Author: Pam
Monday was an uneventful day, except for the tour of our soon home away from home. At 5:00 David Marshall came by to pick us up and we headed to their home, which is also Marshalls of Paddington, a very quaint B&B in the heart of Paddington. To our complete surprise they had offered for us to stay at their home while they are away this week at a Jazz Festival. Once again, we are just absolutely blown away with the generosity and kindness of the people we are meeting here in Sydney. We got the scoop on the layout of their home and the neighborhood from David as he walked back with us to the main road that heads back to the Marina. We will start our stay on land on Wednesday and we are very much looking forward to the usual; three sided bed (with a little more room), showers that don't take coins or are on the boat with the shower curtain attacking you and the extra bonus of a washing machine! On our way back to the boat we went to La Bussola for a yummy pizza.
Tuesday morning we headed out early for a full and eventful day. The day started with a trip to the Telstra store to set up the cell phone we have been given by our friend Tim. We resisted the idea of falling back into being attached to a phone, but with the need to coordinate with the mechanic and the other commitments that keep popping up, it quickly became clear we would have to give in and be part of modern society.
Once that chore was completed we met our new friend Ben and hopped on the train to head out to Penrith Lakes. We were invited by the Penrith Lakes Sailability club to visit their Tuesday sailing program for kids with disabilities and it had also been arranged we would be interviewed by two local papers, The Penrith Weekender and The Press. When we arrived several kids were out on the lake already in their dinghy sailboats with not much wind, but having a ball. The kids were all multi disabled and several were lifted in and out of the boats using a swing type lift. We were there approximately three seconds and one of the volunteers asked if we would like to go out in one of the boats, I don't think he actually finished asking before Scott was in a life jacket and hopping into a boat. Scott in particular has a warm spot in his heart for dinghy sailing, since that was his first sailing experience at the age of thirteen. I on the other hand, had never had the opportunity and I didn't get to go first. About the time he got a little speed up in the light wind the media arrived and he had to come back in for the interview. We just finished meeting with The Press and The Weekender photographer was asking if we would be willing to go out in the dinghy with The Weekender logo on its sail, they are one of Penrith Lakes Sailability's sponsors. So, we hopped in the boat with Jack, the Wonder dog (a Jack Russell) and posed for the camera. I am sure Jack made the pictures, especially since he was wearing his personalized yellow life jacket. The interviews went well and we were also able to help Sailability promote their Sail to Freedom program for kids. We will get to see the papers on June 19th when we give a presentation to Sailability members and the general community.
After our visit we took a taxi with Ben over to Darren's house, another new blind friend who just so happens to be a massage therapist. Ok, this time I got to go first. Actually we ran out of time, because we had to get back to the city for a dinner commitment, so Scott had to take a rain check. The massage was lovely and though I am supposedly leading the life of leisure there are still some knots and kinks that have found their way into my body and it looks like it will take more than one massage to coax them to leave.
We headed back to the city and met our friend David outside of his office at 4:45 to head to Greenwich for dinner. When we visited Sydney a few months ago by plane (back when we were not going to sail here), we stayed at the Greenwich B&B where we met David and Jeannette. Upon our return they hunted us down and invited us for a home cooked meal. We had a lovely evening catching up and eating delicious spaghetti Bolognese.
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