124) Arrival in Sydney

Eventually after about three days travelling we arrived in Sydney. As our luggage had gone ahead of us it took us a little while to track it down and get through customs and immigration. When we finally came through the arrival gate we spotted our little family sitting rather forlornly watching the thinning crowd. You could almost see them thinking “We hope that it is not going to happen all over again” They had waited for so long they really were glad to see us but not as glad as we were to see them. Claudia was about 3 ½ and Lauren was only 14 months old at the time and they must have been fed up of waiting. After all, this was the second time this week they had stood there waiting for Grandpa and Granny Gogo to arrive. It turned out that the airways had not phoned Jonathan and Siân to tell them that we would not be on the earlier flight so they had come from their home in Cowan which is on the most northern border of Sydney to the airport at Botany Bay, which is in the southern part of the city. A distance of about 50 kilometres that takes about an hour each way. They had waited for the plane to empty, no doubt getting cross with us for taking so long to get off the plane, and when there was no one else coming through the arrival gates Jonathan went to make some inquiries. Only then did he learn that the flight from Johannesburg had been delayed and so we had missed our flight and had been put up in a hotel in Kuala Lumper. I think they even told him which hotel we were in and so he tried to phone us but a call from a Jonathan Crowther in Australia to a Jonathan Crowther in Kuala Lumper seems to have been beyond the capacity of the non English speaking hotel staff as we never got the call and the message that Jonathan left was never relayed. But now that we were all together all that was forgotten and it was just wonderful to see our beautiful granddaughters for the first time and to see Jonathan and Siân again.

On our way to Cowan we crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge and of course saw the Opera House. It was amazing, one sees so many photos of these landmarks, they are so much the symbols of Sydney and Australia it was hard to realise that we were actually seeing them. Sydney is a very beautiful city and we were very impressed right form the very first moment we saw it.

Cowan is a small village to the north of Sydney. Jonathan and Siân had bought their house there about two years before. It is an older house but very attractive with a fair size piece of land around it. The back yard backs on to the bush so they have a nice feeling of space there. Cowan only has about six roads, a park, one shop and a school. Everyone knows everyone and it is a friendly community. While we were staying there they had their Christmas party. They just rolled a barbeque stand into the street, brought out the chairs and all got together for a good friendly afternoon. The school only has three classes. Kindergarten, Juniors and Seniors and hardly ever has more than about 60 children in the whole school. It seemed like a wonderful place to bring up a family.

Jonathan and Siân were very good to us and went out of their way to give us a great holiday. It was so good to be able to get to know our grand daughters. Claudia had a large vocabulary for a 3 ½ year old and I was amazed at some of the words she used. She once told me that her dolls were rather uncoordinated. I thought that maybe she was just using a word that she had heard and liked the sound of but did not know the meaning of so I asked her why she thought that. She told me that their “arms and legs don’t work well together”. Another time I said “My! you are clever Claudia” and she looked at me with a serious expression on her face and said “Maybe it’s because I’m Australian Gran”. That had me in fits of laughter, fancy being put in my place by a three year old. How could one help but love her? Once she was in the car with her dad and they were coming up to a traffic light. He asked her, “what does a green light mean Claudia?” and she answered “go” so he asked what red meant and she answered stop. As they got closer to the light it turned amber and Jonathan said to her “And amber means go a little faster doesn’t it”. Claudia put him in his place too, she said “No Dad, it means proceed with due caution”

Lauren at only 14 months was not talking, but she watched everything. Jonny liked to dunk his biscuits in his tea and Lauren watched this and picked up the habit of dunking her food into Grandpa’s tea. This tickled Jonny and he did not mind at all. The problems arose when we had left and Lauren tried to do the same to her mother’s cup of tea. Understandably, Siân did not like soggy crumbs floating in her cup. I am not sure if she will ever forgive her father-in-law for that.

Jonathan and Siân took us to so many places and often when we got home rather late Siân would get busy making our evening meal and I would supervise the girls bath. When I had finished drying and dressing Lauren I would take her on to the veranda at the back of the house and every evening a flock of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos would fly into the big red gum trees in the garden next door. Lauren loved them and would point to them and say “Ook, ook, ook” I always think of the Cockies as Lauren’s birds now. Once Jonathan and Siân took us to a market in Paddington, after we had wandered around looking at the products on sale we decided that ice creams all round were required. Lauren did not want anyone to help her with hers she took her cone and somehow did not manage at the first attempt to get it to her mouth. She had ice cream all over forehead but was still determined to manage it herself and after a few more off target tries she managed to connect mouth and ice cream and got stuck into her treat. Her face was covered with ice cream but she refused to let Sian clean it up as she was having too much fun eating so as we walked along pushing her in the stroller and eating our cones we were amused at the reaction of passer-by’s as they saw how much ice cream Lauren had got on her face. Everyone thought she looked very funny and gave her a smile.

We were so blessed at being able to go on that trip to visit our children and grand children and we could never thank Jonathan and Siân enough.

Claudia

Lauren

The Family