The Good Old Days

Today we went for a trip down memory lane and visited the area where I grew up. I lived in the same house from when I was born until we moved to Dallas when I was almost 17. It was in a suburb of Sydney called Oatley. It was a great place to grow up, with lots of parks and other places to play and explore. 

We got there earlier than the rest of my family, so we spent some time hanging out in the park I used to go to alllll the time. That was where my dad would lie on one of the benches and pretend to be Frankenstein. It was very scary. Up one end of the park there is play equipment, and at the other end is a War Memorial, complete with a real live (but thankfully not working) cannon. I have no idea why, but we loved to play on it when we were little. 

Chilling in the park, in between bites of grass

'At least this one's not an animal!'

What does this thing do, Dad?

We ate lunch after that at a cafe (also on the map above). While we were there it started raining. A lot. But thankfully it was pretty much done by the time we were done, so we still ventured out. When we were little, there was a pipe (maybe a water pipe? I don't know) that ran next to a path from Oatley to Como, the suburb across the river. We used to love walking along it, and had planned to do that again today, but sadly the rain made it a little too slippery. We still got up there for a photo opportunity, of course. 

We walked across the bridge to the park in Como, where I displayed my outstanding rope-climbing skills. It was a lot harder than it looks. Or something.

We got delicious ice-creams after the walk (of course), and took a wonderful ice-cream photo. I have no idea what those faces are on the aunty and uncle. As usual, the photo grinch is standing in the background without a smile on his face.

And I have no idea why it took me so long, but I suddenly realised when we were almost back to the car that the dad and the uncle were twins!