Rosie and I spent more time doing family history this week - I am going to miss doing this with her. It's been wonderful spending time with someone who is as excited about doing family history as I am and Rosie knows so much about where and how to get information. We were able to get more info at State Records and also at the National Library. I am looking forward to organizing all of the information we have found while we've been in Sydney. I am also looking forward to reading more about family history in a book which Rosie loaned me called 'Family History for Dummies'.
On Monday night, Dad and I drove to a restaurant close to Rosie's place and met up with her and her family and Cheryl and her family to celebrate Steve's birthday (Steve is Rosie's husband). Rosie and Cheryl and their families try to get together for all the birthdays of the members of their families. It was great spending more time with my cousins and their families. I can't believe I didn't have my camera with me to take some pics and that I never thought to ask Dad to use his cell phone to take some. :-(
On Tuesday, I met up with Rosie, Rebecca and Liam again. We enjoyed another lovely day in the city. Rosie helps out Rebecca with the boys when she is working (she's a nurse) and they often get together and go into the city when Rebecca has a day off. We, of course, had to start with Rosie's coffee so, of course, I HAD to have an iced chocolate. :-) After spending time at the library where there was an exhibition for children, we had a lovely lunch and a long chat.
Brass replica of a 17th Century fountain in Florence’s Mercato Nuovo, depicting a boar. The statue, which symbolises the close friendship between Australia and Italy, was donated in 1968 by an Italian woman whose relatives had worked at the hospital. Like its counterpart in Florence, good luck is supposed to come to anyone who rubs the boar’s snout. Rosie was showing Liam where to put the coins in.
On Thursday evening, Dad and I met up with Ian (who served a misson in HB) and his girlfriend, Jessica. We met at an Asian restaurant close to where they live. The food was really tasty and the conversation was good. It was really nice to finally meet Jessica and to hang out with Ian again.
On Friday night, Dad and I met up at a restaurant with Cheryl and her girls and Rosie and her daughter, Lauren and Rosie's grandson, Joshua, to celebrate Cheryl's birthday. Cheryl is 12 days older than I am and I like being able to tease her about getting old before I do. :-) We had Italian that night - Dad and I had real Italian pizza - yummy! I look forward to eating more of it when we go to Italy. :-)
from left around the table: Lisa, Renee, Rosie, Lauren, Joshua, Nicki, Ayla, Dad, me, Cheryl holding Lily
Ayla holding on to Dad - she loves the males :-)
Dad really enjoyed teaching the guys on the course in Sydney and the guys enjoyed learning from Dad. The day before the course ended, one of the guys gave Dad a gift and a card which was from the whole class. When Dad showed me what they had bought for him and the card they had signed for him, I was overwhelmed - how wonderful for Dad to know how much those guys appreciated him. One of the guys in the class had been at a market and had seen this framed picture of 'Milestones in Canadian Aviation'. He asked the other guys in the class if they would all like to put in for it to which they readily agreed. They then all signed the card and said such nice things about Dad. I was so pleased for Dad to get recognized for doing a great job of imparting of his knowledge.
Dad and I flew to Brisbane yesterday - Dad stayed there and I continued onto HB. Dad stayed overnight in a hotel in Brisbane and then flew on to Papua, New Guinea (PNG) today. He will be there for four weeks teaching a course on the Fokker 100 airplane. He has never worked on that airplane, but took the course from his boss, Harry, when we were in Perth. Part of that course was checking out the airplane, so he has some familiarity with it. Dad's company offered to pay my flight there, but also told Dad that they were concerned about me going because of the unrest and crime in the country. I did some research on the internet and talked with some people and so much pointed to it being dodgy there and so I decided not to accompany Dad on this trip. He will be okay as he is staying at a five star hotel with tight security which is right beside the airport where he will be teaching. Someone will be picking up Dad each morning to drive him to the classroom and will drive him back to the hotel again after class. Dad will not be going out of the hotel other than when he is teaching. I am going to be praying very hard for his safety while he is gone and will be so happy when he comes back home.
