Dear Everyone, it is a very hot day
here in Victoria, and even worse in South Australia, so I guess we will get
that tomorrow. Yesterday afternoon we had a big scare when there was a bushfire
at Blampied, about 10 minutes away. Our dear friends, Kim & Gary, live
right in the path of this bushfire and Gary was able to evacuate with his two
cats into town. Wes noticed the bushfire was on the ABC website, so he implemented
an impromptu phone tree & spoke to everyone in our street, while I posted
notices on Skype, Facebook & Twitter in the hope that those affected by the
fire would be made aware of it. After about an hour it was obvious that the
fire wasn’t coming our way, so we didn’t evacuate. This happened one day after
the 3rd Anniversary of the fires here – quite uncanny.
Kim & Gary’s accommodation at Blampied – The Signal Box & The Governor’s Carriage
Today Wes has driven to Cohuna with
his sister, Denise, to celebrate Malachi’s 10th birthday. Teddy went
off filled with Carlton paraphernalia for a change. As far as I know the trip
went well and they will now be enjoying a 10-year-old party with the company of
10 similar aged boys! John & Dannielle, the parents, will be thrilled they
made the effort, especially in this heat.
Wes and Barbara drove to Ballarat on
Monday for rehab, and again on Tuesday for hydrotherapy. On Friday I had a long
meeting with Jan Pengilley, the incoming Rotary President, who wanted to
discuss the Art Show and her thoughts for her year with me. She wants Wes and
me to do the Bulletin again, but we are quite burnt out after doing 2.5 years
of it. We get very dispirited when members don’t read it properly and forget to
turn up for their duties at Rotary meetings. I’m not sure what the answer is –
I’ve tried reminders and even that doesn’t guarantee they will arrive. Perhaps
we are all losing our short-term memories!
I found myself quite tired this week
after the very busy time we had the previous week, so I went to bed early on
Monday & Tuesday and felt much better by Wednesday. This was fortuitous, as
Wes was exhausted and spent much of the day in bed catching up on sleep and things
he had taped on Austar. By Thursday we were both OK and I enjoyed a morning of
Mah Jong with Carol at Café 3460.
It is lovely to have the house
looking so good again, although we haven’t put back our paintings. Wes is going
to ask Glenn to help him, as Glenn did the original hanging of them seven years
ago and it is much harder to put them back than it was to take them down. Our
bedroom is full of paintings, but now that the other furniture is back where it
belongs, we can easily manage.
Viva is going well. She received
good news from the eye specialist that the ulcer on her cornea is part-healed
and he expects her to eventually recover full sight in her left eye. She is on
antibiotics for it. I had hoped to visit again tomorrow, but this hot weather
means she won’t be up to a visit & won’t want me driving all that way and
back in the heat.