After
breakfast, we brought Bilbo home, changed clothes and headed off to Torquay for
lunch with old friends, Marilyn & Robert Preston. You may remember that on
their recent trip to Scotland, they were kind enough to find St Columba’s
Island on the Isle of Skye and look for Viva’s scarf that we had tied around a
tree two years ago. They found the tree, using our photos, but not the scarf,
which wasn’t strong enough to survive two Winters. They also climbed Ben
Vrackie, and cursed us every step of the way!
We
had a lovely lunch. Marilyn had made soup followed by lasagne & salad and
we did enjoy sitting around the table swapping Scottish stories and catching up
on other news. We discovered that we knew at least 3 of the blokes that Bobby
played golf with on a tour of Ireland, before Marilyn joined him in Scotland.
Meanwhile,
the Murrins were in Wollongong catching up with Peter & Anka, before driving
to Sydney, where they spent the next few days doing all the things you do in
that beautiful city, before heading off to Palm Cove for a relaxing few days
and then home to London.
On
Monday we set off for Melbourne early – me to visit Leanne & take her to an
appointment, and Wes to travel on to Surrey Hills to attend Colin Simpson’s
funeral. Col was a friend from Brunswick Rotary days and there were a few of
them in attendance – Joe de Simone, Barry Cross, Kevin Dale & Ted Bailey
& Wes enjoyed catching up with them.
The
next morning, while Wes was showing the latest Ghostbusters film to a small but
appreciative audience, I drove to Ballarat to see my podiatrist, Victoria
Armstrong. One of the ongoing effects of chronic fatigue has been the emergence
of a wart virus, which is flourishing, particularly on my right foot. I had
seen Andrew Lowe, who offered to operate to remove them, but with no guarantees
that they wouldn’t return. I originally booked an operation for October, but
have now cancelled, as I don’t think the pain & discomfort are worth it,
and every health professional I have seen assures me the virus will return.
Victoria tidied up my feet, found a suitable cream and has referred me to a
naturopath in the hope that she may be able to help.
On
a lighter note, we saw a wonderful video on Facebook showing a golden retriever
being vacuumed and loving every minute of it, so I sent it to Sandra, our
cleaner, and her partner, Darren, and they both agreed she should try it on
Bilbo.
I’m
not sure where this week has gone to – there seems to have been lots of home
duties, as well as reading, catching up on TV shows that we missed the previous
week, planning for next week’s visitor, Danny Wells, and on a beautiful sunny
day, going out for breakfast at the Glenlyon General Store. We have been
meaning to go back there for ages and we were so pleased we did. Not only did
we enjoy yummy breakfasts – Wes had crumpets with avocado and I had smoked
salmon with parsnip cakes, but we also met up with Theo, (partner of Geof, who
died last year) and Carol Presser, who used to live & work here, but now
lives in Melbourne.
Then
disaster struck – I had been experiencing problems with Windows 10, so we
decided to upgrade our system to Office 365 2016. This downloaded beautifully
on my computer & the laptop, but caused all sorts of issues on Wes’s
computer and he was unable to access his programmes & Outlook. We spent
most of the day trying to solve the issue. And finally, it was done after lots
of patient uninstalling & backing up to make sure that he didn’t lose
anything.
We
woke to Brigadoon and a very cold morning yesterday. Wes and Bilbo did their
walk early, while I did the Age crossword. We are both trying to learn all the
tricks of Office 365, so spent much of the day in front of our computers again.
It was too wet to go into the garden.
Last
night we drove to Matteo’s in Brunswick Street, North Fitzroy, for Ian Robinson’s
70th birthday dinner. We were very honoured to be part of a group of
about 30 friends there and enjoyed a very yummy meal complemented by excellent
wines from Ian & Robyn’s cellar. We were seated at a table for 6, which
included Michael & his new wife, Adele. We had met Michael some years ago,
when he and his then wife, Sue, were thinking of using Fasham Johnson to build
them a home in Trentham. The Robinsons suggested they drop in on us, which they
did, and after seeing our house, they went ahead with their plans for Trentham.
Sadly, Sue died about 2½ years ago, but Michael has found love again with
Adele, who he had known through a local dog-walking group.
We
drove home through fog and rain from Woodend onwards and when we woke this
morning, it is exactly the same weather and we can’t see beyond our back fence!
Needless to say, this will be a quiet day after the Market & Breakfast are
over!!!
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