Memories

My mother left Robert and I the most amazing legacy before she died.  She left us a very beautiful photo album going back 3 generations on both sides of the family together with her life story, growing up in a communist country, being surrounded by fear and oppression, and her subsequent "escape" to England and the stories of her ancestors including an affair, participation in the First World War and an illegitimate grandparent.  She recorded on tape her "Desert Island Discs" which was a gift to everyone who attended her funeral and she also recorded her stories following her marriage to Dad encompassing living in Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, the birth and death of my sister, the births of Robert and I and a myriad of other details of her life.  Last week I found the written legacy and spent evenings fascinated by the insight it gave me not only to her life, where she came from and how she was moulded by these experiences but also the insight it gave me to the political and social landscapes she experienced in communist Czechoslovakia, hippy London in the 70s and later a more conservative London during Margaret Thatcher's rule in the 80s.  It made me think about my blog which I have always said is driven by my desire to leave a legacy for my children and it highlighted to me my failure to provide a wider context to the lives my children are living.  Sadly I am no writer and therefore I doubt that my blogging "style" (in the very loosest sense!) will change following this reflection.  I suspect I treat my blog as a contextualised (is that a word?) photo album but unfortunately at the moment I'm not doing very well with the photos!  

On Sunday we caught up with the Duthies who moved back to the UK just under 3 years ago  after 13 years of living in Sydney and have just made the move back to Sydney.  They were always clear in their minds that their time in the UK was likely to be temporary and in typical Duthie fashion they threw themselves into all the very best that the UK has to offer - beautiful countryside, cozy pubs, art galleries, history, Europe on the doorstep - which meant we were surprised when they announced they were coming back.  However, when they walked through our front door it was like they had never been away and we had a wonderful afternoon hearing about all their experiences and adventures whilst the girls and Tom swam and played in the tree house.  

Lisa is doing Coastrek on 1 March which is a 50km walk from Palm Beach to Balmoral Beach.  I foolishly said I'd be happy to do some training with her and so on Thursday morning we parked a car at Newport and took a taxi to Palm Beach, 11 km further up the coast.  It was an amazing walk along beaches I'd never visited, past stunning houses and over steep headlands with never-ending views.  I'd like to say that I enjoyed it and, although I enjoyed spending time with Lisa and can appreciate the camaraderie on such a walk, I can't imagine ever voluntarily walking 50km.  I got home and after shouting lots at the kids because I was tired and drinking copious amounts of fizzy water (apparently the salt in it helps aching limbs) I sat down at the computer and sponsored Lisa.  You'd think with all that wonderful scenery I might have managed a few photos for the blog but the only photo I took was of an outdoor dining setting which caught my eye!  

I mentioned last week that Tess and Tom have started swimming lessons again and are enjoying them immensely.  Here's a photo that Tom asked me to take (Tess is in the background with the purple swimming cap).