Karen Maloney's Dispatch: Daylesford Dispatch

Dear Friends, what a wonderful week we’ve had to celebrate the end of Winter and the emergence of Spring. Sadly Wes and I have spent a good portion of it glued to our desks in preparations for the Daylesford Rotary Art Show. Last year we worked really hard to turn it from a small Lions’ event, where all records were kept in exercise books, to a computer-driven larger Rotary affair. This year our committee has been hard at work taking the next steps – designing a brand for the next 5 years; forming a marketing sub-committee that has already brought in more sponsorships than last year; we have taken control of the receipting of sponsorships so that we are making sure everyone is being invoiced, receipted and thanked; we have 6 good prizes in our raffle and the tickets are being printed; I have picked up our posters and leaflets today and printed our Award Certificates, and we have designed road signs to make sure no-one is unaware of the Show during Melbourne Cup weekend.

All these things sound simple but they take time and especially as we are trying to do them properly and provide a body of computer forms for whoever takes over from us. I have bought a programme that converts PDF into Word or almost anything else, so we are able to cope with documents that have been produced on Apple computers. This is making everything much easier. Our designers and our printing company both operate Apple, but we are strictly Word and this has caused lots of stress until last week when I tested all the free online conversion programmes and decided we would pay and get the best, which was a very wise decision.

Apart from Rotary, we went to see ‘Rising Waters’ at the MTC on Monday night with Judi & Michael, and met Ian & Robyn there. Judi & Michael enjoyed it, but the rest of us were underwhelmed and feel Tim Winton should stick to writing books and leave plays to David Williamson. The next afternoon, Wes and Barbara drove in their separate cars to Vic Roads in Ballarat to enable Barbara to reclaim her number plate “HIGHHO”, which we have been minding until she had her own car again. Wes is delighted with his new number plate “YOT 522”, which translates freely into “yacht, Judd, Nicholls, Nicholls” or if I am driving,” Maxwell, Tarrant, Tarrant”.

We managed to have two games of golf, early on Monday and Tuesday mornings. I wasn’t impressed with my form after such a long break, but as is usual, when it gets to the last hole, God takes pity on you and everything falls into place. Wes got a par on the 10^th at Trentham, so he is keen to play again, and I finally hit a little further than a short walk, so I’m keen to get back into it as well. I had a lovely massage from Ann Holden, who managed to get rid of most of the aches and pains associated with 2 games of golf and a session of Strong within 24 hours.

Valerie, Dot and I played Mah Jong, but Carol was unwell with laryngitis, and missed a fun morning. We chatted for the first hour, just catching up on each other’s news, and then took it in turns to win games, which was perfect. Wes joined Valerie and me for lunch at Café 3460. That evening was the Rotary Schools Music Night, which Wes went to – I stayed at my computer designing invoices and then printing them. He was home just after 7.30pm and said it was a most successful evening with 8 local schools in attendance.

By Thursday we were in full swing producing spreadsheets galore, chasing up information, arranging for the printing of everything and collecting an EFTPOS machine. I also got a prescription filled for Carol and dropped it in as well as some lemons. Bill & Sue Longley gave us a bucket of lemons, so I distributed them to Carol, Annie and Kim, as well as keeping enough for us. They are beautiful lemons and we can smell them through the house. We rewarded ourselves with dinner at the Farmers Arms last night and spent a most enjoyable 1 ½ hours there catching up with Glenda & Joe, Christine from 65 Main, and Bruce Bavin, a recently returned Daylesfordite, who has rejoined Rotary. Dinner was stunning – I had a Thai Fish Curry, which I couldn’t fault and Wes enjoyed a rare Porterhouse. We had hoped to talk with Susanne & Claire, who own the hotel, as they are generously sponsoring the Art Show catalogue, but they were having a night off. It just means we’ll have to go back again!

Karen, Nana, Grandpa & Terry - Coburg 1952

Nicole gave me henna on Friday. We were very nervous about the colour as the Harvest Café, where I buy the henna, has changed hands and they couldn’t get the same brand as before. They have been so obliging and helpful, that I was thrilled to be able to visit in the afternoon to show them that the colour was good – it is almost burgundy, shades of early hennas many years ago.

It feels quite odd to have a whole weekend without footy. Collingwood played on Friday night in Fremantle and won easily and Carlton had a bye, so we had lots of extra time. I visited Viva on Saturday morning and she continues to improve slowly but surely. She still can’t read, but her colour is better and she is enjoying watching DVDs, Smokey the cat, and her garden – all from the comfort of her recliner chair in the lounge. I brought her a jar of O’Toole’s honey, our favourite flavour – messmate & peppermint gum and fortunately she loved it!

Lovely photo of the Lazzaros at Jessica’s Christening 2002 – L-R – Jess, Cathy, Ben, David, Helen, Ged & baby Jessica Rose

Breakfast this morning was very special – Kim produced mushroom roulade, and smoked salmon puffs, along with the usual fare. We had some amusing conversations with lots of laughs and gentle ribbing. Kim agreed to let me put up an Art Show poster, our very first, and I hope it produces some early interest from artists and visitors alike. Not sure what the rest of the day will bring – Wes is working in the garden, getting enormous help from Bilbo and Frodo – he mowed the lawn yesterday and pruned some bushes that had grown too high.

Yesterday afternoon, we had hoped to be visited by Lovely, her best friend, Cindy, and some other girls, who were spending the weekend at Villa Parma in Hepburn Springs, but they were all having massages, so we ate the delights Wes had bought to serve them, for our dinner last night. while watching various games of footy. Jane Knox had flown down with her friend, Annette, to go to the Geelong game including the President’s lunch. She wore a lovely red shirt to show her support for the Swans and was delighted when they won an historic victory at Kardinia Park, where the Cats had not been beaten for 4 years. Even the Wallabies won last night against the All Blacks to take the Tri Nations trophy for the first time in 10 years.