Holiday

6 15

A snowy day in February is surely a good time to recall warm times. A few gloomy ducks muse on the Basin, no one chooses to walk Convoy quay, and my music is the dishwasher beating time, to the melody of the scrape of the snow plough and the trundling salt truck. Clearing away mess is a noisy business. Gantries in the mist are just discernible, and traffic is slow on the distant highway. This carefully crafted passage is not meant to cheer all those reveling in expensive warm places, but to reduce to tears all the ex-pats who cannot be here in Halifax, now.

Stormstayed: I think the snow is turning to drizzle.

Pre-flight, I have two fun weeks with Addie, Greg, Siobhaun, and her in-laws, Judy and Danny. We go to Disneyland where Danny and his brother Greg leave no rollercoaster un-coasted. They scream, they line up, they love it. Myself, I like the waterways type rides – crazy whitewater rafting, log flumes, any zany ride involving water. We are always cold in Anaheim; our first clue we have miscalculated the weather, is noting that all the local Angelinos and the smart Japanese visitors are wearing Down jackets. Once I buy my trusty Mickey fleece, I am good to go.

We move to San Diego and Coronado (I think John Denver sings a song about Coronardo and Colorado).

I could ramble on till the seagulls come home, so just let me say that I loved your Christmas greeting. As well, I loved my Summer holidays this winter.

Well, enough about me! Addie told me that gulls fly over the sea, so they are called seagulls. If they flew over the bay, then they would be called bagels (baygulls).

LOVE EVE

HowISpentMy

SummerHolidays.

Mornington Peninsula, Oz

Coronado,USA

YarraGlen,Oz

Coronado,USA

Ridgevale, NS

432

1 902 431 4364

Working backwards:

Got home to a spotless freshly painted living area, but paintings had to be re-hung and the place to be de-cluttered to match the priceless pristine look of white. Siobhaun and Greg have just sold their more-than-pristine house and now must seriously look for another. They will probably rent for a month or two until the dream house appears. They are so enjoying the Games and its buzz, getting to the Opening Ceremonies – quite a gift for Addie - and a couple of sporting events. I saw part of the Cultural Olympiad before I left by dropping in and seeing the Leonardo Da Vinci notebook (kindly loaned by HRM, not Halifax Regional Metro, but the other HRM, Elizabeth Windsor). As I have remarked before, LDV is THE MAN, and art curators should just lock away the other galleries when he is in town, as comparisons are odious. The VAG Entrance is in the heart of all the Games’ non-sporting goings-on, and a great place to people watch.

As usual, taking the full 15 days to get back my lost 15 hours time difference. Going east is such a bummer. Had a wonderful time in Melbourne’s Glen Iris, a charming leafy suburb with parks, creeks and tiny train stations, noisy Indian Mynah birds, and hedges of pale blue plumbago, sheaves of agapanthus (Blue or white Nile lilies), where unnamed vines bedecked with little orange trumpets thrive. It did my heart good to find that Tania has landed safely. Their home is large with vast rooms where the boys can be superheroes, and grandmothers can repose, read quietly and ponder. Already, Andy & Tania have nice neighbours, fun babysitters and best friends for Aidan; the transit system is conquered and the library cards are validated.

All is relative:

My father’s first cousin, Mary Dawson Thorpe, was visiting her daughter Kath. Eve was visiting her daughter Tania. And the two girls live a four-minute drive/fifteen minutes’ walk away in Glen Iris. As it is 25 years since Eve and Mary met, we caught up.

We Georges are great conversationalists, she says smugly. Meals, visits and genealogical details are exchanged. Mary was a bright light of my childhood, and she was always so kind to me when my grandmother, her Auntie Annie, took me there for weekends. We have a ball.

So what do you like best?

Is it the warmth, the Botanic Gardens, the weekly movies, the weekly suppers at the beaches, the Yarra Glen with wineries and dairies? Is it the delight the boys took in the zoos, the swimming, the eating, the talking, the great public art, the lovely top–of-the-line Edwardian architecture, the galleries, especially the Ian Potter which specializes in Oz Art? Is it seeing your children settled? Could it be Aidan’s good school round the corner, the twins’ lovely Kinder, Tania’s glowing good health, Andy’s contentment. Who can put a price on what is “Best?”

Portsea, Oz Bedford, NS