Karen Maloney's Dispatch: Daylesford Dispatch Easter Sunday, 8th April 2012

Dear Friends, we are back safe & sound (more or less) in beautiful Daylesford, but we have been afflicted with the worst jetlag either of us can remember. I made the mistake of declaring it over on Friday morning and promptly spent most of that night awake, drinking tea, reading ‘The Sistine Secrets’ and playing WWF. Wes got up & watched TV and then slept in, but I decided to get up & see how I went.

When I last wrote, we were resting in preparation for a trip around Roma on Vespas. This was great fun, but would have been more useful earlier on in the week, as most of the stops made by Valerio & Roy had already been visited by us. We told them how exciting it had been to see the Appian Way, so they obliged by taking us there and showing us a couple of spots where the original road still exists – you can even see the marks of the chariot wheels. Wes rode with Valerio on a super-duper black machine, while I was with Roy, the 2-I-C, on a glorious 50-year old cream Vespa, which was the envy of all the males we passed. We had been given no advice re our excursion, but decided to dress warmly, pack gloves, and I even took a beanie, which meant my helmet sat more easily on my head. It did get cold once the sun had disappeared & we were pleased we had warm jackets and trousers on.

When we arrived back at our hotel at 9pm, we were hungry, so set off for a quick meal of pizza & red wine. Sadly we visited dreadful place (rated 3,313 out of 3,700 restaurants in Rome we later discovered & Wes’s review on Trip Advisor will cause it to fall even more), where the pizzas had been frozen & the wine was overpriced. When we got back to our room, we discovered a bottle of prosecco on ice, which we wished we had known about before we ate out!

On the Sunday we breakfasted late, said our goodbyes, and left our luggage, to go for one more walk around Rome. As it was Palm Sunday, everyone was at Mass or had just been to Mass and they were all carrying springs of palm, quite different from our palm, and quite different from the ones in Spain two years’ ago. We visited various churches, including the Church of Gesu, (run by the Jesuits); the Pantheon (what a delight); saw the Elephant Statue, but not the Church which was closed for siesta; the Island, where the Catholic hospital was called St John of God, and where we had a lovely gelato which we shared with the pigeons; revisited the Jewish Quarter, where families were out in great numbers enjoying a late lunch; reclimbed the Spanish Steps with a view to seeing Keat’s house, but it was closed, and finally walked back to our hotel to sit in their comfortable lounge with pots of tea & coffee to await our Emirates driver.

The pesky cat in Bodrum that wanted my dinner

At the Rome airport, everything went smoothly and with a smile, although the Alitalia Lounge was a most uninviting place to spend a couple of hours. When we boarded our plane it was only half-full, so we had a quiet flight to Dubai, and on arrival, went straight to the showers. I even washed my hair, which made me feel heaps better, as the 10pm flight was too late in the day. I think the hardest part of the flight was circling Melbourne airport for 30 minutes as there was so much congestion in the air!

We were delighted to be met by Ryan from Hughes Hire Car, who drove us home in comfort, and we unpacked, started the washing & updating computers and went to bed. We were quite confident we would be OK by the next day, but after I had my hair done in the morning & Wes did the shopping & visited Barbara, we both fell asleep in the afternoon, and subsequently were wide awake at 1am ... and so it goes. Thank God we have come home to school holidays and most of our usual activities are on hold as we have been fairly useless!

Yesterday we took Bilbo & Frodo to Ballarat and walked around Lake Wendouree, following in the footsteps of Steve Moneghetti. I think it is 7kims, so the boys were very tired by the time we finished. We came home here, had a small rest, then drove to Melbourne where we did some clothes shopping, had an early dinner at ‘Spicy Fish’ and went to the MCG to see Collingwood play Richmond. We had good reserved seats & enjoyed the atmosphere. The game was OK, especially in the 3^rd quarter, when the Pies went up a notch & in the last quarter, when the Tigers finally hit their straps. We had fluked a park in the street just outside the ground, so we left 10 minutes early and made the perfect getaway, which got us home and in bed by 11.30pm.

We slept well, got up early, and while Wes walked the boys, I showered and got ready to take them with me to pump mineral water at Leitches Creek, and then visit the Sunday Market. There was huge queue of casual stall-holders, so it would have been a very big market. Breakfast was wonderful – we met at Harvest Café, which had been tried out the week before and everyone had enjoyed it and we could see why. The staff is very friendly & welcoming and nothing is too much trouble. They let us have a huge table in the Ice-Cream Parlour side of the business, so we could make as much noise as we liked, and did. Our gifts all went over well and we were given Easter eggs & pears in return.

After our lovely, generous-sized meals, Wes and I visited the Town Hall, where Brian Nash & Roberta Donnelly were exhibiting some new and interesting works. We were determined not to buy anything, but both fell in love with a stunning painting of the Grand Canal in Venice, so promptly bought it to go in our bedroom. Brian gave us a generous discount without us asking, as he is grateful for our support!

Then back home and after ringing Viva to wish her & Leanne a Happy Easter, Wes and I rolled up our sleeves and spent 4 hours re-organising the study to make it work better for us. We couldn’t be more pleased with what we have done. Our main aim was to free up space in the cupboard for Wes to put his Arch Level folders full of family history files and photos. We succeeded in giving him three shelves at reachable height, and he is thrilled to bits. The boys lay on their bed zedding away and enjoying our company, and we theirs.

We hope to get back to normal tomorrow and are starting to make appointments, catching up with friends, and getting back on top of the house and garden.