Going back to our roots…

Well what a summer it has been. As the heat and humidity in Grenada intensified, we decided to use the time, and the unique flexibility of our remote working and schooling arrangements, to take a huge 6 week trip to the UK, Thailand (Bangkok), and Australia, then back again. It is my father’s 80th birthday this October, and Pete and I haven’t been back there for nearly 20 years we realized. So time to move and suck up the long flights.

We spent the initial week we had in the UK doing some school/ work, but also doing some exploring. We spent a wonderful afternoon walking around Wakehurst Place and the Millennium Seed Bank in Sussex with mum. We had a fab day in London, getting the train to London Bridge and walking up to Tower Bridge along the Thames, visiting the Tower of London and choosing which Crown Jewels we would most like to wear, before heading to Borough Market for lunch, then walking up to the Millennium pedestrian bridge and to St Pauls. We tried our new drone over Renhold village, and got some great shots of the village and the cottage where Pete’s parents live. It was a joy reuniting with Leia the cat we used to have in the US in Pennsylvania, who emigrated to live with Pete’s parents when we left on our boat last summer (she hated being aboard, we did try her for a few weeks but she was not a natural ships’ cat).

We then headed for the airport again after a week, and boarded our Thai Airlines flight to Bangkok. Pete and I spent year after year coming to Thailand before and after we were married and had children and for us the soul was still there in Bangkok - a little crazy, some amazingly lovely people, some fantastic sights to see and some awesome bartering for the kids to practice in the evenings in the market. We did a long boat ride through the canal system in Bangkok along the backs of the houses, seeing the other side of Bangkok living away from the tourists. The kids tried all sorts of street food, including a crocodile kebab (Oscar). We had some clothes tailored - Bethan a beautiful Chinese style dress, Oscar a check shirt and some linen trousers, Annabelle a linen dress and some linen pants - sadly not at the tailor where I had had my wedding dress made as that didn’t survive Covid times, but such a fun experience nonetheless and Bethan met the tailor when she came down from the factory for the final fitting! We stayed in the same hotel we had done 18 years ago on Kho Sahn Rd, Annabelle and I had Thai massages and pedicures. We really enjoyed the vibrancy of the city.

And then it was time to head to Sydney! Its been a long time, about 20 years, since Pete and I were there. We arrived to a beautiful spring morning having flown over the famous Harbor, and picked up our rental and drove to Dad’s house, surrounded by the Australian bush. The kids enjoyed playing tennis (Oscar and Bethan for the time time!) with Grandad, watching the wallabies in next doors’ garden, listening to the really noisy Cockatoos and seeing parakeets and other birds they had only even seen in a zoo (in Martinique!). The snakes and spiders thankfully remained for the most part in the Australian Reptile Park that we visited (the newer version of the Park, where my Grandpa had worked as a receptionist when they retired out to Australia all those years ago), and it was wonderful to spend some time with him and Eddi as he neared his 80th birthday. We had a memorable day out on their motorboat, fishing and speeding through the Hawkesbury river and Pittwater areas where Pete also grew up for a few years when he lived in Sydney as a kid. As good as a Zoom call and instant messaging is these days, there is nothing quite like some real face time….! We managed to get tickets to a Bledisloe Cup game (rugby match of Australia v New Zealand) in the old Olympic stadium at Homebush. We went to a Treetops adventure set in the woodland, and the kids loved being strapped on and climbing and ziplining on some really challenging courses!

We had a lovely although slow day in Blue Mountains and Leura - slow in that when we arrived in the morning we couldn’t see anything past the lookout point - no Three Sisters, no trails below the lookout, it was totally covered in low cloud. So we enjoyed town for a few hours, with beautiful spring flowers and blossom appearing everywhere, and then tried again in the afternoon. This time we were rewarded with spectacular scenery across the valley below, including the Three Sisters, and snapped many photos (although not everyone thought they looked very blue :) ).

We went to Terrigal and Avoca Beaches where I had spent my youth, and the kids spent time playing on the beach. We drove past the houses where both of us grew up and it was amazing how many memories came flooding back to us!

We caught up with my aunt and uncle and cousins, and their families, some of whom we had never met in person, and had a riotous afternoon enjoyed by everyone, including recreating a photo of all of us Australian cousins stacked on top of each other (sorry Nick!). My sisters Ali and Emily (and Pete and Ruby!) had also come to Australia to celebrate Dad’s 80th this month so it was lovely to all be together - it doesn’t happen often when we live in different parts of the world!

We walked across the Harbour bridge and spent time on the amazing Harbor ferries zig zagging back and forward to Manley, Circular Quay, Watsons Bay and Neutral Bay, where we also caught up with other family friends. We could never get tired of the Harbour views, and maybe one day we will sail in through the Heads on our own boat if we make it that far. That would be pretty cool…….

Finally it was time to leave, and head back via Bangkok to break the long journey back to London. We spent a lovely 9 days more in the UK, hitting Arundel Castle this time with mum which was fantastic, the kids had a trip to Cambridge and we enjoyed familiar, family time with grandparents and cats till it was time to leave and head back to Grenada.

All in all it was a wonderful trip, we flew about 34,000 miles, it was nice to have some time off the boat but equally ready not to be living out a suitcase again, and eager to get back on the water and exploring that way instead. We managed to explore a lot of things Pete and I had never experienced before as well as showing the kids our roots and some of our favorite places to travel. They definitely gained a huge amount by experiencing the different culture in Thailand, as well as getting a better understanding of the Australian roots that they have. Can’t wait to get exploring again!!!