Dear Friends, we finally have a perfect Spring day again
here and we are hoping to make the most of it by spending some time in the
garden. I need to stake my broad beans & thin out the spinach, and Wes
wants to do a little planting, mowing & pruning. It has rained nearly every
day this week and the good news is that none of it has fallen into the kitchen
through the big hole that Al cut! It looks as though he & his mate traced
the leak in the roof to the satellite dish, re-adjusted its position and solved
the problem. Now we just need Al to come back & replaster the ceiling
before the possums fall through the gap!
Also, we have a well-known Australian artist, Ross Paterson,
doing workshops on the Friday and Saturday of the Show. We decided to let all
the local & Ballarat schools know, and already Trentham Primary School want
to bring all 70 of their students over on the Friday – Ross is delighted with
this response, and so are we.
We’ve managed to fit in a couple of enjoyable social
occasions, starting with an early dinner on Friday night with Penny & David
Reilly, Daylesford friends that we have drifted away from in recent times. We
shared a totally vegetarian meal at A
Taste of Spice, the best of our three Indian restaurants, and enjoyed catching
up.
As well, last night, we drove to Burwood for a wonderful
reunion with the Borgs, Terry, Victor, Georgina & Laura & Ben. We were
very close with them all for a long time, then drifted apart, as sometimes happens.
However, we reconnected with Terry on Facebook earlier this year, and we
discovered that Laura has spent the last 12 years in Thailand running an
orphanage for HIV & suspected-HIV babies and children, mostly on the smell
of an oily rag. Laura was back in Australia for a visit and Terry threw a
barbecue in honour of Laura’s visit & birthday. We were quite emotional
catching up with everybody – Victor is not in good health, but still has his
beautiful smile and lovely Maltese humour; Terry has retired and is enjoying life
in her spacious unit; Georgie and her friend, Richard, have jointly bought a
home in Richmond which they love; Laura is as alive and fulfilled as we have
ever seen her, and we had to be introduced to Ben as he was a young child when
we last saw him. The girls are especially fond of Wes because he took them to
Carlton games and they forsook their father’s team, Hawthorn, for the Navy
Blues as a result. We saw friends of Victor & Terry’s that we had not seen
since the early 90s and amazingly we all recognised each other.
Laura & some of
her current family in Thailand
Once again it has been too wet for
early morning golf, and sometimes too wet to walk the boys, so we will be
pleased when we can start having regular exercise again. I decided not to
re-enrol for Strong classes this term
as I need to conserve all my energy for the Art Show, and it would then become
an extra pressure I didn’t need. Wes has put Hepburn Voices interviews on hold until after the Art Show, so he
and Barbara spend some time doing administrative tasks every week, and will get
back in harness after Cup weekend.
Today our breakfast was the last in the old Ice Cream Parlour as it will be
converted to a Health Food Store, starting from tomorrow. There were eight of
us and we had a lovely time chatting around a small square of tables. Michelle
is planning to reorganise Harvest Café next
Sunday morning to give us similar seating. When we play Mah Jong on Wednesday,
we will have to choose a new spot as well.
I’ve just spoken
with Viva and she sounds better each day. Her GP put her on industrial strength
antibiotics to help eliminate her cough, and she hopes it will have disappeared
by the time she finishes the course. I am still forbidden from making her
laugh, as that always brings on a coughing fit, and as making her laugh is a
natural part of ringing up, it is quite difficult to keep conversation
interesting, but not too amusing!
Fast Finishing ‘All Too Hard’ beating previously unbeaten ‘Pierro’
yesterday in the Caulfield Guineas – Black Caviar’s little brother finally hits
his straps…
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