17th March
1949
Dear
Friends, ChillOut was a huge success over the Long Weekend here and we
particularly enjoyed the Parade after breakfast at the Food Gallery.
Standing are Andrew,
Danny, Judi, Dene, Rob & Karen,
Seated are Syd, Russell, John & Jane
Judi & I watching
the Boot scooters
We
came back home after the Parade. Danny left for Melbourne and Wes and I had a
rest in preparation for a late lunch at Di & Jeff’s place.
Lunch
was wonderful – Di really enjoys cooking and produced some stuffed calamari,
tandoori chicken, umpteen salads and a huge pavlova filled with beautiful
berries.
We
enjoyed seeing Roger & Valerie Roberts again, as they left Daylesford late
last year for the Adelaide Hills. We suspect they are missing the community
here and all their good friends. We were joined by Phil & Sue May, Lesley
McGillvray and Cate & Paul Lever, who have taken over Dudley House in Hepburn Springs. Conversation flowed, as did the
wine, and we were sorry to leave, but needed to get back home so that Wes could
have a short rest before donning his ChillOut T-shirt again and acting as
security on the door of the Town Hall for the Dance Party. He ended up doing
the shift with Max Primmer aka Di Alysis,
which made for an entertaining, if long, evening.
Di Alysis
Wes
earned a sleep-in on Monday, so I took Bilbo shopping early, then for a walk
around 9am, just as everywhere was waking up and bleary-eyed souls were looking
for cooked breakfasts in their droves.
That
night we had been invited to Gail & Terry’s place for cocktails & pizzas with Judi & Michael. Gail had taken a
lot of trouble to make martinis for us all; she opened her capacious and
fascinating drinks cupboard; plied us with cheeses and dips & nibbles
beforehand, and accompanied the pizzas with spaghetti with two sauces! What a
wonderful night we shared.
Wes
and I left after he had tried three different whiskies and I was being served
Benedictine from a soft-drink bottle!
Fortunately
we slept very well and woke in time for the early morning walk with Bilbo
followed by gym. After gym, I took Bilbo with me to meet up with Gillie at Gracenotes Café. Bilbo enjoyed watching
the passing parade and was delighted when Rosie, Annie’s Smith’s dog, appeared.
They greeted each other very enthusiastically.
That
afternoon we drove to Trentham for Kirk Bradbury’s funeral. Fortunately we were
early as eventually the Anglican Church was full and loudspeakers broadcast the
service to those sitting outside. The flag on the Post Office was flown at
half-mast, which was a great honour. Kirk was farewelled in style – Bob White
gave a thoughtful, amusing and interesting eulogy, and he was followed by the
Rev Dr Peta Sherlock, who also spoke well, both about Kirk and about his faith.
One of their friends sang, unaccompanied, the very poignant Send in the Clowns, and we later spotted
him retrieving a chocolate cake from his car as a contribution to the lavish
afternoon tea served in the Mechanics Institute. Bob’s daughter, Natalie, and
her husband, Fabian, were there to support him, and, like us, were overwhelmed
by the incredible turnout.
Wes
invited me to accompany him to the Daylesford ALP Branch meeting that night,
but I was too tired and declined his kind offer, opting to watch a Midsomer Murders episode instead. I was
so pleased I made that decision as the Macedon candidate, Mary-Anne Thomas,
turned up unexpectedly, and the meeting voted not to hear her speak.
We
drove to Ballarat on Wednesday morning as Warren had promised to put Barbara’s
car in for service while she was away, and our Mazda 6 was overdue for a
service. After breakfast at our favourite Ballarat café, Lekker, we decided to see Mandela
at the local cinema. We are both so pleased we did – what a stirring and moving
film that is and how well it depicts and explains a time we lived through.
Nelson Mandela is shown warts and all, which makes the film so very believable
and makes his ability to forgive his captors even more amazing.
We
arrived home to find a note from Sandra, our wonderful cleaner, to say that
Bilbo spent her visit sleeping on our bed. She wasn’t sure he was allowed to do
that, but didn’t like to shoo him off the bed in case we had relaxed the rules.
What a scamp he is!
When
I opened the mail I discovered a lovely card and this black and white bracelet
and ring from Genevieve Spiteri. Thank you so much for the surprise – as you
can see the colours suit me very well indeed.
On
Thursday, after gym, we drove back to Ballarat so Wes could collect his car, as
it needed new brake pads. It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed the drive
there and back. Then Wes got into gardening and mowing in a big way, stopping
only to make yummy dukkah-encrusted rockling for lunch.
Nick
Massaro arrived late afternoon to give me a massage and agreed that I could
stop wearing the compression bandage the next day. He thought my knee looked
much less swollen and provided I took things easily, should be back to normal
very soon.
We were
going to take a Freo fan, John Webster, to the footy on Friday night, but he
changed his mind, so Wes and I decided to catch the train to Docklands Stadium, as V-Line had put on
an extra train to get us home. There is a gap of 90 minutes between the train
that leaves just before the game finishes and the one that leaves when
everywhere is in darkness, so something in-between was very welcome!
Honey Dijon, our latest rose. When
fully in bloom it is the milk coffee colour of Julia’s Rose – sensational!
Sadly the
game was very disappointing after a closely-fought opening quarter, and just
before ¾ time we decided to leave and get the early train home, which meant we
arrived back here at 11.30pm. I have found late nights a challenge over the
past few years, as you know, and, although I noticed an improvement, I was
exhausted by the time we walked in the front door to a rapturous reception by
Bilbo. We made a decision to sleep in, give Bilbo a bone, and take him for a
walk to breakfast instead.
We chose Gracenotes Café, where we could sit
outside with Bilbo at our feet. Our friend, Annie, was there with Rosie, and
the two dogs were delighted to see each other again, before settling quietly.
Breakfast gave us energy we desperately needed and Wes spent most of the day
achieving heaps in the garden, while I cleaned out the pantry and made a
vegetable curry for dinner, using quite a few ingredients from our vegetable
patch.
Although we
had not planned to go overseas this year, we have decided Carpe Diem rules, as too many of our friends are succumbing to
illnesses, and we realise we should travel while we can as we don’t know what
is around the corner. So we have used our Qantas frequent flyer points to book
a trip to Scotland in October. I have been in touch with the Pitlochry Festival Theatre and we are
booked into all six plays this season as well as their backstage tour and
garden tour. Wes is in charge of the rest of the trip, now that I’ve done the
groundwork!
Watching the
footy yesterday, I don’t feel quite so bad about Collingwood’s poor start to
the season – the Swans were beaten by a more determined Greater Western Sydney,
and Richmond were no match for the Gold Coast Suns. Already many tipsters would
have 0/3. The Sydney match was amazing in that the players had to leave the
ground at quarter time for a prolonged break as the lightning was too dangerous
for them to play. As we were watching that storm on TV, we had our own downpour
of about 15mls which was very welcome indeed.
This
morning, Bilbo and I are about to head off to pump water at Leitches Creek, buy
fruit and vegetables, a rose and some bones at the Sunday Market, before the
three of us meet up with Judi, Aileen, Glenn & possibly Gail at breakfast
at The Food Gallery. We are hoping to
get to the March in March peaceful
protest at Castlemaine after breakfast, then rest up before travelling back to
Docklands Stadium to see if Carlton can fare any better than Collingwood &
Richmond against an interstate team on the rise…this time it is Port Adelaide.
No comments:
Post a Comment