The Beginning of the End

Saturday 29th December

After lunch we drove ten minutes down the road so the kids could have a splash about in the waters of Port Hacking, where we also found some lovely starfishes. Ella and the boys had a great time barging onto one another and knocking each other over in the water, she never wanted it to end.

By half five we were packed up and heading back into the city, having said our final goodbyes to our new friends. So that's it, we had lunch, we went into the water, we may never see them again in our lives. We held it together, but this evening a man came to buy the futon in Ella's bedroom and I thought, you know, that's it, the beginning of the end and I shed a tear as I hoovered the (shamefully dusty) space on the carpet where it had previously been.

"I don't know what's wrong with me" I said to Darren. "I didn't even like that futon and nobody ever slept on it anyway".

"Well that Japanese bloke who just bought it liked it" he replied. "He came by bus and ordered a taxi home with it"

"What? A double futon and wooden base, in a taxi? Did he get it in?"

"I've no idea, but he's gone now, and so's the futon"

We went out for a few drinks at the Beach Palace Hotel to drown our sorrows. You could say we drank and ate the futon, as that's where the money went. Then watching the sky turn lilac over the twinkling lights of the eastern suburbs we pondered again whether we'll be returning to live in Sydney. It's a tough call, especially as the Australian lifestyle's done wonders for my youthful appearance; tonight I got asked for ID for probably the first time in my life. And that includes drinking in Warrington town centre when I was fifteen.