Another evening tucked up in our cosy home, the rain falling noisily outside. Where do the days go or more to the point, where do all the hours of the day go? I made this remark to Larissa a week or so ago when we were chatting on Skype. She was just so sympathetic to hear that we just were so busy that we did not even have time to read, that our days were so full… as you can imagine. However my lament was sincere even if her sympathy was not. Our days are truly busy and full and I do not get to do half the things I would like to do. Olly was concerned when I retired that I would be bored! That is something I cannot yet imagine. Perhaps the days will come, when I have no health or energy to budge from my bed or chair, only to do the writing and genealogy I struggle to do now, and sit and be bored. Maybe, perhaps…
Yesterday we decided that we would spend a few quiet days where we might catch up on some of these activities, and so set ourselves a small itinerary for the day.
We travelled on the train right in to the city, to the Town Hall Station. We came out of the station surrounded by high skyscrapers, masses of people, and could not agree which way to the City Archives. Now I am famed in our small family (of two) as being a really awesome navigator, unlike most women. However my skills deserted me and in the interest of harmony, I abdicated my role as navigator to my husband for the day. And so we did find our way to the office. The archives of the Sydney Council go back to only about 1870 and so there was little they could do to assist with my quest for Thomas Ingram.
The problem with Thomas, my great great great grandfather, is:
Facts:
- Thomas was a constable in Sydney and Paramatta, in the early 1840s.
- He married Benjamina in 1841.
- He was then a widower.
- My great great grandmother was born in the same year, and her brother followed three years later.
- The family left Sydney for New Zealand in 1856, accompanied by the oldest child who was evidently born in about 1833.
- A Thomas Ingram was transported for 14 years from Lancaster in 1830, sailing to Australia on the Marquis of Huntly.
- This same Thomas received a pardon in the early 1840s.
- In the early 1840s the colony was desperate for policemen and recruited convicts by giving them their pardons first.
- Question:
- Are these two Thomas Ingrams the one and same.
So there you have my quest explained for Sydney.
We were directed to the New South Wales Archives Office down in The Rocks so we walked down to this charming area.(Chris says it was up, because The Rocks is north of the city centre – we agreed that we would agree to differ until such time we discovered the local common usage). This office was tucked in to one of the rock cobbled lanes. There we were served by a middle aged womble with the most appalling dress sense, especially compared with his fellow Sydney city workers who are all impeccable in their immaculate suits. His badly cut trousers were green and his shirt yet another shade of the same. He was however wonderfully helpful and friendly and explained his flawed taste in reminding us that it was St Patrick’s Day. Of course!! How could we think ill of the man? He was celebrating in style!
My quest however was still no longer at an end, because the reality is that any information that may solve the matter is all on line, and I need to spend time with my computer rather than in the government office. I came away with many papers spelling out what resources are available and how to access those. So I reiterate what I said at the beginning of this diatribe, I just need more hours in my days!
From there it was just a hop, step and a jump to the park in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art, where we sat and ate our lunch and watched the cosmopolitan world pass by, and listened to the buskers on the waterfront; one a bush folk singer who threw in some Irish ballads for the sake of Olde Paddy, and the other who kept to his classical guitar repertoire.
The museum is a very large building, offering free entry to most of the exhibits. The one exhibition excluded from the gratis entry was the work of legendary American photographer, Annie Leibovitz. I suspect we would have enjoyed this more than those we did visit.
Bardayal “Lofty” Nadjamerrek managed to turn out quite a lot of work during his lifetime, most in the style of the Abo rock drawings. His human and animals figures are x-ray like, in shades of brown and white, three dimensional in the cubist style, fantasy like as so much of the aboriginal culture seems to me. It was interesting but one seemed very like the next.
The contemporary art section is so modern and so “out there”, I found it to be pretentious rubbish. But then what would I know; I have no education in art appreciation.
We caught the train back uneventfully, arriving in time to dine early and get ready for the next adventure of the day.
We had signed up to go on a free wildlife torch light tour of the park. Numbers were limited and so it was to be a relatively intimate group. There were in fact just over a dozen of us, including three children under ten. We were first taken in to a small “classroom" by the ranger and given a talk about the birds and animals that live in the park here. This was very interesting and we all had questions. The children are all travelling with their parents and were all bright, articulate and assisted the lecture by being animated and interactive.
It was about 8.30 pm when we set out with our torches along the pathways and roadways through the caravan park. We saw ring tailed and bushy tailed possums, sleeping kookaburras and noisy miners, spiders of great variety, heard flying foxes, learned about brush turkeys, bazza eagles, tawny frogmouths and boonboona owls, Bandicoots and swamp wallabies, and then at about 10.15 pm we lost six year old Hugo. We disbanded and spread out across the park, and fortunately discovered him with his parents when we regrouped back at the park office. His father assured me that there would be words when they got back to their caravan.
Needless to say it was too late when we got home to pull the computer out of the wardrobe to write all this down.
This morning we woke very late and finally headed off to pursue the day’s tasks after ten. We were on the hunt for a Dometic dealer who could help us with our awning problem. We found a couple of businesses on line, entered their addresses in to the Tom-tom, and started up the landcruiser which has been sitting in front of our camp neglected for several days now.
The first was Barnes Caravan Spares down in Lansvale, toward Liverpool, about thirty kilometres south west of us here. Thank goodness for navigational technology especially after the symptoms of Alzheimers yesterday. The people at Barnes Caravans, presumably Mr & Mrs Barnes, were just fantastic. They filled out the relevant forms, instructed us how to get a number on our cellphones for Caravan World in Woombye so that they in turn could email proof of purchase, and the formalities of a claim on Dometic could be set in place. They also managed to sell us side and end awning shades, and some plastic levels and blocks, without too much arm twisting. They had been on our wish list anyway.
We found a delightful little spot by Chipper Norton Lake, a reservoir on the Georges River which eventually empties out into the Sydney Harbour, where we had our lunch. There I spotted more wildlife; a rat which definitely was not a bandicoot, and a very large skink. Perhaps I should start a roll call of all wild creatures I have spotted?
It was our intention to shop at the large shopping centre near the Macquarie University, which we found courtesy of Tom-tom. Unfortunately the only parking is undercover where the height clearance is just 2.01 metres. We were not game to try to squeeze under that, so after circling the block for alternative parking, we headed for Epping where we found a Coles supermarket. We have come to favour Coles above the other supermarket chains despite the fact they are currently being vilified for undercutting all their competitors with their very low milk prices. We are strong advocates for competition and the free market, and we also love their beef low fat sausages which are like their milk; very well priced.
Our journey home took us through a tunnel and on our first Sydney toll road. We have our toll e-tag which goes “bing” when the toll is charged. Very exciting!
Despite the fact that this was to have been a quiet day with few activities, it was still late afternoon when we arrived at camp. I rescued the washing off the clothes line before the rain set in, most of it pretty dry.
Kit, Kyla and Isabella joined us by Skype for a while until Isabella kissed us goodnight and the reception froze our video out.
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