Basking in Bali for a bliss family reunion

Barbara Scully is, by her own admission, a full-blown Irish Mammy who travels half way round the world to see her Australian-based daughter. This time round, the family all met up in the Indonesian island of Bali for an alternative

There is a tone to my daughter’s voice when she phones me sometimes from the other side of the world that excites and worries me in equal measure. It is a mixture of the tone she will use with me when I am old and batty and the tone she uses when she is closing a sale. Carla is a travel agent and she has lived for the past four years in Perth in Western Australia.

When she emigrated I never thought that my own air miles would increase exponentially the longer she lived abroad. But getting to see her roughly every year has become one of life’s priorities. It rates above getting the bathroom painted to cover the damp patches, replacing the ancient telly and even Christmas presents.