On Thursday Bill and Felicity arrived, from Canberra by car and ferry. They stayed with Mum and Dad at Turners Beach en route and had a nice walk along the beach. Boys were excited to see them, and leapt about like puppies showing off their various tricks.
Friday is a bit of a blank. Err... I remember a game of scrabble. And making about a thousand teas and coffees. We had atlantic salmon for lunch, that was pretty fabulous.
On Saturday we went to the Museum AGAIN. For Marcus and I it was our fourth visit inside a week. Bill loved the film of stormy sub-antarctic seas. The presentation of old stereographic photos from the Mawson expedition is still stunning, even on the fourth viewing. You pop on some special 3D glasses and the icebergs loom, the penguins are very round and fat, the ropes on the ship interweave in space, its quite amazing. The soundtrack is wonderfully clean and evocative. The makers avoided the temptation of adding a plonking voice-over.
On Saturday evening Elf and Felicity went to a very long and involved service at All Saints. Bill and I were actually on our way out to the car to go in search of them when they appeared. All Saints is the Anglican church down the road, where we were married and the boys were christened. It is very "high church" and they like to extend every little part of a service with latin, incense, lots of processions and people bowing to each other. They have a cast of about a dozen be-robed personages, who all have to bow to one another in turn. It all takes forever.
On Sunday we all (B and F included) visited the Moonah Farm (Saffy's house). We had an easter egg hunt, threw the ball for the dog, examined the chickens, collected a bucket of quinces.
On Monday we went on a ferry trip up and down the river, on the MV Emmalisa. I once lived at Bellerive and went to work in the morning and home in the evening on this little boat. They were patchy days at home, but I always felt happy with my place in the world when I was sitting out in the sun on the open deck with a coffee in the morning or a beer on the way home. The fare was only $1.50!
Bill particularly enjoyed the outing, old salt that he is. As we went under the bridge the recorded tourist info recounted the story of the disaster in 1974 when the Lake Illawarra crashed into one of the pylons, two sections of bridge fell and the ship sank into very deep water where it is today. Seven sailors died, and five more people died when a handful of cars sailed over the edge in the dark. Marcus asked a few questions about this, and said that he hopes when people die they come back to life again later. I reminded him that when you die, you are gone for good, so you always have to be very careful and do what mum and dad say. "What about Jesus, he died and then he came back didn't he?" Ah, Easter. It's not just chocolate eggs.
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