Goodbye Jay

A couple of weeks ago my grandma died, so we packed up and headed to Adelaide for the week. We took Fred.

And Tess. This was one of our many stops along the way. Fred was pretty good but he does take a bit of attention because he's a baby.

In Adelaide, we hung out with different facets of my family and did little things all week. One of them was visit Pij at his work, which is the zoo. Fred was more interested in Pij than the animals.

Pij is the orangutan keeper. The orangutans were interested in Fred and a bit confused by his presence.

The male oragutan was up to mischief. He was dragging around a blanket with his toes and carrying a small stick he found, which Pij said was quite naughty. His hair was amazing.

We were admiring a baby baboon riding on his mum's back when out of nowhere the dad started doing this. Then he had sex, then sat back relaxing.

These guys are so acrobatic! I love them. Primates are incredible.

We dropped in to see my old friend Ben at his furniture shop. He was there with his daughter Violet, who is very cute.

We went to look in an old house called Carrick Hill with my mum, and it was pretty good, but they only do scones on Wednesday and Saturday or some shit. I was really looking forward to those scones. 

It was nice. We did a lot of tea drinking in Adelaide, and coffee drinking also.

We stayed with my dad and Joy, who were fantastic hosts. Fred was definitely a drawcard.

We went for a walk with Anna and her dogs.

Classic stuff from Rosie and Fred.

Quite an idyllic scene.

Finally, on the day before we left town, it was time for a get together to farewell my grandma Jay, my mum's mother. I hadn't seen many of my aunties or cousins for years and years, so it was quite an overwhelming but really lovely experience.

We sat around in a circle and told stories about Jay. She was such a clever, funny, resourceful woman, who I didn't really know, or I did know, but only a part of her. But I suppose that is like everyone. One thing that came through very strongly was that she had a particular sense of humour that all of us have, which I hadn't really thought about, but it's true.

After we did that, we ate lots of food that we had all brought, then we had some photos taken. First up, all the present cousins. That's me crouching up the front. Jay was the best op-shopper I have ever known. She dressed in designer clothes and furnished her house with amazing things she found from all over the place. She even had a stuffed emu in the front room named Effie, who wore boots and spectacles.

Cousins plus aunties, and Tess. One rainy evening Jay rode past my auntie Cherry and called out a cheery greeting from her bike. She was wearing a big plastic bag that also covered a vacuum cleaner she had strapped to the front. 

Cousins plus aunties plus partners, friends, and fathers, and Tess, and Fred. Jay was always lovely to me and had a sparkly smile like Fred's. She was also really good at entertaining visitors. 'Well, it's been lovely seeing you all,' she would say, clapping her hands together and smiling at us all lazing about on the couch. That was our cue to leave.