The time has come....

... this walrus is saying (I hope you manage the allusion to Lewis Carroll's The Walrus and The Carpenter) I need to talk of many things.... not the least which is I am now finally feeling settled back in NYC.
Thank you to all those friends (both new and longer term) who have contacted me online, by phone, by mail and in all manner of ways expressing their sympathy and condolences. I really want to post about all that has happened over the past weeks and more importantly about Maddy (my step-mother) who died on October 8th at about 6pm. She was indeed a wonderful woman and at some time soon I hope to share with many how wonderful and amazing she was.
I left many in my family dealing with the harder issues of settling estates and awaiting probate- mainly my sister Michele and brother Andrew who both live in Melbourne so in the same city as the "ancestral seat".
Since I have been back in NYC work has been pretty well all consuming as well as trying to get my head together after the flight and coping with Sue being very sick with pneumonia. She is on the mend but hasn't been able to work for three weeks and begins work again tomorrow.
So having made a start of blogging again here I go for the next few weeks at least... until this may be interrupted by our tour of the Western Mediterranean late November.