So after a journey lasting a very long time, Bobo, my emotional support bear and I arrived in Brisbane (that’s him above, before we left and below, on the aeroplane).

We were met at the airport by my sister. There were many hugs and a tear or two, because it’s ten years since I was last here – and Covid happened in between.

I’ve been here just over two weeks now and I think the jet lag is finally going, although I’m still nodding off during the day if I sit still for too long.

So far we have mainly done lovely, ordinary local things such as shopping and drinking tea and chatting and going for walks.

Bobo has also found a friend, an English ex-pat bear named Little, whom I remember from my childhood.

We also spent a night in Brisbane, where I met up with the younger of my two nieces (who is at uni in the city) to eat Chinese food and then drink cocktails in a very cool bar called Saville Row, whose cocktail menu was themed around fabrics!

My sister has to work for some of the time, during which I have done very little other than cook the occasional meal and sleep.

But yesterday I started working on my first Aussie bear.

Getting going on the sewing here has proven a bit of a challenge, as my sister’s sewing machine stubbornly refused to cooperate and would only go in reverse, and the local repair man refused to repair it because we took the cover off to try and fix it!

My sister then sourced another machine from a friend, which turned out to have a few missing and broken parts.

So I’m on my third borrowed machine – which thankfully, after downloading the instruction manual, is actually working!

Mind you, after being used to the same machine at home for so many years it’s amazing how tricky it is to switch to another, more retro model.

It’s not just the little quirks, it’s more that sewing machines have features nowadays that actually make sewing easier, and you get used to them.

My machine at home, for example, doesn’t require me to lift or lower the foot; I just sew and it does that for me automatically. So of course now I keep forgetting and sewing with the foot raised, leading to many false starts and tangled threads.

This is my new sewing station, where I get to watch amazingly huge, colourful butterflies flit by in the trees as I sit trying to puzzle out how to make the machine do something that used to be second nature to me.

But slowly, slowly I am getting there.

And there have also been materials to source…

Whilst I have been pleasantly surprised by the availability, quality and price of fabrics here in Australia (just look at those beauties above, bought locally for $10 (that’s £5) a metre!) I’ve also had to find quite a few other bits and bobs to make sewing bears or making dolls possible.

This involves a trip to a large warehouse-like store several hours away, or an extended rummage through the eclectic stock of wonderfully-named local emporium “Gone Bonkers!”

If I lived here I would probably be Gone Bonkers! best customer as it has every novelty you could possibly wish for, including large plastic toadstools and fairy garden furniture, as well as art and craft materials.

My sister’s forbearance has been admirable during this period.

Anyway, I’m hoping that there will, eventually, be a small collection of Australian creations to bring home with me.

We shall see. I will keep you updated.