#827 Tuesday 5 February

Naomi and I are fortunate people .... to have Kaylia of course .... but also to be surrounded by wonderful, caring people! It's such a pleasure to have Zoe's mother visiting us. It has been such a good experience to have AJ with us. Usually when one of our au pairs moves on, we have mixed feelings .... regret tinged with a natural small sigh of relief :-) .... but for AJ it won't be either. No regret because I'm sure well see her again .... and no sighs because she has been such a bright spark around the house. We will all miss you AJ! 'Specially Kaylia.

Ingrid has been into the city sight-seeing this morning. She was able to see Kaylia at school as well.

Much later .... in March
I have to revise this entry so that the happenings will remain clear and as accurate as possible ....
The visit from Ingrid would not have occurred had we been informed of the reason Ingrid was coming to Australia!  She would not have been welcome in our house.

It was eventually revealed to us about 2 or 3 days before she was to leave that the purpose of her visit was to persuade Zoe to leave Australia .... go anywhere but don't stay here with Kaylia, Naomi and Ian!  This purpose was kept from us .... not discussed .... and even after we finally realised, we were given no opportunity to discuss this with Ingrid.  We had to hope that Zoe would chose to remain with us ... and this was in vain.

The fact that Ingrid and her family were able to arrange the trip without giving us any idea of what the trip was for can only be seen as a calculated deception.  I don't remember any other instance during my life of being treated with such deliberate contempt.