Arrival in Sydney

November 9th never happened, unless you count a few hours of darkness while we tried to sleep until south of Hawaii. South of the International Date Line we went through an area of turbulence and cloud at 37000 ft. that lasted a good half hour, perhaps distantly associated with the disastrous typhoon over the Philippines and Vietnam. The day (Nov. 10th) had dawned by then, with a fiery sunrise. No sign of Fiji or the other Pacific islands, and we didn't see anything of the NSW coast, where it was raining, till I caught a glimpse of the Sydney Harbour bridge just before landing. At the gate we had to remain seated for 10 minutes while the crew sprayed everything in the luggage bins to eliminate any stray bugs that might have hitched a ride. That had happened on our previous arrival in 2003, as well.

Chris with his grandson

Immigration and baggage reclaim was smooth and easy; we were singled out for the sniffer dogs as we came through the customs / quarantine area, which entailed some more queuing, but then we were through the barriers and George could greet us with a Welcome to Australia balloon. We bought a "flat white" coffee and a coke to keep us awake, then splashed along to George's car through the puddles of rainwater. It's a 40 minute drive along the motorways to his house in Marsfield where all the streets are names after British battles. He and Sha live on Waterloo Road. She gave us a most affectionate welcome and we all tiptoed upstairs to see little Eddie fast asleep and spreadeagled on the bed. When he woke up he greeted us with smiles.


The streets are full of jaracanda trees, covered with purple blossom.

In the afternoon, Jonathan, Alyssa and Vikram came round to visit, as well as the rainbow lorikeets, tame enough to perch on our hands, noisy mynah birds, and a lizard. We had a walk in the rain, and supper, and an early bedtime. In fact all our bedtimes have been early since we arrived in Sydney.