Saturday 5th November - An Old Friend

Saturday 5th November - Dinner with an old friend After breakfast, I went with Will around to the house, ostensibly to do some tidying up in the garden and pool cleaning.  After about an hour, it was obvious that it was  too much. The leg was aching.  So after doing a reasonable job on the pool, which involved coaxing the creepy crawly into life about every 10 minutes, and judicious use of the long handled net, Di collected me and took me home where I put my feet up and rested for much of the afternoon.  This was necessary ahead of the weekend highlight, a trip to Sydney to see my old Hounslow Manor colleague and friend, Liz Hiley and her family. We drove to her home in Sydney's "North Shore" in the suburb of Turramurra using the SATNAV and my own written instructions gleaned from Google Earth. weather good but bit chilly. It took almost an hour and we arrived  at 5.40. We were met by Liz's husband Phil who showed us into their lovely home which was modern, light and airy. A table was set on the terrace which was where we were to eat, but first we sat and chatted, recalling the last 24 years since we had last met. In fact Liz had left Hounslow Manor about three years before me and gone to work for an employment research organisation named "CRAC". (Careers Research Advisory Centre). Upon hearing this my memory was stirred and I recounted how we had met in about 1988 at a conference in Basingstoke, where I had worked after  leaving Hounslow Manor. We had fun recalling various colleagues from the past. At this point their daughter Sophie came home from work. Sophie is 21 and is at  Uni. Later on the evening Sophie introduced us to her boyfriend who sings in a band called Harbinger. Phil worked for Guinness and Liz does three days teaching at her local school which just happens to be one of the best schools in the country, Knox Boys Grammar School. Will's grandfather went there before going on to Cambridge!  After a lovely steak meal, we parted with a promise to meet up again at Palm Beach. This is famous for being the set for "Home and Away". We can get there by ferry from Ettalong and they can drive there. Ideal.   Interestingly there is absolutely no tradition of Guy Fawkes Night in Australia. we didn't see a single firework.