The Family Visit (by Bec)
Friday 8th June 2007, marked the first time my immediate family has all been together in the one space, at the one time, in 3 years (??). The last time being (if I remember correctly) at Tullamarine airport in Melbourne, farewelling my brother as he headed across to the UK for work. Now three years later, he is still there.... as is my sister, who made the journey across about two years ago and now lives with her English boyfriend, Mark. So my parents know in very real terms what being "empty nesters" is all about, with all three children living OS.

But with the arrival of June, across the continents they came and with that the "Griswald" Family Holiday in Cambodia began (we watched Lampoon's Vacation way too much growing up). Alas, there was no Wally World to be had but there was fine dining and markets...and for Gaz and Mark - Temples, land mines and rifles. The time seemed to fly by...and all too quickly everyone departed...but not before Phnom Penh put on an impressive heatwave; a monsoonal storm; a trip to the provinces with Ming Yim's family; and a birthday party for yours truly. It's official - I am old......er.

Now my brother is back in the UK, most likely at work; my parents, sister and Mark are in Kota Kinabalu soaking up the sun; and come Thursday, Ben and I will be in KL awaiting the arrival of my parents, sister and Mark, to spend some last few days together (shopping and eating) before saying our final farewells for now. Who knows when the next family tour will be? And where it will be.... London? I do know that after months and months of planning this visit, it went all too quickly....but I want to say thanks to my family (Mark included) for all travelling so far to celebrate my birthday - you made it special.

Stay Gold...

The other night we had a sunset that reminded me of one of my favourite movies as a teenager, studied in English class at school: The Outsiders. If you've not been fortunate enough to hear of or see this movie, go to the following links: http://www.theoutsidersbookandmovie.com/ and/or http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086066/

In the movie, one of the characters, Ponyboy reads a poem by Robert Frost. Here's the poem:

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower,

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief.

So dawn goes down to day,

Nothing gold can stay.

And the famous last lines said later on in the movie by his friend Johnny...

Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.

Anyway, whenever I see a really golden sunset this poem always seems to enter into my head...or at least the lines from Johnny of: "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay Gold".

So I thought I'd share with you all just how beautiful and gold the sky was the other night (23rd May. Here are some photos from our roof top...