After the family gathering on Saturday, we had a couple of days with Gloria and Alex. We spent time exploring their properties, both are amazing in different ways.
The property with acreage is a traditional style home with a wrap-around veranda, which I love because it provides shelter from both the rain and the sun. A previous owner put a second story over about half of the house which is a fabulous master suite which feels very much like a tree house. The property has a swimming pool, tennis court, granny flat, several sheds, a hillside pagoda, a large garage, a lovely pergola, a pond, an outdoor chess set, and loads of trees, shrubs, and flowers. From the pagoda up the hill above the pool you can see Brisbane Water.
It is a wonderful property and Alex is very happy to be there because he likes space around him. There will be lots to do to maintain the property, but Alex has already consulted a gardener who will be able to get the place in shape. Also, a lift is being installed to the second floor so that will ease getting to the master suite. Their son Warwick is helping to ready the space and getting the hole in the floor cut in preparation for the lift installation later this month. So a lot is happening.
We then went to look at the other new property at Daley’s Point. This is a hillside house with great water views. It does need some work and Alex and Gloria have not decided yet what exactly they are going to do with the place. Alex will have a new jetty built so he can dock his sailboat. They may use the house as as their office. Lou says for them to use the place as a weekender so both properties are in use. And, of course, they could always tear it down and build a new place that is up to their specifications. With the house being on the hillside, there are a lot of steps to get down to the entertainment deck and jetty, so there is talk of some type of lift or inclinator installation, so there is a lot to decide. There is a great view, much more expansive than the view from their former property which is directly across the water. It will be interesting to learn how they move forward. I hope Gloria gets her water view, which she loves, either through the place being the office or a regularly used weekender.
Later on Sunday we went to visit Lou’s brother Michael who is in a care home. He has some rare form of Parkinson’s disease. Margaret, Clare and Daniel went to see him first. We came a little later and waited for them to come out. After a while, however, we decided to see if we could go in, too. We had to take a Covid test, and the receptionist checked to see if we could visit, too. The home treated it as a family celebration, including Banjo, and allowed us all in to visit together. We found that Michael’s wife Marilyn and her sister Chris were also visiting, so it was a big gathering. Michael has some rigidity which causes his neck to be extended. He has also lost a lot of sight and most of his ability to speak. But he was clearly attentive to everyone and followed all the conversation. And surprisingly to Lou, he was also able to sit up a bit straighter in his chair and lean forward a bit. We reminisced with Michael about our first trip to Australia and how he took us up on a sightseeing flight in his airplane. Michael was born 9 days earlier than Christine, so she talked about how they were twins and he smiled. It was a bittersweet reunion for Lou as prior to Covid, Lou had visited Michael daily and took him on outings, so not having seen Michael for some time since his move away to Rylstone was difficult for Lou. Later in the visit, Michael’s niece Danielle (Len and Sandy’s daughter) and two of her daughters, Lucy and Laura, came to feed Michael his dinner. So it was another big family gathering.
Margaret, Clare and Daniel took Banjo and headed back to Rylstone. Margaret returns to work tomorrow driving a school bus, so her holiday is ending. We returned to Alex and Gloria’s for dinner and then watched the Aussie Open men’s final.
Monday we had lunch with a good friend of Lou’s and the family, Margaret Contini (her maiden name). The Caruanas knew Margaret’s mother in Malta. We had met and enjoyed Margaret during our last visit in 2020, so we had hoped to see her. We met for lunch at a nice place right on Umina beach called Margarita Daze. It was great seeing Margaret. Alex and Gloria joined us and we heard all about Margaret’s challenge in trying to sell her unit near the beach in Umina, which she only bought 3 years ago. She lives in a hillside house at the very end of Brisbane Waters on Woy Woy creek. It is a great challenge to get down to her house and at one point she really was having difficulty dealing with the dangerous steps down to her place so she thought she should move and was happy to be closer to the beach. But now she’s replaced the steps and continues to love her house so she is trying to sell her unit.
After lunch we took Margaret to see both of Alex and Gloria’s houses. We spent quite some time touring around the places again. Eventually, it was time to say goodbye to Margaret. Later we had dinner and then watched Married at First Sight. I had never heard of this show, but I guess it has been on a long time in America. It seemed pretty ridiculous, but I must say I did get hooked and I want to know how some of the couples fair.
Tuesday, we’ll be driving 6 hours northward to the Coffs Harbor area to visit Lou’s brother Tony and his wife Liz at their fabulous place in Nana Glen. While we look forward to our visit there, Christine is very sorry to leave Gloria. She loves Gloria and together they have so much fun. We call them the giggle girls because they are always laughing together and twittering away like a couple of school girls.
