20160216 – Tuesday – Family Holiday for my 80th

Today my daughter Deb from WA rang me.

I was sitting in Rosie’s cafe when I received her call. We had a great long chat. It was peaceful in the cafe and outside the sun was shining and I could see across Henley Beach Road to the grounds of Henley High School where some of my children once went to school. It is such a peaceful scene.

I like Rosie’s cafe because it has long tables facing the door and I can spread out my things and work away on my iPad and iPhone to my hearts content.

Deb and I were lamenting that because our families all live in such far-flung places we see so little of each other, and never see each other all together at the one time.

We reminisced about past holidays we have shared together when all the grandchildren were younger. For four years in a row we had some wonderful family holidays.

One was in WA, at Yallingup, where we had two chalets that were joined together and could become one by opening a middle door. That was a wonderful holiday and even Judy and Steve and family were there, down from Darwin. The same holiday would today simply cost a fortune but wasn’t so expensive then.

Then we had two holidays on Phillip Island, one where we hired to separate houses and another where we had cabins in the caravan park.

Then there was one where we hired two large houses at Aldinga Beach in Adelaide,  and that was also a great holiday.

The next two years there were weddings in the family and so we all went to the weddings instead of away for a holiday together.

After that, well, the grandchildren have all grown up into teenagers, and getting them all together in the one place gets more and more difficult, so family holidays have been on hold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I expressed the wish to Deb that I would love for there to be  one more combined family holiday, at some time in the next few years. Being realistic I know it is not likely to be possible for some considerable time. Deb is working on a PhD and the rest of the family have lots of constraints on their time.

Deb is the one in our family who is the “organizer,” so I put it to her that for my 80th birthday which will be in 2019, that maybe she could put her mind to organizing us all for one more family holiday because after 80 or even before, who knows, I may not be fit for such a holiday.

She said she would “put her mind to it.”

So, all the Berry’s, Hurn’s, Mathias’ , Stretton’s and La Fou’s, maybe you could keep some time free after November 2019 and aim for one more family holiday.Yallingup is pretty much out of the question, but maybe Phillip Island or Aldinga Beach could be a “goer?” I would personally love that. It would be the last chance for our families to have us all in a photo together to hand down to our “posterity,” like the Thoday family managed to do. That photo was pretty amazing. It had Charles Dangerfield (my Grandmother’s brother) in it and all the Thodays and some Cooper’s and members of the Williams family.