Sex and the City

Nicky, Maria and I with Sharon at the back

It's been a while eh?

As always though, we've been having fun, including a girl's day out in the city where we had champagne high tea at the Queen Victoria Buildings in honour of Sharon's birthday. We've also been out for cocktails in Manly, had people over for Sunday lunch 2 weekends in a row, and participated in the St Lukes Grammar Trivia Night (where I appalled everyone on our team by knowing not only how old Paris Hilton is but also the name of George Clooney's current girlfriend, who is inexplicably not me). There were prizes for the best themed table so we went as Sex in the City. The photos record us looking as New York New York as it is possible to be on the Northern Beaches! I was disappointed not to be wearing Manolo Blahniks, but I did wear my most outrageous shoes, which have only ever had one other outing - to Kate Palmers 70s themed 40th birthday party, which should give you some idea of what they are like!




The Sex and the City men - Richard, Kenton, Andrew, Graham and Ian. We weren't sure which one of them was Mr Big..


Speaking of which, today was George's birthday party - tomorrow he will be twelve. We've taken four of his friends to the cinema to see Prince Caspian, and then fed them Domino's pizza and birthday cake. Jack and Andrew are staying overnight. Interestingly, in a quieter moment, one of the boys pointed out that each of them had a different racial heritage - Jack has an English (although Ozzie now) mother and Slovenian paternal grandparents, Andrew had an Australian father and a Brazilian mother, Borja is Spanish and Lewis's parents are Scottish. This is a common feature of society here and it certainly goes a long way to making sure that you never feel that you are alone in your experience of changing countries. Amongst Anna's friends there are Korean's, Thai, French, Dutch, American....of course all of the children speak fluent English with Aussie accents, including Anna. Mum and Dad had a bit of trouble understanding what she was saying when they were here!



Borja, George, Jack, Andrew and Lewis at the back

I don't think I've mentioned on here that George has been signed up by a talent agency. It's not really my style to be involved in such a thing, but he is enjoying drama immensely, and the agency saw him when he visited their offices with another friend, and they asked me to get in touch. It seems that red headed young men are somewhat in demand for commercials, catalogues and even films, and they liked George's 'look'. We rather like George's look too, and especially when we saw the pictures they took for his webpage - one of which is here. Judge for yourself, but if you ask me, that is a very beautiful child indeed. And I am not at all biased.





Andrew and I are now waiting for all the money to start rolling in, so that we can retire...

So...it's now only 18 days until we fly back to the UK for a month. To be quite honest, I feel a little apprehensive about it. It's difficult to articulate what it is that concerns me about it (apart from being trapped for 24 hours, close to dying of boredom, in a metal tube thousands of metres above the ground...), but I think it will be a very important trip in terms of clarifying where exactly 'home' is these days. Having moved about a lot in my nearly 40 years, I have a slightly different concept of where home is to other people really. In the UK, I still referred to where my parents live as 'home' despite the fact that I never actually really lived in that house and have now been making a home with Andrew for 18 years. I've tried to avoid constantly calling the UK 'home' as I think it psychologically prevents you from making your home here - which you must do if you are going to emigrate successfully. I'm aware that lots of things will have changed when we go back - some of it will just be geographically disorientating - new shops, junctions, places gone for ever and new stuff in its place. But also relationships will have moved on - friends we had will have shared experiences about which we have no knowledge and other people will have migrated into our groups to replace us. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone, but I'm also afraid of feeling like an outsider.

Of course, the children do not share these concerns at all. They are just looking forward to spending time with their grandparents and with their friends. Life is so much simpler when you are a child, isn't it?

But then again....someone did once buy me that book called 'Women Who Think Too Much'...