In Australia, we first lived in an apartment in Sydney. We had some really nice neighbors. But then, not long after we got Velvet, we moved to a wonderful house on Yalambi Avenue, in Yowie Bay, in the outskirts of Sydney. I had to wear a uniform to school, it was navy blue. I liked it though. I would ride the bus but I had to walk to the bus stop.
Our house was amazing. It was at the bottom of a long driveway that wound around through the trees. My mother was terrified at first, driving down it. In the back we had a patio and climbing up the hill behind the patio was a mass of plants and flowers. Above the patio was a greenhouse filled with orchids. Someone related to the owner of the house came and took care of them, and I rarely went inside. Sometimes, though, I saw the caretaker and she would let me watch her water and pamper the flowers. I never saw anything like them. I actually didn’t like them very much, They seemed to fancy somehow, not like real flowers.
Our house had a big lawn and then it dropped down to the water. We had a pathway that led down to the pool, which was carved out of rock, and the tide filled and emptied the pool every day. There was a rock wall and the water would flow through and over it and back out again. My dad the engineer loved it.
We had to be careful because creatures would wash in. Usually, they were fish but one day we had a small shark in it. We also had octopus. My dad and I would sit on a rock above the pool and fish using drop lines. We were pretty successful and often had our catch for dinner. I remember once he caught an octopus and once he unraveled it from the line, he put it in a bucket of pool water with a board over it. It stayed in there all afternoon, its tentacles wrapped around the board. He eventually put it back in the bay.
Every Saturday night, we had grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. We would eat on the floor in the living room in front of the fire, like we were camping out. Then I would like down with my head on Velvet,and listen to his heart beat.
Australia was absolutely wonderful. It was one of the best times of my life. I had a good friend, Elsa, and I rode horses a lot. We had our wonderful dog, Velvet (“Bebby”) and I loved my school. We had to wear a uniform, which was a long white shirt with a dark blue pleated outfit.
I remember walking down that long driveway one day after school and realizing that I would be leaving soon. I remember the empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. I remember kicking a stone in anger and watching it roll down the driveway. And I remember thinking “I love every stick and stone of this place”.
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| Yowie Bay |
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| Yowie Bay |