sydney

We've spent probably the most low-key week I've had in Sydney, which was just what the doctor ordered. Well, actually the doctor ordered a further dose of antibiotics, hard on the heels of the one I finished a couple of days before leaving London. Handy having an uncle coming to lunch whose day job is being a GP... We've been staying in the guest accommodation right on site at the extensive landscaped villages that comprise the Anglican Retirement Villages at Castle Hill. My grandma is a resident here, perviously in independent accommodation and now with a room in a unit where she can get more support. In my work I've visited more than a few such units, and I'm impressed by the setup here. I'm pleased she's in a good place. We've been able to visit her each day this week and have some precious times together.

It's been good as well to share this week with my parents, up from Melbourne and staying with us in the two bedroom guest unit. They've been working through the process of preparing to sell their house here in Sydney, the home I was born into and spent my first eight years in. I have no regrets about the sale, and it seems like the right thing to be doing. Who knew old Chesterfield Road was now a “blue ribbon” street, though? Nice. May our upcoming house purchase be so fortuitous!

We've had a few opportunities to catch up with some members of the extended family here. It's been good. Some people have had big changes, of all kinds. Others haven't changed at all, and in a good way. It's nice to be able to pick up, and find those bonds remain. Family is all good. We're carrying back with us too some items I've inherited from my grandparents, distributed out to various family members after my Grandfather's death and once my Grandma moved to her current, smaller, accommodation. Chief among these for me is the eleven volume published set of the collected works of my great great great great grandfather, Charles Babbage. Would that I could make even a fraction of his contribution, one day.

We're all packed. We rise with the sun tomorrow, to leave at 8am for the airport. Our journey will not have us in Hamilton until 8:30pm tomorrow night. Such a long day of inactivity will be tiring. But being reunited with further family will more than compensate.

New Zealand, we're coming home!