Well, Dubbo is a town in central-west New South Wales, approximately 420kms from Sydney. While it may not feature prominently on the world map, it has a big place in my heart because of the Christmas I spent with the Mawbey family - the warmest, loveliest, down-to-earth people I have ever met.
L to R: Mawbey's Daughters - Michelle, Marie (a.k.a Mum), Lyndal, Tania...and Grant (in orange)
Tania and I worked together in PwC Sydney, and she kindly invited home to spend Christmas with her family in 2001. The Mawbeys welcomed this lonely little Asian into their home with such warmth, they completely won me over! I was introduced to classic Aussie fare such as ham, curried eggs, tuna bake and coconut tart....and I loved it! I even got the recipes off Marie, but unfortunately, have never succeeded in re-producing her masterpieces. It's probably because of the lack of one key ingredient - unconditional family love.
One incident that I remember fondly took place during the Christmas Carol Service at the Dubbo Oval (cricket ground). A reporter from the local newspaper approached us to take photos, and Barry (a.k.a Dad) introduced me as Joanna Mawbey!
Aunty Jo-Jo facing her first bull on the Mawbey family farm...yikes!
Another first for me was a real-life bull rodeo! One of Tania's cousins gallantly offered to ride a bull for me to watch. So off we went to the family farm at Gilgandra and I watched him battle a one-ton bull. WOW...
He later killed a goat and threw it on the barbie just for me - DOUBLE WOW...
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