30-12-18 Coogee Beach with the Francis Crew

Sunday 30th December 2018

Its a heatwave! Early hours Stephanie Matis (now Francis) hollers; we’ve finally got our reunion and its today at 10am at the Coogee Beach Lifesavers Club; our usual meeting spot. Four kids, three adults and a surprise twin pregnancy to announce. Stephanie somehow figured out I’m preggo anyway (reckons the Facebook photos give it away: no more bodcon shots, in fact no more Aliki shots).

The kids and Saxon go nuts in the super high tide waves while us girls eat the fruit platter in its entirety. Erroll joins us after he collects a change table from Mosman throwing himself into the surf with a chirpy Kingsley.

‘Bye Miss Stephanie; bye Uncle Saxon!’ he calls out at noon. Home now and onto adventure number two.

By the arvo our family is at Botany Cemetery visiting Παππού Πάνος & Γιαγιά Μαρίκα. Kingsley enjoys decorating the graves, lighting candles, burning incense but loses it when he and JiaJia Dora lock horns on where each (plastic) flower should go. Clearly very serious business.

Walking down from Μαρίκα to Παππούς’ grave the child stops at every grave asking the name of the buried and their age. He couldn’t get his head around graves where couples were buried and moreso purplexed when he’d see pictures of children deceased. At one point he asks why the dead are actually beneath us; why the gravestone. Dora gets weepy when the child stops at every crucifix to kiss Χριστούλης (there are alot of them here).