Dear Friends, there is never a dull
moment with us it seems. The big drama this week has been the ‘Great Fire of Daylesford’ to rival the
famous ‘Great Fire of Essendon’,
which occurred on 26th February 1973, the day Tom arrived running up
our driveway to announce the arrival of Becky. Not to be outdone, we promptly
caused a fire in the chimney which necessitated the fire brigade and made for
some wonderful stories.
We are very lucky as we weren’t
injured apart from some smoke inhalation. The electrician arrived within 30
minutes and confirmed the fault was in the dishwasher. We had to wait until the
next day for a plumber to come and remove it. In the meantime, Wes rang Andrew
Mengyel at OAMPS and he organised an assessor, who arrived that evening from
Ballarat. She authorised cleaning to be done and quotes for repairs. We had 4
cleaners all day on Thursday and they will be back again tomorrow for another
full day. Sadly the paintwork in the kitchen hasn’t cleaned up as well as they
would like, so it may have to be repainted. The lounge suite has been
steam-cleaned, but will need another go as it is still marked with soot. Our
floating cork floor is still available, with a similar pattern, but the whole
of the upstairs of the house will have to be replaced, as well as some
carpentry work on the island bench and probably the bench top.
This fire was a little more
dramatic. Our dishwasher was playing up for 24 hours and refusing to complete a
cycle, so I thought I would teach it a lesson and turn it off at the wall, to
give it a chance to reset itself. However when I turned it back on, it got its
revenge by making that expired noise that appliances do when they have burnt
out. So I opened the door to let the contents dry before taking them out and went
downstairs to tell Wes we would need a new dishwasher. Five minutes later the
smoke alarms started blaring. We raced upstairs into a thick wall of black
smoke and discovered a small intense fire in the door of the dishwasher. Wes
smothered it with bath sheets (we both forgot about the fire blanket and fire
extinguisher within easy reach), I put the boys in the car and then rang 000.
The fire brigade arrived quickly, told us we had done the right things and
checked downstairs to see if the guest bedroom was alight (something we had
overlooked). It wasn’t!
We are hopeful that at least the
floor can be done & the dishwasher replaced before Christmas as we have
12-14 friends for lunch on Christmas Day. We will probably be able to stay put
while things are being done (we can sleep downstairs & use that bathroom),
but Bilbo & Frodo may need to go into kennels while the floor is re-laid.
We found ourselves quite shocked by
the suddenness of this and have nothing but sympathy for anyone who experiences
any kind of fire. We can still smell the smoke whenever we come in the front
door, and I imagine it won’t leave us until the old flooring is gone. Needless
to say, we decided not to tell Viva about this little drama as she has enough
to worry about with getting her strength back, without being worried about us.
I visited Viva on Wednesday, the day
after the fire, so that Leanne could spend a couple of hours out of the house
and I was pleased to see that Viva was a better colour, her voice was better
and she seemed to be physically stronger as well. One of the young carers, who shower
her, has had shingles earlier this year and is very understanding and
sympathetic.
Sunrise 25/11/11>
We’ve had to eat out quite a bit as
we had no access to the kitchen on Wednesday and Thursday. We ended up having a
lovely dinner on Thursday night at the Farmers Arms with Judi, Michael, Gillie
and Glenn and it did us the world of good. Wes went to a Men’s Lunch on
Wednesday while he really enjoyed and he also went to Rotary, but I was too
tired after driving to Melbourne and back.
Wes has spent quite a few hours with
Barbara getting the ‘Hepburn Voices’ laptop operational and helping her with
other computer issues. He has his new phone, which is a Motorola Atrix, the
newer version of my Motorola Defy, so I have been showing him how to download
apps, how to get his home screen working for him and how to use Skype and
Viber. Our only problem is making sure we have different sounds for all the
messages, calls & reminders that arrive on our phones!
Yesterday was Daylesford Show Day
and we had so much rain, as well as a strong wind, that it was washed out. Such
a shame as it is fun, like any country Show. I stayed in bed all day, as I was
absolutely exhausted. Wes didn’t do too much computer work and enjoyed catching
up on recorded programmes and spending hours reading The Age. I even got DA’s
crossword out before lunchtime, thanks to the Anagram Solver & Dictionary
apps on my phone!
Today we had a wonderful breakfast
at Café 3460, where Kim outdid himself as usual with a huge variety of dishes.
The boys and I had been to the Sunday Market early and they were very keen to
see Gary and get their toast and vegemite, to say nothing of leftover smoked
salmon & corn fritters. It’s a beautiful day here and we each hope to spend
some time in the garden, as weed pulling out is very easy after a deluge, as you
would know.
We are not sure what this week holds
as far as kitchen repairs are concerned, but no doubt our assessor will be in
touch soon. The first Test against NZ starts on Thursday and it will be
interesting to see how our new boys fare – 5 changes is such a big thing for
our Test side.
Gillie’s magical garden
Enjoy the last few days of Spring!
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