Morse

Morse
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Sunday, 26 April 2015

Daylesford Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 26th April 2015





Dear Friends, when I left you last week, we were heading off to breakfast where we enjoyed a good 75 minutes of interesting conversations, with Margot leading the way for a change. It was so cold that Bilbo had to wear his coat and he seemed very happy indeed. Pasquale & Toni were expecting about 30 people upstairs at 11am, but they resisted asking us to hurry up, which we really appreciated and made sure we were out by 10.15am.

Sunday was wild and woolly weather with the wind blowing in from every direction and leaves going everywhere. I had been keen to see ‘Shaun the Sheep’ the film, and Wes decided to come with me. We joined quite a few others retreating from the weather and thought it was a very clever and entertaining film.

The next morning Wes & Bilbo braved the elements and walked early. It was too cold at 7.30am to walk to gym, but the weather had improved by the time I left to come back home. It had been ages since I had spoken with my sister, Paun, and was lucky enough to catch her for a chat later in the morning as Cliff Place Café was closed for the day after being open every day for the school holidays. She sounded very chirpy and updated me on her three sons, Liam, Warwick & Rohan.

That afternoon I had my flu injection, which was painless and didn’t involve any immediate side effects. It is quite fun to sit in the waiting room, which is full of friends, most of them waiting for 15 minutes to elapse so they can go home again. I met up with Ian & Trish Tinetti, John & Yvonne from the Sunday Market, Jeff Pedretti, who used to run the Daylesford Gym, and Una with whom I had done Barry’s class that morning. The talk was mostly about Collingwood and the ANZAC Day match against Essendon.

On Tuesday, it was my turn to walk Bilbo, which I did at 8am, when the weather was kinder. We walked up around Cornish Hill, around the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens and back home via the main streets. Wes was showing ‘What We Did on our Holidays’ with a star-studded cast, so I joined him at the cinema for the 10am session. It was a lovely film, and we are both pleased to have seen it. There were only 7 of us in the audience as the 10am Tuesday session time is shown as being for ‘Mums & Bubs’. So far, there haven’t been any of them in spite of heavy advertising and a wide range of films. With a bit of luck the committee will decide to stop advertising the crybaby session, as lots of us retired people are very happy to see a film at that time. It would also be good for people working in hospitality, who are usually employed during lunchtime, the late afternoon & evenings.

Late that afternoon Wes told me that all colour had drained from my face and that I should go to bed at once, which I did. I ended up having a 48-hour reaction to the injection and am very lucky that I can just go to bed and let it make its way through as quickly as possible. Wes looked after me with food and drink and Bilbo did the rest.

On Thursday I was feeling better, but still coughing and sore, so got up, did some shopping, collected the mail etc and came home exhausted. The rest of the day was spent doing very little indeed as I was determined to feel well enough for the ANZAC service followed by the footy on Saturday. The highlight of the day was the news from Marilyn Preston that Sarah & Heath have a second beautiful daughter, Ruby India, born safe and sound.

Robert & Marilyn with newly born Ruby Preston

Bilbo and I did the Bush walk on Friday morning and Josie took us from the Glenlyon General Store to the Reserve with morning tea by the mineral water spring. It was a lovely walk with lots of beautiful oak trees still in full colour. Meanwhile Wes had been very busy at home with Brian the electrician coming to check out all our wiring etc to see why our dishwasher keeps playing up. He concluded it is an earthing problem, which can be repaired by Barclays next Wednesday afternoon. Nick Massaro also came to repair two holes in our bedroom wall, which we thought were caused by possums, but turn out to be the work of rats!!!!

In the middle of all this activity, Wes heard from his cousin, Mandy, that her mother, Joan Testro, was not expected to live much longer, and she wanted him to be prepared for the phone call when it arrived. As well, he read on Facebook that an old friend and client, John De Simone, father of Joe, had died peacefully on Wednesday.

Wes cooked a yummy version of his fish pie with pumpkin and invited Nick to share it with us, which he did. There were lots to talk about with the ANZAC commemoration at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Before he left, Nick filed the underneath of our front door to stop it sticking and now we keep slamming the door as we forget how easy it is to open and shut!

Dawn service yesterday morning at Daylesford

We decided not to go to this service as it was raining and went to the 9am informal service at Eganstown, which we like to do together. Wes laid a wreath on behalf of Catherine King MP, the RSL Treasurer, Ken Dowling, spoke well and reminded us all of the Turkish losses and of the generosity of Ataturk after the war. I congratulated him later and told him how meaningful his speech had been to us as we had been to ANZAC Cove and seen the tributes to the fallen by the Turks. The highlight was the unaccompanied singing by local, Sallie Harvey, of the haunting anti-war song, ‘And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda’ by Eric Bogle.

I set off after this for Melbourne and the footy, while Wes went back to Vincent Street Daylesford for the ANZAC Day Parade and final service of the day, where he met with Barbara who likes to join the march wearing her grandfather’s medals. He said there was a big turnout and that Sallie Harvey sang again – unaccompanied and to total silence and appreciation. When Wes got back home, he was able to see the Blues have their first win for the season against the hapless Saints in New Zealand.

Meanwhile I had booked a car park, which was a blessing as the parks were all full, and I arrived at the ground in plenty of time to get a good seat on the Balcony in the MCC Pavilion with a perfect view of the game and under cover until the last quarter when the rain slanted sideways. Amazingly, the weather didn’t deter too many souls and there were nearly 89,000 of us at this 21st meeting of Collingwood & Essendon on ANZAC Day. And yes, I’ve been to every single one of them, which is such a privilege and thrill. We were well entertained by service & civilian bands until the ceremonies commenced. It is always breath taking to be at a crowded MCG during the minute’s silence, which is followed soon after by clapping and cheering loud enough to raise the roof. The Pies won the arm wrestle by 3 goals, but the game was always in doubt until the 20-minute mark of the last quarter.

Back home Wes was sitting happily in front of the fire looking mellow and relaxed. He and Bilbo had enjoyed a quiet afternoon together without the stresses of driving to and from Melbourne in pouring rain. There is no further news on Joan Testro as I write this – she is surrounded by her three loving daughters and sleeping peacefully in between sips of French champagne – what a woman!


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