Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 16th September 2012

 

Dear Friends, I am surprised I am in any state to write this morning after the double excitement of yesterday. Daylesford Doggies won their 3^rd Grand Final in 6 consecutive appearances in a close fought struggle with Buninyong. Sadly I couldn’t go there with Gillie & Michael, as I wanted to be at the MCG with Danny & David to help get the Pies over the line against West Coast. It was a most exciting game and I am quite sure that our support made all the difference! Wes has offered me a trip to Sydney to see us play in the Preliminary Final on Friday night, but I feel I have done well with two trips there already recently, and will enjoy watching it on TV with him instead. And if we should get to the Grand Final, I have my ticket safely in a drawer awaiting 29^th September.

We’ve had a very busy week with the Art Show … just for a change. We had a very successful meeting on Wednesday which generated more work! The weather has been amazing – beautiful sunny days followed by intermittent rain, just when Alan Barnes came to fix our steps. He and his mate got a third of the way through before they were in danger of electrocuting themselves as the rain poured down.

 Jan & Gillie

Wes also spent time with Barbara doing Hepburn Voices and hydrotherapy. I played Mah Jong with Carol & Dot and we shared a lovely morning together. Carol is in much better health and looking good with a new hairstyle! Dot is in lots of pain, but never complains and always has a smile on her face. We had been invited to the AGM of the Daylesford Community Bank on Thursday night, followed by Victor Szwed’s 60^th birthday celebration. I managed to get an infection, which prevented me from going, but Wes & Barbara joined a good group at the AGM, and then he enjoyed a couple of hours at the Old Hepburn Hotel with Victor and Anna’s many local friends.

Carol Bruce                                       

We decided I should spend Friday in bed getting over the infection and resting up for the footy, and I am pleased I did so. Wes has been fighting off a cold, so he took it easy yesterday, staying in bed in the morning himself. I left for Melbourne at lunchtime and did a delivery of Gillie’s eggs to Viva & Leanne on my way to Danny’s place. Viva got a good report from her doctor on Thursday, but she also has an infection and on Friday the eye specialist gave her 5 injections as part of the process of removing some of the stitches over her right eye. She sounds very fragile today and is spending more time in bed than usual resting up. She didn’t want to be visited, so I dropped off a bag and collected another without disturbing her or Leanne.

Danny took me to dinner at the Grace Darling Hotel before the footy, where we enjoyed a very yummy meal, which could have been the highlight if the result had gone the other way! We then met David, whose wife, Helen, and elder daughter, Jessica, are in England as part of a trip to France & the UK. He has been on holidays looking after Maya & Daniel, but they were sleeping over at Kathy & Ged’s so he was enjoying a night off. I understand that the two had slept over at Ben & Leanne’s place the previous evening, woken early, discovered there was a TV in their bedroom and were playing DVDs at 4.30am. Ben is apparently reconsidering their decision to have a baby in three months’ time!

Danny with Celia & Cory

 We have all been very saddened by the unnecessary and tragic death of John McCarthy, former Collingwood & current Port Adelaide AFL player. Perhaps some of our younger players, who all joined the Pies together with him, and who had remained good friends with John, decided to play out of their skins in honour of his memory. The minute’s silence at the footy this weekend has been a sobering reminder of the fleeting nature of our lives and I, for one, have appreciated it.

Our WA friend, Norma, has been in Melbourne this week, and her son, journalist, Steve Butler, took her to dinner and the game at the G last night. She was very gracious after the game and said she enjoyed the experience enormously. Sadly we didn’t manage to catch up at all during this visit.

We had a wonderful breakfast this morning – Kim’s cousin, Nina & her son, Carl, joined us and were very welcome additions. Carl is only young, but he had excellent manners and coped very well with meeting 7 adults he didn’t know, and held his own in conversations. Bilbo & Frodo received a world record number of pieces of toast, so I am threatening to give them water for dinner tonight!

 

Looking for more food!