Rod's 80th birthday

We've been celebrating Rod's recent milestone birthday in true family style - an absolute milestone for him and for us, especially given Rod's accident last year. It was very hard to imagine in the early part of last year that he would be with us, eighteen months later, able to enjoy a party that achieving 80 years on this earth truly deserves....

It started with breakfast on Sunday at our fave Promenade Cafe at the Hyatt Hotel. There were 15 of us there - extended family including Ros and Pete who'd travelled up from Geelong, Ollie from Wollongong and dear friends Eric and Julie.

Afterwards we came together at our lovely St Germain Common Room for some celebratory drinks and birthday cake.

Rod truly is our Super Man ................ such a fitting theme for his birthday cake.

There were so many special moments - made all the more so by the fact that Rod is still here with us despite his terrible injuries last year - and so much of the old Rod that we know and love.......

Claire and Ollie both made beautiful, heartfelt speeches - but we were all blown away by Rod presenting a speech too - that he had written the night before ... and quite a few tears were shed ........

..... but inevitably, because it's our family, there was a lot of laughter too ........

This beautiful young man also had a birthday recently - time to bring out a favourite toy from many years ago (unpacked and freshly washed by his Mum).

...... and this pair make every party a PARTY!

We ended off that rainy cold Sunday by taking Ros out to Freshford to meet Abi's Sammy.

She quickly found his sweet spot.

Pete is dealing bravely with many health challenges these days - so it was wonderful that he could join us on a beautiful Canberra winter morning for a walk around our lake on Saturday - on a borrowed scooter .....

We headed to Coogee on Monday so Ros and Pete could check out our "new" apartment and catch up on other changes to the Sydney scene.

Pete wasn't able to join us on our first long morning walk (to Clovelly) but he was able to catch the 313 bus and join us at Tuga Bakery on Clovelly Road for a slap up breakfast at the end of our long walk around beautiful Gordon's Bay.

We only had one full day in Sydney so we packed a lot in that day. After our slap up breakfast in Clovelly we caught the 313 bus (a second time for Pete) to Bondi Junction then a train to Martin Place. From there we boarded the new Metro line to Chatswood where with minimal walking for Pete we could all experience a taste of Asia - a whole new area of Sydney that Ros and Pete hadn't experienced before - as well as a beautiful lunch at Ippudo Ramen above Chatswood's busy railway station (almost like we were back in Kyoto again).

From Chatswood we caught trains to Circular Quay before boarding the F5 Ferry to Neutral Bay - just for the fun of having a ferry ride on this most spectacular harbour on this most spectacular Sydney day, past Kirribilli and Neutral Bay, then on to Kurraba Point before looping back to Circular Quay. 

We caught the Light Rail back to Randwick from Circular Quay - meaning Ros and Pete had got to try every form of Sydney's remarkable public transport system, with so much to see and experience, and all requiring very little walking for Pete. It was just such a stunning day!

We had some fabulous meals with Ros and Pete over their stay, both in Canberra and in Sydney. Perhaps one of the most memorable was our late morning brunch at the Pool Cafe in Maroubra on Wednesday morning as we were heading back to Canberra. 

A picture is worth a thousand words!!