It has been a year of visitors from foreign shores and a hectic start to the year! After my mum left in February, I attended the flood conference in Bateman’s Bay. It was an exciting conference attended by about 270 delegates many of other states and overseas. It was quite a landmark year for me as I was appointed to the Executive of the NSW Floodplain Management Authority as Director – Land Use Planning!
I came back to Sydney and my first set of visitors – Sushie (my cousin in London) and her husband Shanil! We were very fortunate in that after weeks of rain we had a few days of respite from the stormy weather and so we were able to spend a few days enjoying some of the local sights. We visited Wiseman’s Ferry for a steak lunch and then drove along the river, enjoying the quiet lifestyle the seclusion of the area allows. The next day turned out to be a beach day, so we packed a picnic lunch and headed off to the closest beach at Mona Vale. It was Shanil’s first dip on this visit and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to do much more except to throw an aussie BBQ before they headed back to London. It was lovely to catch up and reminisce after my visit to their home in London during my year away and also to introduce them to Steve!
A couple of weekends after that, my cousin Priyan who is spending part of his sabbatical in Melbourne flew over to Sydney to visit. Priyan too had never met Steve before so we stayed up late chatting and catching up on family news. As it turned out both Priyan and Steve had a shared interest in philosophy, so we had quite an interesting conversation that stretched late into the night.
Priyan has many friends and family here so once again the visit was short but we were very fortunate with the weather. A friend of Priyan’s had invited us all for a days sailing on the harbour. The day dawned bright and sunny and we had a a wonderful day sailing on the harbour with a few of Priyan’s high school friends who also live in Sydney. I had never sailed on the harbour before so that was another first and wonderful experience!
There are big ships and small ships. But the best ship of all is friendship. ~Author Unknown
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