Dear Friends, we woke to zero degrees this morning, but Wes was very brave
& walked the boys in the cold, although all of them were pleased to get
back home into the warmth. The sun was out by the time I was driving to the
Sunday Market and we were blinded temporarily as we drove straight into it on
our way up the hill.
We were a lovely small group at breakfast this morning and enjoyed some
very interesting conversations. Having Kim, Gary & Aileen join us has
widened our horizons and we listened to Aileen tell us about her son, Chris,
who lives in Geraldton, where he feels at home. Judi was back from a week in
Caloundra with her family. She & Michael were able to spend lots of quality
time with her mother, Mavis, as well as see her sister, Sue, and her niece and
nephew, Coby & Luke. She gave us all little packets of Queensland nougat,
which was lovely.
We’ve had a good week, starting with a good decision not to go to the
footy on Monday night, where the Saints were unexpectedly all over Carlton. We
didn’t get to play golf as it was either too cold or too wet in Trentham. Wes
spent some time with Barbara, taking her to hydrotherapy & shopping. I was
able to help Carol, who unfortunately broke a front tooth on Mother’s Day, and
was not well enough to go shopping. Marjorie took her to the dentist in
Castlemaine on Wednesday, and she has to return in a fortnight. I drove her to
her doctor on Friday and he was pleased with her progress post the stent, but
doesn’t want her driving again yet. We did some shopping, visited the library
and then had a cuppa together at Harvest Café.
We had hoped to have caught up with Mary Goodall, who used to live here,
but has moved to Eltham. Mary was in town for a few days & no doubt enjoyed
taking her Labrador, Cleo, on some familiar walks, as well as seeing old
friends. However, the week flew by and our paths didn’t cross.
I played Mah Jong with Dot & Valerie again, which was lovely and we
enjoyed good chats, as well as sharing out the wins. At Rotary that night, the
speaker was Peter Cummins on Stroke Prevention, which is a very good topic for
our age group. Peter has developed a computer programme for Rotary Art Shows
and we hope to have a good chat with him about it when the time comes for us to
hand over the reins of the Daylesford Rotary Art Show.
We had a busy day on Thursday – I spent an hour with Glenn catching up on
his news, then Wes and I drove to Ballarat, where we visited our upholsterers
to organise recovering of our lounge suite, which was ruined in our fire last
year. Then I had a mammogram, we visited Craig’s hotel for a hot drink, and
ended up at Regent Cinemas having a quick bite to eat before seeing ‘The Way’
the film about the Camino de Santiago
in Spain. This is a walk that many of our friends have done, including David
& Annie Smith & Norma Hutchins. We loved the film and haven’t stopped
talking about it. It is well cast, well written and very well acted with Martin
Sheen in the main role.
On Friday we headed
into town in the afternoon and had intended to see the Fred Williams exhibition
at the Ian Potter Centre before the footy, but the traffic was incredible and
we got a park near the MCG at 4.30pm which was too late to go to the Gallery,
which closes at 5pm. So we walked into Little Bourke Street and enjoyed an
early meal at Westlake. Wes ordered a deep fried whole flounder which was cooked
to perfection and matched the scallops and green vegetables he had chosen.
We walked to the G with pre-match nerves in full control and took our
seats amongst a mostly Collingwood crowd all feeling the same. The Geelong
supporters were much calmer as their team had beaten us decisively in three
games last year. However the Pies started the game full of running and but for
some inaccuracy in front of goal, would have been comfortably ahead at quarter
time. David & Helen Lazzaro came to say hello at half-time and I suggested
to Helen that she leave at that point as she seems to be a good luck charm for
the Cats. Fortunately she took that in the right spirit!
The Cats came back with a vengeance in the last quarter, especially once
Dane Swan was injured, and when they drew level with two minutes to go, we all
felt sick. Amazingly the Pies regrouped and kicked the last two goals to win.
The Cats kicked 5.12 after half-time and must be ruing their lost chances. We
got home at 12.30am and were both exhausted after the long day and the effort
of getting the Pies over the line.
Close up of Daniel Lazzaro as caught
by the Collingwood cameras before the Footscray game
So we made a decision to sleep in yesterday. I got up briefly at 6am to
give the boys their bones and tell them to go back to sleep as well. I stayed
in bed, listening to the Coodabeens and then watching the footy games all
afternoon. I even managed to watch the replay of our game. Wes went off to
Council to see the plans for the redevelopment of Vincent Street (our main
drag) between the roundabouts. It would be lovely to remove traffic from that
area using the Florentine model of allowing deliveries up until 10am, and then
banning cars for the day.
Wes enjoyed watching whatever he liked on the lounge TV, as well as going shopping
and preparing a beautiful meal of fish & asparagus for me and a roast chook
for him. The boys preferred sitting around him in the hope of leftovers.
I have spoken to Viva every day this week and she is sounding good, although
tired since her visit to her GP on Thursday, where she was given a good report and
told she was in better shape than this time last year. I had hoped to visit her
soon, but we have decided to leave it until next weekend, as she has a busy week
of Health Service visitors.
Wes has continued to do wonders in the garden and is very pleased with himself
that he moved the citrus trees to the Lemon House (the space under the decking
outside the guest bedroom) just before our first frost this morning. I’ve
planted umpteen broad beans on Norma’s advice to help the soil where the
tomatoes were, and Wes has shifted around many of the pots to give them a new
lease of life and to confuse the boys, who have to dodge them when they do
their big run from the main decking to their decking!
Please enjoy your week
and I’ll be in touch again next Sunday.
God-daughter, Carolyn Murray
at Disneyland & the Grand Canyon with her friend, Krystal
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