Surprise Visit

Much as I love living in Australia there are times when I feel very far away from my family. I hate feeling homesick but it is very difficult to just hop on a plane when you live on the other side of the world. I missed out on a great girlie get together for my sisters 40th in January. It was so lovely to hear all the fun my Mum and sisters were having but it nearly killed me not being able to join them.

Then plans started to be made for my Mums surprise 70th Birthday get-together and that was it for me. I had to make it home. I had to be a part of this. I was supposed to be going to Canada around the time of Mum's birthday so I changed my plans and booked myself a round-the-world ticket and factored in a few days stop over in Dublin. My sister S, who lives in Limerick, very kindly made all sorts of arrangements to make sure she could also join in the surprise by coming to Dublin.

It was so much fun because my Mum had no idea I was coming. Usually when there is a plan to meet up in Dublin or Sydney we spend weeks counting down the days until we are going to see each other. Now there would be no count down, just me appearing at a lunch Mum thought she was having with my sister E, who lives near by. The look on Mum's face was absolutly priceless.

We had so much fun over the five days I was home. My sister did a great job of secretly cancelling all the arrangements Mum had but there was one golf day that could be cancelled as Mum is now the lady Captain of the club. While Mum was off golfing I spent the day with my sister and three of her beautiful daughters. We had a morning of baking. I would love to say I showed them my favoutire recipe for making cupcakes but the truth is we went to the shop and bought one of those packet mixes. We still had lots of fun and the girls loved the whole process of making cakes that they could then eat as fast as their little hands could get them into their mouths.

I have always loved cooking and I think it all stems from helping my Mum in the kitchen. If I could even sew the tiniest seed of that cooking bug into these girls then I will be happy.