Mr Pink Panther Visits Australia with Miss Merinda

For reasons outlined elsewhere, the whole family had to troop back to Australia. Now Meri was nervous at the preparations, but Marion asked her to please show Pink Panther around, because he had not ever been to Australia before. This was like a tonic, and with new reassurance, we set off on March 10th.

The first morning Mr P was a bit jet lagged, but he and Meri had to get up to go to the doctor with Kay and Jonathan.

We stopped off in Hyde Park to show Mr Panther the fountain.
Both Mr P and his companion were feeling much better by this time.


Jonathan could not resist being photographed over the mosaic of the letters"HP" at the entrace to Hyde Park.


Riding a train is an experience unfamiliar to most people who live in Santa Rosa. Here Merinda and Mr Panther await their train, and below, Meri shows Mr Panther how you have to hold on as the train accelerates.


The weather was hot still in March. Here Teddy is cooling his heels in the "water feature" in Andrew and Deb's garden. This picture of Teddy is to be contrasted with ones at the end of this epic expedition: Teddy is to spend 33% of his life on walkabout with his mother and sister in Australia, and he will change a great deal as he develops facial expression.

Naturally we visited Chelmsford Street, Newtown. Des has rebuilt the pond in the garden. Our pot containing Mountain Clouds was still there, and the little fish seemed to be thriving. (You could put a few in the big pond if you like, Des.)

During this walkabout Meri was to travel by aeroplane, train, lightrail, cable car, truck, car, boat, monorail and ferry. In this instance, however, we eat sushi delivered by a G-scale model train in one of our favourite restaurants (actually in Chinatown, just to add to the confusion).

We got a chance to visit very few people as a family before Jonathan had to return to Santa Rosa for work. (Teddy did get to meet Jan and his elder sister Amelia.)


On the next part of the grand walkabout, Kay and the kids went with Ian and Vicki and Bryn to Cunjarong, about 3 hours south of Sydney. Naturally Mr Panther was delighted with this view of Australia. Here you may see him with his companion at the beach. Jonathan was missing his girls already. Merinda still managed to look like a Californian girl on holiday.

Returning from Cunjarong, the troops stopped at Kiama to show Mr PP the famous blowhole, and to feed the seagulls. Sadly this is the last known sighting of Mr PP, who made the decision to become an illegal immigrant somewhere around this time. Either that, or he was taken by a seagull. We prefer to think he is sipping Mai Tais on a beach somewhere in Queensland, surrounded by Barbies and soaking up some rays to keep that nice pink colour.

Kay and Meri and Teddy then went to spend some more time with Amelia. Amelia has reached puberty and developed an interest in babies in general as well as her siblings in particular. Once she told me that she would never change a nappy for free (Kay recalls "$1 for a wet one and $5 for a pooey one" was the suggested rate), but now she volunteered.

Meri is seen here going down a large slide with Amelia, at Blue Mountains Grammar school fair. It was scary.



Kay and Co also went to Stephen and Pamela's house warming. I am sorry I missed that chance to see my friend. Here is Stephen showing off his attic steps---what was that quote from Zorba about houses and kids?---with a classic Hart pose.

More time was spent in Sydney, mainly with Vicki and Bryn. Here Meri and Bryn are having an impromptu drumming session. You can listen to it here.


Kay took the kids to the Royal Easter Show, of course.

The picture at left is near the end of a long, full day. Eddie is obviously suffering hat envy.


For Easter, Kay went to stay with her sister Jane in Canberra. Jane's son Sebastian had just turned 1 the month before. He had his first chocolate that Easter. Australian Easter eggs are large and hollow, whereas American ones tend to be small and solid, and often made of rather crude chocolate. Merinda wasn't quite sure where to start hers.

Merinda and Sebastian spent much of the time fighting over toys, to the point where Jane and Chris eventually set up the playpen to avoid conflicts, tears and tantrums.

Here in a rare moment of amity at the Canberra version of Toobtown they pose as a chubby California redneck and his jumpsuit-wearing bottle blond taking the 'recreational vehicle' for a spin.


Back in Newtown, Meri did what kids in Newtown do, what she might have spent much of her life doing if we had stayed living there instead of coming to California... making friends at various centres, visiting the Magic Yellow Bus, eating in cafes, and so on.


Next, Merinda, Kay and Teddy went to visit Pam and Murt on Cabbage Tree Island. Pam has a son, Stephen, who went to school with Kay since kindergarten. She has been Kay's "other mother" since the age of 5, and many of you may remember her performing our wedding ceremony. Merinda says that she loved to visit Pam and Murt, but she was scared of the boat and would go back if she did not have to ride on a boat. (Unfortunately the night they arrived it was already pitch dark and they had boat trouble, so her first experience of crossing the river was a traumatic one.)
Cabbage Tree Island was a wonderful opportunity for Kay and the kids to relax. Meri felt so comfortable there that after the first night she'd just curl up on the lounge or floor after dinner and fall asleep. The fresh country air probably helped too. Even Eddie got into the act. Murt mows the lawns... with the new large tractor it only takes a day and a half. There are walks among the Moreton Bay figs and avocado trees, too.

Much fun was had by all, even if there was a return trip over the water.


We spent more time at Cronulla with Kay's family. (Denis does not look like this all the time, he and Meri were playing dress-ups.) For that matter, neither does Meri, but that day she chose her own outfit. Kay says she obviously inherited her father's dress sense. Bitch.


Meri got a chance to practice being a wino on the streets of Sydney.

Later on that day we walked along the beach and checked out the aquatic inhabitants of the rockpools and tidal baths.



We took every opportunity to combine socialising with Yum Cha (or Dim Sum as it is known in the US).


We visited Donna who is in our old flat. Teddy made quite a friend.

You can see from the kids' clothing that the weather is considerably cooler now than when we first arrived.


We lunched extremely pleasantly with Peter and Barbara and Rhiannon and Jack, for an afternoon of gindulgence and convodkasation. Eric was left holding the baby.


Eric took a day off work and joined us in a visit to Taronga Zoo, where Merinda got to meet some of the natives up close. A skin-soaking storm at the end of the day put a little damper on our spirits.

We tucked in a visit to Meron's fabulous new house, too.


We saw Lissa, and ate at The Alfred. It has not changed. Neither has Lissa, you are as lovely as ever. By this stage Edwin was becoming an old hand at ordering at cafes.


We saw Tony and Carol, albeit too briefly, and combined this with a visit to one of our favourite restaurants, Linda's Backstage. Expanded, this restaurant features "cooking in the round", and given a drag show in the main venue next door, the patrons often afford diners even better entertainment. Provided with lamb shank upon which to suck, Teddy missed much of the evening, as did Meri, who was asleep in the pram.


We visited the fabulous Leichardt Forum, a massive Italian-style sunken Piazza surrounded by apartments, that has been built since our last visit to Leichardt. It truly is a little piece of Italy in Sydney's Inner West.


My 45th birthday fell just before the ISCAS conference. Kay and Deb had the idea of celebrating my birthday with a dinner at Tetsuya's, one of Australia's finest restaurants. The company finally comprised Andrew, Deb, Kay, Eric, Lou, Lissa, DavidR and myself, a combination that proved magical.


Photographing the evening revealed an interesting thing... some people were almost always blurred, and some mostly quite static and easy to catch. Lissa is like me... mostly moving.
The photo of Lissa above is about the only one that is not blurred.


During a visit with Amelia to Ian and Vicki's place we did a little photography.

Now Merinda is growing up... but perhaps not this much. Here she is, apparently making Bryn an offer he can't... understand?


Kay went to a Ramsbottom family do. Denis is seen here doing what I hope I may one day have the chance to enjoy. My mother missed out on this. She would have loved Merinda and Teddy so much.


Merinda went to the museum with Kay and Vicki and Bryn. She met up with a very famous creature from the past.


Finally, on the 11th of May we returned to Santa Rosa, with Danny who had a six-month stay at Agilent starting the next week. It was a very long walkabout for small people. For big people too. It took a couple of days for the jet lag to wear off---meanwhile Meri fell asleep in the strangest places...