Back in Sydney

 

 

How fantastic to be back in Sydney spending time with our two lovely daughters, sons-in-law and grand kids once again.

We have our grand daughter Esme and British Airways to thank for this particular trip – Esme for her starring role in BA’s social media campaign, which unwittingly involved ourselves and included complimentary flights out to Oz to film the final part of the promotion (BA.com/visitsoon) . The video encourages UK grandparents like us, with families living ‘down under’ to reunite through BA’s new direct service to Australia .The original video has had nearly a million hits on YouTube and the BA website,  and is beautifully done and quite moving.

A local camera team was waiting at Sydney airport to catch our early morning arrival and reunion with Esme and the rest of the family. We were whisked through security and passport control, quite an amazing experience not to having to join the long queues coming off the international flights. We could get used to the VIP treatment and now know how celebrities feel facing a barrage of flashing cameras! Once the crew had filmed our reunion, they treated us all to breakfast at a a restaurant on Bondi Beach – a great way to start to our holiday and the day!

Here in Sydney, the weather is warming up nicely – mid to high 20s for our first few days with the mercury climbing up to a hot 36 at the end of our first week. It’s great replacing tights and boots with sandals and shorts.

Life in Sydney seems to be a frenzy of activity, because we’re sharing our time between two very busy households in the city’s eastern suburbs just a 10 minute drive from each other. As well as walking the children to and from school, we are doing our best to be useful, reading stories and babysitting when needed.

We were quite jet lagged the first week, so in some ways it was a blessing that the trip to Samoa was cancelled. A long weekend down the coast at Jervis Bay in a large rented villa, helped us recover and was an antidote to the bustle of the city. It accommodated all twelve of us beautifully with its enormous open plan living space,modern bedrooms, bathrooms and a huge ‘rumpus’ room for the little ones which was like a luxury dormitory, with its own modern ensuite bathroom and underfloor heating.