School Sports Day

The girls had departed by the time we get up and then we sprint to be ready to leave at 7:45 with Kathryn and Regis to attend sports day at school.

First: navigate the traffic!

Once there, we watched swimming and track & field. 

Meanwhile, at morning tea break I continued my pursuit of MacArthur - in Australia. So on leaving the Philippines first by boat then plane into Darwin (which at the time was being bombed by the Japanese), MacArthur’s party transferred to a plane for Alice Springs then a train to the outback town of Terowrie, a tad over 200 kms north of Adelaide. It was at the railway station here that MacArthur uttered the words to the press “I shall return”. He was aged 62 at the time (with a 4 year old son!).

He arrived to a hero’s welcome in Melbourne and despite having presided over the woeful defeat in the Philippines, Roosevelt appointed him Supreme Commander of the SW Pacific Area. He strategised from Brisbane an island-hopping campaign back to military success in the Philippines in 1945.

We watch another lot of track & field - which is really slosh and slide, tug-o-war, relays, etc.; the humidity is intense. 

If this is the ‘dry’ season, heaven help you in the wet season.

We are pleased to return and throw off our clothes which are wringing wet and get a shower. And a G&T!

We await the school bus with the returning children. Then hide-n-seek, scrabble (whilst a load of washing gets done - no Anna today) then, as the sun goes down, we go out to a tapas bar for dinner - poppa’s birthday celebration (for last Monday).