This is Esther -- not from Jerusalem but from Australia, temporarily

[Estherfromjerusalem]

Well, I made it. I'm down under, in Australia. I'm in Sydney with my difficult child, who has just left the house he lives in to go to a hip-hop party, at 10:20 p.m. I'm OK with that. Whatever he wants is fine with me. Well, almost, but I am trying not to make any demands on him. So far we are getting on really well. I've been here a week and a half already and the time is flying, although the constant rain is making touring just a bit difficult!!

On Sunday difficult child and a friend of his took me to visit Marg and her Man. I was so excited. Just the thought of meeting someone from the CD board is a very exciting thing in itself. And Marg is very very special, and her Man is also a special member of the CD board, so it was double excitement. The town they live in is really beautiful, very picturesque. I saw the ferry and the bay that Marg has mentioned often, and I met her mother-in-law whom she mentions in every posting. She is a marvellous lady with a constant twinkle in her eye and as she said, she's still "got all her marbles"! We had lunch and two of their children came and it was so good to meet them. Oriel went off to the beach with his friend (the weather was sunny) and then Marg and her Man took me on a tour of the town and we also went to the beach, a beautiful sort of cove, very peaceful. There's nothing like the sea, and waves, and peace and quiet. I loved it. They showed me all sorts of trees, beautiful Australian trees and plants. They scared me with talk about Australian spiders!!

We went back to M-i-l's place to sit and chat a bit more, and then we had to say goodbye and part, but it was really wonderful to meet Marg "in the flesh", to give and receive a real hug and kiss. The bond is most definitely there, thanks to this place.

I apologise if I'm not expressing myself very well. It's just a bit overwhelming and I am very happy to have had this opportunity.

Love, Esther

 

[pasajes4]

How lovely. What a wonderful trip. Enjoy your son and Australia.

 

[lovemysons]

Hi Esther! How wonderful that you are enjoying yourself in Australia with your son and CD board members Marg and her husband and family!

Big Hugs to you...and hoping the weather will dry up long enough for you to enjoy some more touring time. It sounds wonderful.

Love to you,
LMS
ps...Have you seen many Kangaroo's? What is the weather like right now? It's going to be 80 degrees today in N. Texas but tomorrow will be colder.

 

[DDD]

We had read of your visit and obviously they were equally as excited to spend time with you. Marvelous! I am totally thrilled that your difficult child evidently has a life of his own now. Great news. Hugs DDD

 

[Estherfromjerusalem]

Can you believe that I haven't yet seen a single kangaroo or koala, only road signs warning that they might be crossing the road! But I hope on Thursday we will go to a place where we can see them. Today (Sunday) it was still raining, but we decided that rain or not, we would do some touring. He has a car. So we drove north to a national park (Australia seems to be full of national parks) and the scenery was just beautiful. North Shore National Park, and we stopped at Illawong Point. Mountains, river, people fishing, loads of green everywhere, and peace and quiet. It was heavenly. Then, even though it was still raining, we decided to do the real touristy stuff here in Sydney and we went to the Circular Quay from where the ferries leave and next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, both of them spectacular sights. To our amazement, moored there was the colossal Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth. What a beautiful sight that ship is!! So we walked around. Hopefully tomorrow we will go to the Blue Mountains, rain or not. On Tuesday and Wednesday he's working, but he will be free on Thursday and Friday so we are considering flying to the Gold Coast on Wednesday night until Friday noon. He has a friend there whom we can stay with. Haven't made a final decision yet -- it's all a bit much!

OK, that's it for now. We are still getting on OK, but I hope it lasts until I leave. He is nervous and edgy, but if I play it cool we are OK together. He is really making an effort for me and I appreciate that.

Love, Esther

 

[Marguerite]

Hi Esther! I really enjoyed our visit last week. I thought of so many things afterwards that I wanted to say to you and do with you, including going to a zoo near where we live, the one where difficult child 1 met his wife. It is another half an hour further south than our village though, and you were so tired. But there you can get up close and personal with koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and emus. The emus are caged in, the koalas are in a walk-in enclosure and the others are roaming free (although they have the option to get away from tourists if they feel overwhelmed with too many cuddles).
No spiders. Honest.
I'm glad you've had the chance to explore Circular Quay. The historic part of Sydney there is probably very modern compared to some of the wonderful history you are surrounded by in your homeland. One day I want to visit - I have Masada on my bucket list.

The Blue Mountains should be lovely even if it is raining. The rain should ease tomorrow, and up in the Blue Mountains the rain is likely to be a lot less anyway. It is easiest to visit the Blue Mountains by car.

If you're going to the Mountains (I don't know why I use the initial capital, Aussie mountains are mere hillocks to the rest of the world) then on the way should be Featherdale Wildlife Park. Worth a visit, even a quick one.
http://www.featherdale.com.au/

The best thing to look at up in the mountains (I give up on the capital letter) is the huge valley carved out by the rivers (especially the Nepean River) as the land rose millions of years ago. All that golden sandstone you see in Sydney's buildings will surround you up there. It is beautiful. it weathers away to sheer cliffs. There were bad fires recently, the scars will still be visible. Just remember, the Australian bush always grows back, and the fires will have caused a lot of fresh seed to be released.

If you go to the Gold Coast, there are other wildlife parks up there you would love. Currumbin is definitely worth a visit. Also, Fleay's. But then, husband & I describe ourselves as zoo junkies, we go to the zoo in whatever city or town we find ourselves.
If you can only choose one zoo out of Fleay's and Currumbin, go to Currumbin. And do make sure you get to feed the birds there - the same type of parrots we have in our village also flock around Currumbin and fly in to be hand fed twice a day.

It was wet at times here today, sometimes sunny but mostly grey. Still warm. Tomorrow will also be pleasantly warm, even if there is a little rain.

Enjoy your day tomorrow, give your difficult child a hug for me. he is a darling, a very sweet young man who is a credit to you.

Marg

 

[Scent of Cedar *]

Esther, I love it that you are doing this!

:O)

Wishing a wonderful rest of the visit, and a safe and happy homecoming.

Cedar