Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 12th February 2012

Dear Friends, once again, we have just returned from Café 3460, where we had a most enjoyable breakfast – there were 11 of us, so we sat in the back room and were plied with yummy food & drinks. Our friend, Norma, is staying with us, and she enjoyed meeting everyone & chatting about travel, cricket & Black Caviar. We are shortly heading off for a drive around the area, covering some of the towns that we couldn’t fit in last time she visited.

At the Regent after the 1990 Grand Final L-R Ged, Jessica, David, Ben, Jan, Danny & Jane – some of them Magpies for the day only!               

I’ve been feeling much better this week and we’ve tried to keep up serious exercise every day as it seems to be the way to managing my symptoms best. We played golf together early on Monday & Wednesday and I went out on my own on Friday, where I found myself playing 18 holes and getting my first par on Trentham Golf Course. I thought back to the days when Sherryn & I used to take quite a few strokes to get around 9 holes and I suspect my score in those days is about equal to my score for 18. Some of the exercises I do at Strong are specifically designed to help me do better at golf and it seems to be working.

1994 with Cheryl on the Rivercat on our way to the footy

Wes found a website – www.myfitnesspal.com, which allows you to enter your daily exercise & food intake in an easy fashion, so we are both using it to monitor our health & it has been most helpful. One night last week, neither of us felt like cooking, so we had a pizza, and we discovered that if we ate pizza every night we would stack on the kilos in a very short time. We also decided to try and follow FebFast, which means no alcohol, or at least, cutting down, and that has been an interesting exercise. So far, so good – but I’m counting down the days until 1^st March!

As I was feeling better, I decided to try and catch up with friends and spent a lovely morning with Cathy O’Toole, drinking tea and hearing all her news, as well as seeing the latest improvements to her Wee Cottages. The next day, I had a long leisurely lunch with Judi at Café 3460, where we caught up on each other’s news as well.

Yesterday, we picked Norma up at rainy Woodend Station and drove her back here for a 4-day stay. She has been in Melbourne since 25^th January staying with her son, Steve Butler, who is a sports writer for the West Australian, and The Age, and they were able to spare her for a few days to visit us. We discovered that visiting us meant

2002 – ‘Hill End’ by Perry Snodgrass, (now ‘Gracenotes’)

she missed out on a trip to Caulfield yesterday to see Black Caviar win her 18^th straight race, so we are very delighted that she chose us. After a long breakfast at Gracenotes Café, we came home for a rest, then Norma & I walked into town to buy her a travelling bag similar to mine, which I got from Daylesford Travel. Graham looked after her very well, gave her a local’s discount and the only fly in the ointment was when Norma tripped in the bush (we walked the back way into town) and needed treatment. Once again she was well-looked after at the pharmacy.

6 October, 1990 – Brian & Liam being Magpies for the day watching the Grand Final in Tathra

I had booked Norma in for a massage with Ann Holden at 4pm, so after Black Caviar’s race, I drove her there where Ann also gave her a locals’ discount for her wonderful massage. We decided to have an early dinner at the local Indian restaurant, and Norma, like us, was very impressed with the authenticity of the food. There were lots of locals eating early and escaping before the visitors, who had booked their tables for later in the night.

 Norma with Ian & Terry in 2009 in Perth

Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 5th February 2012

Dear Friends, once again, we have just returned from Café 3460, where we had a most enjoyable breakfast – Aileen helped Kim as Gary is recovering from a cataract operation. Kim had made the vegemite toast for Bilbo & Frodo, which I gave to them on arrival – the end of the wonderful succession of good things that happen to them on Sunday mornings. Now they are counting down the hours and minutes until dinner-time.

The weather is doing all sorts of weird and wonderful things, and any minute now the skies will open and vast quantities of rain will fall. This is wrecking the Rotary Garden Party that Meredith has organised at her new property in Bullarto. Hopefully she can transfer everything indoors as the wind is springing up as I write this and no-one will want to be outside, let alone in Garden Party finery!

I’ve had a fairly quiet week with not much energy, although I am starting to feel better today. Wes drove to Melbourne last night to see John Anderson’s oldest son, Kyahl, perform in a wonderful musical comedy, called ‘Pageant’, at Northcote Town Hall. He was most impressed with Kyahl and enjoyed the show immensely. I would love to have gone, but would not have been able to get out of bed today with the late arrival back home afterwards. That’s Kyahl as Miss Deep South doing a ventriloquist act as well.

Much to the boys’ delight, I walked them through the main street, instead of around the Lake, as it was quite dark at 5.45am when we set off. There are always lots of goodies to tidy up after Saturday night, and if that isn’t enough, there are big bones waiting for them on their return. Then we went to Coles to collect a few goodies & off to the Sunday Market for our fruit & vegetable supplies for the week. Yvonne gave them apples to eat, while they sat patiently tied up to the O’Toole’s Honey Stall. I also bought a week’s supply of dog bones from Geoff the dog treat man, and 8 yellow carpet roses from Ken at Spring Mount Nursery. Wes doesn’t need 8, but Ken offered me the lot for $50 and I couldn’t resist!

Wes has been busy with Rotary activities; Hepburn Voices; Barbara; the Family Trees, and Family History. Yesterday we did the early shift on the Farmers’ Market, where the big problem was that no-one’s key would open the Rotary Shed, which is where the tent, tables & chairs, and shopping bags are all kept on a trailer ready to be towed when needed. Eventually Gordon’s key did the trick and we got our act together by about 8.45am. We were all a bit flustered and managed to put up the Rotary tent with the signage in the wrong position! Afterwards, Wes and I had breakfast at Gracenotes Café, something we both enjoy. Barbara & Gillie were there as well, so we joined them and had a great chat with Gillie about libraries and their future.

We had been invited to the opening of an Art Exhibition at The Raglan the night before and hadn’t been able to attend, so we went in to have a look and were quite delighted with the beautiful work by two local artists who travelled to Hong Kong and came back with their impressions. I meant to tell Michael about it at breakfast, but got into a good conversation with Judi and forgot!

We had also been invited to celebrate Dot’s 70^th birthday yesterday afternoon, but we were committed to helping set up for the Garden Party, so popped in with some flowers & a card on Friday instead. We also visited Gillie on Friday as I had spotted the perfect retirement present for her in the Sunday Age – a British Bulldog, and it was available through the sister shop of one of our long-standing and beautiful shops, Ex Libris. Gillie is delighted and her bulldog is already on guard.

Apart from watching the cricket and catching up on episodes of ‘Midsummer Murders’ that I haven’t already seen, I have been reading the Sjowal & Wahloo series of Martin Beck books set in the late 60s & 70s in Sweden. They are so good – I really recommend them – you get a great idea of what life was really like for the ordinary people, plus an amazing insight into police procedure and thinking at that time.

On Thursday, Carol & Valerie & I met at Café 3460 for our first game of Mah Jong for the year. It was lovely to be together for a couple of hours, catching up on news & playing a few games. Our friend, Jane, has been back at work.but finding it difficult to concentrate for long periods. She is the opposite to me – no good in the mornings, but OK at night, so we aren’t often on the same wavelength. Her husband, David, and I are enjoying WWF – he is an excellent player with a good vocabulary. I am playing a game with Carol at present, and getting all the breaks, which isn’t fair. She is dying to gazump me with a 7-letter word.          

            

Hong Kong 1984 Wes, Jan, Viva & Karen