Letter from Down Under ( Australia) 1994

Bondi beach Sydney

My partner had a habit of writing in the sand the name of the place, the year and made sure he had his photo taken as a reminder of our time together in all the beaches we have ever walked on, what a great idea as I look through all my photos I can pin point the sandy beaches around the world we have dipped our toes in. His last mark in the sand was made at The Bondi Beach, made popular by the rich and famous around the world.

 Our journey to Australia was another family get together for my partner who’s Little Brother, his wife and his daughter lived in Avoca, out back town near Melbourne. My partner’s, Big Brother and his sister-in law from London also accompanied us for four weeks of our very long trip. Travelling with elderly relatives was not that easy and I lived to tell my tale!

 We all four met at Heathrow airport for our flight to Singapore and as I and my partner began boarding the plane we found that our relatives were on where to be seen? Unfortunately (for me) or fortunately (for others) they were the last couple to be escorted to the plane by air stewardess before the flight took off. Later we discovered that they were both busy buying duty free drinks, unaware of the fact that they were holding up their/ our flight. We stopped in Dubai for refuelling and all the passengers were encouraged to leave the plane for few hours and spend their money in the duty free shop. Our Big Brother and his wife were not amused when they found out that they could have saved £20 if only they had waited for their duty free until they reached Dubai.

 

 We landed in Singapore and found our way to the reception desk for hotel bookings and our Big Brother had disappeared ; his wife and I went out hunting for him whilst my partner handled the hotel booking. Once we found a suitable hotel, our Big Brother appeared from no where and disagreed with our chosen accommodation. He had very little choice but to follow the three of us all the way to YMCA where I had stayed there in 1981. We spent three days in Singapore seeing the sights, visiting the cricket ground, taking in the Chinese New Year celebration in China town and drinking the Singapore Sling cocktail drink at the famous Raffles Hotel. We also managed to queue for a day trip to Johor Bahru, a border town in Malaysia and found that our Big Brother was wide awake making sure he was not left behind on a strange foreign soil? After three days in lush green Singapore city recovering from our flight and the rest we left for Melbourne with Big Brother in tow.

Emotional meeting of three brothers (after 30 years) at Melbourne Airport was followed by the journey to Avoca to the home of Little Brother, where we stayed for three days. The Little Brother’s beautiful tiny house was built in acres and acres of family farm land where the wild kangaroos shared the land with the family horse, ducks, geese, chickens, a monkey and all the other birds, snakes and god’s creatures who wandered around just for a bit of fun? My partner and I were provided with self- contained- on- it’s-last –leg- borrowed-from- neighbour- caravan for our accommodation which had to be checked every night for any sign of snakes underneath our double bed. There was no room to swing a cat never mind looking for a snake!! Our bathroom facilities were all back in the beautiful tiny house where the family had built a proper Western style loo just for our comfort. There was always a queue during our bath time which was actually a bucket job. The rain water saved in the water tank provided the water for our wash. As it had not rained for some time in Avoca the water in the bathroom was rationed. My partner, who could not function with out a proper bath tub, I had to demonstrate to him how to wash with a water full of bucket. The others went without a bucket job and just splashed water around? We were well fed with home grown produce and together with English cuisine in mind; we enjoyed Yorkshire pudding and roast beef and  some excellent corn beef ; though I would have been very happy to have been served salad in such a hot weather.

 

 

 

We went out everyday to see the beauty of Australian landscape nearby and also not so beautiful sights left behind when the gold rush was over in the sixties? Just to experience how the other half lived in Avoca we were invited by the family friend for an evening meal . The friends lived within walking distance from the little beautiful house and while the rest of us walked to their massive big mansion, they provided chauffeur driven old Bentley for Big Brother and his wife. The evening was filled with limitless amount of wine and other drinks consumed by the three brothers and the rest of men and women at the party. Everyone in the party got drunk but Big Brother (who was a magistrate back in London) had far too much that he had to be carried home by his two brothers because the offer for the chauffer driven car had expired.

 

 

 

 We hired a car to drive to our next port of call, sunny Sydney, 544 miles stretch, along dusty barren highway with the danger of kangaroos bumping into us and snakes creeping in our car bonnet if we stopped, over eight hours driving time and non other then my partner was capable of doing the job. Great job he did without any complaints. On arrival in Sydney our first port of call was to pay homage to the Sydney Cricket Ground. Then for few days we parted company from our relatives, and felt free to roam the beautiful city of Sydney on foot, eat the well deserved sea food, swim in Bondi beach, visit the Sydney opera house and art galleries and walk on the Sydney Harbour bridge which was built, ( as the story goes)  with the helping hands of hard working uncle related to my partner.  

 

 Our next port of call by plane was to Cairns in the North of Australia where we booked for two nights into two separate self contained small flats. Whilst my partner and I went out each day to see the sights of Cairns such as the rain forest and enjoyed the sea life of Cairns, our relatives never left their accommodation? The heat must have got to them? On the day of our departure by plane to our next port of call Perth, our Big Brother decided to make his own way to the airport because he objected to arriving at the airport three hours before departure time. When the actual time came to leave our accommodation on the arrival of hired taxi we were surprised to see that Big Brother had changed his mind? (I guess he simply had no confidence to make his own way to the airport, especially when his wife decided to come with us).

 

 We arrived in Perth situated in the West coast of Australia. The city which had lots to offer, we had only few days to kill so we settled for an evening of  musical entertainment ( Guys and Dolls ) at the local theatre without our relatives who wanted the night in and with our relatives a visit to the city of Freemantle where out door maritime history was displayed for tourists like us.     

 

 
To break our return journey home we stopped for few days in the Kingdom of Brunei, its capital, with a mouth full of a name Bander Seri Begawan where money seem to grow on trees. Every where we went we were confronted with brightly lit shopping malls and over the top glittered with gold Mosques. Getting away from the city life was only possible if we had a guide and more time too. We played safe and just enjoyed the river trip to cool us down where the relatives of ours were happy to accompany us, I wondered why?