09/01/09

Like most days, I caught some rays in Hyde Park having some lunch, went to the gym then got ready to go out. But today was different. After the gym, I had a few missed calls from a withheld number and some voicemail messages which could only mean one thing, bad news.

The voicemails were from my mum trying to get hold of me. She sounded very upset on the phone explaining that my Grandad (her dad) had passed away. She didn’t want to let me know via voicemail but I’ve always said to let me know by any means as I’d get the next possible flight home. Felling very upset as I was close to Cliff but I knew he was in the best place now because he was slowly becoming very ill. Straight to the pay phone, I called home. My mum answered and it very emotional to talk to her, we both knew Cliff would pass away soon but obviously didn’t know when. The plans then started as to when I should come home and how long for etc. I didn’t want to leave straight after the funeral so I thought a month would be a good idea. Looking at the Internet, British Airways seemed the cheapest and I wasn’t in the mood to shop around. Monday 12th at 16:35 was my flight on BA16. I was moving out of my current hostel to Bondi so I wondered if I could crash at someone else’s instead to safe me the hassel. I asked Mickey and he was more than happy to help me out. I managed to cancel YHA at Bondi without a charge too.

I thought I would celebrate Grandad’s life tonight taking advantage of happy hour (£3.50 a beer) and having lots of fun. We were waiting for Andy until about half 10 when we could see a blonde, smiling Mohawk walking our way. Let the party start!

Many toasts were made to Clifford Randall with the lads and lass’s in Side Bar. Everyone was sad to hear that I was leaving but totally understood. We had a laughs while Andy tried joining in with couples groping each other on sofa’s/beds on the side of Side Bar. The night ended late after trying to start and win dance competitions which I’m sure were terrible to watch but great to participate in.

On the way back to the hostel I reminisced Grandad’s life and spending time with him. He was a very happy laid back man who was very caring. Although old fashioned, he had his head screwed on and loved to joke around. He will be sadly missed and remembered for as long as I live!