Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 26th August 2012

Dear Friends, according to the calendar, we are expecting Spring next weekend, but the weather doesn’t seem to have gotten the message and we have been deluged with rain, hail & sleet accompanied by cold winds during this week. We did enjoy one warmish day on Wednesday, but the sun disappeared again under a foggy sky.

Last Sunday after breakfast, Wes decided to use his industrial ladder, his latest purchase, which has the rest of us all worried silly. He got up on the roof to see why the water was getting in the ceiling, rehung the Collingwood flag, and fastened some wire around the posts to train our ornamental grape. You will all be as delighted as I was when he finished all these jobs without falling off or doing any major damage to himself!

We have not been able to play golf or even walk the boys very much as the rain has been too heavy, and the fog too dangerous to be walking in. So we’ve been working on the Art Show, Wes has been indulging in Ancestry.com and spending time on Hepburn Voices – training new interviewers and encouraging new interviewees.

On Tuesday as he and Barbara were on their way to hydrotherapy in Ballarat, her car began making a funny metallic noise, so they decided to visit Mazda instead and one of the young boys worked out that one side of the roof rack, which holds her wheelchair, had come loose. He very kindly fixed it, checked the other sides and sent them safely on their way at no charge.

That night Viva rang to say Leanne needed to go to hospital as she had broken her little finger and asking if one of us could come down the next day to take her and to mind Viva. We decided Wes would go, as I had arranged a small lunch for Valerie’s 80^th birthday and she would be less disappointed that Warren missed it, than if I missed it. So he drove down on Wednesday and took Leanne to John Fawkner Hospital, where they tried to fix her finger but decided she would need an operation instead on Friday.

In the meantime, we four played Mah Jong, then Dot’s husband, John, joined us and we shared a celebratory lunch for Valerie, much to her delight. Wes arrived back home in time to have a late lunch and a rest before going to Rotary, where he took the notes for the Bulletin.

Rotary Working Party

On Thursday we enjoyed a long leisurely lunch at Gillie’s, where we admired her freshly painted walls and new flooring. She cooked a yummy pasta dish and served a salad made entirely from produce in her garden. While we were there Jason Olver came to quote on cleaning her windows – we had recommended him and she was pleased to meet him in our company.

It was my turn to drive to Melbourne on Friday as I had only to postpone a hair appointment, but Wes had visits to make to the vet and the optometrist. It was very Brigadoon in Daylesford so I drove via Kyneton and admired the mile of daffodils on the way into Piper Street. I took Leanne to the hospital, then spent some hours with Viva until the operation was over and I could collect Leanne, who now has two fingers bandaged together and in a sling. She won’t be able to drive easily, so we have agreed to do some supermarket shopping for them and drop it in tomorrow on our way to a Cricket Lunch at the MCC.

I arrived home on Friday night to a yummy meal that Wes had prepared and we watched Richmond easily beat Essendon as the rain and hail rapped on all our windows.

Yesterday we had been invited to lunch in Flemington by Josephine Ward & her partner, Tony. We drove there and the weather improved the closer we got to Melbourne. It was a fun lunch party with a couple from Tylden (shame we hadn’t known as we could have picked them up on our way), plus Tony’s daughter, Isobel, and Josephine’s daughter, Siobhan and best friend, Carolyn. We were served a feast and somehow waddled into our cars to go home around 4.30pm.

 

We arrived back to find two little fat dogs who had spent the day chewing huge marrow bones and even they couldn’t eat the celery and cabbage we offered them for dinner! Sadly our two teams were badly outclassed and we spent a frustrating evening watching our separate games and getting very annoyed with our teams’ lack of endeavour. The good news was that Daylesford beat Hepburn, which had been the best team all year, so we now go straight into the Preliminary Final and Hepburn has to play for its life next weekend.

We were a very small group at breakfast today – us, Kim, Gary and Barbara. It is Gary’s birthday, so we made a fuss of him and enjoyed a few good conversations, before it was time to take the little fat dogs home. They did manage to eat their toast & vegemite, but I have had to sweep up the cabbage and celery, as they showed no interest in them at all. When John gave them big cabbage leaves at the Sunday Market, they promptly sat on them instead of eating them with gusto.

Lucy’s brother Oscar

Our friends, Ian & Robyn, have had some very bad news as their lovely labradoodle, Lucy, as cancer and her situation is not good. She has started on chemo and they hope she will have a few months of quality life with treatment. We all know when we feel in love with our pets that we will outlive them and that losing them is intolerable, but we so value their companionship that we can’t bear to be without them.                                              

 Another friend, Hanna, who was born in Austria and who now lives in Sydney, after some years in Daylesford, sent me a long email and some of you might enjoy this particular extract - The Simone Young weekend was memorable, the concert on Saturday, an all Wagner program, was absolutely wonderful, even if Wagner was not your favourite composer, the chosen pieces were for any music lover. On Sunday at the Wagner Society, we had a packed room over 100 people, to hear and see her. I had the courage to speak and ask when it was question time, first about her success In Vienna since 1993 and that I was in Vienna last December, when she conducted Richard Strauss ‘s “Daphne”,  a most difficult Opera, and that she  had set a new standard for this opera. And I had the glowing article with me. She was thrilled to hear about that and then I asked her what it was like to have been the first female conductor to have been accepted by the Vienna Philharmonics. She had a most interesting story to tell and that she will be lecturing there again in their Autumn and conducting Wagner’s “Mastersingers “in December.  Afterwards quite a few people complimented me for asking her just about that and Vienna. I had the opportunity to speak to her later and she suggested we could speak German, it was very special. Hanna will be in Daylesford on Grand Final weekend & we look forward to catching up with her and her daughter, Rebecca.

 

  1989 – Paun with Mother Doll, Viva’s mother

Daylesford Dispatch - Friday, 17th August 2012

Dear Friends, today we finally had some snow – not quite as grand as this photo, but snow nevertheless, which makes all this cold weather worthwhile. Lovely heard it was snowing in Daylesford & rang to check it out, so that was a good bonus.

I had another good trip to Sydney, thanks to Jane & David, & Terry who came up with the best line of the weekend while we were at lunch on Sunday. It was cold, wet and windy in Sydney, so after Jane collected me on Friday afternoon, we drove to Cremorne to see The Sapphires, which is a delightful little Australian film. Don’t miss it – great writing, acting & singing & it’s true! That night, Jane’s best friend, Annette, joined us for takeaway Thai at home, as it was too cold & wet to go out anywhere. We watched the exciting Geelong & West Coast game & Jane managed to fall asleep 5 minutes before the end, which means she missed an amazing finish (dare I say it – yet again).

1994 – 4 Pies fans – Shar, Gayle, Karen & Jane

On Saturday, while David slept in, she & I went for breakfast & a short stroll around the shops, before retreating back home to the warmth. I spent the afternoon watching live footy until it was time to go to our big game. I had used my Melbourne Cricket Club membership to get reciprocal rights at the Sydney Olympic Stadium, and once we found the right ticket box, we headed in to look for our seats on Level 6. This took some doing as the standard of assistance at this Stadium ranges from indifferent to super-helpful, but you have to search long & hard to find the super-helpful. Our seats were up high, but on the wing and completely under cover, with no hope of the swirling wind & rain reaching us.

We were able to use the Members’ lounge and avail ourselves of fast food in comfy chairs with lots of other MCC & Stadium members. The game was like a final and I really expected the Swans to win, especially once we lost Daisy early on in the game. Somehow or other we wrested back the lead and held on during a tough last quarter to win. Jane was very disappointed as she had hoped for a win as well. But she is a very good person to be with at the footy and a very fair supporter, happy to applaud good play on both sides (as am I).

On Sunday, we had a quiet morning, then Terry arrived and we went to Chowder Bay for lunch at Ripples restaurant, which has stunning views if you are sitting outside. We opted for inside, which was marginally warmer. When I explained to the other three that this was my treat, Terry asked why stop there? And I haven’t answered him yet!!

David very kindly drove me to the airport on Monday morning, just as the sun decided to show itself in Sydney again and I had my second delayed flight for the trip. The flight there was kept on the ground for nearly an hour while some part in the door was replaced and this time the luggage containers wouldn’t load properly. However, my bag arrived safely and Wes was there to greet me, which was lovely. After he had dropped me off on the previous Friday, he had met Tom for a long catch-up lunch at the Kent Hotel, while the boys demolished a huge marrow bone and didn’t miss either of us.

I spent the rest of the day washing & ironing etc., while he went across the road to Barbara’s to interview Danny Spooner (pictured) for Hepburn Voices. After two hours and a bottle of red, they had barely started, but Danny is keen to become an interviewer, which is great.

We had planned to devote Tuesday to the Art Show and did – composing letters to 35 previous sponsors in the hope that they might have been pleased with the publicity they received last year and donate again this year. The next day we had a meeting of the Fund-raising section of our committee, where we discovered everyone was focussed and keen, and were all prepared to follow up on the letters. Yesterday we received an email from Fell’s Electricals donating $100 as they have for the past two years. We were so thrilled and feel all the work is paying off.

I was due to visit Viva yesterday, but the weather was atrocious, including black ice, fog & swirling rain, so we decided it would not be safe to drive. This afternoon Wes has driven to Melbourne, in better conditions, to drop some of Gillie’s eggs & a jar of O’Toole’s honey into Viva & Leanne, as well as visit Joan Testro, and finally, attend a celebration dinner of St Bernard’s Past School Captains & Vice Captains. He is hoping that Greg Delaney, who was Captain in 1966, will be there, as it is ages since they saw each other.

Wes in Sydney 1970 wearing his Charlie Brown jumper

Wes & I decided yesterday that we will forgo the double header of footy we had planned to see tomorrow. Wes is not enjoying footy this year, partly because Carlton is not playing well enough, and partly because he misses footy at Princes Park with his father, uncles and cousins. I used to envy him that he spent his childhood, teenage years and adulthood going to the footy with his father, something I would have loved to have done. The only advantage in going to the footy mostly on your own is that you don’t miss your early companions when they are no longer around. I was lucky once I was an adult to have Wes, Danny Millman, David Lazzaro, Shar & Loud Gayle as regular friends to enjoy the games with, as well as lots of other occasional companions.

Carlton is playing at 1.45pm tomorrow & Collingwood at 7.40pm that night, which leaves us with a big gap in between. Greta & Harry are using the Collingwood tickets and Ben Lazzaro is using the Carlton ones. We are looking forward to sitting down in front of the fire, with the boys at our feet, watching the action live. Wes is planning to slow cook osso buco, which will be a special treat for all three boys.

It is as wet underfoot at our place as it has ever been; the Lake can fill no more, so the pathways are all submerged; drains are all overflowing in the streets, and we are grateful that apart from a small leak in the kitchen, the house is waterproof!

I’ll leave you with some exciting news –Ben Lazzaro & his wife, Leanne, are expecting their first baby at the end of this year. Ben tells me that have had the 20 week scan & all is well and that they have chosen not to know the baby’s sex. We are so thrilled for them both.

P.S. On a sad note, Libby Edgoose emailed me to say that her father, Doug, is not well at present. We have known him forever and he has been indestructible up until now. We are thinking of all the Mathews clan – Campbell, Bob & Lib, and their families.

Daylesford Dispatch - Tuesday, 7th August 2012

Dear Friends, sorry for the long delay in sending this to you, but I suffered adversely by going to the Collingwood/St Kilda match on Saturday night – it was a great game of footy, but I got too tired with the very long day and have been in bed getting some energy back ever since. However, I am feeling much better today, so thought I should update you.

Wes has been very unwell with manflu as he is calling it, but it was much more than that. He was coming down with a cold as I flew to Sydney, and sadly it accelerated into something much worse. I don’t know how he managed, with a woolly head, to host his highly successful Carnivore lunch on the Saturday, but he did and everyone enjoyed it very much. He made everyone take home their leftovers as there was so much food, and took to bed with hot lemon drinks, cough lollies and the company of two Labradors. He tells me that Bilbo woke up each morning at 3am, checked that Wes was OK and went back to sleep again.

In the meantime I was having a lovely time in Sydney as a guest of Jane & David. We watched the Olympic Games, loved the Opening Ceremony, went for a long walk, read papers & enjoyed yummy meals cooked by Jane. On the Saturday afternoon we parked in town, then caught the train to the Showgrounds Stadium, which is a wonderful boutique arena, with helpful staff, great elevation, comfy seating and a fantastic scoreboard that tells you all you need to know about Aussie Rules, including why a free kick was paid etc. They even allow kick to kick after the game. Jane & I went out the wrong gate on the way to the station or we would have been given huge chocolate footballs to take home!

At half-time we were enjoying our crumbed whiting, when suddenly two men came and stood in front of us and stared at us. Jane looked at me and I decided it would be best to introduce her to my brother, Peter, who was at the game with a friend from work, Gary (a GWS member) and Anka’s god-daughter, Linda, and son. It was a lovely surprise to see Peter and he was looking great and so enjoying being at the footy.

Anka & Peter on Christmas Day

On Sunday, Jane had invited Terry McDonald and his ex-brother-in-law, Tim, and wife, Marjorie, to join us for lunch. We had another great meal cooked by Jane, and conversation flowed, as did the wine & beer. Wes & I are very fond of Terry and I was sorry that Wes missed out on a special time.

David Knox tucking into guinea pig!

David very kindly drove me to the airport on Monday morning, and Wes somehow got out of bed to pick me up. I arrived home, unpacked, and went shopping, as Wes had not been well enough to get to the Sunday Market let alone breakfast. We decided it would be best for me to sleep in the guest room downstairs, which I did for the next three nights, until Wes was on the mend. We cancelled or postponed everything that he was committed to doing and he stayed in bed watching the Olympics and programmes he had recorded on Austar.

On Saturday we didn’t do our usual shift on the Farmers’ Market, but dropped in at 9.30am to see how they were going and then visited the Daylesford Primary School Book Fair, where we bought 15 books for $35 – bargains each and every one! I had an interesting experience – went to the Bendigo Bank ATM to withdraw cash and was given $100 less than I should have received, as instead of 16 x $50, the ATM presented me with 13 x $50, 2 x $20 & 1 x $10. This could not be resolved by the staff members that morning, and it appears I have to go to the NAB & complete an ATM dispute resolution form before I receive my $100! The Bendigo Bank manager has just rung me to apologise for the way I was treated on Saturday, so I am feeling very reassured that I will receive my money from the NAB.

Wes had offered to drive Carol & me to the footy on Saturday night, and I decided to accept his kind offer. I was sure I could drive there, but not so sure about driving back. We would have caught the train, but there was no return train between 10.08 & 11.38pm, which means getting home around 1am. Wes rang Leon and arranged that we would pick him up as well, and that they would go the The Rose Hotel in Fitzroy, while we were at the MCG. They enjoyed a wonderful time together, and so did Carol & I, although she would have loved a St Kilda win, but took the loss very well. Her two daughters, both St Kilda supporters, and her grand-daughter, Collingwood, were all there as well, but too far away for us to be able to catch up with them.

Beautiful Collingwood supporter at her first match!

Yesterday, Wes trained two new interviewers for Hepburn Voices – friends, Gill Murray, and Meredith Borlin, who read about what he was doing in the local paper, and decided they would like to participate.

Barbara has been unwell also, so he has been making her hot lemon drinks and making sure she is warm and comfy. This morning they have driven to Ballarat for an appointment, but won’t be attempting hydrotherapy as neither of them is well enough for that yet. They had tickets for the Carlton/Sydney game on Sunday, but decided to watch it together from the comfort of her home instead, which meant that Wes coped much better with the loss.

We both have big days tomorrow with Mah Jong and an Art Show meeting for me; while Wes has a production meeting of Hepburn Voices, followed by the Art Show meeting, then a briefing before Rotary and finally a Rotary meeting honouring Paul Harris Fellows & Past Presidents. I suspect we will have a very quiet afternoon today in preparation.

Now, all being well, I am off to Sydney again on Friday for the big game between the Swans & the Pies at the Olympic Stadium with Jane, so there will be no Dispatch this weekend. I’ll get in touch as soon as I recover from my trip.

Viva is sounding very good this week, even though she & Leanne & Smokey have been without ducted heating for the past week. Their unit died and the plumber had to wait for a new unit, which he installed yesterday. We were all worried she would catch a cold, but Leanne has kept her as warm as she could with hot water bottles and a column heater and it has worked.

Lovely photo of Viva 2005

P.S. Congratulations are in order to our cousin, Bernard Saundry, who will be the CEO of Victoria Racing come December. We are all very proud of him.

Daylesford Dispatch - Friday, 27th July 2012

This is a special edition of the Dispatch to share the exciting news of the very early arrival of Rosie June Kennedy, who weighed in at 6lbs and surprised everyone, especially her grandmother, Lovely, who is on the Ghan travelling to Darwin with Malcolm.

Travis & Lozza with newly-born Rosie

I’m heading to Sydney shortly, but couldn’t resist getting in touch with you all. It’s been a good week all round as on Monday morning Wes and I finally played a game of golf at Trentham again. It was a beautiful morning with a thin layer of frost on the ground, so putting became almost impossible, but we enjoyed the walk around this lovely course and managed enough good shots to keep us going. Afterwards we visited Gracenotes Café for breakfast, where Jasmine was delighted to see me and gave us a wonderful welcome and Chris cooked a yummy breakfast.

In the afternoon John Smith picked up Wes and they met Rob McDonald & George Killingback at Sailors Falls to walk around disused mines, as part of Hepburn Voices. That night, we were both physically exhausted after our endeavours and were happy to have home-made minestrone soup for dinner and fall into bed.

Wes as interviewer for Hepburn Voices

We have been very busy with the Art Show with quite a few requests for Entry Forms including one from Peru! I have run out of posters to put up in town, so will have to run off a few more, or collect back those that haven’t been put up. Our attitude to this year’s Show is to do as much as we can beforehand so that if Chronic Fatigue sets in we won’t be in panic mode, which happened in the first year when I couldn’t get out of bed for a week before the Show & all the work piled up. We get such a buzz out of this activity and it is so very different from anything we’ve ever done before.

We were very disappointed when Cricket Australia finally released the South African tour details and we discovered the Brisbane Tests is being held on the weekend after the Show, which doesn’t allow us enough time to get all the cheques sent to Artists, thank you letters to Sponsors and the final Budget results to Rotary and the wider community. We are hoping that Jane, David, Terry & Annette will still go and we will be thinking of them.

However, last week, we also got the great news that we are confirmed for the first two Ashes Tests in England in July next year with Premium Sports Tours, the mob we have done our previous cricket tours with. We don’t want to do Barcelona and Morocco that they are offering, so we will probably travel around Scotland & England before the Tests, hook up with them, (including Jane, David & Terry), and then travel back via Iceland, which has become a must on our list of countries the more we learn about it. Hopefully there will be something for non-Puffin eaters to consume while we are there!

Also our lounge suite has been returned from Ballarat, so we are comfortable again and this time we have the addition of two ottomans, which are just the right height for resting our feet should the need arise, and also act as extra seating when we have a large group, which will happen tomorrow when Wes hosts his CARNIVORE lunch in my absence.

Viva tells me that she and Leanne have been on a shopping expedition that lasted 2.5 hours including coffee breaks – she was feeling well enough to get dressed and go out and enjoyed it enormously! While she was doing that I rang Murray Godso, a dear friend from Melbourne, who had dropped out of our lives and he was delighted to hear from me, so we are planning to catch up next time he comes to Daylesford.

Wes and Barbara drove to Melbourne to see her specialist who had some good advice for her; Wes got his photo in the local paper; all four of us turned up for Mah Jong, and Jane survived an unpleasant mouth operation and assures me she will be fine for my visit.

Yesterday it poured with rain all day – Wes & I went out for a hot drink and a catch-up chat in the morning – visited Bocconcini, which is a lovely café/deli in the main street, and bought a yummy cheese to have after dinner last night.

 We had been invited to Frank & Ellis’s 40^th Anniversary celebration drinks at 5pm last night, so we collected Carol & drove there early to get a good parking spot. Frank & Ellis have a delightful little cottage on King Street, with very little parking. They had invited about 30 friends and we enjoyed a drink and chat but left before the speeches, so we were all home at a reasonable time. Wes cooked fish with ginger & French tarragon for dinner and we did enjoy our blue camembert afterwards.

Lovely recent photo of Callum Preston & Maureen (Mo)now happily settled in Collingwood