Epilogue

So there it was 2006 almost over and time to reflect. How do the stats add up?
6fabulous holidays
25+ hotels
41 gruelling weeks in the classroom
50+ beaches
161 blogs
2500+ photos
20000 pounds spent
More memories than we can count.

Rosebery Ave was a welcome sight despite the cold. David, Michelle, Joel and Liam had looked after the house very well. Although we'll probably spend the next 6 months re-finding things. The children just loved re-discovering all their toys that could not make it onto the plane.



Glad to be back? Yes. We could have done with another 6 months perhaps but to leave wanting more is probably a good thing. Fantastic to be seeing friends and family again. Shopping has been lots of fun back in England although the fact that we came in time for the January Sales and have got a new car and TV would be partly to blame. Could also have done with the 6 week summer holiday we had just earned back in Australia but getting back to teaching in England is a great relief. Not so much for Tina who after teaching for 7 days in the past year has now got 12 days in a row to start January with.

Would we emigrate? No. That 24 hour flight reminded us just how far away it is. Australia is a gorgeous country and we met some gorgeous people in a gorgeous climate but the rest of the world is just too far away from there. We will return though. Perth, The Top End and the great Ocean Road all need visiting and perhaps just one more serving of Fish and chips on a Friday Evening at Warners Bay Foreshore would be nice.

One last painful journey

It was about here that the tears started to come. Somehow saying farewell to places can get to me more than personal goodbyes. There's a sense of putting on a brave face when you see a person and say goodbye but while Tina clicked the camera and the children eagerly dug out the DS games, it offered a chance to look out of the window of my Happy Cabby anq quietly blub.



Had I known what awaited us at the airport I might have cried a bit more readily. We arrived at 7pm for a 9.45pm flight. For the next two hours we then became a bloody good episode of "Airport".
The Chappell family have arrived for their flight from Sydney to London via Dubai but the guitar is causing a few problems.
"I'm sorry but the guitar has to be part of your luggage"
"But it won't count as part of our allowance?"
"I'm afraid it will"
"But I phoned up about this to check. We would have sold the damn thing if we knew we could not take it on board."
"Who did you speak to?... OK I'll check with my supervisor."

An anxious two minute wait and we got the all clear. It would have to go with the luggage but would not count as part of our allowance. That done we got the bags on the scales.

"That's 34 kilos we can't take that one on and this hand luggage is 3 kilos over and this one. What are you doing with those bags? You're only supposed to have one item of hand luggage each. They'll have to be weighed too. Sort them out over there and come back to me when you've done."
So we spread ourselves out.



30 frantic minutes later. We were 6 kilos lighter and the nearest bin was 6 kilos heavier. Various hats, boots, books, presents, boots, electronic toothbrushes and undies were destined never to make it home.



The Chappell family are now ready at last to check in for their flight but the drama is not over yet.......
"We have to make that flight, can't you just let us on, I've got two tired children here! We have to get home" (Cut to Ad break)

This was the anxious plea after a one hour stalemate in which Emirates insisted we should have a paper ticket and we insisted that we never had one. It was now 9pm. Boarding time. After a pointless and fruitless search they gave us the green light anyway. We dashed through the security checks. Did some severe queue jumping at customs and immigration and sprinted 400 m to our gate. Having arrived with almost three hours to spare we got on the plane with minutes to spare. The prospect of 13 hours on a plane never felt so good.
Here are Jess and Alex at Dubai Airport. Jess cuddles her new toy whilst Alex displays the effects of staring at a TV screen for 13 hours.



It was glitzy , glamourous golden and surprisingly Christmassy at Dubai but no time to go Camel riding or stay in Luxorious hotels. We had another plane to catch. Another 7+ hours; 11:30 am GMT and we were home.

Goodbye Whitby St!!!!

Only our house for a year but it's been packed full of memories. What a shame that the farewell photo had to be taken on bin day.



Goodbye to the side garden where many "soccer", rugby and cricket matches were played out.


Goodbye to the garage. Haven for our rusting Ford and many tight table tennis matches.



Goodbye to the Verandah. Where several evening drinks were had and several torrential downpours and thunderstorms were viewed.



Goodbye to the Kitchen. Tina's Kangaroo stew will take some beating.



Goodbye to the kitchen table. Scene of many hours of negotiating with Alex to have "just one more mouthful"



Goodbye to the Study AKA blog nerve centre and the focus point for many hours of mediocre lesson planning.



Goodbye to Alex's bedroom. A place of not enough sleeping and too much Nintendo DS playing.




Goodbye to Jessica's bedroom. Which came alive every morning when mother and daughter argued over hairbrushing.



Goodbye to our bedroom. Where we .............................slept.



Goodbye to the Bathroom. Best venue for Cockroach splatting.



Goodbye to the Lounge and the "viewroom". Best locations for winding down and watching Lost or 24 or Doctor Who or Prison Break or.....



alternatively just soaking up the views to the lake and mountains.



So we moved our life out of Whitby St and put it into 14 containers of various shapes and sizes on the front lawn.



After 3o minures delay and having pulled Tina away from last minute toilet cleaning we stepped into the Happy Cabby Karaoke bus. Ready to begin the three hour drive to the Airport.



Gloria was there to wave us goodbye and make sure the Poms were indeed going to leave the country.

A Melancholic Mereweather Meander

Awoke at 5am. With an oppressive sense of finality. In 12 hours from now I'd be arriving at an airport departure lounge with possibly the best year of my life all but over. This demanded that one final morning swim should be had. Location? Mereweather baths. Arrived just after sunrise but was not alone as a lone surfer surveyed the waves.



He finally gave in surveying , having decided that the sea was a bit too choppy. In contrast the baths were like a stagnant millpond....Correction! They were a stagnant millpond. Luckily I swam in the opposite corner from where all of this scum had gathered, although I still came out smelling as you'd expect me to smell.



The photo below involved a simple turn of 90 degrees yet creates a dramatically more positive image of what the Newcastle foreshore has to offer.



Did not feel quite ready to drive home as 6 hours of packing and cleaning awaited so detoured to three locations I'd somehow avoided all year. The obelisk is a hill top monument in memory of the first water treatment plant in Newcastle. Um? Not quite cleopatra's needle.....


but offered what I suppose constituted my last decent Australian view.


The cathedral is a major landmark of Newcastle with another hilltop perch.
Somehow we'd never got round to coming here either. Did not have time to climb the 220 steps (or whatever it is) to the top. It was locked anyway.


The chic cafes of Darby St tempted me in for a morning Cappucino. Despite the fact that I smelt of festering seaweed they still served me. Even so I drank swiftly whilst trying to find a newspaper story that was not about Shane Warne's 700 wickets.

Christmas where the Gum trees grow....

".... there is no frost and there is no snow

Christmas in Australia's hot

Cold and windy's what it's not

when the bloom of the Jacaranda tree is here

then Christmas time is near."

So go the lyrics of one of our favourite Aussie Christmas songs. But this did not make it into Tina Chappell and Sarah Pateman's Christmas Eve singalong(Well Tina did most of the singing). Neither did. "Dashing through the bush in a rusty holden Ute" or On the first day of Christmas my true blah blah to me a Kookaburra in aGum tree or "Santa's wearing shorts". They did however do the Rolf Harris Christmas Classic "Six white boomers".

The venue for this show was at the Christmas opening of John and Lisa's decking. A subplot of our year as to whether it would get finished in time. Not quite in keeping of the words of the song above it poured down but this decking also had a roof so we all kept dry and sang happily none more so than Lisa's nephew Jordan although he needed help to get the timing right on Little Drummer Boy.

A great evening but the tenth late night in a row for Jessica and Alex but this did not stop Alex from doing a last minute "Present getting insurance policy statement" AKA letter to Santa. He was satisfied when Santa informed him that it is still reindeer and not snow white kangaroos who deliver down Under. The extent of how tired the kids are getting is reflected in the fact that we woke Jessica just before 9am, told her that her presents had arrived and she asked if she could have 5 minutes sleep first!

Only small gifts but getting the DS game that he asked for will probably be a highlight of Alex's year.

Christmas day lunch meant a drive into the Western Suburbs of Newcastle. Once again another example of wonderful hospitality with Lisa's sister and brother in law (Anne and Scott) happy to make space for four pommie guests. Maybe they were not happy but if that was the case they hid it well.

Lovely house.

The only thing that concerned me was the view. Not the muddy wasteland but beyond that was Glendore School!

Oh the Irony! A big notice stated "Staff return 29th Jan"- NOT ME!

A "montage" of photos from John and Lisa was lovely to get. It was even lovelier when they said they'd post it to us. The other present? A film called Kenny. It's acheived cult status over here and has lots of toilet humour. Tina will love it.

The boys socialised as only boys can.

Staged Blog Photo Number 1: This was as close as I could get to "putting another shrimp on the Barbie Mate"

Instead it came beautifully presented with Lettuce and Avocado. They're quite cultured these Aussies.

And an Aussie cold meat platter. A mixture of dead pig and chicken.

The plum pudding never got opened as everyone was too full and too scared that I would follow through the strange "British" custom of setting light to it. But the children loved destroying Tina's Gingerbread house.

No Queen's speech, eight adults to tidy up and improving weather (The day started off the wettest in ten years) gave us the inclination to get in the pool.

Staged Blog photo number Two: Santa Hat wearing on the pool lounger.

The full Arsenal of Water Pistols came out and the usual Kids v Adults battle soon developed. It was great fun but it really seemed quite out of the ordinary to being doing this on Christmas day rather than the middle of August.

By 5pm it was time to leave and one of the saddest moments of the year as we said goodbye to the Pateman family for the last time. Their hospitality and ability to put up with all the Chappell family quirks makes them very special people. Stockton Beach, Australia Day, Four Wheel driving, Sailing, doughnutting, Umina Beach, The Wattagans, Barrington Tops, Australia Day... the list goes on as many of our best days out this year have came through them all this and just their downright friendliness makes us eternally grateful.

The drive home was Melancholy but two detours cheered us up. First the discovery of another view. A view which we have never seen even though we have driven just past it about 50 times and it is on a road called "LOOKOUT Rd". Anyway for what it is worth it is overlooking Blackbutt Reserve, with Newcastle and the Ocean in the background.

We might then have gone home and sulked a bit. After being in the pool we did not feel the need to swim and the sun was going down but a "We're at Caves Beach, where are you?" text made us rethink.

So Staged Blog photo Number Three: The Official we are on the beach at Christmas photo. Of course Tina's Mum does this every year but it is twenty degrees colder for her

The Text came from the Jenkins family. Here are two thirds of them with a guest Chappell.

Yet another Boogie boarding shot "yawn" but it has to be here for its Festive significance and the fact that this could be our last chance. If only somebody could have captured us on the wave two minutes prior to this which dumped us both; had Tina doing a "Judy" and whipped my shorts around my ankles.

Verdict on an Aussie Christmas? Loved it! Although saying goodbyes, not having your own family around you and two days of packing and cleaning ahead of us knocked some of the sheen off it. Well it's quarter to two in the morning over here. If I wait another 15 minutes I could download a Podcast of The Queen's Christmas speech but somehow I don't think I'll bother.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

A final two week holiday

We sat at the Pizza Restaurant down by the lake a fortnight ago, musing on the fact that with only 14 days to go we should treat every day as if we were on holiday. Tempting as it was to take 5 days sick leave to help the "holiday feeling" I soldiered on bravely to the end. Finishing my experience with only 16 out of 27 children on my last day (It is a bit of a trend over here). I managed to say most of my farewells in an amicable and friendly manner, avoided one or two people and the same one or two people probably avoided me. A guarded but pleasant farewell was had with the principal. I had written ALL my thoughts on the experience in a 5 page "essay" to him. He shook hands with a smile either because:
a) He appreciated the effort I'd made and my professional opinion
b) He had not got round to reading it.
c) He'd read it and smiled as he put it in the bin.
Much more contented smiles were had in the evening when a hardcore 5 of us shared several pints/ glasses of wine etc. in the General Roberts in Newcastle.
This helped to relieve the stress of it all and another stress relieving activity was selling the car. After several surreal, late night and curious conversations with a man from Melbourne 14 hours drive away, who insisted he wanted it. We finally sold the car on the 19th December to a family from Tuggerah 1 hour away. $2850 dollars which added to $1700 hail damage insurance meant we have made a $450 dollar profit on the car.
Better still we were not left carless as Michelle's Mum Gloria lent us her Mazda!!!!



There are some uptight people in Australia and boy have they enjoyed going on and on and on about the Ashes but Gloria is the epitome of many people we have had the pleasure to meet. Always ready to help you out of a spot , making varying degrees of sacrifices to do so. Gloria has really missed Michelle and the family but has always been welcoming to us and rounded it off by inviting us all round for a Christmas dinner during the final weekend, giving us lovely gifts and dutifully sitting through one of Jessica's shows. What a star!



Two late nights, focussed on walks in the dark. One to see the Christmas lights in the area which involved 18 of us strolling around the local neighbourhood. Then a much quieter affair, strolling in bushland by the lake, possum spotting with the secretary at school with her husband and her son, the latter being our expert guide. The longest day though was our final farewell to Sydney.
Could not think of anything new to do; nothing we could afford anyway so re-did a couple of our favourites. First stop Darling Harbour with its giant Christmas tree. This of course was not the actual reason for our trip but more so that having grown 9cm, little Alex was tall enough to go on the Harbourjet speedboat ride. Little Alex was nearly sick too but survived the ordeal. We think he liked it. Tina certainly did (It was her first time too) whilst Jessica was a third ride veteran so was a bit more laidback about it all.
Back in the water after this but in a more sedate fashion as we took a water taxi across to the other side of the Harbour.



This was to satisfy the childrens' final request of a trip back to Luna Park. Well here was the penultimate ride that the children went on with Dad. Jess had no height restrictions so was able to do everything her Dad did. So after her eighth ride she acheived what Alex had failed to do earlier and did a blue powerade vomit in the middle of the main walkway.



We made a quick exit but not quick enough and missed the cross harbour ferry; waited 40 minutes for another boat to Circular Quay and completely missed out on a poignant farewell to the Opera House. Instead we ate chips at breakneck speed, walked swiftly to the station having no time to even glance at the eighth wonder of the world and hopped onto the 9:15pm train. Two and a half hours later after stopping at every single poxy station imaginable (Woy Woy, Wyong, Dora Creek, Booragul etc......) we made it home. 5 hours on a train altogether for the sake of a 20 minute boat ride and 3 hours in a second rate theme park was probably not the best way to spend one of our last days in Australia but Sydney must be thanked for the many highlights it has given us. We never did get round to doing the Bridge climb. Oh well we'll do that next time!
Back at Lake Macquarie, the day after our dinner with Gloria and two days before Christmas we were on the water again. This time for our final "Pateman adventure" doughnutting in their tinny. Trying to pull someone along in a rubber ring whilst you row is really hard though.



Only kidding. The tinny, which they had won in a raffle, came with a pretty handy motor. As is usually the case it was Alex we were most concerned about but it was he who could not get enough of it.
Sometimes though he just liked chilling out.