Daylesford Dispatch - Saturday, 25th February 2012

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 3^rd Anniversary of the fires here – quite uncanny.

Kim & Gary’s accommodation at Blampied – The Signal Box & The Governor’s Carriage

 Last night we had dinner at A Taste of Spice, the Indian restaurant we are enjoying, with John & Jan, who have been in the wars recently. John has removed his moon boot & Jan has had her knee cleaned and repaired and they were both thrilled to experience a different restaurant with us. We enjoyed an early meal with lots of good conversations.

Today Wes has driven to Cohuna with his sister, Denise, to celebrate Malachi’s 10^th 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.                                         

We’ve had a big week of golf again – I played on Monday & Wednesday with Wes & on Friday with Leon Anderson. Leon has only recently taken up the game & he approaches it in the same laidback fashion that he does everything. We enjoyed 10 holes together & he loved the Trentham course – the only other course he has played on is Royal Park where you have to keep an eye out for trains & trams. Wes stayed home as we were expecting men to come and replace our cork flooring at 8am. Of course, they didn’t arrive until 9.30, but they worked hard & well and we now have new flooring. The only drawback to the new improved floor is that we can’t shut our bedroom door, but we will ask the carpenter to fix that when he returns with a new kitchen cupboard door.

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.