Scottish Summer Dispatch III - Saturday, 29th June 2013

 

Dear Friends, we’ve just finished watching Port easily account for Collingwood in a most intense, exciting game of footy. The atmosphere was amazing, and although we lost, I am very proud of our team as we tried our hearts out, just weren’t good enough. Last night we watched play fairly insipidly against the Swans in driving rain at the SCG…Wes was disgusted, but found a couple of whiskies helped ease the pain.

One of the lovely things about our hotel is its dog-friendly policy – we watch large and small dogs walk sedately up the stairs with their owners and in the morning they bound down, ready for a run on the grass and perhaps some time in the car while their owners eat breakfast. They are allowed everywhere except in the restaurant and on the furniture. We haven’t heard any barking or seen any bad behaviour; I guess they are just delighted to be with their owners and not in kennels!

Wes on Culloden Battlefield

Plumbing in the UK is something that constantly has us bamboozled. We suspect there are lots and lots of very clever men, each trying to outdo the other in designing wacky shower stalls and set-ups, to say nothing of taps in public toilets. I did approve of the toilet taps at Fort George, a very cold spot, where your only choice was hot; however, I used the loos at one castle, only to find I couldn’t turn the taps on (there were even diagrams of how to turn them on, but their logic eluded me). At home we have a fairly simple shower, square-shaped, one door, and one control, which gives you the temperature and the pressure. Here the showers are circular or semi-circular with at least two controls and we can’t always work out which is which. Yesterday Wes managed to fix the showerhead so it sprayed water evenly instead of in large plops, but getting in and out is quite tricky as you have to get around the toilet seat, mount two stairs and somehow propel yourself into the shower-bath without losing your balance.

What I do love are all the wonderful expressions – we just had to find the Fish Ladder in Pitlochry, the Hercules Garden at Blair Castle (yes, it has a giant statue of Hercules as well as duck and swan houses), Fish Tea, which I pictured as a sort of clear soup with goldfish or some other small fish swimming around, (it turned out to be fish & chips with white bread & butter and a cup of tea), to say nothing of my favourite village sign which is shown below.

 

On Wednesday we spent a very anxious time waiting for the result of the Gillard/Rudd ballot and were very disappointed to finally hear from Barbara that Julia had been ousted after all her hard work. Once Bill Shorten threw his support behind Kevin it was all over. We walked to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, which is built on the side of the river, amidst some lovely gardens, to participate in a backstage tour that I had booked from Australia. The tour was a real eye-opener and we learnt that the 18 actors comprising the troupe are chosen each year from about 4,000 entrants. It is a repertoire company, which puts on up to 6 different plays per week. This puts enormous strain on the workshop and stage managers, as each set has to be changed after each performance.

We had tickets to see A Chorus of Disapproval by Alan Ayckbourn, and enjoyed it thoroughly. The theatre was built 30 years ago and is very comfy with enough leg room for patrons to pass each other without knocking knees! Afterwards I begged Wes to buy us a drink in the bar in the hope of seeing the actors…and we did. We had a good conversation with the main actor, Carl Patrick, who had been to Melbourne last year, and he told us that a season at Pitlochry was a wonderful thing to have on your CV.

On our way home we had an early dinner at the Auld Smiddy Inn, which is staffed and run totally by women. Our meals were good without being memorable, but the cheese platter was a mistake as everything tasted as if it had just come out of the fridge!

We had planned a walking, exploring day on Thursday, but it was raining solidly all morning, so after another forgettable breakfast, we found that the shops that looked so cute and inviting, were all selling the same tourist stuff, so headed to the Railway Station, where there is an excellent second-hand book store, with most paperbacks costing £1 each. I found 6 books I couldn’t live without and we squelched back here, got ourselves dry and went for a drive instead. The scenery is so beautiful, we keep pinching ourselves and the drive to Glen Lyon and the Bridge of Balgie was no exception. We came back through Aberfeldy & Dunkeld, and followed the road to Edradour Distillery, the smallest whisky distillery in Scotland. We were too tired to do the tour, so bought a small bottle of one of their many whiskies, and Wes enjoyed it tasting it last night.

 

We had another early dinner, this time at a funny little place called Drummonds Inn, where we tried their breaded haddock, which came with chips and peas and buttered bread. I don’t think wine is a specialty of the house as there were exactly three reds, two of which could be purchased by the glass, so we did that, and on our way home, stopped by the wine store to get a good bottle of tempranillo.

Yesterday was the big drive to St Andrews, which I expected would just be a golf course – in my ignorance not realising it was a University town and there were graduation ceremonies going on while we were there. We eventually found a parking spot and spent about an hour in the wonderful golf museum, before walking around the town for another hour or so and having a look at the ruined Cathedral and Castle. The old golf course was quite a surprise to me – somehow I hadn’t pictured a links course and we watched the players in awe as they battled the undulations, wind, surprising hole placement, unwanted audience etc and all for the price of £130 per round.

I was thrilled to see the West Sands, which was the site of the opening scene of one of our favourite films Chariots of Fire, but we were very pleased not to have been staying in St Andrews, as it was too big and bustling. Later we drove to the picturesque fishing villages of Crail and Anstruther. The latter town has the best fish and chips in the UK, so we tried their salmon & dill fishcakes, which were superb and washed them down with some Scottish ice-cream, the best we’ve tasted so far.

On the way home we diverted to visit Scotland’s Secret Bunker, where we spent a chilling 90 minutes contemplating the awfulness of a nuclear war – this bunker was built during the cold war and only decommissioned in the 90s. We arrived back here very tired and hoping for a good game of delayed footy, but it was not to be.

This morning we finally hit on the perfect breakfast – we found muesli hidden away in a little drawer and followed it up by soft-boiled eggs with toast. We have our jar of Vegemite and I have my tin of Jasmine tea, so if all else fails, we can survive on tea and toast. This afternoon we will walk back to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre to see Single Spies by Alan Bennett, and finish our time here with dinner in our hotel’s restaurant. Tomorrow we head off to Oban, back to stay in a B&B. Thanks for reading and for your comments.

Cullen Skink at last!

Scottish Summer Dispatch II - Tuesday, 25th June, 2013

Dear Friends, time for a review of what we have been doing since I last wrote. We are continuing to love Scotland….the greenery, the people, the food, the treasures, everything is just perfect. Our only issue is something that is not unique to Scotland – managing European cars! In April we had a Peugeot which we never got the hang of…couldn’t make cruise control work, and never quite got a smooth ride as a result. This time we have a Citroen and Wes managed to get cruise control after a lot of fiddling and swearing and trying everything under the sun, which does include reading the manual. As we have only ever owned Mazdas, our minds are attuned to their user-friendly manuals and we don’t seem to have any difficulty at all, whereas I am quite convinced that the manual with this car belongs to another model. On Day 8 of our holiday we finally worked out how to change the time, memorise a radio station and open the fuel tank cover…..progress indeed.

Old Gaol & Courthouse, Nairn

The good news is that Warren was successful in his afternoon at Nairn Museum looking for information about his ancestors and narrowed down the area in which they lived and took photos of the sort of sheep that were stolen. He celebrated with a whisky at the local pub and we then had an early dinner at our nearest hotel, the Culloden Moor Inn, which serves quantity rather than quality…Wes had chili con carne and the mountain of rice would have fed both of us and the two boys on its own.

We drove to Elgin on Friday morning to see the famous ruined Cathedral and enjoyed walking around, climbing the tower to the lookout and getting lost in thought in the graveyard. Then we pushed on to Cullen, an historic Royal town, which we loved. It is home to the Scottish soup called Cullen Skink, which is made of smoked haddock, potatoes, leeks and cream. We went for a lovely walk there over a disused railway bridge and wished for the umpteenth time that we had Bilbo and Frodo to share the walk with us.

For dinner that night, we shared some cheese and biscuits and red wine with our hosts. The next morning I woke up exhausted as we had done too much the day before, so decided to spend the day in bed with a book and lots of cups of Jasmine tea. Muriel was very worried about me, but Warren reassured her that I needed the rest, and by Sunday morning, I had colour in my face again when I came down for breakfast. Muriel’s breakfasts are so yummy – freshly chopped fruit salad, homemade muesli, fresh local eggs, juicy sweet tomatoes, sausages, bacon, smoked salmon and special brown bread toast. We don’t have all of these things of course, but she presses them on us every morning.

We drove to Rosemarkie, where we parked the car and walked the path to the Fairy Glen. It was peaceful, green and beautiful, and we didn’t want it to end. In some ways it reminded us of parts of the walk to Twin Bridges, Daylesford, except that we had a running stream on either side of us. We then drove to Royal Burgh of Cromarty and fell in love with this little seaport instantly, stopping for a hot drink at The Pantry, and watching the local walking their dogs, who were all impatient to get to the water. We ended up having a late lunch in Inverness, at the popular Mustard Seed, where we enjoyed piping hot soup and beautifully cooked fish. Outside it was pouring with rain and we decided to go home and catch up on the footy on our laptop.

 

We sat in the lovely guest lounge watching the very exciting Brisbane win over Geelong after the siren (that’s turning the tables on the Cats, who specialise in last minute wins), saw some of Freo’s easy win over North, and discovered that Daylesford had beaten Hepburn, which was a fitting last game for Luke Adams, who has been playing for Daylesford forever! We sat around drinking whisky and wine with our hosts and welcomed the next visitors, two doctors from Manchester, who were having a rare few days off and spinning around Scotland in their beautiful MX5!

Yesterday was earmarked for the Culloden Battlefield, which was just down the road from our B&B, so we headed there on the coldest, wettest day we have had so far. We joined the Victorian National Trust before we left home, so we get free admission into any National Trust properties, castles or gardens. We found the whole battlefield and history quite dispiriting – so much unnecessary bloodshed and subsequent slaughter, but it was an excellent site and we are pleased we went.

Then onto Fort George, a huge 18^th C Fort built as a result of the scare that Bonnie Prince Charlie gave the King. We were able to walk the ramparts, visit the Museum and the Chapel and were amazed at the fact that it is a living fort, which visitors can roam around. It is home to the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Our first experience of a 3-tier pulpit

Afterwards we enjoyed a perfect late lunch at the Cawdor Inn, where we finally tasted Cullen Skink (beautiful) and I had a Scottish seafood platter, while Wes polished off venison sausages. It was a lovely way to finish off our 6 days in the Inverness area.

 

This morning, Muriel was in tears as we left, she hates her guests to go and likes them to stay in touch, so I will send her an email and let her know that we have arrived here safely in Pitlochry. On our way we detoured to visit Blair Castle and I am absolutely entranced by the history of the 12 Dukes of Atholl. It is a beautiful place, very well-kept and includes huge areas of garden which are being restored.

 

We stopped for a late bowl of soup at The House of Bruar, before driving here to Pine Trees Hotel, Pitlochry. Wes had a surprise for me, as he had booked the only suite, thinking we might enjoy having lots of space after being in B&Bs for the past 8 nights. We have so much space we don’t quite know what to do with it – a huge sitting room with comfy lounge suite and big TV (haven’t seen any Scottish TV yet); an equally large bedroom with 4-poster bed and breakfast nook, and a small but very modern bathroom. There are two fireplaces, a lovely desk where I am sitting, a drinks tray, two tea & coffee making trays, a heated towel rack we can switch on and umpteen chests of drawers and lamps. The hotel is set in large grounds and we can easily walk everywhere. Wes has just emerged from a long bath and is resting with a whisky in hand……I’ll write again soon.

 

 

Scotland Summer Dispatch I - Thursday, 20th June 2013

SCOTLAND SUMMER DISPATCH

It’s time for my first Dispatch and before I go any further, I have to say – we are loving Scotland! Getting here was quite fun – we left on Sunday after a busy morning – Wes walked & then washed the boys, while I did the last-minute washing & discovered the dryer wouldn’t work unless you stood there holding your finger on the button for the time it took to dry things. We moved to plan B – our clothes went into Barbara’s dryer and the boys’ towels into our drying cupboard with the temperature up to 20◦. We four then went to breakfast, where Kim & Gary were making their first appearance in a while and Terry White even popped in for a coffee. I alerted Judi to the news about the dryer, one extra job for her as well as keeping an eye on the house, collecting the local paper and putting out the bins for us.

We dropped the boys at Eureka Kennels in Ballarat, and drove to Melbourne to visit Viva and Leanne, before heading to the airport via Andrew’s Airport Parking just as the rain bucketed down. We had our usual good, efficient service checking in with Emirates and passport control and found ourselves in the Emirates Lounge with a glass of Moet in hand, ready to relax.

Lovely photo of Danny with Greta & Harry’s daughter, Penny

This is when Wes discovered he couldn’t get wifi on his newly-mended phone nor could he hear anyone on the phone except on loudspeaker. He decided to take a pragmatic approach to this, let Barbara know what had happened in case she was trying to get in touch with him, and exchanged his Moet for a Jamieson’s whisky.

We found the trip quite exhausting, although we were very comfortable – we stopped at Singapore for 1 hour that turned into 2 and then couldn’t get off the ground as the oxygen cylinders weren’t right, and then spent 3 hours at Dubai, where we had a shower and changed clothes which helped.

Although Emirates offers hundreds of films and TV Shows, we were struggling to find something we liked, so I watched all 9 episodes of Downton Abbey, Series 3 (I haven’t seen the first 2 Series yet) and last year’s Grand Final with no sound (my choice). Wes got interested in short films and then listened to music as he found the current films too violent or futuristic to be bothered with them.

When we finally arrived in Glasgow, everything went smoothly, except when the Borders Policewoman asked me why we were visiting Glasgow and I said because we haven’t been here before. Wes assured me that she wanted to know if our trip was business or pleasure, so we cleared up that confusion, collected our hire car – a shiny black Citroen, and drove to Stirling.

Apart from the usual issues of driving a European car (the wipers and lights are on the reverse sides to our Mazdas), we had an uneventful journey to Castle Croft B&B, where our hostess, Laura, greeted us warmly, and understood that we needed to sleep more than anything else – by that time we had been travelling or sitting in airports for 34 hours straight.

Looking into our room from the patio

We loved our visit to Stirling – the next morning (Tuesday), we set off along the secret path up to the Castle, which was wonderful to explore. It has an amazing history, including being rescued by Queen Victoria, who thought it had been allowed to fall into disrepair and asked for it to be restored. We gained an appreciation of Mary of Guise, mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, and learned about the Stirling Heads, of which we knew nothing. Afterwards we wandered around the old town, through the cemetery, the old hospital and the cobbled streets.

We rested in the guest lounge during the afternoon, catching up on emails on our laptop, reading and learning about whisky. That night we walked to The River House, where we enjoyed a good meal of mackerel pate, followed by grilled hake. The service was excellent and with the long evenings, we walked home in daylight.

Yesterday we left Laura and our compact, but comfortable room to drive to Inverness, which was to take 3 hours. However, we took the advice of our Lonely Planet Guide and detoured along country lanes, with Loch Ness on our left and ended up having a late lunch at Dores Inn, which is an historic old hotel right at the banks of the Loch. The food was good and we enjoyed the ambience, not just of the pub, but all around. There is a chap in a caravan, who arrived in 1991 and is still there looking for Nessie. Sadly he wasn’t at home yesterday or we could have heard some of his stories.

We eventually found our way to Culloden Moor, just outside of Inverness, where we are for 6 nights. We were a little worried when we arrived as we couldn’t make anyone hear us at the front door, but discovered that the departing guests had somehow managed to break one of the wooden slats that form the base of the bed and that our hosts, Muriel and Ted were in a panic – one trying to replace the slat and the other madly hoovering everywhere he had been!

 

We were put into the downstairs room, which was lovely, but very compact and when Ted finally fixed the bed, we chose to move upstairs where there was much more room and a single bed on which we could put our suitcases. The downstairs bathroom had a huge bath, but our room has a very adequate shower and there is a computer area and a small couch outside the bedroom, as well as the large guest lounge downstairs with stunning views over the hills and a stunning disused railway line bridge.

We had stopped on our way at The House of Bruar, which is a stunning collection of Farm Shops, similar to the one in Daylesford, England, and bought a magnum of Claret and some cheese. Muriel let us put the cheese in the fridge and later joined us for a glass of red, lavender oatmeal biscuits and Cuddy Cove cheese.

Their other guests last night, who were not expected, were two girl friends from Trinidad and Tobago, so we invited them to join us for red wine and a cricket chat, when they came back from dinner. We saw them again at breakfast this morning and wished them well as they headed off to Skye.

Muriel, who chats non-stop and very rarely listens, is most generous, and has already washed and dried our laundry bag of clothes for us, as well as cooked us a beautiful breakfast this morning – Wes was raving about the bacon which he said was as good as Chris Sinclair does at Gracenotes Café, and I had velvety scrambled eggs that were nearly as good as Kim used to make at Café 3460.

We set off this morning for Cawdor, which is where Wes’s ancestor Margaret Mackintosh was born. We couldn’t find her father’s grave in the lovely churchyard, but there were plenty of Mackintoshes, a Munro and even a Mowat, one of the early names in Viva’s family tree.

Then off to Cawdor Castle, which is a living castle, and quite a treat to visit. The rooms we saw were all furnished richly, many of them with Flemish tapestries of Don Quixote. I think the highlight for me was the beautifully appointed former kitchen, with its copper pans, huge black range, enormous mortar and pestle and the information that when the last cook was offered new cookware and stove she promptly handed in her notice!

 

We finished the indoor tour and then found the gardens, which were superb – there is a maze, a hidden garden, a flower & herb garden, a wild garden and 4 nature trails that visitors are welcome to walk. So we did – and enjoyed a tranquil stroll by the side of a stream – the end of the walk brought us out to the car park. It cost us each about $12 for this delightful experience.

We then drove into Nairn, where Wes has forebears, but apart from the view at the wharf of the North Atlantic ocean, we were a little underwhelmed, and drove back here along winding little lanes, through fields of canola, past piggeries and cattle, but with no sign of the sheep that caused Margaret to be sent out to Australia as a convict. At 14 years of age, she stole 5 sheep, which is no mean feat!

So now I am sitting in the guest lounge downstairs looking out at the spectacular view. Our hosts have gone out and Wes has driven to the Museum to see if he can find out more information about his relatives. We had such a good breakfast – lots of fresh fruit before our cooked meal, that we didn’t need lunch, but will enjoy an early dinner and perhaps some more of our claret and cheese on our return.

Wes in the beautiful border of the maze garden

We are keeping abreast of life in Daylesford via Facebook, where everyone posted pictures of frost today. I am ringing Viva via Skype when I wake up every morning and she is enjoying the contact and sounds very well. Her GP gave her a clean bill of health and said she is doing very well, which is a relief.

I’ll write again soon – thanks for reading.

Daylesford Winter Dispatch - Sunday, 9th June 2013

Dear Friends, this will be my last Dispatch for a while as we are heading off on Sunday for 6 weeks in Scotland, England and Iceland, and I may be just a bit too busy next Sunday to write, so I’ll be in touch as soon as I can from Scotland.

We’ve enjoyed a lovely week here in spite of the cold and rain, and lately the frosts, although they herald sunny days! It was a cold & wet Monday when we headed to Ballarat to see The Great Gatsby in Gold Class ($22.50 including a hot drink & a slice – bargain) and we loved it. I was ambivalent about going as I was so sick of the trailers, but I am pleased we went as it was totally engrossing & very true to the book. The acting was superb, and as it was shot in Australia, there were plenty of Aussies in action, both acting & behind the scenes.

 

On Wednesday we went out again – this time to visit Barwon Park in Winchelsea. It is a 42-room bluestone mansion built in 1871 for the Austins who started the hospital of the same name in Melbourne. We have joined the National Trust as we will be entitled to entry into lots of castles and homes in Scotland but thought our first venture should be somewhere local. I had played Mah Jong in the morning and Wes joined me, Gail & Dot & John for lunch at Harvest Café, before we set off. We didn’t realise it would take 95 minutes driving each way, but it was worth it as there were more volunteers beavering away than visitors.

On our way back we received an invitation from Glenn Mack to join him at the Daylesford Hotel for a drink, which was just what we felt like, so found him and Michael Ivanchenko settled into the snug in front of the open fire. We decided to have an early quick meal there with Glenn, but Michael was off to Terry’s place to watch NSW unexpectedly win the first State of Original Rugby League match, so he didn’t join us.

Frasers Snr & Jnr at Barwon Park earlier this year

Wes has done a lot of driving this week as he has been stocking up on manure and straw to make sure our garden beds are all at their best before we leave. Bilbo & Frodo aren’t sure what to make of the straw, but laziness wins and they come inside for a sleep after acting as assistant gardeners for a while….sous-cheffing is much more their style.

 

On Friday afternoon Wes drove Barbara to the MCG to see the Carlton & Essendon game which was attended by over 82,000 people. It was a fantastic game to watch on TV and the atmosphere must have been electric. Sadly for the Blues supporters, the Bombers were too strong in the finish and won by 5 points. It was nearly 1am before Wes fell into bed exhausted.

We drove to Melbourne yesterday for me to visit Viva and Wes to spend time with Joan Testro. The roads were quite icy early, so I drove extra carefully until we were past Woodend and the danger of black ice. Viva was looking good and pleased to see me and Leanne was able to spend three hours out without having to worry. I cleaned all the glass & mirrors and did some reminiscing with Viva, before Wes arrived and we spent another hour delving into the past. Wes had enjoyed his time with Joan and came back with some lovely stories.

The glamorous Joan Testro at the Opening of Testro House 1960

One of the things that has always puzzled Wes has been his name – Warren, which was his father’s second name. There is no record in the family of any forebear having this name, but this week he finally obtained a copy of Ray’s baptismal certificate (family lore said he was baptised at St Pat’s Cathedral, but in reality it happened at St Francis Church, which is why no-one could find proof and why Ray had to be baptised again on his wedding day, so he could marry non-Catholic Doris in the Catholic Church). Ray’s godfather was a jumps jockey/bookie named George Warren (Jock) Woodburn – perhaps that is the answer to the question!

This coming week will be busy – we are hoping to catch up with Lauren, Travis, Myles & Rosie Kennedy, who are on holidays here in Daylesford; I have a U3A lunch to attend; we both have haircuts and medical appointments, and at some stage we have to pack……

Daylesford Winter Dispatch - Sunday, 2nd June 2013

Dear Friends, when I left you last Sunday we were heading to Ballarat & we are all so glad we did. Wes took us to see Song for Marion with Terence Stamp & Vanessa Redgrave and it is a wonderful, wonderful little English film – not to be missed if possible. We cried our eyes out and came home to another open fire and yummy Atlantic salmon on rice, with Jane acting as the sous-chef.

 

 

 

 

Sadly it was time for Jane to go back to Sydney the next day, so we set off in plenty of time to take the back roads to the airport including a drive through Kyneton. After dropping Jane off, I went to Strathmore to visit Viva & give Leanne some time to herself, which she really appreciated. Viva was looking very good with painted nails, earrings& rings galore and I could really see a difference since my last visit. By the time I got home at 4pm I was exhausted with all we had done, so went straight to bed and stayed there until 6.30am on Tuesday. Wes had made yummy pumpkin soup which was just the thing.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday was dedicated to washing & ironing after I had gone to gym and caught up with Glenn Mack for a cuppa at Gracenotes Café. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was a bit sorry I was housebound for much of it. In the afternoon Wes and Barbara went for a stroll around the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, while I walked the boys to the Post Office and back, much to their delight.

 

 

 

Bone time at Maloney Folly

 

Gail was a late scratching for Mah Jong on Wednesday, but the rest of us enjoyed a fun morning, although Renée let us know that she will be leaving in three weeks’ time as the owners can’t afford to keep her on anymore. In the afternoon Wes and I had been invited by Victor Szwed to attend a publicity sub-committee meeting for this year’s Art Show, which we were pleased to do. We came away feeling very happy that the Show is in good hands and can only improve especially with some younger, tech-savvy Committee members.

I had won two tickets to see True Minds by Joanna Murray-Smith, at the MTC Sumner Theatre, so we set off after the meeting to see how I would go, as I am not usually good at evening activities these days. We had a yummy meal in Curve Bar at the Arts Centre, then across the road to the play, where we had excellent seats. There was no interval, which was a good thing, as I think we would have left, as we were sadly underwhelmed by the play – the two lead characters lacked charisma, the set was cluttered and distracting, and although the ideas were of interest –motherhood, marriage values, left vs right etc – the play was too wordy and needed better leads to match the quality of the three supporting actors.

 

We arrived back home just after 11pm, and although I was completely exhausted and missed gym the next morning, I am pleased to report that I was up and showered by 9am. Fortunately it was a beautiful wet day, so apart from collecting the mail, checking John & Jan’s home and buying a new pair of jeans, I stayed put instead with a pair of sleeping Labradors as company and a wonderful Alexander McCall Smith novel (Corduroy Mansions) to keep me entertained.

On Friday I did an early shop in the rain, redesigned our business cards, posted cards for the early June birthdays, and left Wes writing a biography of his father, Ray’s early years, while I collected Judi for a date. We had a lovely lunch together at Gracenotes Café, and then set off to Barcaldine House, where we enjoyed seeing Quartet as part of the U3A Hepburn Shire Film Group. I had already seen the film, but was very happy to see it again, catch up with some old friends and support everyone involved in putting on these monthly occasions.

We had afternoon tea, but then the mist rolled in again, and I couldn’t breathe, so we headed home, picking up my new jeans which had been taken up by Annette Lee that afternoon. She used to work out of the Hepburn Post Office, but now she & her husband have moved out of Pierre & Simone’s home and into their own place, she is set up in the front room.

The Pies played a forgettable game but won easily, much to the relief of us all, especially Wes who was able to go to bed early as the game was over by quarter time.

Yesterday was the wettest June day on record in Melbourne and some places recorded 90mls, we didn’t get that much, but it was constant and the monthly Farmers’ Market was much reduced in size and attendance. The school oval was sodden, so the stall-holders moved up the hill onto concrete and when I popped in during the morning, Wes and Jan Pengilley were doing their best to persuade shoppers to climb that hill!

We had planned to go and watch Carlton play GWS that afternoon, but decided it would be mad to drive in the rain, especially with the Merri Creek breaking its banks everywhere, so elected to stay home and watch the Blues win instead. Wes felt like cooking, so we invited Glenn Mack and his partner, Denise, to an early dinner, which we enjoyed with the open fire in the background. Denise is responsible for our love affair with Hendricks Gin and she was thrilled to see the superior packaging of our litre bottle. Dinner was a particularly yummy fish pie, and we all had seconds! This was followed by Eton Mess and a selection of cheeses.

 

Today it wasn’t raining early so Wes walked the boys, who had barked at 5am to remind him to get up and going. I then took them to pump mineral water at Leitches Creek, before our trip to the Sunday Market. When we arrived, Yvonne & John were still setting up, but John stopped what he was doing to cut the outer leaves off a large cabbage and give them to Bilbo & Frodo, who eyeballed him from the minute we arrived.

After the usual antics when we got home – sharing the end of the celery and tidying up any small pieces of vegetables going begging, we hopped back into the car and off to breakfast at the Food Gallery, where we were a small, but chatty group. Judi had been to visit Gillie and reported she was looking very well after her successful operation; Gail has been dieting and we all noticed a difference; Aileen was pleased that smoke and water erupting from her car was easily fixed and nothing to worry about; Barbara & Wes were thrilled with the Blues big victory, and Kerry, our waitress was wearing ¾ sleeves, so we knew it must be cold!

 

Victor Borg, Georgina Borg & Terry Borg celebrating the end of Victor Borg & Associates after 40 years of selfless service! Victor, we salute you and are so thrilled that you & your wonderful family came into our lives in 1982.