We had been pretty excited to fly to Sydney to spend time with Georgia, Hannah and Matt.  Georgia and Matt relocated to Sydney last July because Matt works as a commodity trader at StoneX and Georgia works as a paediatric emergency nurse at Sydney Children’s Hospital.  Just two weeks ago Hannah moved to Sydney keeping her Auckland marketing job for an agency here, so we were looking forward to seeing their respective apartments which are both in Randwick near the beaches, the train lines and the hospital.  The girls were waiting at the airport and very excited to see us.  Sydney’s weather system deteriorated from the promised 25 degree days to rain, rain and more rain which was the first problem as we didn’t pack much warm gear but did have ze raincoats which proved useful in these frequent showers.

We settled into Georgia and Matt’s apartment and by Tuesday Vern was seemingly not himself but we did get to see Hannah’s apartment and had a walk between showers at Coogee Beach.  By Wednesday morning Vern was obviously unwell and confined to the bedroom so the girls decided to take Nanny on a drive to explore more beaches in the wind and rain – this wasn’t their idea of our beach visit which we all thought was going to be on a 26 degree sunny day!  Never mind – you can’t control ze weather!  By Thursday morning we were a bit concerned about Vern and the nurse in the family determined that he needed to see a doctor so we set off to make the appointment and a Covid test had to take place before that visit.  The bad news was that the Covid test had two positive red lines in about 30 seconds!  We were in a bit of shock actually but made a very quick decision to get on a plane and get back home.  He wasn’t well and we did not want to put them all at risk – although probably already had.  I have suppressed immunity and was a sitter to get it too so we quickly got into packing mode.  It was hugely disappointing but it was the right thing to do besides, the three of them have been training for a half marathon which was run on Sunday 5 May and I am delighted to say they all completed it.  

There wasn’t much to laugh about but on Wednesday I had bought Vern a pair of black track pants because he was cold.  He was doing the packing and I was on the phone to Air NZ when, to my utter shock, when I looked at him in these black pants I nearly fainted because it looked like he was standing there in leotards which were too short and too tight!  Heaven forbid – what blimmin size did I buy I am thinking which thoroughly distracted me while talking to the man on the phone!  When I got off the phone I heard Georgia laughing her head off in the lounge before announcing “Pappy – why are you wearing Nanny’s Lulu Lemon trousers??”  Well, blow me down and thank goodness for that because these are definitely not made for him and thankfully that little error was discovered before we boarded the plane or a very uncomfortable flight would be the result and it was uncomfortable enough for him fully masked up and just wishing the flight was over.  We eventually arrived home at 2.30 am discarding the masks and falling into bed.  Next morning I too had a positive test!  So here we are back in our apartment at William Sanders Village and had the groceries and meds delivered by Nicola and Franco, morning tea in a bag at the door from our 92 year old neighbour, calls from other neighbours, kids and grandkids to see what we need and the Herald pushed under the door by another kind neighbour.  We are really blessed to be in this caring environment.  So our holiday ends on a disappointing note but we will be back to Sydney to make up for it before too long.  And……. In three weeks Nicola and Franco relocate to Melbourne and their new apartment so we will be visiting Melbourne too.  Things they are a changing! The girls and Matt went to the AFL game on Saturday (the one that we were supposed to be at so they could educate us on the nuances of the game) and completed their half marathon in the rain on Sunday.  So today, whilst we are isolating with Covid we are onto the next holiday to plan.