What a week it has
been. When I left you last Sunday, it was raining (we got about 12 mls in all)
so I went to the Sunday Market on my own as it was too wet to take Lewis &
Morse. There were 8 of us at breakfast & we enjoyed a fun morning with lots
of silly conversations & the occasional serious moment.
Wes headed off shortly
afterwards to visit his sister, Denise, who had been to Ballarat during the
week for a cataract operation & was recuperating well. Then he screened the
film Stan
& Ollie to an appreciative audience of 20. I would love to see this
film, but I wanted to watch the AFLW Grand Final more & I was so pleased I
did.
Wes arrived back home
to find me in tears as the crowd of 53,034 was announced at the Adelaide Oval.
This is the biggest Australian crowd to watch a stand-alone women’s sporting
event & the Adelaide Crows played champagne football as they dominated
Carlton. The game was played in good spirits & the injuries sustained were
all from awkward falls, not deliberate acts by the opposition. On the field
were at least three Olympians (2 with Gold medals in Rugby 7s); three
International Basketballers (& one who gave back her American scholarship
to play AFLW); a doctor; a policewoman; a Council worker who spends her week
fixing potholes; at least two 18 year-olds; two former soccer players, three
mothers and an Irishwoman whose family flew to Adelaide for the game. Every
woman has a story to tell – only the young ones are lucky enough to have been
playing footy continually since they were 4 or 5, some took it up in their
teens & twenties or thirties when they finally could.
After our walk on
Monday morning, I was feeling as though I was getting a cold and decided to
give gym a miss & go back to bed with The Age & a pot of tea. We are
both very pleased that I did get up, as I noticed a loud noise of rushing water
in the downstairs bathroom & discovered that it was flooding everywhere
with a blistered pipe connection. While Wes turned off the water & started
mopping up, I rang around to get a plumber. After I had rung every local
plumber, I put a notice up asking for Help on the Daylesford Grapevine. Within
seconds I had two helpful responses recommending Toby Hughes, who agreed to
come out & fix it, which he did quickly & efficiently when he arrived
three hours later.
Wes spent most of his
afternoon drying out his bathroom cupboards, mopping up the rest of the mess
& putting everything back. I kept the boys upstairs with me out of his way.
So much for his gardening morning & my quiet day!
Not as bad as a mud
bath – this is after a pool party (which involves getting one’s face & feet
into the large water bowl & splashing around)
Wes had a delightful Boys’
Afternoon on Tuesday, catching up with Jeff Bain, Brian Nash, David
Hall & Danny Moynihan at Danny’s place, where they watched the 1970s film The
Man Who Would be King. I am sure that Warren Pengilley would have been
in their thoughts & toasts as this was the first time they had met together
since his funeral in December.
On Wednesday, Wes helped Barbara, who had organised her
gardeners to get rid of her blackberries, which have become overgrown.
Meanwhile I caught up with Judi over pots of tea & muffins at Muffins
& More. I gave gym a miss that morning as I still had a sore throat
& was determined not to let it get the better of me.
We enjoyed a delightful family day for most of Thursday –
it started with a long walk around both sides of Lake Daylesford; followed up
with breakfast at Pancho, where I had a curried potato omelette & Wes tucked
into a veggie bowl with pumpkin etc. After that we piled the boys into the car
& drove for 45 minutes to Macedon to see their famous Avenue of Honour in
its Autumn glory. There was no-one else on the road & we were very lucky to
have gone before the school holidays started yesterday. We then drove up Mount
Macedon & took the boys to the Cross, something we have done with each of
our labs since Samuel Snugglepot back in the 80s.
Top:Wes with
Morse & Lewis under the beautiful trees; me ditto & Wes at the Cross
asking Lewis & Morse to sit for him
That night we had an
early dinner at Jackie’s on Vincent, where we were delighted to be joined for a
drink by Daylesford friends, Cathy O’Toole & Peter Widdop & later,
Rhonda Lubin, who were all meeting there for dinner as well.
On Friday, after a
walk & shopping, the boys were thrilled to help Wes in the garden until he
eventually had to spray them with the hose to keep them away from the plants.
Yesterday, we had
breakfast out again, this time at Larder, where we enjoyed yummy
meals, hot drinks & caught up with friends. Kim Lyden came in to collect
coffees for the Newsagency, and Jane Barrett (back from 6 months in far North
Queensland) was getting takeaway coffees for a drive to Melbourne with her
husband, John Webster.
Wes caught the train
from Ballan to the Docklands to meet Ben Lazzaro & his son, Jack, to watch
the Blues play the Sydney Swans.
Lovely photo of Wes with Jack
enjoying his first Cherry Ripe – a footy tradition in our family!
I had planned to take
Lewis & Morse to the local footy but decided it would be too hard on my
own, so we watched the Carlton game instead. The Blues played well but weren’t
good enough to beat the Swans.
Wes arrived back home
in time to watch a lacklustre Collingwood team totally fail to worry the West
Coast Eagles, who played well & won easily at the MCG. David Lazzaro sent
me a message to say he would like his petrol money back & I think I would
have been feeling exactly the same if I had made the trip to Melbourne.
This morning we got up
at the usual time – I hadn’t put our clocks back & the boys were ready to
go at what is now 4.45am! I had thought about changing the clocks at 5pm yesterday
and decided to wait. Collingwood’s awful performance put everything else out of
my mind, so this has been a very relaxed Sunday morning for a change. Plenty of
time to get everything done before 9am breakfast!
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