Good To Be Home

We had a wonderful time in Sydney with Sarah, Jarrad and the grandchildren.  Sarah has made a lovely guest bedroom in her home as they often have people staying, and we were very comfortable, but, there is nothing like the feeling of coming home, having a shower, putting on clean PJ”s and sleeping in your own bed.  Spending time with family is a different kind of holiday.  We are really only there to hug the little darlings in person.

There was a bit of time to do some sight-seeing, in between, School runs and meals etc. as their life goes on while we are there, so we did the Harbour Bridge, Opera House run one of the days and also  managed to do one of the things on my bucket list.  Years ago I saw the road that runs around the mountain on the coast in an advertisement (I think it was in one of the earlier Mission Impossible Movies as well) and always wanted to drive on it.  I thought it was on the way to Melbourne, turns out it is twenty minutes from Sarah and Jarrad’s house in Bangor, heading towards Wollongong.

I can’t believe this is the baby of our family

We arrived back from Sydney on Wednesday night and picked up our dog Poppy from her baby sitters, our dear friends who spoilt her while we were gone.  We had a quick cuppa with them, then headed home to Mandurah.  I thought I had better unpack straight away as the next day was Hayley’s Birthday and we were planning a family dinner to celebrate.  I didn’t fancy suitcases cluttering up the place to add to my stress levels.  I should have taken a picture for you of our cases, Everything goes into packing cubes, which were so good when we were travelling years ago and only in one place for a a day or two at a time before moving to the next city. You can find items easily as they become like little drawers, and keep everything in order. I had washed the day before we left Sydney, so most of our clothes were clean.  Cubes make unpacking really easy.  ie. One cube had all Allan’s T Shirts, short and long-sleeved, so you just take a cube over to the walk in and hang them all up.  Undies are all neatly in their cube and so quickly transferred to their rightful drawers.  Much easier than years ago, when I would be faced with a pile of rolled or folded clothes that needed to be gone through one by one.  Unpacking was super fast, and I was in bed by midnight (two am Sydney time). Who needs sleep?

Someone asked me if I was in remission today and it made me think.  I feel like I had a cancerous tumour, my Breast Surgeon took it out with clear margins (they got it all) and I have had follow-up treatment.  The word remission, conjures up thoughts that you are just having a reprieve until it comes back again.  I feel like cancer is behind me and just want to get on with my life.  Having said that, I am off to Fiona Stanley Hospital on Tuesday for my check up, as it is already three months since my last Chemo Round.  Gosh time flies!

Talk about time flying these Grandchildren our growing fast.  Our son Troy believes in starting them young, here are Granddaughters Chelsea and Mia on their Dad’s boat trying to catch something for dinner.

Now that things are saner and I am getting a bit of energy back, we will hopefully get started with building our Golden Bay house.  It won’t happen overnight, but, it will happen!