Snow way, Jose

It's been a weekend of snowy catastrophes and fun. On Friday we had tickets for us and the Spareys to see the panto of Cinderella at the local White Rock theatre. Due to the ice and snow that hit town that day the Spareys' babysitter got stuck and couldn't make it to their house, so only Maria was able to join us. We made our way to the theatre by car, sliding the last part downhill on ice, stopping just before we joined the ring road. The panto was brilliant. I was expecting something along the lines of A for amateur, but it was great. Despite a seriously diminished audience size, the cast put on a hilarious show that we were able to scream, heckle and laugh through. Jimmy Osmond was very game and laughed at himself like a pro. While Flo was genuinely terrified of the ugly sisters, who had THE BEST outfits outside of Mardi Gras, Scarlett found the whole thing amazing, declaring me, uncharacteristically,  the 'best mum ever' at the end. On Saturday we were expecting to meet Liz and Charlie at Bodiam Castle to meet Santa in his fairy-lit grotto. Again the snow led to the whole event being called off and Liz and Charlie were unable to make the drive south to us due to heavy snow in Maidstone. Cathy and Dom and their kids were supposed to come over afterwards for Nigella's coco cola ham. In the end the gods were against us.Their son Gabriel was too sick to come so Cathy stayed at home with him. Dom made it over with Francesca who was clearly unwell with something unpleasant. They left early,  so in the end it was Rob and I with Maggie and Popi eating ham and cheese in front of the  fire with a couple of bottles of Champagne.  

Today, feeling quite housebound, the girls and I sorted through the playroom, making a pile of old but useful toys we will donate to charity on Monday. When Rob got home from work we drove north into  Kent for the carols at Scotney Castle. On arrival a large sign informed us they were cancelled and the castle was closed due to snow.  Grrr.

Driving home, Rob turned off onto the B road to Bodiam where we discovered the castle closed, the moat frozen,  but the footpaths open. We had a lovely hour walking around the castle, throwing snowballs, making snow angels, before having lunch at the local pub. 

Once home, we were invited into the home of some neighbours 6 houses along. We had only ever met them, heavily rugged up, building a snowman some weeks ago. We had such a great time in their home meeting a really great bunch of like-minded folk, who all live within walking distance.  This weekend we have also been trying out the sloe gin Moira and Fraser brought us earlier in the year, made from sloe berries they picked on Ashstead Common in the summer. It is a triumph, resembling the caprioska cocktail we loved so much in Sydney.

It's the baby Jesus part 2

This week was Scarlett's turn to shine as Mary, and very fetching she looked too in a two-piece blue outfit the style journos are calling "fashion forward". She delivered her two lines with confidence and panache, a performance the critics are calling "timeless", "profound" and "it was alright wannit?". As with Flo's nativity play, it is no longer enough to simply perform the well known story of the birth of Christ, comedy, tangents and diversions are all thrown in these days to please bored parents. No photos I'm afraid - supermum left the battery charging at home but took the camera anyway!) - but this short film. This week was also Scarlett's last at Claremont. she starts a new school in January that we are all really excited about. 

It's the baby Jesus...part 1

Flo did her bit for acting all over the world today with a performance as Mary critics are calling "Extraordinary", "Insightful" and "plop plop rasp". With a rather excitable donkey to contend with, Flo showed her maternal side as she gently lay the baby Jesus in the manger and then turned him upside down so his blanket fell off. In the foreground an angel lifted up her skirt to show everyone her tummy and her M&S tights. Marvellous.

The Festival of Rick

Totally top weekend with Rick and Justin (and Inca the wonder dog) making the journey all the way from Suffolk for the night to celebrate Rick's birthday. With all the heavy snow during the week we thought the long planned weekend would have to be postponed, but thanks to a night of warmer temps and heavy rain, all the snow had gone by Saturday morning and the roads were clear. Thankfully the train tracks were also free of ice so Jane and Anne, two of the boys' closest friends, were able to complete the surprise portion of the weekend, arriving by train on Saturday afternoon. Champagne corks were popped and the celebrations began. After games with the girls, they were dispatched to bed and the grown ups disappeared below stairs for pea and mint soup, 5-hour roast lamb and banoffee pie. On Sunday everyone rose late, except Rob who had to go to work at 7am, had a leisurely breakfast and then we all walked along the beach to the Old Town for lunch at Dragon. Back home we finished off the banoffee pie, read papers and Justin dozed on the couch in front of the fire. A short final period of recreational disco dancing and karaoke heralded the departure of Rick, Justin, Jane and Anne back into the cold night to London and beyond, while we watched the X Factor semi final results. My favourite, Mary Byrne, was voted out last night so I have now switched my support to Rebecca for next weekend's final.

It was a brilliant end to a great week. With the girls off school, and the car out of action due to the snow, we spent Wednesday at Maria's and joined forces again on Friday for a chicken casserole-off and a massive snowball fight in the garden. Ironically the snow has left us before either of my ebay orders of sledges and snowboots arrived. 

20cm overnight

All the local schools were closed again today, there are no trains running in or out of Hastings and I've only seen a handful of cars pass our house all day. We live on a fairly main ring road around the town so that's saying something. As you can see in this photo of our street, the light is green but there is no traffic. It interests me that this is a major news story and everyone is complaining about not being able to get to work.  The girls and I attempted a snowman build this morning in the garden but the snow, though very deep, is not the snowman kind, and kept falling apart in your hands. I'm starting to understand why eskimos have 50 words for snow. Maria's dog locked himself in the coal cellar and we had to go grocery shopping on foot, with Rob carrying it all home in his huge backpack. Scarlett, Flo and I had a lovely walk in the park this afternoon. Everything looks so beautiful but soon the snow came down again heavily and we were forced back home as Flo had got snow inside her boots and was too cold to go on. Our view of the town is stunning with the castle gently powdered like a cake. We are expecting guests this weekend but expect they might not make it down here. Scarlett's school nativity play has been postponed for a week and the school Christmas Bazaar scheduled for Saturday may also have to be moved.  I know the UK isn't Russia or Canada and that it doesn't snow heavily every year, but we do get snow here often and yet the whole country comes to a complete halt when it snows.

Ok - it can stop snowing now...

Not really because I love the snow, but am starting to recall some of the drawbacks of adverse weather conditions.
For example, I spent yesterday 8 hours (seriously) trapped on a broken down train from London to Hastings, much of it spent without light or heat.  The entire journey, including being moved from one train to another, and then walking through 16 carriages in the dark, before eventually being loaded onto buses for the final late night crawl into a deserted Hastings, took 10 hours. 10 hours!!! The whole story is too long to recount here, but needless to say a Blitz spirit endured and it was, mostly, a fun experience.

I finally arrived at my sister's house, where Lol's birthday was being celebrated, at 11.30pm. It was like walking into a Southern Comfort ad, where everyone is blind drunk and in high spirits, rugged up indoors against the fierce weather outside. Ended up being a brilliant and very late night. Today the schools are closed, we can't move our car, which Rob had to abandon near my sister's house last night and we'll be walking home later to light the fire and start putting up our Christmas decorations. Huzzah!

Snow and Thanksgiving

Awoke this morning somewhat bleary eyed and wondered whether to face the cold and go for a run. As I peered out of the kitchen window, I noticed it was  SNOWING!!!! I haven't seen snow since 2002 (when we went to Vermont skiing with Sarah and Scott - with the twins on board-  followed by the perfect Christmas in Connecticut) and the girls have never seen it except in the movies. Needless to say the desire for running outdoors was replaced by running about the house yelling for the girls to stop fighting and look out of their windows.  It was really nothing more than flurries but hopefully a sign of things yet to come. I took these shots from my bedroom window. I've ordered sleighs online, as we anticipate a return of the massive snow enjoyed (?) here last year, we went ice skating at the rink in the town centre on Friday night (a lesson in humiliation if ever there was one) and have already started listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies - last night Home Alone.

We had a great Saturday morning around the corner with new friends Cathy and Dom and their kids today before strolling across to the park for the Christmas fair. I then spent an enjoyable hour this afternoon at home decorating our mantelpiece with holly, ivy and fir foilage I pilfered from the park. I had two brilliant days in London midweek pottering at Borough Market and the Tate Modern, while I was in the city meeting people about work. I also managed another hilarious catch up in Kentish Town with Ruth, Paul and old mate Rupert. Laugh! Not so funny was the way my feet - used to 13 years in Birkenstocks and flip flops, - totally failed me in boots, leaving me limping along with bleeding blisters. Back in Hastings (safely in Uggboots) we celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday night at Maria and Lol's with an amazing feast for 15  of turkey, pumpkin pie and much more. While we left at a conservative 9pm, unconfirmed reports suggest the hosts and other guests retired at 4am. Tut tut.

Nativity play update - Stop the press!

Mrs Croucher ( I know that's what I said. And she looks like a Dickens character too), head of the Nursery School, told me this morning that Florence has been upgraded from angel in the Christmas play to the role of .......... Mary!. Well you can only imagine the headlines. "The new Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland take to the boards - both in the starring role of Mary!!" Although hopefully without the deep-seated hatred that those two sisters enjoyed for most of their lives. 

Here are our girls celebrating their roles!

Let it snow!

Enjoying the run up to Christmas even though it's still November. In Hastings the outdoor ice rink opened this week and Scarlett brought home a letter letting us know she is playing Mary in the school Christmas play. That's right - you read it correctly - our little girl is playing Mary! Thrilled of Braybrooke Road. She only has two very short lines, but that's hardly the point. Florence meanwhile has been typecast as an angel in her nursery school performance. We have had our wood-burning stove lit all week in the sitting room. It went in on Rob's birthday and is brilliant, sending out enough heat to warm the whole house. We have put the American quilt on our bed and the girls have two duvets each in their duvet covers. Best of all, the weatherman announced this morning we might even have snow by Thursday. V excited. I go to London this week for a couple of days to meet up with old friends and magazine contacts in the hope of some freelance work for January, but in the meantime, although I've been a bit up and down about not working, I've decided to make the most of not being at work and looking forward to the weeks ahead. You cannot imagine how excited I am at the thought of the girls seeing snow for the first time. There's a Christmas fair  on in the park this weekend and over the next few weekends we have a trip to London, friends to stay, the Cinderella panto, visiting Santa at Bodium Castle and of course the girls' school plays and Christmas Bazaar. Sleighs bells ring...are you listening.....?

It's starting to look a lot like Rob's birthday

The Festival of Rob began on Saturday as we celebrated his birthday with a lunch at home with family and other interested parties. One of the things I loved about our house in Lilyfield was the vast family room that made events with large groups easy - this is much harder to pull off in a house where the dining and living spaces are spread over two floors. Still, I was thrilled to be able to fit my trusty trestle table on the end of the dining table in the kitchen, even if it went in diagonally. After Champagne and canapes of tuna 'cooked' in lime juice, we squeezed 13 around the table. I made two huge roasting pans of five hour roast lamb. There were dramas in the preparation (I realised one of the roasting pans wouldn't fit in the oven  - enter Rob, stage left , with a new pan he raced off to Sainbury's to buy). The resulting melt-in-the-mouth lamb, and vegetables that had soaked up all the flavour of the wine and herbs was pretty amazing, even if I do say so myself. It was a lovely long lunch with the last guests still here at 6.30pm. Thanks to everyone for coming, especially those who made the trip down from London. Anyhoo, here's a little film of the lunch.

 

Another one of the reasons we came back to Britain is that Christmas here cannot be beaten. Even the build up is exciting. The Christmas ads have started appearing on Tv now. The following one is the latest from John Lewis. Rob and I watched in silence before looking at each other at the end to find we were both in tears. 

A final note to Lenka whose latest blog entry was a clearly blatant attempt designed to make us want to move back to Sydney - it almost worked! Speedboats to islands on Pittwater, and the coffee boat sells ice cream now!  Hard to beat.

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

Our weekend started with Scarlett's first class assembly on Friday morning. 2D told the story (hilariously) of Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot before reading poems they had written about bonfire night. A group of us parents sat at the back chuckling away. Scarlett played one of the guards who catch the evil Fawkes at his game. 

On Saturday after some general lolling about with the papers, we went to the woods for a lovely walk in truly Autumnal scenery. It's a smashing time of year here at the moment and I'm really trying to get us out into it as much as possible before the colder more inhospitable weather comes with Winter and we are more housebound. Only a few metres nto the woods, Flo slipped and fell in a huge section of thick slippery mud, which caused mirth for us onlookers and tears from Flo because "I didn't want to be dirty". Fair enough. 

 On Saturday evening, after an early roast chicken dinner, we drove to nearby Winchelsea to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night. There was a lot of choice locally when it came to bonfires but we chose this one because it's meant to be small and family friendly. Larger celebrations, like the one in Lewes which includes five separate fires and calls for the windows of the High Street to be bordered up against drunken revellers, were not for us. In Winchelsea, a group of about 100 people gathered by the village well at 7pm to see the local dramatic players act out a funny version of the gunpowder plot, not dismilar to the one performed by Scarlett's class. With Guy Fawkes captured, he was loaded onto a cart that led a procession of booing onlookers through the streets to a field where he was tossed onto the huge bonfire stack and set alight. Once he was well ablaze, a really good fireworks display began that had us oohing and ahhing. It was a super night and we were back home in time for X Factor.

 

Talking of fires, tomorrow morning the scafolding goes up on the front of our house so that next week our new chimney liner and wood-burning stove can be fitted. Only then can the really cold weather descend.

Happy Halloween

Halloween has become huge in Britain. I'm not sure if it's this year in particular, or if it's grown in prominence in the years since we've been away, but Halloween costumes and paraphernalia have filled supermarket shelves for weeks. Tesco devoted two whole aisles to Halloween make up, outfits, treats, tricks and more. Maria and Lol have a tradition of throwing Halloween parties, and this year was bigger than ever. They converted their basement into a chilling dungeon disco complete with headless babies and skulls. Upstairs a mechnical witch burst into life at the front door to greet visitors, a bubbling broth of punch smoked in the kitchen and in the toilet a wall-mounted monster spoke to you when you went near the loo. About 50 people came and everyone made a massive effort with their costumes. Lol was a vampire, Maria was Poison Ivy and Jack and Rob were mummies. Rob's costume took a while to assemble and was made from several loo rolls, badages and masking tape. I spent the afternoon sewing long black socks stuffed with newspaper to a black top to become a spider before facepainting Rob and the girls, Scarlett as a devil and Flo, a witch. Dad had THE most frightening mask ever, while Alexandra made a very pretty devil queen. Others came as Carrie, extras from the Thriller video, a ghostly priest and Death ("there's a little man form the village. Something about the reaping").  After bowls of chilli, care of Dad, and fireworks in the garden, care of Lol, we retired to the dungeon to cut some serious Halloween rug.

A visit from Jack Frost

We had our first proper cold weather last week. After a lovely Summer, the warm weather has continued all through Autumn. Last week we woke to our first frost, in, ooh about 13 years, leaving a lovely icing sugar effect on the lawn. I was thrilled because it meant I had to go out and buy a winter coat, my first one, in about ooh 15 years. It's black and padded with lots of zips and poppers to keep the cold out. Rob found the suitcase with our ski gear in and retrieved hats and gloves not worn since our last ski trip.

 We had a lovely weekend. On Friday night we ended up at the Lary Spudkins for an impromptu dinner, semi celebrating (but not wanting to jinx) a very successful job interview I'd had earlier in the day in Lewes.  Lewes was quite something and it would be great to work there. It is an ancient town with beautiful castle and lots of winding lanes lined with books shops and great food and craft shops. Watch this space re the job.

On Saturday Ed, Cass and the kids came up by train from Brighton and after a walk along the beach and through the Old Town we had mushroom risotto for lunch while the kids watched their new favourite film on DVD, Nim's Island.  Rob is meant to work on Sundays and, until his training in Eastbourne finishes, he's gone for most of the day. We drove him to the pick up point to discover he'd been told the wrong time and that the bus had left without him. Cheers all round as it meant he could spend the day with us. We drove a few miles east of Hastings to the beautiful village of Winchelsea. It has a stunning church, partly in ruins, and  happened upon Spike Milligan's grave and headstone there, famous for its gaelic translation of the phrase "I told you I was ill." We had a lovely pub lunch and have decided to come back here for Bonfire Night.  We have been swept up with X Factor fever that keeps all right thinking folk on their couches every Saturday and Sunday night. My favourite is 50-year-old Mary, a Tesco cashier from Dublin. We are also hooked on Downton Abbey, the latest costume drama on Sunday nights starring Maggie Smith. It's bonnets at 50 paces and has lots of below stairs action too.
 I fell under the curse of Dehli belly on Sunday night and Rob had to take yesterday off work to look after the girls (who are on half term) and I. I spent most of the day in bed suffering waves of chills and fever and extreme tiredness. Eventually I dragged myself out of bed and demanded to be helped into my wellies and taken to Pett Level for some fresh air and a bit of a walk. I went back to bed after we got back, rising briefly to watch University Challenge which included a cross dressing student from St Andrew's University. How times have changed.

Finally, here's a shot I took this morning from our bedroom of a lovely sunrise coming over the West Hill.

The Mckendrys cometh

An absolutely tip top weekend with the McKendrys that sent me into quiet tearful episodes behind everybody's back because it was the closest thing to bliss.  They arrived from Scotland (via Ashtead and Brighton) on Thursday morning. With Scarlett in school, Rob, Flo and I took them on a walk down to the seafront (to check out the blackened pier) and along to the Old Town where we had a lovely lunch and stroll into each and every great shop. On Friday we went to Battle to do the brilliant audio tour walk around the grounds of Battle Abbey, location of the Battle of Hastings, followed by a terrific lunch at the Tudor cafe next door. While Fraser, Moira, Rob and I caught up and laughed as if we were childless, Flo and Lily entertained themselves beautifully in front of a huge open fire with colouring things. Friday night was spent at Maria and Lol's imbibing large quantities of shellfish, wine and hilarious storytelling in equal measure. A night to remember, or not, depending on hangovers the next day. On Saturday, with Scarlett back part of the throng, we hit St Helen's Woods for a fantastic, super muddy walk.  We then drove on to Pett Level for a superb, freshly cooked, fish and chip lunch at the beach club, followed by a hilarious long walk along the beach at low tide. Hilarious because the children and I were the only ones in wellies, (while M&F& R sported variations on trainers) and we were able to go on a puddle and mud-tastic adventure including moments in terrifying quicksand and black mud that had us yanking each other's feet free. I can't remember the last time I saw the girls happier - Lily is very much their special friend. After a lazy early evening of boot cleaning and newspaper reading, we stuffed our faces with Rob's fish pie (Rob did all the cooking this weekend), and popped small children into bed, before collapsing in front of X Factor (on a Saturday night - surely a confirmation of our middle age), jeering, supporting and generally talking all the way through the acts, depending on who we liked. Within hours of M,F and L's departure this morning, we were welcoming Dad and Alexandra for  a roast chicken lunch to celebrate the 27th anniversary of my Dad's arrival at Everest Base Camp. We are now officially knackered and our door is closed until next weekend.

Wellies on

Another great week for discovering new things in and around Hastings.  On Friday Rob, Flo and I went to the nearby St Helen's Woods. They are lovely woods full of squirrels and birds with great walking trails, bbq spots and ponds. What amazed us was that they are relatively close to the centre of Hastings but because they are ringed by residential roads, you would never know they were there and you feel as if you are in the country. After a temporary refusal to proceed by Flo - it was hot and she was tired - we progressed passed fields of horses, along a lovely lane next to a huge pond with ducks and other birdlife and by a field with a pair of Shetland ponies. After our walk we went back to the seafront so Rob could see the pier. Walking along the prom I spotted this lovely old weather station that's been cared for and used to record Hastings weather for over 100 years. I love the symbols to denote the weather for the day and the records of weather highs and lows over the years, many of which sharply contrast with weather events we have experienced in Australia.

This morning we all went to Crowhurst, a village right on the edge of Hastings to have a try out at a community agriculture project I read about. Basically, you pay less than a quid a week and in return for 4 hours work a month, you receive a big box of produce every time you go. We helped clear a patch of  old sweetcorn plants, dug up swedes and parnips, collected potatoes and helped divide it all up between the 10 or so helpers there. It's all done on a piece of land, donated by the local farmer, and the range of produce they are growing is huge. The people we met were friendly, hard-working and enthusiastic, but there was a lovely informality to it. You turn up when you can and check a white board in the greenhouse to see what needs doing, then you just muck in. My new wellies got a fantastic christening and the girls loved seeing the chickens, being chased by the geese (you should have heard us scream) and fighting over who was going to push the wheelbarrow. As we were only there to see if it's what we would like to be involved in (we would), and only helped for an hour or so, (during which time Rob managed to hurt his back again)  we were amazed to be included in the share of the harvest and came home with a huge pumpkin and a bag of baby carrots, potatoes, garlic, onions, a swede, parnips, beans and apples.

Hastings Pier destroyed by fire

It was only last month I posted a photo I'd taken on the beach here of Hastings Pier. This morning we awoke to what I thought was mist all down the valley. It was in fact the massive plumes of smoke coming from the pier, set alight by arsonists in the early hours of this morning. The smell was reminiscent of Sydney during bush fire season and I had to tell the girls to shut the windows to keep it out of the house. It's a real shame that something that has stood for more than 100 years is gone in a few hours. It didn't really mean much to us newcomers,  but listening to the local people I heard talking on the radio this morning, people in Hastings had a genuine affection for it. It was built in 1872 and started out at 910 feet long, perfect for Victorians who loved to promenade. It was well known in the 1960s as a venue for big bands including  The Rolling Stones, the Who and Jimi Hendrix. Scarlett's teacher Mrs davidson was almost in tears this morning recalling her youth watching bands play there.  The local council closed it in 2006, fearful it had become dangerous and in need of serious repair, and was actively involved in buying it back from its Panamanian owners and applying for lottery funding after a report revealed 3 million quid would be enough to save it. Not now.  I took the girls down to the beach after school this afternoon in  the rain to see what's left and took these pictures.

Autumn cometh

Autumn is here. As well as top craft opportunities, thanks to pots of glue and loads of lovely red, orange and yellow leaves littering the park, the weather has turned much cooler (though not enough for my liking), we have had rain, sideways and diagonal, and have even had the heating on. Disappointingly, after having our chimney swept (by a grown man, rather than by Flo tied to a long broom) we discovered the internal bricks are buggered and we need to get a chimney liner and wood burning stove if we want any fires this winter that won't burn the house down. Like all mainatianance you can't do yourself, this is not a cheap affair. We decided we might need to give it a miss until we are earning a bit of dosh, but then today we went to a lovely pub in Brighton (Hove, actually) with an open fire and we straight away thought 'sod that- we really want a real fire.' On Friday, Rob, Flo and drove to Pett Level, a tiny seaside village with a pub and a post office. We went there to perve at The Big White House, a modern cubist building, designed and built by the bloke that managed the Pet Shop Boys. It's relevant because my friend Luke is mates with the guys that live there and stayed there last summer on a trip from Sydney to the UK.  Notably he described staying in the guest room and there being an Andy Warhol over the bed. What's interesting about this house is that almost every other house in Pett Level is a pretty straight forward beach house whereas their house is quite the stand out. The houses sit lower than the beachfront walkway, that runs along the back of the homes between them and the channel, allowing maximum sticky beaking potential. Once we'd finished having a good old nose in all the houses, we took ourselves to the northern end of the beach to a stunning new build that resembles the sort of house that would not look out of place on the shore of Sydney Harbour. While the sun shone, and the sea hinted at the blue beneath the brown, we could almost have been in Australia. On Saturday the wind whipped around the house  and we wrapped ourselves up in fleeces and hats and headed to the country park for a walk along the cliffs, picking blackberries and avoiding dog poo. I love being blown about a bit by the wind and it was a lovely 2 hours walking and talking with the girls. Having said that Flo has developed a new habit of talking and talking and talking until we have to ask her to just stop! On Saturday night the Lary Spudkins arrived for a dinner of roast chicken with caramelised roast carrots and cheesy peas. My Donna Hay dessert chocolate pots were dry and much less molten than the photo in the book indicated. I have to say this is another DH recipe that has not hit the mark. I find I often have to add or take away ingredients to make them work. It was hard to know what our guests thought as their mouths were so devoid of saliva it was hard to understand their  speech. I understood Rob's spoon banging on his plate to mean "Is there any cream?' and Lol's desperate pointing to his throat to mean "some water would be nice about now." Enough said. Today the sun shone but as we drove west to Brighton the rain started to fall, and by the time we arrived in Hove (actually) to meet up with Sydney pals Gav and Bev (here on hols) it was chucking it down. Thank goodness my gammy knee had me pulling out of the 10k run in Brighton today - we saw the dregs hobbling along in the rain and I felt certain our lunch, at the newly done up Connaught pub, was going to be much more rewarding.  We had a fantastic lunch, with the kids on one table and the grown ups on another, catching up on news from the inner west and  meeting Gav's sister Helen and her family. Brilliant.  It  almost made me wish we were heading back to Sydney. Almost.