Kerry's "Letter from Australia" - December 2007Well the month started well with the arrival of Lauren and Terry; we got to the airport well in time for the flight and sat down to have a coffee and before we knew it this cheery little face was smiling and waving at us. Lauren had made Terry sprint out of the plane so that they were first in the passport control queue and as luck would have it their bags were out first too. Lauren looked so much better than the photos she had sent us; those of you who read the blog regularly will know how worried we were about her dramatic weight loss. Well I am pleased to say she has put it all back on and looks the picture of health.
She was so pleased to see us that I didn’t think we would ever come up for air from the hugs we were receiving. Terry was very quiet, shy and to be honest looked terrified, bless him; Lauren had obviously over embellished our “ogre” tendencies!! I gave him a hug and told him I don’t bite but he didn’t look convinced. Well, we were amazed at the transformation that has overcome our daughter, she is no longer moody and argumentative, not a crossed word has occurred since she arrived, not even with Holly, a hitherto daily occurrence!! She has developed a fondness for cookery and has taken over the kitchen since her arrival, cooking up culinary delights on a daily basis, some successful, some not so!! Her scones, with a newly acquired recipe, with lemonade and cream from Holly’s friends’ father, are delicious, as are her lemon meringue pie and ginger cake (courtesy of my Mum). Our waist lines and grocery bills are suffering for her art though.
Terry has turned out to be a lovely lad, after he got over his fear. His accent posed quite a few problems in the beginning, with the sound of “pardon” becoming a frequently uttered response in every conversation. We have tuned in to him now for the most part. In his effort to repay our hospitality he offered to help Kevin around the property with maintenance etc. However in his enthusiasm to impress with his manly strength he has broken two axe handles, a pick and a few fence posts. He has unfortunately not contained his accidents to the outside, whilst helping with the washing up several breakages have occurred, a jam pot and its contents have covered the kitchen, freezer door not shut, a pen in his back pocket broke when he sat on it and stained the car upholstery in a lovely shade of indigo. However his “piece de resistance” was cutting through the telephone line whilst digging in the garden, he was unaware of this fact. So when the phone line went down before Christmas we assumed it was a fault. Telstra (our equivalent of BT) were so busy with storm damage caused around the same time they didn’t get back to us until well into the New Year. Kevin discovered the damage the day before they turned up and it is going to cost in excess of $200 to fix!! Despite all this, in the time that he has been here, he has more than made up for it in other ways and he obviously adores Lauren and makes her happy, which as a parent is all you could ask for.
Lauren would dearly love to return to Australia full time, Africa and its charms have dulled somewhat in the light of the day to day reality of high prices, low wages and crime. She will not return without Terry though and he is not eligible for a visa unless they marry. So for the foreseeable future she will remain abroad.
Kevin’s sister Julie arrived with husband Chris on 16th Dec, bringing with them the rain and for the first time since our arrival “a traffic jam” (we had forgotten what these were) on the motorway to the airport making us arrive late!! Chris moaned that he was under the impression it was warm and sunny in Aus, he lived to regret this as temperatures soon reached the high 30’s and early 40’s bringing with it the flies. We spent a week in Phillip Island at a friends beach house and were besieged by the things, making “the Aussie wave” (fly swatting with your hand) a constant necessity. Chris and Terry did achieve the “fisherman’s dream” by catching a fish with every cast of the line in one morning of beach fishing. They will dine on that story for ages. We traveled daily whilst they were here in an effort to show them as much as we could in their three weeks. They needed to go home for a rest.
After a few weeks respite for Christmas and visitors, Kevin has now resumed his renovations of the house and is in the process of creating a new utility room and corridor (to access Lauren’s bedroom from a new area rather than off the lounge as it is now). Oh the joy of the dust, I have missed it so!!
Holly spent the week with friends at the beach, managing to take a tumble from her bike on the last day, grazing all down one side of her body and severely bruising her toe (a break was suspected but thankfully has been ruled out).
Some good news: Kevin’s friend Rob, is well and truly on the mend and is back racing again, starting in “D” grade rather than his previous “A” and winning to boot!! After several wins he has now been promoted to “C” grade and is still winning.
Well that is all from your “Antipodean Mucker” as my friend Sue referred to me recently. Until next month….
Kerry
