Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 25th September 2011

Dear Friends, as you can imagine, I am rather excited with Collingwood making it into the Grand Final for the second year running. The match on Friday night was an incredible game, so fast and furious, but fortunately low-scoring which enabled us to snatch a win right at the end after Buddy Franklin kicked a goal that deserved to be the match-winner. David, Danny & I were all over the moon, as were Greta and Lauren, who were also at the game but in a different stand.

We had enjoyed a meal together at ‘The Carringbush’ before the game, in a vain attempt to settle pre-match nerves. Danny parked at his work, then we walked to the ground, which is always fun as you see supporters who are even more nervous than you are. We had great seats on the wing again with a perfect view and the weather was kind. The atmosphere was electric, with a loud buzz of noise throughout the game. We three had just about decided we couldn’t win, when suddenly our players found an extra yard and Hawthorn’s players started to tire and get caught in tackles. When we got back to Danny’s he opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate one of the great games of footy this year.

Yesterday morning before I drove back to Daylesford, we had breakfast in Northcote with Greta, then Lauren, Travis & Myles came to visit, which was lovely. I had hoped to visit Viva on my way home, but I still have a head cold and she preferred I didn’t visit in case I gave it to her.

Lovely photo of Viva taken in 95 at Leanne’s graduation

This morning we’ve enjoyed another lovely breakfast at Café 3460, where Kim spoiled us with a wonderful array of goodies yet again, even though there were only 6 of us. Judi, Michael and Glenn are off to see the play, ‘The History Boys’ at the Williamstown Little Theatre this afternoon and Wes is going to do some more painting of Art Show screens at the Rotary Shed. I had hoped to go, but I don’t think paint fumes and head cold mix very well together.

Wes had an exciting lunch on Friday – a lady from Maldon had been in touch to say she and he were related and she wanted to get together, so her invited her and her daughter to lunch as well as his sister, Denise, and his cousin, Glenn. Sadly neither Glenn nor the daughter was able to come at the last minute, so he invited Barbara over to share in the lunch and enjoy the conversation. I had an appointment in Ballarat which prevented me from being there and then I drove straight to Melbourne that afternoon. Wes has given Dee about 1,200 photos and she has given him access to 20 years of work on her family tree.

We’ve had a busy week yet again with the Rotary Art Show, as well as having dinner with John & Jan Smith at Mercato on Monday night. They needed to talk through some things that have been happening in their lives and this was the perfect place to do it. Wes had to take the Brian Nash painting to Ballarat for repair as the frame had been damaged when the painting was on display in Vincent Street during the week. He was able to arrange for it to be repaired very quickly and it is back in our guest room.

Dot’s mother, Cath, died on Tuesday morning. Dot is relieved that her mother is no longer suffering but she is going to miss her dreadfully. She and John popped in during Mah Jong to chat with Carol, Valerie and I and to arrange for Kim to cater for the wake on Friday lunchtime. I was sorry to miss the funeral service, but couldn’t easily change my appointment.

On the Wednesday night, Rotary celebrated its 58^th birthday and about 8 former members turned up, which was wonderful. We had a good meeting, which was addressed by Denise Longmire, the first female member of Daylesford Rotary and its first female President. John Savage, a former President, who has been ravaged by a stroke in recent months, also attended much to everyone’s delight as he was a very popular Rotarian.

Typical Rotary Meeting

Wes and I were fortunate to have a visit from Petrus Spronk on Thursday morning. He is a world-renowned sculptor and ceramicist and we are lucky to have him living in our community. Wes would like him to agree to be celebrated at our Art Show, but he is a very modest man and may not like it. He showed us a wonderful DVD of his work in the forest, which he had prepared for the U3A ‘Blooming Art’ opening party at the Convent, which was also on Friday night. We were blown away and I hope the 120 guests who saw it were amazed as well. ‘Blooming Art’ another successful U3A event under Judi’s leadership involved floral arrangements complementing art, both at the Convent and in shop windows.

After his visit I went to Café 3460 for a casual lunch with Judi and then onto Hepburn House, where Graeme Boscoe was hosting his ‘Difficult Crime Writers’ class. We had an interesting and spirited discussion as usual and have another class to look forward to next Term.

So tomorrow we head off to Melbourne for the week with a few lovely activities planned including the Coodabeen Champions Brownlow Night at the MCC with Mate; the launch of the MTC 2012 Season of plays; breakfast with Squiz; lunch with Lovely, Malcolm, Ron & Margo; the footy on Saturday and finally Joan Testro’s birthday party on Sunday afternoon on our way back home. Enjoy your week and I’ll be back in touch in a fortnight or so.

vs 

May the better team win!

Daylesford Dispatch - Monday, 16th May, 2011

Leon Anderson looking very sweet aged 4 & Ben Lazzaro looking bemused aged 11

Dear Friends, Wes has been having so much fun posting old photos on Facebook and the reactions have been very interesting. His nephew, Leon, for example, likes this photo so much he has made it his profile on Facebook; however Ben Lazzaro has been in touch with his solicitor after Wes posted the photo of him above.

We have been very busy so I apologise for the delay in sending this week’s Dispatch to you. After our enjoyable weekend with Ron & Margo, we caught up on chores and sleep and everything else that we needed to do. Judi & Michael were away in Noosa for the week, so I collected their mail and checked their home every 2 days, as well as checking John & Jan’s cottage and bringing in their bin, as they were in Melbourne for the week. In between, I spent time with Sheila Hollingworth, while Wes took Barbara’s cat, Ascot, to the vet, as she had suffered renal failure and had to be put to sleep. We had planned to go to the Carlton vs St Kilda game on the Monday night, but cancelled that so that Wes could spend time with Barbara in the afternoon instead. Jan Smith kindly visited her as well and I sent over some minestrone soup in case she couldn’t be bothered cooking. I spent the afternoon in Ballarat collecting new orthotics, getting lost, buying dog bones (eventually) and trying the Coles Supermarket to see if it had a larger range than the one here – it hasn’t or at least not for the things we buy.

On Tuesday after Strong, Wes and I played golf in the frost at Trentham and hit just enough good shots to think we would come back again. In the afternoon Wes took Barbara to Ballarat for an orthotics appointment and for various other chores that needed doing. I had set myself a mission of finding the Collected Poetry of Wilfred Owen to give to Wes as he had been so moved by it during the play he saw 10 days ago. So I tracked down a book locally, but had to wait 24 hours to collect it and give it to him and he was delighted.

The next day, Wes spent on the computer while I played Mah Jong with the usual crew and we shared out the games, then had a manicure with Michelle at her home, and raced back here to get ready for a busy afternoon/evening. It was Peter Widdop’s birthday and we had been invited to share drinks with him and Cathy and a few friends before we went to Rotary and they went to dinner. That was lovely as always, and more than made up for the appalling Rotary Meeting, where we went back to the 70s with butcher’s paper and textas as we discussed the best ways to mentor new Rotary members, now called ‘mentees’, a word not in my dictionary!

On Thursday Wes invited me to have lunch with him at Annie Smithers Bistrot in Kyneton and we set off on a cold, wet day to enjoy a stunning meal together. Wes enjoyed a perfect piece of pork to match my perfectly cooked fish. We can’t resist Annie’s rose pavlova (she told our waiter that she created it for my 30^th birthday – more like 50^th but it was a kind thing to say) and finished our meal with a piece of Roquefort, accompanied by a thick Spanish sherry, which was to die for. We have bought a bottle of the sherry and allowed our Saturday night guests to partake of this pleasure.

Needless to say we didn’t need dinner, but we watched our second Mike Leigh film in a week instead. We can’t recommend him and them more highly – ‘Meantime’ which was fabulous – contrasting 2 families in Maggie Thatcher’s London and their struggles to stay afloat. The second film, “Career Girls” is fantastic as well & as Wes wrote on Facebook - if you experienced inadequate self or inadequate friends or inadequate awareness when stumbling through the 16-21 years, you will relate to this. And of course because it is a Mike Leigh film all the actors just act their socks off.”

The next day we set off in the early afternoon for Melbourne. I had heard that the MCG car park would be completely closed for the Collingwood & Geelong game that night, so we decided to drive in and see a film before the footy. We were so pleased we did, got a great park at the Tennis Centre, and went to the Kino where we saw “Incendies”, which we had won free tickets to and been unable to go. Kathy & Ged (who used our tickets) had highly recommended the film and we haven’t stopped talking and thinking about it since. This was Wes’s comment on Facebook – “We saw this amazing film yesterday. It challenges so much about the Middle East, our comfort zones, families, and sibling relationships. It is so good that films like this are made.”

David Lazzaro met us at the bar before the match and I discovered he was as nervous about the game as I was. It was a good, close match and the Cats deserved to win – they could have blown us away in the first quarter if they had kicked straight! We got out of the car park easily in spite of the 81,000+ crowd and were home and in bed just before midnight.

On Saturday we spent the morning cooking and preparing for our dinner party that night. Our friends, Mike Hill and Lorna Pitt go back to Brunswick Council and ALP days and it is always lovely to catch up with them. Wes gets a good fill of current politics from Mike and Lorna and they are easy guests. We took them to Café 3460 for lunch when they arrived, then watched the Melbourne vs North game on TV as Mike is a passionate Demons fan. He was most disappointed when the Dees gave away a good lead and let North cruise to an easy victory.

Mike Hill as Mayor of Brunswick with Rotary Kids in Poverty Project 1996

We had invited Jenny & Eddie Beacham, Candy Broad & Hal Swerissen & Sheila Hollingworth to join us at dinner, which was a Sri Lankan fish curry served with rice and an old favourite African beef stew served with mashed potatoes. We followed that with bread and butter pudding and trifle, then a cheese platter courtesy of Eddie and Jenny, and chocolates which had been brought by Candy, Hall and Sheila. Needless to say we got through countless bottles of beautiful red, white, sparkling and soft drinks and got to bed around midnight, after some fascinating political discussions.

Wes very kindly walked the boys early for me yesterday while I hand-washed all the crystal glasses and put endless loads through the dishwasher. I took the boys to Leitches Creek to pump water, collected fruit and vegetables & dog bones at the Sunday Market and completed the kitchen clean up just as Mike and Lorna emerged in time for breakfast. Kim and Gary had excelled themselves again and we enjoyed a spirited and entertaining 90 minutes where we welcomed back Judi & Michael and received lovely gifts from them, and attempted to stop Gail hogging the limelight!

Mike and Lorna went to visit Lorna’s brother, John, who lives at the Old Macaroni Factory with Maria Viola, and then we took them to see the Wind Farm at Leonard’s Hill before driving to Clunes to participate in the last few hours of Booktown. We were so pleased we got there and met up with Tim Hayes, Tess Brady and Graeme Johnstone, the hard-working trio that has made this annual weekend celebration such a success. The wonderful thing for both of us was that they still remember that it was Warren’s idea and that he pushed them hard to get it going and didn’t stop thanking him. We were in time to shake hands with Bob Hawke, who was a powerful drawcard, and he looked in fine form – blue eyes sparkling and cravat casually knotted around his neck – Blanche has done wonders for his dress sense.

We also spent time with Chris Maldon and Wayne Cross who have taken over the National Hotel in the main street and, with their usual flair, are making it the place to be. We shared a bottle of Passing Clouds Shiraz with Mike and Lorna and left them eating a pizza before driving home. We got home in time to feed the boys before they got too frantic and collapsed into bed after polishing off some leftovers.

Today Wes enjoyed having Judi’s company on his early walk and the boys were pleased to have seen Maddy & Major after their break at Eureka Kennels. Wes and I played golf and each knocked 9 strokes off our previous scores. Once again we hit enough good shots to make us come back – perhaps tomorrow morning.

Shortly we are collecting Hanna Laundl, who has been in Daylesford this weekend with her daughter, Rebecca, and two friends, all from Sydney. We are driving her to the Arts Centre, where a Melbourne friend will collect her. We are going to see the Eugene von Guerard exhibition at the National Gallery before going to the MTC play “Next to Normal” and hope to get home by 10.30pm, which is much better than midnight!

Viva with Karen – what an intelligent looking baby she was!

Karen with Toby Jug 22 years later – what an intelligent looking puppy he was!

Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 18th September 2011

Dear Friends,

It is a glorious day here in Daylesford, almost too hot for me, Bilbo and Frodo, as we seek out cool spots. I have closed all the day blinds downstairs but I can still see daffodils, wattles and yellow daisies, as well as Marjorie’s pink camellia, which is having a second flowering and is nearly touching the ground with the weight of its beautiful flowers. Wes mowed and weeded yesterday, so it all looks most attractive.

Among the many emails of support I received last week was a very helpful message from Caroline Storm who used to live opposite us at 75 Duke Street. She suggested I contact the Chronic Fatigue Association in Melbourne, which I have done and they have been most useful. We have put a new regime in place and the only hiccup has been an unwanted head cold, which has kept me in bed in the hope that it won’t turn into a chest cold. So far, so good.

< Gerard Lazzaro & Tom Tyrrell with Becky Christmas 1975 at Scott Street, Essendon

Last night Wes invited Barbara over to watch the game with him. It was an absolute stunner with so much pressure applied by both Carlton and West Coast. I suspect that the home ground advantage was the main difference between them and got the Weagles over the line, albeit by 3 points. Wes is very disappointed – he had expected to lose, but not after getting so close and having so many chances. When has Marc Murphy missed three easy shots for goal in a game before? When has Chris Judd put in such a shocker? Losing Bret Thornton early wasn’t helpful either. After the Blues had steamrolled Essendon last Sunday, we suspected it wouldn’t be easy.

I’ve been glued to the Davis Cup tennis while I’ve been in bed – can’t believe how well both Tomic & Hewitt have played. I suspect they have both benefitted from Pat Rafter’s input. As well there has been the 3^rd Test in Colombo which has featured another good innings by Shaun Marsh. I even had an occasional look at Australia being humiliated by Ireland last night in the Rugby Union World Cup.

Robert Preston’s mother, Roma, died last Sunday, and we were able to get out of a couple of Rotary commitments to go to the funeral, which was held at Joseph Allison in Essendon. Bobby gave his 4^th eulogy and his 5^th keynote speech (as far as we know) in just over a year and he saved the best for last. He really brought Roma to life, with some cameos of his father, Big Al, who died back in 1978. We were so pleased we went as it was a very small funeral, and both Heath and Callum are overseas and were unable to get back to support their parents.

We have decided to support our Rotary Art Show sponsors as much as we can, and are encouraging other Rotarians to do the same – so we have had lunch at both Gracenotes Café and the Farmers Arms this week. Our President, Jim Swatman, made an appointment with us to catch up on what had been happening while he has been unwell and recuperating and undertook to get some more sponsorships and to help with raffle ticket sales in Vincent Street. I don’t know yet how well our sellers went, but they put in two big days on Friday and Saturday. We gave them Brian’s painting so everyone could see what they might win.

Before I fell ill, I managed to go to Strong Classes, play Mah Jong with Carol & Valerie, have a well overdue manicure and pedicure with Michelle, and help Wes get a database and then send out invitations to Daylesford Rotary’s 58^th birthday, which occurs this Wednesday. It isn’t a special day, but it gives us a chance to get a database of our Past Members, so that we will be ready for 60^th Birthday Celebrations in 2013.

We hosted an excellent Arts Show committee meeting, where everyone is really putting in. Wes is with some of them this afternoon at the Rotary Shed in Victoria Park, where we are planning on spray painting our old and new screens in preparation for the Show next month. We’ll have to start meeting weekly soon as there is still lots of Admin to get done, but Wes and I are hoping to get as up to date as we can during this coming week, as we will be spending Grand Final week in Melbourne at the Stamford Plaza.

Our thoughts are with David and Jane Knox on hearing that David’s mother died yesterday, hours after seeing all her family. Also with John & Jan, who have a family crisis to deal with. Gillie is coming home on Tuesday and it will be lovely to see her again and to help in whatever way we can to smooth her path. I hope to be in touch with you next Sunday and to be excited as the Pies have beaten the Hawks and are in the Grand Final – we can only cross our fingers and hope for the best, although the Murrays will be praying that my wishes don’t come true.

Top - Karen & Squiz at Trafalgar Square in 1975 &

below - Little Bobby Preston in favourite pose in 1985

Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 11th September 2011

Dear Friends,

Winter doesn’t seem to have left us yet as we have had some very cold days this week, minus temperatures in the mornings and snow in Bullarto, but only sleet here. First of all, I want to give you an update on my health. We have both been worried by my uncharacteristic lethargy, so three months ago I underwent a series of blood tests to see what was wrong. They produced only normal results, so our GP, Greg, suggested I visit Anthony Kemp in Ballarat on the grounds that ‘if there is anything wrong, he’ll find it’.

I had to wait a while for an appointment, but saw him about three weeks ago. He suspected ‘adrenalin fatigue’ and ordered a synacthen test, which I took at St John of God in their emergency department under close supervision. The nurse took a blood sample, then I was injected with adrenalin, then 2 more blood samples were taken after 30 minutes and 1 hour. I failed this test, so Wes and I went back to see Anthony Kemp and he explained that I could be treated with tablets for the rest of my life to solve this issue. However, he wasn’t happy with my very poor readings, and asked me to take the test again, this time at the Ballarat Base Hospital. We went to their ‘Transit Lounge’ last Wednesday to have the tests all over again and this time I passed - which means I don’t have an adrenalin issue, but I do have chronic fatigue syndrome, which recurs every time I get a bad virus. There is no cure, except rest. He is going to check my sleep patterns as well in case they can be improved.

We are both relieved to know finally what the problem is, although it is frustrating not to be able to wave a magic wand and treat it. So I will continue to manage my activities carefully and hope you will be as understanding as you have been in the past, when I have been unable to attend social occasions & Rotary meetings, been too tired to chat on the phone in the afternoons, and haven’t been able to enter into life with quite the spirit I should. Wes has been wonderfully supportive and helpful during this time and I am glad to have had him at my side as we have worked through the various possibilities.

When I left you last Sunday we were heading to Dunnstown to see Daylesford play Buninyong in a Preliminary Final. John & Jan Smith came with us and we all enjoyed seeing the win, although Daylesford ran out of legs in the last quarter and let the other team get within 8 points. Bilbo and Frodo enjoyed it as they got to eat chips and be patted by children. Sadly, the Doggies weren’t good enough yesterday and lost to Waubra, but this was their 5^th consecutive Grand Final, which is a great effort and they were not the best team during the year.

Wes in Sydney in 1970

Apart from travelling to Ballarat this week, we had dinner at Mercato on Monday night with Ken & Carol Morris and friends of theirs, Michelle & Doug, who are running The Grill at Tylden. They are also artists, so we talked to them about entering our Art Show, among many other topics. We enjoyed a beautiful meal, as usual, at Mercato, where the standard is amazingly high and constant. We also saw the film, ‘Red Dog’, which we loved – can’t believe the talent of the dog in this film.

Wes has had lots of meetings this week, about Rotary, ROMAC, Hepburn Voices and the Art Show, while I have enjoyed a massage with Ann, attended Strong classes, distributed raffle tickets to Rotarians and spent time with sponsors of the Art Show. I missed the launch of the Daylesford District Community Bank on Thursday night, as both times I have taken the synacthen test; I have experienced a violent reaction about 24 hours later with an asthma attack accompanied by nausea and diarrhoea. Sitting at the Town Hall at night trying to operate a laptop and needing to be near the loo didn’t seem like an ideal mix. Fortunately Wes has taped lots of Poirot and Miss Marple on MyStar, so I have been enjoying watching them when I haven’t been doing cryptics, logic problems or reading Difficult Crime Writers!

Wes has also been doing most of the cooking over the past couple of weeks and we have enjoyed some stunning seafood masterpieces, although he did cheat by getting Kim at Café 3460 to make sweets!                        

Frodo trying to get onto our bed

Yesterday I visited Viva, who is looking very good, and getting stronger each time I see her. I had bought her a Mason Pearson brush, which delighted her very much, and she bought some raffle tickets in return. She and Leanne just love Brian Nash’s paintings and she would love to win the first prize. I told her about my chronic fatigue, although I didn’t want to, but I need her to understand that I can’t always visit or ring. She was very understanding, of course, and pleased that I had pursued the issue.

Then off to the MCG along with 67,000+ others, where I met up with David and Danny. We had great seats on the wing on level P in the front row, which meant we got a little wet when it rained and very warm when the sun shone. Wes sent a message at ¾ time suggesting we were home and hosed, which meant the Weagles promptly shook off their doldrums and made a game of it. Wes has been banned from sending premature congratulations. It could be worse, David’s wife, Helen, who attended her first game in years, at the Geelong annihilation of the Pies, has been banned from attending the footy for life! We now have a weekend off and can watch the other teams fight for the chance to play us and Geelong in the Preliminary Finals.

Harry O, who played a blinder yesterday!

 Typical breakfast treats

We had a wonderful breakfast this morning. Although there were only six of us, Kim had not spared his creativity and we enjoyed lots of goodies. Judi’s good friend, Phil, was down from Sydney and they had been wining and dining him all weekend. It was good to see him again and conversation where Phil is involved is always interesting. Wes decided he didn’t want to go the MCG today to see Carlton take on Essendon, so we will be watching from the comfort of our lounge. The winner gets to go to WA to play the West Coast next Saturday evening, not an easy assignment.

P.S. Gillie had her knee replacement surgery on Monday afternoon and moved to rehab yesterday. Glenn, who has been through this himself, says her knee looks good and she is coming along very well, although she isn’t coping with not being in charge!

 Wes, Jane, Judi & Karen – 1979 Sigiriya, post the climb! Note the sarongs and thongs, which made climbing just that little bit more difficult

Finally, I heard a wonderful expression last week that I want to share with you - Relevance Deprivation Syndrome –sounds like a post-retirement disease! Hope I haven’t got it.

Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 4th September 2011

Dear Friends, welcome to the first Dispatch of Spring 2011. We spent Monday morning in Ballarat getting our cars serviced. We were expecting to be there until 2pm as Wes’s car needed a big service, but instead they were ready by 11am, so we were home much earlier than planned. We would have seen a film, probably “Red Dog”, but it didn’t start until 12.30pm, and we have so much Art Show stuff to do, it seemed wise to come home rather than wait around for the film to start.

Our Rotary President, Jim Swatman, is in St John of God Hospital in Ballarat, so we paid him a visit and discovered he was having his gall bladder removed that afternoon. We promised to relieve him of some Rotary duties, which helped ease his mind. His operation went well & he is now recuperating.

We put in another big day’s work on Tuesday and the sponsorships are coming in thick and fast. One of our newest Rotary members, Trish Goullet, has been collecting so many promises, which I then invoice. Wes has secured the services of Stuart Rattle and Michael O’Neill as Judges of our Art Show; Horvats Wines are sponsoring the Opening Night and the Farmers Arms have bought sole advertising rights for the catalogues.

                                                           

Wes, Jane, Judi & Karen after climbing Sigiriya, Sri Lanka 1979

On Wednesday I was exhausted and decided to spend the day in bed, reading and doing crosswords and felt much better for the rest. I was sorry to miss out on Mah Jong as Carol was better and able to play and Valerie was celebrating her 79^th birthday. We were due to have an Arts Show Committee Meeting that afternoon, but nearly everyone was an apology, so Wes cancelled the meeting, updated the members on what had been happening and took some posters to the Rotary meeting that night for members to distribute around town.

The first day of Spring was a beautiful sunny one, and Wes went off to The Boys’ Lunch at Jeff Bain’s house in very good spirits and arrived back 4 hours later in even better ones! About 30 blokes turned up with their glass, bottle and something to barbecue and I believe most of the pressing problems of the world were solved. Some were still there at 7pm and no doubt needed taxis home. I went to the U3A Morning Tea, which was well-attended and Judi brought us all up-to-date on the latest doings.

Glenn collected me and Gillie and drove us to Castlemaine, where we met Judi and Michael for yum chat at ‘A Taste of the Orient’, a new little place in the main street, after picking up the Art Show Raffle tickets which had been printed in record time. We enjoyed some beautiful dim sum together, and then repaired to ‘She Sells Sea Shells’ which has magnificent seafood. I bought some wild barramundi pieces and a marinara mix. Wes missed out on this because he had morning tea with his sister, Denise, followed by manning the Community Bank Stall in Vincent Street for a couple of hours. I was very nervous about that night’s footy, so we left around 3.30pm and got home at 11.30pm. Wes now wants those 8 hours of his life back, as Collingwood didn’t turn up and were thrashed by 16 goals in our worst defeat for 4 years.

Yesterday we manned the Rotary stall at the Farmers Market and started selling raffle tickets with Brian’s donated painting on display. It was a good morning; we sold lots of tickets and enjoyed friendly chitchat with everyone. After our shift was over, we went to ‘Gracenotes Café’ for breakfast and discovered, Annie, Barbara and Gillie all there chatting over hot drinks. Then back home to work on the computers some more and a relaxing afternoon. Wes caught up on some sleep and I watched 3 games of footy. We had the barramundi for dinner and it was beautiful. Wes did it with lemon slices and rind in foil in the oven and I had baked a dish of potato, beetroot and onion to go with it. We had macaroni pudding for sweets. I’ll need a break from cooking after all that! Sadly the Blues were no match for the Saints in a lacklustre game, where both teams were flat-footed in the first half and we were very pleased we hadn’t driven back to the MCG again.

Today we’ve enjoyed a stunning breakfast – Gillie’s last before her knee operation tomorrow.  Barbara had printed out the words to ‘Rule Britannia’ for us to sing and made a special placemat for Gillie; Glenn had dripped red blood on a hand-towel and put it with a scalpel by Gillie’s plate; Terry & Gail turned up in red, white & blue wigs and Gail had her laptop with lots of Pommy songs ready to go, except she couldn’t connect to the Internet; John took photos and he, Jan, Judi & Michael were dressed in red, white & blue. Wes wore his plus fours and a white shirt and his Bulldogs scarf and I took a teddy and pillow along with me. Kim outdid himself with a wonderful selection of breakfast goodies and Gail recited ‘My Country’ when we all refused to sing the words to ‘Rule Britannia’ or ‘Advance Australia Fair’.

This afternoon we are hoping to see Daylesford play Buninyong at Dunnstown in the second Preliminary Final of the Central Highlands League. Hepburn was beaten by Waubra yesterday and Waubra will be a tough opponent if we get through to the Grand Final.

Frodo has lost a toenail, somehow on yesterday morning’s walk and he dripped blood around the house most of yesterday, before the wound healed and dried up. He isn’t at all concerned and doesn’t seem to be in any pain, but Bilbo is doing the worrying for him and keeps giving him little bites of encouragement. They clubbed together and gave their Daddy a bottle of Jameson Irish Whisky for Fathers’ Day, which has been very well-received.

Wes continues to spend hours on his family tree and history, as well as keeping minutes and writing Bulletins for Rotary, Hepburn Voices and the Art Show. We are both involved in the launch of the Community Bank on Thursday night , so the piles of books to read by the sides of our bed are growing as we have very little time to get through them. I have a class on ‘Difficult Crime Writers’ coming up in 2 weeks and am trying to get through the list.

One last word on footy – I discovered on Friday that I was successful in getting a reserved seat in the MCC for the Grand Final – what a relief – one less thing to stress about!

            Cox Plate 1990 – Jan McClean, Wes, Mate & Karen – singing ‘Good Old Collingwood Forever’ in the Silks Lounge at Moonee Valley