That is a lovely memory and a strange looking cottage :)
My dad is 81 now and after a stroke two years ago has progressed downhill quite quickly from what I hear as it is all second hand information. When I have talked to him, everything is fine even though he gets tired very fast and sometimes forgets who he is speaking to.
The last time I saw him was in 2011. He visited Finland for his 75th birthday and was still running around. Literally. He challenged my oldest brother to a sit up competition and my brother declined to take part after my dad had set the bar.
It was his birthday not long ago. I didn't have a chance to call him. His birthday was generally a non-event, the way he insisted it be. I wonder if he still feels the same.
I guess the thatch roof cottages are mostly a Danish/Southern Swedish and certain parts of the UK thing... it was a nice place to be, pretty much unchanged since it was built in 1938. My wife and I will be spending a few weeks there in the summer of 2018; looking forward to it.
Your dad (I take it he is still in Australia?) sounds a bit like my stepdad... active, no-nonsense, mostly no-frills life. My stepdad was a "nice enough" guy, born and raised in the UK, southern Africa and Australia, from a generation where men didn't "get close" to anything, or anyone.
It definitely is an idyllic looking place there. It will be nice for you to be 'home' for a bit again I am sure.
Yes, definitely a no frills kind of guy but not standoffish either. Just a focused artist when I was growing up. Probably the friendliest ,open and thoughtless person one could ever meet :)