Little Travels
+ The obligatory aeroplane window photo (flying over Tasmania).
Last month we went to NSW for two weeks to see family and friends. I don't usually find the idea of doing 'travel' posts particularly interesting, but I thought I'd share a couple of bits and pieces from our trip. Sometimes it occurs to me that I don't like to record things like this in my blog very often. When I first began blogging it was passionately for the purpose of documenting everyday things so that I could look back and remember things I was doing (my memory is so fallible) and so it seems a shame to self-censor what I document because I don't deem it to be 'interesting' enough to share. So, here you go.
+ On our second day in town we met up with my brother Luke and my 4-year-old niece Rose for coffee at Suspension in Hamilton. I gave Rosie this tin carousel as a belated birthday present, which she loved because she used to have one but it broke. The box said 'not for children under 14', which I thought was a bir ridiculous (it does have some sharp edges), but Rosie is a particularly advanced and sensible 4 year old and only uses it while supervised. I wish I had one!
+ I'm a big fan of Trevor Dickinson's drawings and really enjoyed seeing his murals nearby to the Newcastle Museum. C also made me take a photo of him under the 'Least Attractive Person In Newcastle' sign.
+ C, Theo and I drove to my Nanna's house in Swansea and all of the family came over for dinner which was so lovely. It was so nice to introduce Theo to his Great Nanna and his great Aunts and Uncles and second cousin. While we were there I had a look through one of my Nanna's old photo albums and I thought this picture in particular was gorgeous. She said that she was working at a paint shop and they got her to pose for an advertisement. I didn't have a scanner with me, but I took a lot of photos of the photos in the album in case I don't get a chance to see them again, there were some beautiful pictures of my mum growing up too.
+ I also found this note and photo of my brother while I was looking through my Nanna's albums and it made me smile (Boompa was my Grandpa's nickname).
+ We stayed with my sister for most of our time in Newcastle and she took us to the Maitland Regional Art Gallery and there were these beautiful sketches on postcards which really caught my eye (but, of course, I didn't record who they were by!).
+ We spent 5 days in seaside Forster with C's brother and sister-in-law and their sweet family. It was their first time meeting Theo and 10-month-old Moby was pretty smitten with him and tried to eat him on several occasions. We also tried to take Theo for his first swim but he fell asleep in the pram on the way there and had an enormous nap on the shoreline with his Aunt while C and I had a 40 minute swim at a gorgeous place called 'The Bullring' (swimming with C is one of my absolute favourite things - we've only ever done it on about 3 or 4 occasions!).
+ A tasty beverage from Frankie's on Beaumont Street.
+ We took Theo to his first Jets (the soccer team we support) game while we were there. We met up with all of C's old soccer buddies that he used to attend games with at The Bennett pub for dinner beforehand and the game was excellent, despite the drawn scoreline. Going to see games is surprisingly something I've really missed about being away from Newcastle. Before I met C I was vehemently anti-sports, but when we were first seeing each other, we'd go to watch the Jets play and there is just something about the atmosphere that you can't help but enjoy.
+ We took a quick day trip to my country home town to visit my parents house and see some old friends. We had a dinner party with my family and some of my mum's old friends and one of them pulled out a folder full of all of the drawings I did for him when I was a kid (there were A LOT). It seems that every time we went to his house I'd draw a picture of everyone who was there. I think the drawings probably ranged from age 6 to 9 and were quite a novelty to see again.
+ It was so lovely staying with my sister and watching she and Theo interact. I miss her so much. Also, I think that her legs are literally twice as long as mine. Ridiculous.
+ We flew back into Tasmania, and because we were late, the pilot flew really high above the clouds to go faster and we could see an indication of Tasmania's crazy weather beneath us - an enormous swirl of clouds. Silly me didn't bring a cardigan on the plane (because it was 30 degrees when we left Sydney) and froze to death when we re-emerged in Launceston.
I say this every time that we go back, but next time I'll ONLY VISIT IN WINTER! I have entirely acclimatised to the Tasmanian weather and cannot function in that heat anymore.
