Daylesford Dispatch - Sunday, 2nd December 2012

 

Dear Friends, I am just home from a trip to Melbourne this morning. Wes & I got up at 5.15am & I showered while he walked the boys, then I drove him to Melbourne Airport to catch a plane to Brisbane and enjoy a week off. He is having lunch with Nice Michael, Linda & Lauren at Sanctuary Cove, staying overnight at Mermaid Beach, then driving to Caloundra to spend time with his cousin, Ronda, her husband, Jay, and hopefully their daughter, Kim. On Wednesday he will drive back to Brisbane and have dinner with Deane; then he has a couple of free days, which might be spent near the water, swimming & getting sunburnt!

He has been planning this trip for ages as Ronda is keen to tell him lots about the relatives she knew best, so he has taken the video camera and is looking forward to being inundated with information. A short phone call with Ronda is one that doesn’t last an hour, so I am sure he will come back with heaps of stuff for Ancestry.com.

       Wes in Queensland mode!            

                                                                                  The boys will have to get used to me walking them in the mornings, but provided I remember to give them a bone afterwards I am sure they will be fine. I have deliberately planned a quiet week and won’t be going out at night as every day will have an early start.

After dropping off Wes, I visited Viva, who was looking great, now that she is starting to feel better. Leanne had taken advantage of my visit to go shopping, visit the library etc with a clear conscience, but I was sorry not to see her as well. I stopped at the Sunday Market when I got back here to collect fruit & vegetables from Yvonne. I was worried she would have run out of most things by 11am, so rang & ordered what I needed yesterday & she had it set aside for me, which was lovely.

After I finish the Dispatch I am going to cook the Christmas Pudding, then cook a smoked salmon omelette for breakfast/lunch & sit down to see how the Australians can save this Third Test!!

We’ve enjoyed our week, with Wes tidying up all the worries in his in-tray so he could go away feeling virtuous; he also took Barbara to hydro, did lots of weeding & watering, which brought rain, which means more weeding; cooked yummy meals every night, and went to Di Lyttleton’s 70^th birthday party at the Hepburn Springs Golf Course last night, where he claims to have danced with every female there! I decided not to go as I would not have been able to get up early this morning & I am so pleased I didn’t cramp his style as he got home at midnight.

I drove to Ballarat to the dentist on Thursday, which was a scorcher, and dropped in to Target to pick up a couple of long t-shirts for nightwear. They were priced at $15, but when I reached the register I was charged $5.88 each –how does anyone make money on that I wonder, definitely not the Chinese person who made them.

Yesterday morning we spent on the gate at the Farmers’ Market and missed out on the Highland Gathering parade of bands in the main street. Afterwards we had breakfast in Gracenotes Café, where we were joined by Annie Smith & Barbara Simpson. Wes had hoped to go to Victoria Park in the afternoon with Barbara to see the bands performing, but he was in panic mode to get everything done & had to forgo that pleasure.

Last year’s Highland Gathering photo

 

On Wednesday we went to see Elling, a Norwegian play being put on by the Melbourne Theatre Co. It was too long, but we did enjoy it – the message was something that reverberated with an older audience –if you keep people in care and then release them out into the world, of course they won’t be able to cope immediately. They need time to learn how to look after themselves and to take on responsibility.

I finally had lunch with Rhonda this week and caught up on her latest trip and shared experiences with her. Her sister, Fran, partner of Barry, who takes gym classes, has just been diagnosed with cancer, and we spent much of our time together waiting for a call from them to let Rhonda know what the doctor had said. The news was more optimistic than anyone had expected and I hope to find out the latest from Barry this week.

We also received a very lovely long phone call from our cousin, Leigh, in London, who is so excited that we will be there for her wedding in April, which is now only 4 months away. Wes has decided to wear his kilt, but needed to ask permission. We have booked into the same hotel as Leigh, Kevin & Jennifer will be in and have decided to spend a week in Hay-on-Wye in Wales afterwards. Wes has found a delightful self-contained cottage set in a topiary garden, so we are going to prop there & recover. Gillie suggested we visit this little place as it is a world-famous book town.

                                                       

Tomorrow morning Gillie & I are planning to play golf at Trentham after walking our respective dogs. Fingers crossed that the weather & our bodies cope!