Sydney;

Well we got up to nothing really. We had a chance to cook and bake loads of food for Bette. The freezer is now filled with lots of easy meals for her to reheat. Joanne has gone to Europe for a month and a bit. So better will be alone for a few weeks with different carers that come throughout the week. We did get an offer on the house of $350k which we countered and the lady waffled. While she was doing that another buyer came along and it ended up going into a multi offer. So we now have a two week wait in place but the house will hopefully be sold. The lady loves it and is already thinking about curtains, that’s a good sign. Rowan ended up going to the doctor here for a check up and I tell you what there are some vast differences with our systems. First you have a Medicare card which means you can go to any doctor and still get the government discount. The doctors were available in 10min. They did a thorough consultation and tested for nearly everything. When it all came back Rowan has been advised to drink less. No surprises there. He already planned to do 6 months dry when getting back. So definitely going to do it now. Doctors orders. Now I am not saying the Australian system is perfect but it appears to be a lot less underfunded and stressed like our system.

Auckland;

We fly into Auckland and pick up a hire car. We head straight to Beachlands to stay with my dad a couple of nights. It is really good to catch up with him. Rowan cooked the second night some delicious beef cheeks. Sue was working late so we had a late dinner. We slept in the new spare room which was Alice’s bedroom.

Saturday we headed back into central Auckland and waited at Emma’s house for Clare to come. It is great to see my mum and sister. Clare didn’t know I was here, we were trying to make me a surprise but she told me she had an idea I was here. We are celebrating Clare’s 40th Birthday this weekend. We all go out to lunch and then I leave Rowan at Emma’s with the cat. We head out to get massages and our nails all done. Ellery, Emma’s daughter gets her nails done too and she sits very still and waits for the polish to dry. We all head back to the airbnb and catchup. My youngest sister Sarah is flying in from Rotorua after she finished work. We end up having Thai food delivered for dinner. We made our own paint and sip. We decided the fake flowers would be our inspiration. I am not sure my message went down well on top of my flowers. I thought it was pretty accurate.

Sunday we headed out for breakfast, nine of us in total. It is dad’s day, great to have us all together. It is very rare now that we are all together, I am mostly the missing one haha. From the cafe Rowan and I head to Whangaparāoa to see Nana. We meet at Runamuck first to see the progress. It is all growing back nicely. My aunty Deb and Uncle Sam are up here too. They are not staying the night at Nans, tonight it will just be us three. Nana is exactly the same, I can barely keep up with her. We all go out for a nice meal at a local Italian place. It was very good. Rowan and I do a few little jobs around the place and I fill all the salt and pepper grinders, that was grandpas job.

Monday; We catch up with Rowan’s cousin Lynne who lives out in Stillwater. I met her at Mudgee family trip a year ago. It was great to catch up with her. Tonight we are staying with Emma and Paul. We planned to stay with Nana but the timing was bad for our flight, we would have been stuck in traffic.