Hail/slush in Strathfield

Sunday afternoon and the black clouds rolled in and the slush came down. What we thought was hail turned out to be slushy ice. The garden was covered in ice and Dareen had a field day making ice balls.

World Youth Day

The Pope visited and the world celebrated World Youth Day in Sydney this week.

Beginning on Friday 11 July, Lily's work friend JJ asked for help in cooking a dinner for the Sisters of Life, so taking the afternoon off, Lily and friends, JJ, Linda & Elizabeth went shopping and bought home a lot of food to prepare and make. I ended up pitching in, helping make the salad and cooking fried rice with Lily. Linda fried her home made tuna/corn cakes and Janet helped baked the many boxes of fried fish. Once all the food was made, they transported it to Five Dock where the Sisters were staying and had dinner with the Sisters. Because Nathan needed someone to drop him off at the airport (he was off the Melbourne to DJ) I ended up not going, but the rest of the family went.

Darren was an active participant, while the rest of us tried to soak in the atmosphere and helped where we could. He went out on Thursday, but had a rest on Friday, before going out again on Saturday to sleep the night at Randwick and attend the mass on Sunday.

Thursday: the Pope was out and about and so was Kaylene, Lily, Janet and Evan. They went out to try and catch a glimpse of the Pope, which they did both on the harbour and at the Art Gallery when he zoomed past in his Popemobile. They also managed to meet up with Marion and Aunty Joy.

Friday: Kaylene, Lily, Janet and Evan went out again to see the Stations of the Cross and follow the pilgrims around Sydney.

Saturday: After finishing work, I came home to find that Kaylene and Evan were heading out again to walk across the harbour bridge. A quick lunch of chips and we headed out. When we arrived at Milson's Point, announcements were being made that the bridge was closed to pedestrian traffic, so we didn't make it in time. So we made a detour and visited Luna Park instead. We then made our way up to the pedestrian walkway and made our way across the bridge the normal way. Most of the pilgrims had already gone and only a handful were making there way across. Kaylene and I were 2 lost pilgrims.

We made our way to The Rocks and then up to Observatory Hill and then down to Barangaroo, but that also was closed and barricades were being dismantled, so we walked to Darling Harbour. The souvenir tents were closed and my feet was starting to hurt, so I wasn't in the mood to walk to Hyde Park. Kaylene was also complaining, so we made our way to Town Hall, and stopped at QVB food court for a spot of Malaysian Laksa, Hor Fun and bubble tea before heading home.

Redecorating the front room

Photos show what the front room looked like before I went shopping @ Ikea and bought 4 Billy bookcases with glass doors and a half Expedit book shelf. We had boxes of old photo albums, the fooze ball table and an old entertainment unit which was not very useful. I spent an entire week beforehand drawing up plans and working out how I was going to reorganise and put everything.

I then took a week off work from the 7- 11/7/08 to go shopping and build the bookcases and move everything. Kaylene was on her first week of school holidays, so I got her to help me when I needed to shift heavier stuff, but otherwise I moved most of it myself. I also ordered a new desk for myself and I'm still waiting on delivery, but in the meantime I'm using the desk which will eventually be used for the sewing machine and Lily's stuff.


Now all our photo albums are in the Billy bookshelves and I have a scrap corner, which will eventually feel like home, not quite there yet.