Dear Friends, Happy Mothers’ Day to everyone. My boys remembered and I
have a lovely card & three great books to read – Adam Gilchrist’s
autobiography, Jock McHale’s biography & a delightful little book of
stories about the Appian Way. I have just spoken to Viva, who I visited
yesterday, and Leanne has showered her with gifts, including a Mother’s Bag
from Darrell Lea full of her favourite things, so she is feeling very spoilt. I
took her some brightly coloured lilies yesterday, and while I was there a
beautiful bunch of white roses and chrysanthemums arrived from Peter &
Anka, so the unit looks lovely with vases of flowers everywhere. Viva was
looking good, much stronger than when I had last seen her and with her sense of
humour intact. This is best explained when she was telling me everything Leanne
had given her this morning and in the middle of it all, added and ‘a set of six
steak knives’, which made us both laugh until we coughed!
We’ve had a good week, although it has been cold these past few days and
Wes has lit the fire, which makes for great warmth, good smells and the best
atmosphere. The boys are curled up in front of it, as close as they can get
without being singed. I think they are telling us that we let them get cold at
breakfast this morning – when Gary fed them their toast, he told us that they
weren’t happy at being out in the cold, so we put them in the back of the car
and went back to our scrambled eggs.
We welcomed Aileen back this morning after three weeks away in Perth,
where she found looking after grand-children, driving her son’s car and being
expected to take children to the zoo more than she had bargained for, so soon
after her husband, Roy’s death. She told us some great stories and Kim &
Gary chipped in with some of their own, while Gail was either drawing breath or
eating her breakfast. Gail & Terry are going on a cruise unexpectedly –
Terry’s sister rang to say she had booked them a cabin on a 9-day cruise as it
cost $490 per person – it was irresistible at that price! Kim & Gary
pricked up their ears as they had been thinking about a cruise as well.
At the start of the week Wes and I spent some time designing and then
sending out an advance notice for the 2012 Daylesford Rotary Art Show and we
have had a good response with lots of artists acknowledging the email and
Rotarians promising not to go away over Melbourne Cup weekend, so they can be
around to help out.
Barbara with her
family during her trip to NZ in March
By Wednesday, I was ready to socialise again, so I joined Dot &
Valerie at Harvest Café, where we were made very welcome and play Mah Jong for
2.5 hours! Carol had been going to join us, but she was rushed to hospital on
Tuesday with chest pains again, and has had another stent put in. She is now
back home and feeling much better, thank God. We all got a terrible fright,
especially as we heard nothing all Tuesday after she had rung me early to say
she was being collected by ambulance. Daylesford Hospital had sent her to St
John of God in Ballarat, where she had spent hours in emergency on a trolley
until they found her a bed and decided what to do.
Our local window washer, Jason Olver, and a mate, came on Wednesday to
wash our windows inside and out, as it has been about 18 months since that was
last done and we can’t believe the difference. Wes has been busy since pruning
trees and bushes so that we have uninterrupted views of the Lake again and can
make the most of the weak Wintry sunshine.
Meanwhile Wes drove to Melbourne for a delightfully indulgent day – he
parked in Brunswick, caught the tram into town, had a haircut at ‘Vince &
Dom’s’; met up with our financial adviser, Anthony Starkins, for lunch; spent
an hour in St Paul’s Anglican Church being a visitor; browsed bookstores; had a
drink or two with Jon Stephens at his favourite bar, and finally enjoyed a good
chat & Italian meal with Ben Lazzaro, where Carlton’s fortunes were high on
the agenda. He arrived home about 10.30pm, tired, but very happy with all he
had done.
Lovely photo of Carol
I started Thursday with a massage from Ann, which was lovely, but was
quite tired after my busy day before, so spent most of the rest of the day
sitting in front of the fire playing WWF and doing crosswords etc. On Friday I
had lunch with good friend, Sheila Hollingworth, who is about to go to America
for about 3 months to help a friend of hers who has cancer and a young family.
We met at ‘Wombat Hill House’, which was lovely and warm and has great views of
Autumn in the Botanical Gardens, but which charged me $14 for my bowl of soup
& piece of bread!
Yesterday I drove early to Melbourne to visit Viva and was home again by
1pm. We packed up the boys and went to the local footy, where we were most
impressed by Daylesford’s game against Clunes. However, it was so cold, that we
left at half-time and came home to watch the Greater Western Sydney team
register their first win in front of an appreciative audience in Canberra. I hoped
that my brother, Peter, might have been there, as he gets very few
opportunities to see footy live these days. We also watched in awe as Black
Caviar won her 21st straight win without changing into second gear.
I hope our cousin Leigh will be able to get to Royal Ascot to cheer her on when
she runs there next month.
Thanks again to
everyone who has stayed in touch – sorry I haven’t been able to answer all your
calls yet – I will! Today I am feeling better than I have for quite a while, so
will try not to do too much and fall back again.
P.S. Our dear friend, Norma’s son, Steve Butler, wrote a wonderful warts
& all article about her journey with ovarian cancer in yesterday’s West
Australian – please follow this link if you would like to read it - http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/13667412/inspiring-mothers-love-of-life/
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