Dear Everyone, when
I left you last Sunday, we had just said goodbye to Peter Russo, I was making a
pot of minestrone soup, and Wes was attacking his email and Facebook pages to
get feedback from the Asylum Seeker Forum. Everyone was very positive about
their experience and the only negativity came from people who hadn’t been there
or who confused the Forum with a debate and complained that both sides weren’t
represented.
Here is the refugee longboat
being put into position by members of the Daylesford ALP Branch
We spent the
afternoon in front of an open fire as the weather couldn’t make up its mind what
to do – we had a flurry of snow, followed by brilliant sunshine, followed by
heavy rain and strong winds. I was most disappointed by Collingwood’s inability
to get within cooee of the West Coast Eagles and we were very lucky to lose by
10 goals – it should have been more. Dear Norma Hutchins would have been
delighted if she had still been with us.
Meanwhile our
Sydney friends, Jane & David Knox were invited to be guests of Geelong at
the exciting game against Fremantle at Kardinia Park last Saturday night. They
witnessed a wonderful spectacle and Geelong was lucky to win after Freo
couldn’t kick a goal after the siren to snatch victory. Jane is always careful
not to offend her friend, Annette, who had invited them to the game and never
wears red and white when the Swans are playing the Cats. She sent me through
this picture of her, David and Patrick McNamara (another person we all met on
our original 2008 Indian cricket tour).
For those of you not in the know,
Freo colours are purple and white!
Wes had planned to
play golf on Monday, but it was 0° and raining, so he took Bilbo for a long
walk then gave him a bath and decided he would spent the rest of the morning in
the garden instead. The rain eased off, the full moon disappeared and the garden
was very keen to have him working in it again. We’ve both neglected it lately
because of unwellness on my part and the Forum on his. That night Wes chaired a
meeting of our local ALP Branch, attended by our local MP, Catherine King,
where there was an animated debriefing on the Forum.
Tuesday dawned wet
and cold, so there was no walk for Bilbo. I went to gym, which had been in
recess while Barry was in Canada, and Wes drove to Sr Genevieve Jeffrey’s
funeral in Gardenvale. I had a lovely facial with Emma at EKO and returned home to minestrone soup and computer work. Wes was
pleased he had been to the funeral, but tired after all the driving, so we both
spent a very quiet late afternoon in preparation for a very busy day to come.
Glenn Mack arrived
on Wednesday to help Wes to cement in the bird house pole and attach the
three-storey home on top. I headed off to Mah Jong with Dot & Valerie and
Sandra cleaned the house for us. Bilbo is very funny when she arrives – he gets
very excited and we tell him he can go upstairs to be scratched and patted.
When he comes back down again, he skips in excitement!
Wes spent time
helping Barbara then came home to rest. He had been due to drive to Melbourne
again that afternoon for a 6pm meeting, but was too tired, so cancelled out of
the meeting and enjoyed an early night.
I made it to gym
again on Thursday, then came home and changed into glad rags, before picking up
Judi and driving us to Bendigo to see two exhibitions at the Art Gallery there.
Judi had organised the tickets for us and I was pleased that I felt well enough
to go. The first exhibition, from the Victoria & Albert Museum, was Undressed – 350 years of underwear in
fashion. It was fascinating, beautifully displayed and explained a lot about
early underwear, before tracing a path until today. One of the highlights for
me was the amazing gown worn by Emily Watson (who played Hermione) at the Opening Night of the final Harry Potter film.
We then went into
the new space to see The Body Beautiful
in Ancient Greece, from the British Museum. There were some wonderful
sculptures, which I enjoyed, while Judi appreciated the bronze figures and we
both could take or leave the earthenware.
The famous discus thrower with
his head replaced facing the wrong way
Judi had thoughtfully
booked a table for lunch at the Gallery and we enjoyed a very yummy meal and
pots of jasmine tea. Our waitress was very young, very inexperienced and very
fond of the word youse.
I found I was quite
tired after all the stimulation and chatting, so spent a very quiet night after
dropping Wes at Jeff Bain’s place for a Boys’ Film Night. They watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
(American version) and drank lots of whisky, red wine and liqueurs. Wes arrived
home at 1.15am.
He was very
ordinary indeed on Friday, so I made lunch, walked Bilbo, collected the mail
and bought the bird seed and shell grit for Fawlty
Towers. It is taking ages for our first guests to check in and we are
getting very impatient indeed. Perhaps they were looking for water beds and spa
baths, or perhaps they don’t realise we will take one night over the weekend!
That night we tried
our best to get Carlton over the line against Geelong, but they fell short by a
goal in a very entertaining, close game. Injuries made the difference in the
end, although Wes thinks that the Blues have forgotten how to win.
Yesterday we both
got into the garden early once the frost had melted. I mulched a bed that had
been most prolific with Italian parsley, basil and chilis this year, in
preparation for some more goodies next year. Wes has been putting in pavers
through the front garden so we can reach the new roses to pick them when they
flower. He is filling compost bins as fast as he empties them (we have 5 in
total) and Bilbo followed him around this morning taking notes no doubt.
After lunch we went
to Victoria Park for Daylesford’s last home and away match against Waubra, a
team we haven’t beaten in 4 years. The Doggies played very well and beat Waubra
by 19 points which puts us into an Elimination Final against Buninyong next
Saturday afternoon. There was a carnival atmosphere at the ground as all the
Past Players had been invited to partake of refreshments and celebrate the
year. I enjoyed spending time with Ken Matheson, and Wes chatted with Cr Kate
Redwood and her husband, Neville, who had been on the gate, but were able to
watch from quarter time onwards.
We came home to
watch Collingwood play the Lions to cement a place in the Eight and were
horrified to discover we had lost our most exciting player and our captain
before the game even started. During the match we lost three more players to
injury, and one replacement player had already played a full reserves game in
the morning to boot. Needless to say we were no match for Brisbane and have
dropped out of contention. I am so pleased I didn’t go last night – a long way
to travel for not much reward!
This morning I woke
with a splitting head (all the excitement of going out yesterday no doubt) so
cancelled my trips to the Market and breakfast. Wes did both activities while I
stayed in bed. I’m now up and dressed and will have a very quiet day.
Wes with Nick Massaro earlier
this year
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