The blasts from the past that I talked about yesterday had me daydreaming and remembering things about our trips to Oz....and there were quite a few.
It was in 1981 we took our first visit.
I think back to when I was a child and how poor we were, I could not have imagined in my wildest dreams being able to travel to Australia.
I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was about that trip........although it nearly didn't happen.
On the morning we were to fly out our passports still had not arrived.
I think himself camped out at the post office waiting for the midday delivery of the post.
It was a good job that we were on an evening flight.
It was a cold January day when we left England for our six week visit.
We landed in Melbourne in our thick winter clothes.......the sun was shining and the sky was blue. As the automatic doors to the outside world opened, we were hit with a blast of hot, eucalyptus scented air.
We were tired and jetlagged - but were kept awake by the adrenaline and excitement of meeting our rellies.
Their house seemed enormous, large airy rooms....a lawned front garden...which they called the 'nature strip'.
The backyard was like no backyard I had ever seem.........it was hedged with passion fruit bushes(full of winkled purple fruit)......there was a cubby house a large lawn and a big in ground swimming pool.....WOW.
These people(nephew and his wife) had been to our little humble terraced house in 1979....they must've thought we lived in a chuck hut(chicken coop) yet they never said anything.
We were invited out to houses of people we didn't know....barbies were organised, tinnies were quaffed, jokes were told,....and once the party got into full swing there were some of us who got chucked in the pool....fully clothed.
What a great time we had.
Six weeks seemed like an awful long time, but we packed it with experiences, visits to places and it went by in a whiz.
Before we knew it we were back at Tullamarine, with a bunch of rellies and very damp hankies waving farewell.
Coming back home was always a bit of a downer...for a kick off, we always came home to the cold....and somehow the cold seemed so much colder after the sun and warmth of Oz.......and we missed the people we had become friendly with.
So going out to winter in Oz became something of a ritual...we would save like crazy...money and holiday days so that we could go out and visit.My sister in law retired and moved out of Melbourne and up to Corowa.
She and her husband had had a holiday home there for a few years....they decided that they would buy it.
It was an old fashioned weather board bungalow......tin roof and a couple of acres of land at the back of it.
She had an outside dunny(toilet) and a verandah round the back of the house.......with a big old fridge on the verandah(for the beer).
We went up there a few times.
You could go out early in the morning and pick peaches or nectarines off the trees in the back paddock....and I frequently did, with no thought about the snakes that might be lurking in the long grass.......there was also a lemon tree by the house.......after a barbie, when the guys were full of beer and needed a pee......they were always asked to pee on the lemon treeas it made for better fruit.
I don't know if this was true or not, but my sister in law made lovely lemonade and home made lemon cheese when the tree fruited, it always tasted good to me!
I can remember being up there and hanging out the washing on a line that was tied between two of the fruit trees.
When the washing was dry I went out to bring it in, only to find that the rosellas and sulphur crested cockatoos has bobbed on the washing and it had to be done again(two good tee shirts and a pair of pink linen shorts were never the same again).
All this remembering has made me get out the pictures ........so for the last couple of days I have been in Oz without leaving home.
It was in 1981 we took our first visit.
I think back to when I was a child and how poor we were, I could not have imagined in my wildest dreams being able to travel to Australia.
I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was about that trip........although it nearly didn't happen.
On the morning we were to fly out our passports still had not arrived.
I think himself camped out at the post office waiting for the midday delivery of the post.
It was a good job that we were on an evening flight.
It was a cold January day when we left England for our six week visit.
We landed in Melbourne in our thick winter clothes.......the sun was shining and the sky was blue. As the automatic doors to the outside world opened, we were hit with a blast of hot, eucalyptus scented air.
We were tired and jetlagged - but were kept awake by the adrenaline and excitement of meeting our rellies.
Their house seemed enormous, large airy rooms....a lawned front garden...which they called the 'nature strip'.
The backyard was like no backyard I had ever seem.........it was hedged with passion fruit bushes(full of winkled purple fruit)......there was a cubby house a large lawn and a big in ground swimming pool.....WOW.
These people(nephew and his wife) had been to our little humble terraced house in 1979....they must've thought we lived in a chuck hut(chicken coop) yet they never said anything.
We were invited out to houses of people we didn't know....barbies were organised, tinnies were quaffed, jokes were told,....and once the party got into full swing there were some of us who got chucked in the pool....fully clothed.
What a great time we had.
Six weeks seemed like an awful long time, but we packed it with experiences, visits to places and it went by in a whiz.
Before we knew it we were back at Tullamarine, with a bunch of rellies and very damp hankies waving farewell.
Coming back home was always a bit of a downer...for a kick off, we always came home to the cold....and somehow the cold seemed so much colder after the sun and warmth of Oz.......and we missed the people we had become friendly with.
So going out to winter in Oz became something of a ritual...we would save like crazy...money and holiday days so that we could go out and visit.My sister in law retired and moved out of Melbourne and up to Corowa.
She and her husband had had a holiday home there for a few years....they decided that they would buy it.
It was an old fashioned weather board bungalow......tin roof and a couple of acres of land at the back of it.
She had an outside dunny(toilet) and a verandah round the back of the house.......with a big old fridge on the verandah(for the beer).
We went up there a few times.
You could go out early in the morning and pick peaches or nectarines off the trees in the back paddock....and I frequently did, with no thought about the snakes that might be lurking in the long grass.......there was also a lemon tree by the house.......after a barbie, when the guys were full of beer and needed a pee......they were always asked to pee on the lemon treeas it made for better fruit.
I don't know if this was true or not, but my sister in law made lovely lemonade and home made lemon cheese when the tree fruited, it always tasted good to me!
I can remember being up there and hanging out the washing on a line that was tied between two of the fruit trees.
When the washing was dry I went out to bring it in, only to find that the rosellas and sulphur crested cockatoos has bobbed on the washing and it had to be done again(two good tee shirts and a pair of pink linen shorts were never the same again).
All this remembering has made me get out the pictures ........so for the last couple of days I have been in Oz without leaving home.
