*More Memories

Those two memories are the only lengthy memories I can conjure from my memory, the rest are just snippets such as family picnics, shopping with my mother, waiting in the car for my father to come out of the RSL club, buying firecrackers for guyfalks day, my father organising concerts and other events, just a big blur and mish-mash of memories up until my grandmother died and my mother took us to the UK for her funeral.

 

I remember the phone calls and the push to get our passports quickly as my grandmother had died suddenly. We had planned to go over and spend Christmas with her but she died on September 4th, my sister’s birthday.

 

The flight over was long but exciting. We flew with JAL and our first stop was Japan. We ended up spending what felt like days there and my mother got us a visa so we could leave the airport and explore Narita near the Narita (Tokyo International) Airport. It was all so foreign to me. I remember seeing little school children in 2 lines holding hands. Their uniforms all blue and grey like sailor outfits. We tried to find me a pair of shoes but my feet were too big. We went to a temple and burnt a prayer and we caught a bus. The bus was amazing with red velvet seats. Everywhere we went people would stop my mother to look at my sister and I. We were the only white children around and with our blond curls I am sure they were all curious. This small glimpse of Japan instilled a desire in me to one day return.

 

More flying and another stop at Anchorage airport in Alaska. I see snow for the first time, but it is through a window and I can’t touch it. In the Anchorage Airport there is a huge stuffed polar bear standing on his hind legs .I think it is very cool, but my sister is very scared of it. My mother buys me a stuffed polar bear from the gift shop. I still have him 24 years later.

 

Eventually we arrive at Heathrow airport in London and we are met by my mother’s foster brother who we call Uncle Tony. He is Indian. He takes us to his home. His wife is there. They live in a nice house which has a long yard. At the end of the yard is a fence and small railway tracks. My sister and I sleep in his daughter’s room. They are away at university. In their room is a chair made of bamboo that hangs from the ceiling. I love that chair.

 

I remember I had jet lag and it took us a few days to adjust. We moved from Uncle Tony’s down to my Great Aunt Pat’s. This was the first time we had met her but I remember she used to send us cards and money for Christmas and our birthdays. Her house is full of beautiful old things and she had a family bible which I would spend hours looking at. She had a little garden with a crab apple tree out the back and in her garden at the time were snap dragons. Her garden was beautiful as was her house. We slept in big wooden framed beds that smelled like moth balls and old people.

 

I remember the day my mother took us to the nursing village where my grandmother had lived. We saw her room and her living area. There were photos of us and lots of old furniture. At the back of the nursing home was a forest. My sister and I went walking through it to pick blackberries which grew wild in there. At one point we came across an old gardeners shed. I told my sister that a witch lived in there and she ran back to mum and refused to come back to the forest with me.

 

Before my grandmothers funeral my mother took us into Kensington to buy us something to wear for the funeral. I remember that to get into Kensington there was a huge round about. It was the first time I had been on one. We kept driving around and around. My mother was obviously confused as to where and how to get off. At one point I remember telling her that we had passed the same building before. She was getting very agitated.

 

Eventually we reached some shops and I remember mum bought me a black velvet dress to wear for the funeral. I don’t remember what my sister wore.

 

<p class="MsoNormal” style=”MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify”>The funeral was a bit of a blurr. I remember a big black car and sitting at the front of an old church. I cried but only because my mum was crying as was everyone around me.

 

After this I remember I had my hair permed. I walked down to the hairdressers on my own. I couldn’t get my hair wet fro three days afterwards so I had to have baths in my Aunts big old fashioned bathtub. It was so big and deep!

 

We also met an old friend of my mothers. We called him Uncle Roland. He was a Police officer. He took us to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and a few other places as well. We went to Hampton Court and went through the maze there as well as touring the castle. I remember thinking that my mum and Uncle Roland were very friendly. Mum told me that he was an old boyfriend.

 

There were a few times when mum stayed at her mothers place for the night and left my Great Aunt Pat to watch my sister and I. She said it was easier than driving to and from and she would get more done. Over all I think we spent nearly a month in England. Uncle Roland took us to Heathrow airport and we stayed at a hotel across the road. My sister and I had our own room. I remember we went exploring the hotel and found the indoor swimming pool but didn’t have any bathers with us to go swimming.

 

I don’t remember much of the flight back except sitting next to my mother. The plane was quite empty and my sister was asleep across three chairs in the isle next to us. My mother was drinking sake out of little white cups and pouring it out of a little white bottle. She told me that she was in love with Uncle Roland. I didn’t know what to do or what to say. I was about 10 years old.

 

We landed at Sydney airport and my father was there to meet us. He was very happy to see us but I could tell something wasn’t right. Once we were back I remember him asking me lots of questions about what we did and who we saw.

 

Soon after we returned my parents went on a trip together to Queensland. I think I stayed with my Aunty Brenda, a friend of the family who had kids similar in age to us. I can remember the quiet whispers about how my mother and father were trying to save their marriage.

When they returned my father asked me to write a story about what I would do if we moved to Queensland and lived in a hotel. I couldn’t think of anything to write so I wrote about what it would be like to own a horse instead.

 

I remember telling my friends at school that I was moving to Queensland, they thought I was lying. I went on a school camp and when I returned my mother picked me up in our cream Cortina stations wagon. I never went back to our house. Everything was packed and in a truck on the way to Queensland and we were driving up with my Uncle Scotty who was going to move with us to Queensland and help my mum and dad run the hotel they had bought.

 

The drive up took us two days. I remember we got lost once and we went past the big banana. I didn’t have a chance to miss anything; it all seemed like a big adventure. We eventually arrived in Rockhampton and pulled up outside the hotel. I recognised it from photos my parents had shown me. The streets were very wide and quiet with big trees lining them. I remember walking into the bar with my parents and being shown where we would live. My sister and I would be sharing a room. There were bunk beds set up in the room. I didn’t think I was going to like this.