Dear Friends, when I left you last week, we were heading off
to breakfast where we enjoyed a good 75 minutes of interesting conversations,
with Margot leading the way for a change. It was so cold that Bilbo had to wear
his coat and he seemed very happy indeed. Pasquale & Toni were expecting
about 30 people upstairs at 11am, but they resisted asking us to hurry up,
which we really appreciated and made sure we were out by 10.15am.
Sunday was wild and woolly weather with the wind blowing in
from every direction and leaves going everywhere. I had been keen to see ‘Shaun
the Sheep’ the film, and Wes decided to come with me. We joined quite a few
others retreating from the weather and thought it was a very clever and
entertaining film.
The next morning Wes & Bilbo braved the elements and
walked early. It was too cold at 7.30am to walk to gym, but the weather had
improved by the time I left to come back home. It had been ages since I had
spoken with my sister, Paun, and was lucky enough to catch her for a chat later
in the morning as Cliff Place Café was closed for the day after being open
every day for the school holidays. She sounded very chirpy and updated me on
her three sons, Liam, Warwick & Rohan.
That afternoon I had my flu injection, which was painless
and didn’t involve any immediate side effects. It is quite fun to sit in the
waiting room, which is full of friends, most of them waiting for 15 minutes to
elapse so they can go home again. I met up with Ian & Trish Tinetti, John
& Yvonne from the Sunday Market, Jeff Pedretti, who used to run the
Daylesford Gym, and Una with whom I had done Barry’s class that morning. The
talk was mostly about Collingwood and the ANZAC Day match against Essendon.
On Tuesday, it was my turn to walk Bilbo, which I did at
8am, when the weather was kinder. We walked up around Cornish Hill, around the
Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens and back home via the main streets. Wes was showing
‘What We Did on our Holidays’ with a star-studded cast, so I joined him at the
cinema for the 10am session. It was a lovely film, and we are both pleased to
have seen it. There were only 7 of us in the audience as the 10am Tuesday
session time is shown as being for ‘Mums & Bubs’. So far, there haven’t
been any of them in spite of heavy advertising and a wide range of films. With
a bit of luck the committee will decide to stop advertising the crybaby session,
as lots of us retired people are very happy to see a film at that time. It
would also be good for people working in hospitality, who are usually employed
during lunchtime, the late afternoon & evenings.
Late that afternoon Wes told me that all colour had drained
from my face and that I should go to bed at once, which I did. I ended up
having a 48-hour reaction to the injection and am very lucky that I can just go
to bed and let it make its way through as quickly as possible. Wes looked after
me with food and drink and Bilbo did the rest.
On Thursday I was feeling better, but still coughing and
sore, so got up, did some shopping, collected the mail etc and came home
exhausted. The rest of the day was spent doing very little indeed as I was
determined to feel well enough for the ANZAC service followed by the footy on
Saturday. The highlight of the day was the news from Marilyn Preston that Sarah
& Heath have a second beautiful daughter, Ruby India, born safe and sound.
Robert &
Marilyn with newly born Ruby Preston
Bilbo and I did the Bush walk on Friday morning and Josie
took us from the Glenlyon General Store to the Reserve with morning tea by the
mineral water spring. It was a lovely walk with lots of beautiful oak trees
still in full colour. Meanwhile Wes had been very busy at home with Brian the
electrician coming to check out all our wiring etc to see why our dishwasher
keeps playing up. He concluded it is an earthing problem, which can be repaired
by Barclays next Wednesday afternoon. Nick Massaro also came to repair two
holes in our bedroom wall, which we thought were caused by possums, but turn
out to be the work of rats!!!!
In the middle of all this activity, Wes heard from his
cousin, Mandy, that her mother, Joan Testro, was not expected to live much
longer, and she wanted him to be prepared for the phone call when it arrived.
As well, he read on Facebook that an old friend and client, John De Simone,
father of Joe, had died peacefully on Wednesday.
Wes cooked a yummy version of his fish pie with pumpkin and
invited Nick to share it with us, which he did. There were lots to talk about
with the ANZAC commemoration at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Before he left,
Nick filed the underneath of our front door to stop it sticking and now we keep
slamming the door as we forget how easy it is to open and shut!
Dawn service
yesterday morning at Daylesford
We decided not to go to this service as it was raining and
went to the 9am informal service at Eganstown, which we like to do together.
Wes laid a wreath on behalf of Catherine King MP, the RSL Treasurer, Ken
Dowling, spoke well and reminded us all of the Turkish losses and of the
generosity of Ataturk after the war. I congratulated him later and told him how
meaningful his speech had been to us as we had been to ANZAC Cove and seen the
tributes to the fallen by the Turks. The highlight was the unaccompanied
singing by local, Sallie Harvey, of the haunting anti-war song, ‘And the Band
Played Waltzing Matilda’ by Eric Bogle.
I set off after this for Melbourne and the footy, while Wes
went back to Vincent Street Daylesford for the ANZAC Day Parade and final
service of the day, where he met with Barbara who likes to join the march
wearing her grandfather’s medals. He said there was a big turnout and that
Sallie Harvey sang again – unaccompanied and to total silence and appreciation.
When Wes got back home, he was able to see the Blues have their first win for
the season against the hapless Saints in New Zealand.
Meanwhile I had booked a car park, which was a blessing as
the parks were all full, and I arrived at the ground in plenty of time to get a
good seat on the Balcony in the MCC Pavilion with a perfect view of the game
and under cover until the last quarter when the rain slanted sideways. Amazingly,
the weather didn’t deter too many souls and there were nearly 89,000 of us at
this 21st meeting of Collingwood & Essendon on ANZAC Day. And
yes, I’ve been to every single one of them, which is such a privilege and
thrill. We were well entertained by service & civilian bands until the
ceremonies commenced. It is always breath taking to be at a crowded MCG during
the minute’s silence, which is followed soon after by clapping and cheering
loud enough to raise the roof. The Pies won the arm wrestle by 3 goals, but the
game was always in doubt until the 20-minute mark of the last quarter.
Back home Wes was sitting happily in front of the fire
looking mellow and relaxed. He and Bilbo had enjoyed a quiet afternoon together
without the stresses of driving to and from Melbourne in pouring rain. There is
no further news on Joan Testro as I write this – she is surrounded by her three
loving daughters and sleeping peacefully in between sips of French champagne –
what a woman!
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