Daylesford Winter Dispatch - Sunday, 28th August 2016

Dear Friends, once again we enjoyed a stimulating and interesting breakfast last Sunday. Even though Wes and I were tired after 5 hours sleep the night before, we managed to get going and I visited the Sunday Market with Bilbo in the rain & fog. Janine suggested the Amish were moving into Musk, so we developed quite a conversational thread around that. Later Glenn Mack appeared and we caught up on his story of buying his replacement VW after his previous one was a write-off in strong wind & rain in NSW.

Wes hadn’t expected to watch all of the Carlton vs Melbourne game on TV, but when the Blues came out fighting and led all afternoon, he was very pleased indeed.

Great photo of the Murrins wearing the matching Carlton pyjama bottoms we gave them – a cold night in Balmain forced them to don warm sleepwear!

Monday it was Brigadoon again as I headed off to Melbourne to visit Leanne and help her with her laptop. Of course the fog disappeared after Woodend and it was a lovely day in Strathmore, until the rain bucketed down when it was time for me to come back home.

Wes’s Godson, Danny Wells, was driving here from the Blue Mountains, which worried us enormously as it is such a long drive, especially on your own. He finally arrived around 7.30pm after a huge, tiring trip with the frustration at the end of not being able to find our little piece of Duke Street. Fortunately, he rang Wes and was given very clear directions.

We let Danny sleep in on Tuesday morning and Wes headed off to the Daylesford Cinema at 9am to prepare to show the film, ‘Love & Friendship’, based on a Jane Austen book ‘Lady Susan’. When I left to see the film there was still no sign of Danny, so I left him keys, instructions & our phone numbers. There were quite a few of us at the 10am session and nearly everyone enjoyed this brilliantly-written Irish-English-Danish production. Wes and I were worried as neither of us had heard from Danny, so we came back home as soon as Wes could get away to find him newly emerging from the shower.

We took him to the Glenlyon General Store for lunch, where we enjoyed catching up on his news, as it is three years since he was last here, and at that time he was about to start building his own home in Caboolture, Qld. The house is finished & he seems very happy with it.

After lunch, we drove to Kyneton to see the daffodils and came back via Tylden & Trentham. We had discovered at lunch that Danny didn’t have a Tom Tom, but was relying on his phone & maps to get around, so we stopped at Bi-Rite in Daylesford to see if they had any, but they no longer have them in stock, although they can order them in. We dropped Danny at the top of Howe Street so that he could do a walk around and check out the shops. We came home and had a quiet hour or so reading the Age.

Wes and Danny cooked pasta with smoked salmon, fennel & chillies for dinner and it was very yummy indeed.

On Wednesday Wes asked Danny to help him in our garden and then across the road, while Sandra was cleaning the house. I went off for a fringe trim and walked to the Mill Markets afterwards to meet them. I was early so had a cuppa and saw them arrive with Barbara as well. Danny was looking for a gift for his father, Deane, as well as something for himself, but couldn’t find anything suitable. I think Barbara was the only one who bought an item. I discovered too late that my new mobile didn’t have my Book Inventory on it, so I couldn’t check if any of the books I saw were already in our library. After a rather indifferent early lunch at the café there, we returned home for a rest before Wes took Danny to play some practice shots at Trentham Golf Course.

That night they cooked chicken drumsticks with rice & vegetables, while I enjoyed leftovers from the night before. Wes and I were aghast at the news that North Melbourne had decided to cut their 4 oldest players at the end of this year and that it was announced via a press release. After the joyful celebrations of the end of Dane Swan’s & Matthew Pavlich’s career, this seemed very heartless indeed, especially as Boomer Harvey is rated 22^nd best player in the AFL this year.

On Thursday, we set off in convoy for Melbourne – Danny to meet up with a friend for lunch in South Melbourne and continue to Parkdale for the next stage in his holiday, staying with a friend of his aunt, Marguerite; us to the MCC for the annual Bradman lunch, an event we really enjoy.

There were over 500 at the lunch and we were on Table 4 in the very front row with an interesting table of blokes. Our old friend, Brendan Kierce, was there with a table of mates and it was lovely to see him and exchange a few words. Gerard Whateley did his usual superb job as compere; Greta Bradman was a guest and enjoyed watching another young soprano, Hanna, sing beautifully, and the Guest Speaker was Doug Walters, who didn’t disappoint. You could never describe Doug as a great speaker, but he has some wonderful stories to tell and he told them well.

The view from our table looking towards the back of the Members Dining Room

We arrived back home and were in bed fairly early as we were tired from all our activities.

The next morning Wes took Bilbo for an early morning walk, before heading to Ballan Station to catch the 9.37am to Southern Cross Station. Judi was also going into Melbourne, so Wes drove her there and they were both lucky enough to get seats on that busy train.

Wes had been the main organiser of a St Bernard’s School reunion, which was held at The Yorkshire Stingo Hotel in Collingwood. When he left home he was expecting 13-15 to attend, but there were 20 in all and it was a very successful get-together, as lunch lasted for 7 hours!

Meanwhile I took Bilbo out to pump water at Leitches Creek, and pick lemons from Bill & Sue’s tree. On my return, I sat at my computer desk to see if technical help could solve the issues I was experiencing. I had neglected to turn my computer off and a power surge took care of it and managed to corrupt a few files. Apart from sitting at the computer while experts took remote control of things, I did seven loads of washing, bolted down a quick salad at lunchtime, ironed in front of the computer screen, and finally at 8pm begged to be allowed to have dinner and go to bed!

When I woke yesterday morning, everything had been restored and was working perfectly except for Reckon, which is our accounting software app. Another tech sorted it out, but Reckon decided I was trying to download two programmes from the one licence and wouldn’t let me in. Fingers crossed this last hurdle will be crossed shortly.

Wes had a sleep in and I walked Bilbo around the Lake, which we both enjoyed very much. We met up with Di & Jeff, who were walking their two dogs. Back home I spent the rest of the morning listening to the Coodabeens and catching up on everything that I had hoped to do the day before.

In the afternoon we lit the fire and settled down to watch Carlton play Essendon. As nearly every Essendon supporter we know was going to this game, Wes was hoping madly that the Blues would put on a good show, but the Dons reacted to the huge show of support and blew them away instead, which was very disappointing for the Carlton supporters.

Three generations of Tyrrells at the MCG – Paul, his son, Oscar & daughter, Macy, & Tom

This morning Bilbo and I will go off to the Sunday Market soon and then meet friends for breakfast at the Food Gallery. This afternoon we are off to see Collingwood’s last game for the year, when we play Hawthorn. I am not optimistic as we haven’t beaten the Hawks since the Preliminary Final in 2011, a defeat my Hawthorn friends still haven’t forgiven me for as we lost the Grand Final to Geelong & they are sure they would have won!

Happy Birthday to my aunt, Jeff, in Lincolnshire – hope the weather is kind and you enjoy a very happy day. Safe travels to the Murrins who are winging their way home to London after three action-packed weeks in Oz.

This will be my last Winter Dispatch as Spring finally arrives this Thursday. We are enjoying the profusion of daffodils in our garden, as well as those hyacinths the rosellas leave alone. The mornings & nights are still cool, but afternoons are warming up and we look forward to getting back to the garden and painting – two activities that have been curtailed by this very wet Winter.