Dear Friends, meeting David Astle last
Sunday in the Trentham Institute Hall with Judi and 30 others was quite a
treat. He was very personable, just as he was on Letters and Numbers and easily entertained us all with word puzzles
and cryptic crossword clues for 90 minutes or so. I was lucky enough to find a
tenth country (Sierra Leone) amongst
some letters that he thought contained only nine, and scored one of his puzzle
books, which I am enjoying immensely. Judi encouraged me to ask him to sign it
afterwards, which he did with good grace. We stayed around partaking of the
splendid afternoon tea and caught up with Chris Meehan, who went to St
Bernard’s with Wes.
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Hidden
People caves near Bunir, Iceland
Sadly my busy weekend caught up with me on
Monday and I was confined to bed most of the day and a good part of Tuesday,
which meant that we missed gym, and I had to renege on a date with Judi to see
the French film, What’s in a Name, at
our local theatre, The Rex. Judi
assures me that I missed a very funny and clever film, so I will have to keep
an eye out for it at other cinemas.
By Wednesday I was feeling much better and
we attended a Rotary Breakfast meeting at Red Star Café. Whoever organised it
neglected to tell Ed the owner, and neglected to check that he would be open at
7.30 (which he wasn’t), but 18 of us eventually got inside into the warmth and
enjoyed a very social and inexpensive morning. I had cancelled Mah Jong with
Valerie that day before because of the weather – we have endured 60 mls this
week with sleet and cold winds.
Wes took Barbara back to the Glenlyon General Store for lunch and a
chat, while I had a long-overdue pedicure with Michelle. Neither of us was
hungry at dinner time, so we had a glass of wine and some fruit cake (a new one
had been baked that morning) and we went to bed to watch the cricket. We turned
the TV off at 9pm and woke expecting to find Australia all out, so it was a
lovely surprise to find Watson had made his highest Test score ever and that we
were 4/306 at stumps. Our cousin, Leigh, was there for the triumph, but left after
he went out, as it was very hot. The Oval
doesn’t seem to offer much shelter, like all English cricket grounds, and if
the temperature is in the high 20s and humid, it is just too hot to be in the
sun. Sadly this Test will probably fizzle out to a draw with all the rain
delays.
Outside
the Hilton Park Lane on our last morning in London
We did get to gym on Thursday morning, I
had a fringe trim immediately afterwards and I made a yummy lunch that we both
really enjoyed – penne with anchovy, pistachio & parmesan pesto, washed
down with a glass of Cofield Durif! Wes worked under the house clearing up some
boxes, reorganising and making room, while I tackled the upstairs library
shelves yet again, making space for Lee Child (fat paperbacks), Dirk Bogarde and
Graham Greene (doubled our number of novels of both writers recently).
Friday dawned as another cold, wet and
windy day and I was once again, white as a sheet and unable to do much. I had
given my tickets to the footy to Mate, and cancelled all other plans. Wes took
Barbara to Gracenotes Café that afternoon, where they met up with John, Jan,
Judi & Glenn, and wished Jan a belated Happy Birthday. Then he drove to
Melbourne to attend a St Bernard’s Old Boys dinner, where he had hoped to have
seen Chris Meehan, Laurie Wordsworth and maybe even Tom Tyrrell. Instead he
found himself the only representative of his year and sat next to someone younger
who said “You must be Wes Maloney, my
brother still talks about you….”
Bilbo & Frodo watching the footy on Friday night!
Yesterday was the first day without heavy
rain – Wes worked hard in the garden and has made a place for us to store wood
that will keep it dry (under the boys’ balcony). We collected new Winter coats
for Bilbo (red) and Frodo (green), from Jeannie, who runs the Scottish shop at Village on Vincent, and they wore them
to breakfast this morning.
In the afternoon we had invited our
neighbours, Dene and Robert, for drinks and nibbles and we enjoyed a couple of
hours good conversation with them both. They were interested in our holiday,
and we in their forthcoming trip to France and Switzerland. While they are away
we are charged with making sure their rhubarb doesn’t die!
Today is another fine, but cool day – Wes is
busy in the garden, the boys are sleeping after their hectic morning – Sunday Market,
followed by breakfast at The Food Gallery
(wearing their new coats). Everyone at breakfast was in good spirits and
had stories to tell, led by Gail who had us in stitches talking about her ongoing
sagas with Centrelink, trying to get a Health Card and pension for her husband,
Terry. We are all taking notes for when our time comes….
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