I woke at 5am and saw that Maria's bedroom light was on. I checked and found her awake, still experiencing periods of insomnia. She is taking it in her stride to keep sane!
I left around 5:30am and drove to Sydney, arriving at the church just after 9:00am. It was obviously a sad occasion. It was an opportunity to celebrate his life and see a lot of family from my mum's side, who I either see intermittently or haven't seen for many years. It was nice to catch up but unfortunate that it seems to be at these types of events.
After the church service, burial, and spending some time at Aunty Margaret's, I left around 3:30pm to try and beat the major peak traffic heading out of Sydney. I arrived home just after 7:00pm, taking about the same time as the trip up this morning. It has been quite a while since I've driven 7+ hours in a day.
When I arrived home, Gabi virtually crash-tackled me for a hug before I got out of the car. They had all waited patiently for me so we could have dinner together. The kids went to bed immediately after dinner, giving us a chance to chat about our days before fatigue for both of us set in. Maria was able to be driven to a morning tea for 'new' parents (for Gabi) by a dear friend and spend some time at home with her afterwards. Maria's parents also came through while travelling from Goulburn back to their home on the South Coast. It was Maria's father's 'name day' today — χρόνια πολλά μπαμπάς (pronounced "Hronia polla Babas"), which translates to "Happy name day Baba (Dad)".
What does tomorrow hold? As I may not have the energy to prepare an entry, I'll cover off on what I can recall in advance:
- Ben has an excursion to the National Museum of Australia tomorrow to participate in a program called 'Tools of the Land" in which they'll learn about traditional Indigenous (Aboriginal) lifestyles.
- Maria has a physio appointment for her back, which she injured while vomiting the other week (too much info??).
- The respite cleaner will be to provide her weekly assistance (two hours).
