Visitors gone...Funeral...New video

Krysti and her kids MJ and Jessica returned to Canberra last Tuesday. It was nice to have them visit and we will miss them but I won’t miss Dora the Explorer playing over and over again on DVD.

On Thursday night Jasmine and I flew to Sydney for my grandmother’s funeral. My sister Jennifer picked us up and we stayed at her place in Clovelly. Jennifer’s unit has some nice views of the ocean and is quite close to the water. I told Jasmine to keep away from Jennifer’s dog Mimi (a miniature Jack Russell) and cat Nina (a white cat) until after the funeral but Mimi and Nina kept going to her for a pat and Jasmine couldn’t help herself. Unfortunately after about an hour Jasmine’s allergies flared up giving her puffy and watery eyes and a runny nose.

On Friday morning we went to the funeral. Jasmine’s eyes were a little puffy but not too bad. Dad spoke at the service and was unusually nervous and stumbled a bit through the eulogy. Dad has always been a very good public speaker and could capture the attention of an audience with a good balance of stories and jokes while delivering a strong message. Unfortunately his memory is letting him down these days, which in turn affects his confidence and delivery. The message still got across though that Nan was a good caring mother/grandmother with real integrity and character.

After the service we had a luncheon in a function room at a club nearby. It was good to catch up with my family and extended family. Jasmine, Jennifer and I went to my sister Julie’s unit for a visit in the afternoon and we brought Jasmine’s cousin Rebecca back with us to Jennifer’s house.

On Saturday we went for a 4.5 km walk along the coastline to Bondi Beach for lunch. I didn’t really know how far it was going to be. Jennifer kept saying things like “once we get around this headland it is not much further”, then we would get around the corner and there would be another headland to go around. After going around one too many corners Jasmine said “Just around the corner? We have been going just around the corner for the past 2 kilometres.” After lunch we caught a taxi back to Clovelly and then Jasmine and Rebecca played down at the beach for the rest of the afternoon. Later that night Jasmine and I flew back home.

We have uploaded another video to YouTube. We filmed it on James’ birthday and I finished the editing yesterday. Check it out.