Daylesford Dispatch - Tuesday, 1st January 2013

Dear Friends, how lovely to be sitting here at my desk catching up on emails etc & sending you my first Dispatch for the year. I hope you are having a wonderful day, although most friends on Facebook are complaining of not enough sleep & too much to eat & drink. I think the last time I saw New Year in was back in 2000, when we had Tom & Lib staying with us. Wes and Barbara walked to the New Year’s Eve Parade in the main street last night, where Wes was promptly roped into directing traffic as Rotarians were thin on the ground. He tells me he had a celebratory drink or two with Judi & Michael before coming back home around 10.30pm, by which time I was well & truly asleep. We had decided I would walk the boys this morning, so he got a sleep in for a change & I enjoyed the most peaceful walk of the year – the first person I spoke to in 2013 was Wes!

We had a lovely Christmas Day – up early and were just about ready when Jon Stephens arrived at 10.45am bearing gifts. We sat and chatted with him over a bottle of Moët, catching up on his news, as slowly the rest of our guests arrived, all bringing food to share for lunch. Denise Anderson had bought wonderful bon bons again which we enjoyed opening as they contain real gifts (sometimes worth fighting for) and after the main course, we opened our Lucky Dips. We had decided that Kris Kringle was too hard & suggested everyone bring a gift worth around $10, but in a twist that Wes read on Facebook, we were each allowed one steal! That made for great fun, especially when Jon Stephens stole the black shot glasses I opened, as he had bought them & really wanted them & when Shaun stole Wes’s red wine for Christmas dinner that night.

Eventually I went to bed around 8pm as we needed to get up early for the trip to Melbourne & the Boxing Day Test. Wes walked the boys while I showered, dressed & did possibly the worst packing for a holiday I have done in a while! I packed an umbrella but not a coat, crosswords but not a pencil, a tinned cake, but no opener or container, cool clothes but no sandals – the list goes on & on.

We went first to the MCC where I found Loud Gayle trying to save me a seat, queued and successfully got a ticket next to her and raced back out to the car so we could get to the European in time to meet my brother, Peter, and his wife, Anka, for breakfast. They arrived laden with Christmas lilies for me, which I appreciated every day of my stay at the Stamford Plaza. They were looking great & we enjoyed each other’s company. Then Wes drove them to their hotel, dropped me off the MCG, checked me into my hotel, collected Peter & Anka & dropped them off at the other side of the MCG and then came home.

 

That night he had invited Michael Ivanchenko, who was batching, and Gillie, who was back from Christmas in Geelong, to have a meal with Jon and catch up. He also invited Barbara, cooked steaks, made salads & sweets & was no doubt delighted when his head finally hit the pillow.

Jon had been partying hard during his brief visit here, so slept in the next morning, then drove back home to attend a preview of War Horse. Wes had a quiet day zedding with the boys and no doubt cleaning up & moving back down into his bathroom.

Christmas lunch photo of the Gibsons - Gayle, young Fraser & Fraser – Gabby took the photo so sadly we miss out on her!

On Friday, Wes and Barbara went to Ballarat to see Skyfall, but it was booked out, so they saw Quartet instead, and had lunch afterwards; Saturday was spent gardening and on Sunday post walk, Market & Breakfast, he drove to Melbourne to collect me.

Gillie & Jan Smith – Christmas at Café 3460 – how we miss it!

I had a lovely time while I was away, except that the cricket finished so early. I found I was quite tired on Boxing Day, so had an early meal at Westlake straight after the day’s play and was in bed by 8pm.

The next morning I met Gillie for an early breakfast back at the European, where she was able to tell me what a good night she had shared at our place with Jon. We drove to the ground and I got a good seat again. I was feeling much better, so during tea Gayle & I had two glasses of sparkling each in the Long Room. I also caught up with John Schibli, who runs Premier Tours, the travel agency that we use when doing cricket tours, and he occupied the vacant seat next to me for 30 minutes for a long chat. That night I went back to Westlake for another yummy dinner and was in bed early again, watching the Big Bash.

Another breakfast at European on Friday, this time catching up with Squiz, and Peter & Anka walked in while we were sitting there, which was lovely. The cricket that morning was amazing – I can’t remember having ever seen such a collapse live at a Test Match – the Sri Lankans were in dire straits at 1/1, 2/1, 3/3 & then 4/13. They finally ran out of fit players at 103 not long after lunch. I walked back into town and went to see Quartet, which was probably the least successful of the four films I saw. The acting by Maggie Smith, Pauline Collins & Tom Courtenay was sublime, but Billy Connolly was miscast & the film suffered from plot, situation & dialogue issues.

Wes offered to collect me on Saturday, but I decided to stay and went to David Jones in search of cool black pants, a polo top that didn’t celebrate cricket or footy and new nail polish. I was highly successful, and even managed to pick up two Christmas presents for Wes that I had been unable to find – a book on Wales and the latest Australian translation of Les Miserables (at the Hill of Content bookshop of course – where else!).

That day I saw two films – Paris-Manhattan which was a delightful French affair based on Woody Allen films, and later, Samsara, which was filmed over nearly 5 years in 25 countries and has the most astonishing footage of various worlds. Please see it if you get a chance. In between films, I went to Snowgum and replaced my embarrassingly worn out cargo pants & also found a new hair towel, which is much more absorbent than my old one. That night I was very brave and went to a new Chinese restaurant in Little Bourke (new to me, not Chinatown), where I enjoyed a very good meal – it is called Chine on Paramount and has an excellent menu, wine list & staff.

 

 The Turners at Christmas – Adam, David, Becky, Nathan & Emily – miss you all

I finished my trip with a final breakfast at European, where I ate something different from the previous 4 days, checked out of the hotel and went to see Love is All You Need, which was probably the pick of the bunch for me. It is set mostly in Sorrento, Italy, as well as Copenhagen and has some subtitles, but plenty of English spoken. Pierce Brosnan is good, but the Swedish actress, Trine Dyrholm, is sensational. If you are going to see it, don’t read any reviews – I hadn’t, and any I have read subsequently give away far too much of the storyline.

 

Wes collected me from the hotel and we drove home very happily – me to plunge into unpacking & washing, while he recovered from his big morning in the traditional fashion. That evening we had cocktails on the decking overlooking the Lake. One of his many gifts to me at Christmas was a bottle of Hendricks gin – Google it – it is just delightful in every respect, made in small quantities in a little town in Scotland. They won’t allow you to add lime, but insists on cucumber strips and it tastes sublime!

Wes had also given me splits of Moët to drink in my hotel at night, new salt & pepper grinders with a lifetime guarantee & a crossword book. I had given him a bottle of Jameson 12-year old Special Reserve Irish Whiskey, along with new boxer shorts & a personalised Carlton mouse pad (& yes, it did come from the Collingwood Super Store & yes, I did manage to get myself a Collingwood one at the same time).

After a busy day yesterday – early golf, late breakfast at Gracenotes with Annie Smith & Glenn Mack, lots of washing, ironing & clearing up etc, we are enjoying a lovely peaceful day today; have tickets in Gold Class to see Les Mis together tomorrow, and are looking forward to an exciting, happy, healthy & peaceful 2013. May your year be all you wish for too.