As well, our good
friends, Tom & Deborah have returned from a grand tour of South America
which they loved, although it involved lots of travelling.
I enjoyed a good
visit with Viva last Saturday before picking up Wes at the airport. He was
delighted to discover he didn’t have to make dinner that night as I had already
bought a quiche & salad to last us two nights. He had a wonderful time
away, but was pleased to be home and Bilbo & Frodo were glad to see him as
well.
Bilbo & Frodo
watching the cricket with me
We’ve enjoyed a good week, starting with Sunday Breakfast,
where everyone was interested to hear Wes’s stories from his week away. The Food Gallery gave us each a homemade
mince pie and promised us further goodies each Sunday until Christmas.
On Monday I collected Gillie and we played 10 holes at
Trentham again. We had a lovely time together, even experimented with tees to
improve Gillie’s game, and gave me a few second chances to improve mine!
Afterwards we decided to have breakfast at The
Food Gallery as they have been trying so hard to please us. There were
plenty of locals there and we were given titbits of various things to try while
we waited for our meals.
That night Wes went to the Daylesford Royal Hotel where the local ALP branch was holding a
special gathering in honour of John McParland, long-time branch Treasurer, who is
suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He had a lovely night meeting lots of old
and new friends, including Josh Gilligan, a young keen member, whom he had coffee
with earlier in the day.
On Tuesday, Wes and Barbara went to hydro to discover it was
cancelled as the pool was being refurbished. Meanwhile I joined Judi and Ann
Holden at Gracenotes Café where we
had afternoon tea to thank Ann for her lovely massages over the past year. Chris
Sinclair looked after us beautifully and very happily split a slice of cake in
half for Ann & me to share.
Wes has been cooking some wonderful meals this week – he opens
a cookbook at random and searches for a suitable recipe, then makes it. That
night we had flathead with olive paste, which was very yummy. We’ve been eating
broad beans madly as I picked the whole crop so I could mulch that bed. We have
just discovered tea tree mulch & I am a firm convert as it seems to absorb
lots of water & keep the soil very moist.
The next day, Wes accompanied Barbara to Ballarat again for
her spinal clinic visit, which they followed up with a Chinese meal. While they
were away I drove to Castlemaine to deliver some books to Valerie (who wasn’t
home) and picked up some excellent sheep manure to improve the vegetable patch
soil. That afternoon I had my nails done with Michelle for the last time this
year.
I’ve finally managed to spend some time on the phone again,
after weeks of being too busy to do more than ring Viva daily. I was worried
about an old friend, Pat Craft, who has not enjoyed good health through her
life, and decided to ring her when I received a very depressed Christmas card.
I met Pat & her lovely mother, Julie, during my time as Treasurer of the
Ladies’ Committee at Collingwood – the 80s decade. Julie died a long time ago
& Pat has been in various home ever since as she finds it hard to live
independently. Currently she is in Warrnambool near her sister, but she misses
her Melbourne friends. We had a good chat & she apologised for being
depressed!
I also had lovely long chats with Jane Knox & Norma
Hutchins, friends that we met on our first Cricket Tour. We had missed the
opportunity to catch up with Jane, David, Norma & Terry, when they all went
to the Brisbane Test last month, so it was good to catch up with their news.
Norma tells me that she is feeling better than she was, and has put back the
weight that she lost when she couldn’t swallow for ulcers in her throat. Her
son, Steve, partner, Melissa, and son, Leo, are all on their way home from a
posting in Melbourne, so she is looking forward to seeing them all for
Christmas.
On Thursday I had my last gym class for the year – I managed
to attend for 5 weeks without missing, which is very pleasing. Then in the
afternoon, it was time for the last facial ever with Sarah Barby, who is
closing her business on Christmas Eve, and starting a new life in Emerald,
Queensland, with her husband, Mike. We had a lovely last treatment together and
I walked away with some homemade biscuits & chocolate truffles as a thank
you. Judi & I had sent her a big bunch of flowers in the previous week to
celebrate the end of Uni for her and to thank her properly for 4 years of
pampering.
Yesterday was the last haircut & henna for the year – it
is always good to spend time with Nicole and we enjoy her visits. The boys love
licking whatever cream she has on her legs and then lying on the sheet she puts
down to catch henna droplets!
It was also the 24th
anniversary of Dot Maloney’s death & Wes celebrated her with this photo of
Facebook, and remembered how she taught him to circular waltz around a sixpence
when he was 12.
Wes had been very disappointed to discover he had lost a
pair of his good glasses and we have pulled our house & cars apart for the
last two days looking for them. Yesterday afternoon Barbara let him know that
her cat, Bobby, was playing with them on the chair where Wes had dropped or
placed them on Wednesday afternoon, much to his relief.
Early this morning we went to Le Peche Gourmand (a term that celebrates gluttony), which is a
French patisserie (sells cakes) &
boulangerie (sells croissants) in
Creswick, that Gillie had told me about. We had croissants and hot drinks which
were lovely, while watching the rain come down. We drove around the Golf Course
Estate while we were there and came back via Dean as it is such a pretty drive,
especially when it is raining. Finally we stopped at the Nursery to pick up
some more mulch, potting mix and some punnets of pleasure, which will occupy us
when the rain stops or the cricket isn’t on.
Tomorrow we are off to Breakfast as usual, Wes is taking
Barbara on a big shop before Christmas, and we’ll watch some cricket, he’ll visit
the Ellenders’ Winery for their Christmas Party and we’ll both end up with a
Pimms (Dot’s favourite tipple) on Gillie’s decking in late afternoon.
My cousin, Annmaree,
her daughter & my aunt, Margaret Saundry, taken yesterday
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