A New Year Begins

Our fifth nomadic year has begun!
Yes it is true. We Gypsies have now completed 4 years, living our wonderful life on the road, using Australia as our home address! And, there is no end in sight for our amazing journey. Who said it wouldn't last!!!

At Shellharbour Caravan Park.

Xmas is a wonderful time.

We have had a wonderful few weeks catching up with family and friends, in and around Sydney. We checked into the lovely Shellharbour Beachside Caravan Park in mid December. This is a unique spot, right on the ocean, and is a highly sought after location during the Christmas school holidays. It is almost a case of someone dying in order to get a spot after Boxing Day! Consequently, the day after Boxing Day we had to move, but as luck would have it, we jagged a spot back in the park from 10th January for two more weeks! Talk about lucky. As regulars to the park, our friendship with the managers may be paying off!! Between visits it was off to Bluey's Retreat, an exclusive bush camp in the hills around Menai, or more accurately, friend's Wayne & Debbie's, front yard!!

Dinner with Robyn.

Floral tribute to the Lindt Cafe victims.

The weather for our first two weeks was ugly! Mostly overcast, and oh so windy! We had a busy time. Bev & Fred had the graduation ceremony for daughter Leia to attend in Albury, so we took the opportunity to head up to Sydney for an overnight stay at Robyn's house, so we could head into the city and see all the amazing Christmas lights and decorations. It was a lovely night, sobered by a walk through Martin Place to see the shrine of flowers left in memory of the two people who lost their lives in the

St Mary's Cathedral.

David Jones Xmas Window.

terrible Lindt Cafe terrorist attack. The city was packed with revellers, all with the same idea as us. The highlight for me was the incredible light show being projected onto the facade of St. Mary's Cathedral. It was beautiful, especially the portrayal of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Next morning, we backed up again and were at David Jones Department Store early, to listen to their incredible choir doing the morning free concert of carols. Truly lovely. We wandered down to Darling Harbour, which is undergoing a huge makeover, and so was missing its famous Christmas tree, but it did have a huge row of floating Santas! It was a lovely couple of days, and our thanks to Robyn for putting it all together. The DJ's choir was a first for me, and I

Lobster tails with garlic butter. Yum!

Lobster by the sea!

couldn't believe how good they were. I guess after 60 plus years, you know a thing or two about Xmas carols! We headed back to Shellharbour in a real festive mood, ready for the festivities to commence. As usual, we managed to spoil ourselves for Xmas, and as usual, our spoiling revolved around food!. There is so much great seafood around at this time of the year, you just have to get into it, and we sampled our share! The local seafood market does some fantastic green lobster tails, so we indulged ourselves with a nice bottle of Mumm to wash it all down. DEEEElicious!!

Xmas lunch is served!

Traditional Xmas ham.

For the rest of our pre Xmas time in Shellharbour, unfortunately, fishing trips with Fred were out of the question due to the weather and huge seas. The girls did manage to fit in some Bingo, but alas, no big wins! Apart from that, we just did our Christmas shopping and got ready for Christmas Day, which this year was with Bev & Fred, their daughter's Leia, and Katrina and her hubby Malek. We locked up the caravan, and moved in and stayed two wonderful nights, sharing lots of amazing food and drinks, with delightful company. As usual, we had too much of everything! But boy did we have a good time. We

Carolyn with Leia, Katrina & Malek

Good friends at Xmas.

did our traditional Xmas ham recipe, which hadn't been out for a while, and it turned out great. Malek did the biggest bowl of a traditional couscous dish. It was huge, and delicious. Leia did a slow roasted lamb, Fred roasted a chook, and there were lots of vegetables, and of course gravy, and it all finished off with Bev's traditional Christmas pudding. No wonder we were all stuffed! Add champagne and nap time wasn't far away!!

Xmas with Mum.

The Anderson Clan 2014.

Boxing Day, was the traditional Anderson Family get together, this year at Neil & Adrienne's home. Not having seen the family for many months, it was really looked forward to, and thoroughly enjoyed by the now four generations of family. The group keeps getting bigger, with nephews and nieces now bringing boyfriends and girlfriends. We knuckled into a second round of fantastic food and drinks, and caught up with all the family news. My mum is so enjoying her first great grandson, who was into everything. It was just a lovely day, and the time flew by, culminating in the group photo that brother Neil has now perfected!

New Year with Nancy & Keith

Half the old Tennis Team!

Next morning we packed up and headed up to Menai. We are very lucky to have this option available to us, tucked away down a quiet right of way, backing on to the bush. It is a really exclusive resort! Throw in their pool and its heaven. We had a busy round of engagements ahead. In addition to catching

up with our friends, we had a huge clean up of our caravan, as well as all the things we have in storage. Wayne and Debbie have added a fantastic outdoor living area to the

Wonderful Sydney.

The 1999 Centenary Red was good.

back of their home, built by mate Graham. It is fantastic, complete with BBQ, Bar, Flat Screen TV and sound system. Most evenings and several afternoons were spent watching the cricket with a cold beverage! I'm telling you, this is an A1 caravan park!!! One note of sadness over this period, was the passing of my brother-in-law David's mum, Muriel, at the grand old age of 100. What a world of change she has witnessed. A grand life for a truly grand lady. 

On the Manly Ferry.

A Sydney icon.

New Year was seen in at Nancy & Keith's place. Always lovely to catch up. Some golf for the boys and some shopping for the girls, all interspersed with lovely dinners out. On New Year's eve we cooked up a feed of scampi on the BBQ and saw in the New Year fireworks from the comfort of their balcony. After golf on New Year's Day we took ourselves off to Manly for a day trip. Sydney is such an amazing city and a ferry ride to Manly with lunch at Manly Pier Hotel is one of the best days you can have anywhere in the world. The fact that as seniors, we can do all the transport for $2.50 each, is outrageously good!!!!

Cheers Wayne & Debbie.

The 1999 Centenary Red
was surprisingly good!

Returning to Wayne & Debbie's, we now really threw ourselves into finalising the revamp of our worldly possessions, now stored at Neil's second office, at nearby Menai. We were pretty ruthless, taking the stance that if we haven't worn it or needed it for four years, we probably don't need it at all. EBay copped a flogging, where we surprisingly sold a good number of items, and our place in heaven has been secured by the huge pile of goodies we dropped off at St. Vincent d' Paul! All in all we were happy with the results. Thanks Neil & Adrienne. We also managed some quality time out, with John enjoying a marathon day at the cricket on the first day of the Sydney Test. It was a huge day, leaving at 8.00am and returning at 11.00pm! The cricket was great, the dinner and drinks afterwards were also great, and it was fantastic to

Farewell "for now" dinner.

Lovely lunch with Alan & Sue.

spend the day with my old mates Wayne, Graham & son Jacob and Mark. Carolyn took a nostalgic trip to Balmain catching up with friends, and on our free evenings we lazed around with Wayne & Deb, mostly reminiscing! In the storage clean up, I'd found a couple of boxes of old wine, so we had a bit of fun trying some great, and one particularly awful, wines! Another lovely afternoon was spent at Engadine, where we had a delicious lunch with Alan & Sue Gray, who we first met on our overnight trip to the Horizontal Waterfalls in the Kimberley, last year. That night was hilarious, and we were the last to bed! I remember this guy was sitting with us, who hardly spoke a word. We had him in stitches, at one stage laughing so uncontrollably, that he had tears rolling down his cheeks and he was hee hawing like a jackass, which just set us all off!! We met Allan & Sue again in Kalgoorlie, and will now always be friends, with a shared passion for caravan travel. Lunch almost became dinner as we talked about places we've been, and plenty we haven't yet been. Great new friends with a truly happy outlook on life. No wonder we got on so well! It was almost time to leave Menai. After a lovely dinner night out a Grissini's restaurant in Menai, we said farewell to Wayne & Debbie, and headed back to Shellharbour.

Breakfast by the sea.

Fred & the ever hopeful pelicans.

We settled back into our waterfront site, and this time the weather was much kinder to us. It is the most wonderful location when the weather Gods are smiling. Fred and I took the opportunity to go fishing, in the much better conditions. There was still a big swell running, but we did manage a couple of great days, getting amongst the Flathead and the Morwong. The fridge will be well stocked with fish when we head off. The girls were off to Bingo, chasing the big money. Whilst they didn't win the big

Champagne Girls.

A good haul of flathead.

$2000.00 jackpot, Carolyn was over the moon with winning not one, but two Bingo prizes over the week! She then topped the week off by winning $235.00 on the pokies! Go Baby! We were also visited by various family and friends, who made the trip down to Shellharbour. Nancy & Keith drove down for a lovely lunch, with Bev & Fred making up the six. Delicious Prawn Caesar Salad, followed by you guessed it, Millionaire's Pie!! The weather was lovely and we

Ian & Lynette called in.

A lovely lunch.

had a great day. The girls got into the champagne, and it was a lot of fun. My little brother Ian and wife Lynette, took advantage of a night without kids, and headed down our way for lunch. They were booked in at the Sebel in nearby Kiama. The weather wasn't as good, following a tremendous downpour the previous night, but we still had a good catch up and lunch before they continued on their way. Cheryl & Phil Wall, who just live up the road a

Shellharbour waterfront.

A common Shellharbour sight!

bit at Figtree, were other very welcome visitors. They share our passion for caravanning, so we had lots to talk about planning future trips, and comparing places we've seen. So all in all, we had a very busy time in Shellharbour. By the time we had added in trips back up to Sydney for golf, and catch ups with mum, the two weeks had just flown by. We had one last week to go before setting off again, but with no room at Shellharbour to extend our stay, we headed off to our other favourite Sydney base, Camden, for catch up time with Cheryl & Chris.

The Nepean River.

Along the river walk.

It was hard to believe we hadn't been at the Poplar Caravan Park at Camden for over two years! It is just the same, and we settled in on our large grassy site, down the back on the river flat. It is a lovely country setting with the horses next door and the lovely trees all around, and the Nepean River along the back boundary. Saturday afternoon we headed up to Cheryl & Chris' for a swim on a hot summer afternoon, and that evening we all wandered down town for a lovely Italian meal at

Lunch with Mario & Cheryl.

With proud grandparents Chris & Cheryl

the always reliable Salute Restaurant. Wonderful home cooked cuisine, and it was just the same. Sunday, we were off to the city to catch up with Kerry & Gary, neighbours and workmates from our days at Illawong. They have recently sold up and moved to the inner city, at Harold Park, where they have bought a lovely new apartment. We are having a sleepover, as we haven't caught up for some time, and it was the Australia Day weekend. What a wonderful couple of days we had, just whiling away the time talking about our travels and families and friends, and how much things have changed in our lives. We didn't leave the apartment! It was just a lovely time with good friends, good food and wine. We had such a good time, we didn't even take one photo!! I can't believe that!! The weather changed dramatically on the Monday, and

Isaac, Belinda & Josh.

Happy Grandparents with not so
happy grandson Isaac.

we copped a drenching for a couple of days, which meant no golf, but a time to catch up with Robyn and Mum again. Carolyn called in to see our old Illawong neighbour, Jo Higlett. She is now in a Retirement Village quite near Robyn's place. She was wonderfully surprised. The week was drawing to a close. A lovely Thai dinner in Camden on Friday night, with Cheryl & Chris her brother Garry and wife Pam, plus friends Bobbie and Alf. We followed this on Saturday with lunch at our caravan with Mario & Cheryl who bought our Gaymoir Products business, and who had groomed our little April all her life. This was a really lovely lunch, after which we were back up to Cheryl & Chris' house to see the rest of the

We have loved catching up with all.

Sydney, even beautiful on a cloudy day.

family, who had come for dinner. We were too full to eat, but we wanted to catch up with the family who have been a big part of our life for too many years to remember. It was lovely to see sister Deb & hubby Wayne, plus the boys Mark & Josh with their lovely partners, Jodie and Belinda. They are all grown up now, with Mark and Jodie married, and older brother Josh and his partner Belinda becoming proud parents for the first time. You can't get the smile off the faces of Cheryl & Chris. It is so wonderful for them to be first time grandparents. Little Isaac was born in early December, and we are so happy for all. From all accounts he is a dear little fellow, and we can vouch that he sure has healthy lungs!!

So our Sydney odyssey has ended. We are exhausted, but have had a wonderful time. Thank you to everyone for making our Sydney stay so memorable. We are now heading to sunny (better be!!) Queensland, for some well deserved R & R.