Dear Everyone, I
left you on 15th June with us planning a relaxing afternoon watching
the footy in front of the fire, which we duly did. Wes made his first soup –
potato and celery which he served with garlic pizza bread and both were a big
success. Collingwood went down to the Bulldogs in a fantastic game of footy and
I was delighted for the Doggies and all their fans. This has been a difficult
year for them all. We switched over to watch the end of the Essendon &
Melbourne game, where Melbourne ran over the Dons and scraped home by a point.
What a great result for the Dees as well. Our friend, John Smith, a Dees fan, was
attending a rare game of footy with his son, Andrew, and grand-daughter,
Vanessa – both Essendon supporters.
On Monday Wes and
Bilbo had an early morning walk before the fog came down and completely covered
Daylesford. There was no hope of golf, gardening, shopping or driving to
Ballarat until it lifted, so we spent time at our computers and tried to stay
warm. Tuesday wasn’t quite as bad, and I caught up on all the things I should
have done the day before, while Wes took Barbara’s car to Howe Automotive in
East Street for a service. He decided to walk home and visit his sister,
Denise, on the way. Sadly she wasn’t at home, but he enjoyed a good walk
(downhill all the way) and came back home to discover the shocking news that
our dear friend, Norma Hutchins, had died that morning. Although she had fought
ovarian cancer for 9 years (and we had known her for 6 of those years), somehow
we never really believed the cancer would win, but it did. Norma was a
wonderful woman, an inspiration to everyone she met and our lives are better
for having known her.
Norma & Karen in Kandy in
2011
Judi had asked me
to lunch and it was an enjoyable distraction from our grief to spend time with
her at Gracenotes Café, where every
table was filled by locals. I was due to have a massage later that afternoon,
but cancelled it as I wasn’t breathing very well and wasn’t really in the mood.
I don’t think either of us slept very well that night with our memories of
Norma filling our heads. We met her on our first Cricket Tour (to India) in
October 2008 and she has been, along with Jane & David Knox & Terry McDonald,
an important part of our lives ever since. These three were also shocked and
saddened at the news.
On Wednesday Wes
walked Bilbo early, and then settled down to get on top of computer work before
spending some time doing odd jobs for Barbara. I went off to play Mah Jong with
Dot & Valerie and came home in time for Wes to give me a henna in
preparation for our trip. Then we packed and it was time to go.
Wes took Bilbo to Eureka Kennels and returned here where
we set off through fog which didn’t lift until we reached Kilmore. Our first
stop was Wahgunyah, where we tried some Cofield
Wines that we hadn’t tasted before and had a late lunch at the Pickled Sisters Café, which is next
door. We had booked a room at Tuileries
in Rutherglen and spent an enjoyable time there, setting off again early the
next morning after an indifferent breakfast.
We drove all day
and arrived at our hotel at 4pm. It was very funky and not quite as roomy as I
had hoped, with no relaxing chairs to sit in except in the general lounge area.
However, the staff were very welcoming, we parked Dolly Grey across the road and proceeded to unpack, before walking
to Chinatown for an early dinner at Little
Chili House.
We woke to find an
expected top of 22°, which was much hotter than we were expecting, so headed
off into the city (Hotel 1888 is in
Pyrmont, behind Darling Harbour) and decided to get tea and toast somewhere
there. Not many places were open so we ended up at a lovely café in the Strand
Arcade, where we found our sister-in-law, Anka, sitting having breakfast. She
was amazed when we said hello, and it was a bonus to sit with her for a while,
catch up on her news and make plans for our visit to Wollongong on Monday.
Later, after some
fruitless looking in David Jones and Myer, we ventured into an R M Williams
store, where we got good service and I was able to buy a polo top for day wear
and a couple of vests to replace my much-loved purple one, which I had spilt thermos
tea all over and completely ruined.
Next stop was the
Art Gallery where we spent a very pleasant hour or so and I rang Leanne to see
how she was and to tell her of our incredible luck bumping into Anka. We
emerged from the Gallery to see David & Jane Knox arriving at the Pavilion Café opposite, and we all
realised we needed to be in the Botanic Gardens, which was where I had booked
lunch!
Karen, Wes, Jane, Norma &
David in Nepal 2008
We spent a lovely
lunchtime with our dear friends, talking about their very recent trip,
celebrating Jane’s birthday and remembering Norma. Bryan Brown turned up to eat
there, wearing dark glasses and looking very forbidding. I desperately wanted
to tell him how much we are loving the series, Old School, with him and Sam Neill, but didn’t dare. Afterwards Jane
drove us home to their place where we watched the second half of the Collingwood
match. Hawthorn was too good for us and won easily in the end. David drove us
back to our hotel and we had an early night watching the Richmond vs Swans game
on TV.
On Sunday we walked
around Prymont & Ultimo & Chinatown, before retracing our steps to
Darling Harbour and our hotel, where Jane was picking us up for the footy at
the Sydney Showgrounds. It was very warm at the ground and we were seated in
the sun, about 7 rows from the front on the wing. I think Wes liked the ground
and said the atmosphere reminded him of early Swans’ games at the SCG, but he
was bitterly disappointed that Carlton couldn’t beat GWS.
Fortunately we had
drinks with Terry McDonald to look forward to and Jane drove us back to our
hotel, where we met him in the bar and proceeded to toast Norma yet again.
Terry was delighted to catch up with us & Jane, and announced he has
decided to visit Daylesford some time later this year. We are thrilled to bits.
I went upstairs to bed around 8pm, and Jane left to drive home, which meant Wes
and Terry chewed the fat over a few whiskies until the bar shut.
Terry in Stratford
Upon Avon last year
The next morning,
we packed our bags and went downstairs to the breakfast room/bar area, where we
met our dear nephew, Rohan. It was lovely to see him and spend time with him
again. He is a very endearing person and we enjoyed chatting about his Sports
Management course and catching up on what he has been doing.
Eventually we said
goodbye and drove to Wollongong to see Peter & Anka, where they have a lovely
little flat that they enjoying spending time in to recharge batteries. Peter
had been overseas with work and had the Monday off, so we went for a walk along
the beach, stopped for a cuppa, and then were driven to Barrack Point, where
Peter and Anka are planning to build a home for their retirement.
Suddenly I was
exhausted, so we scrapped plans to share a late lunch together and Wes drove us
to Canberra, where the weather was wet, windy and cold. We checked into East Hotel in Kingston, which is the
best Australian hotel we have ever stayed in. We had a full kitchen, laundry in
a cupboard, bed in a pod, spacious lounge, bathroom and even a balcony...brrr.
Wes went to the local supermarket and cooked sweet corn, followed by ravioli
& salad for dinner.
Liam, Rohan & Warwick with
Jessie & Michelle at the wake after Viva’s funeral
On Tuesday we woke
after a good sleep to find the rain had stopped. So after breakfast and a rest,
we walked to Manuka Cinema to see The
Trip to Italy with Rob Bryden and Steve Coogan and loved it. It is better
than their first film together and really worth seeing. When we emerged the
rain had started again, so we went back to our room to find a beautiful hamper
of goodies there courtesy of Peter & Anka. We spent the rest of the day
reading, picking at goodies and enjoying our beautiful apartment.
Yesterday we very
sadly left the hotel after breakfast, and set off to drive back here. There was
weak sunshine for the first hour, replaced by sleet and high winds, then rain,
then dry and finally mist as we made our way into Woodend and then Daylesford. There
were only two problems here – no home phone and later I discovered my electric
blanket control had died. I have addressed both those issues this morning and
Wes will collect a new control from John Thomas Electrics in Ballarat on his
way back from picking up Bilbo. The phone will be fixed by Monday, 30th
June. Fortunately I had switched the home number to my mobile last week when we
left so we aren’t missing calls.
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