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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

February 16 – 28, 2012 Loving Sydney Again and the Arrival of Scott Morlan

We blew in through the Heads of Sydney Harbour literally in a storm. It was late and as tired as we were all we could do was scramble over to Spring Cove and drop the hook.

We spent the next several days moving about from Blackwattle, where we visited Mark and Heather to Birkenhead Point where I had a few more outings and lunches/coffees with Pauline and Janet, which included a trip t the Picasso exhibit. I could have sent all day there! Then over to MHYC for a tie up, water fill and a boat rinse.

Heather and Paul invited us to join them on another hash run but we could not make it that night and because Frank had a friend arriving next week, we knew it would be fruitless to plan to hash again. I was extremely disappointed but Frank promised to begin getting in shape so that we can really run with the hash again somewhere in the future. We arranged to meet for dinner at Heather's home in Balmoral the next evening. Heather's home is a three-story modern beauty. The top floor opens completely on two sides to reveal an impressive view of Balmoral beach and Middle Harbor. Frank immediately plopped down and felt at home. He said this is the design he wants when we settle down into a house again, although Lord knows when and where that will be.

On Friday, February 24th, Scott Morlan arrived from Denver. We filled his days and nights as much as possible with the sights of Sydney. Scott being Scott was a bit more interested in where the best bars were and golf.  We walked him through Sydney, much the same as Karen's first day. Heather Olson and Paul had moved her yacht, Billyana over to Blackwattle Bay. We invited them over for Happy Hour with fresh oysters, prawns and sashimi from the Sydney Fish Market. Afterward we piled into Heather's car for a trip to Newtown where we literally feasted at Atom (Thai).  Saturday the boys set off for the Coogee to Bondi walk and were planning to grab the Hop-on-Hop-off bus from there. I spent the day in the Mac Store (Apple) getting tutorials on my new MacBook Air. My original MacBook completely crashed when we were in Virginia recently. I lost everything. When I'd returned to Australia, I'd taken my external hard drive into an Apple Store where they attempted to restore it. We are still trying to get there unfortunately. Heather Olson joined me. She was getting a tutorial on her Mac products. She and I spent the day in town and enjoyed a lovely lunch. Frank and Scott returned SEVERAL hours later very sunburned, very jovial and more than a little tipsy. On Sunday, we walked Scott to some of our other favorite sites in Sydney, and found his favorite spot to be the café/bar outside the QVB (Queen Victoria Building), where we people watched and were entertained by street buskers.

Monday we took Destiny over to Rose Bay so the boys could play golf at the Royal Sydney Golf Club.  Scott returned very happy and exited. They'd had a really great time, at the swanky club and on the beautiful course but the best part for Scott was seeing kangaroos all over the course. He said at one of the holes, he crested a hill to find a herd of camels! What a great experience! Late afternoon we moved over to the MHYC dock to fill up with water and show the place to Scott. We ran in to the Tuppenny girls and some of our other friends there who got to meet Frank's mate. Early the next morning, Janet and Pauline drove over to have breakfast with me before we left Sydney. This meant so very much to me because it was quite a drive for both of them (coming from opposite directions) clear across Sydney just to meet me one last time. It was an emotional goodbye. Today marked the beginning of a lot of goodbyes.

As we sailed out of Sydney Harbour for the last time I teared up, feeling my heart tighten as I felt I was leaving so much love and companionship behind. Door One of many to follow, slowly closed and as we rounded the South Head I swear I heard a faint "click".

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