but chooses to stick to his baby name. Kitty, a friendly waitress gave Ollie the am beam free of charge. Similarly, I was given a cup of tea free. I like this place! I'm sure we ordered three teas but only two arrived and my beer was long gone so I gently reminded the waiter that we were one short. When it duly did arrive he said sorry for the mistake and there was no charge.
We returned to Umina for dinner which Will and Tash cooked and after watching an episode of Glee, we turned in at 11 pm, Di and I having managed to stay awake most of the day, an important jet-lag beating strategy we're told! Nighty night.