Dear Friends, on the Sunday before last, there were some
flurries of snow around Daylesford, but I missed them as I was on the train to
Melbourne to see Collingwood play the Western Bulldogs at the Docklands
Stadium. Wes dropped me off at Ballan Station where I joined a big contingent
of supporters of both sides. I was lucky enough to get a seat in the last
carriage of the most packed train I have ever been on. The conductor had tried
without success to get coaches to come to Melton Station to collect people and
kept apologising for the crush. Everyone was amazingly well behaved and made
the best of the situation.
David Lazzaro & I met up before the game and after half time;
he sat next to me as no one had claimed that empty seat by then. I was 6 rows
from the front, on the wing, with a great view and a terrific atmosphere. In
the row behind was famous Collingwood player, Peter Moore, with his wife, to
see their son, Darcy, play his 3rd and best game for the Pies
booting 5 goals in what was a losing score. We just couldn’t match the intensity
of the Doggies, who deserved their 3-goal win.
On the train home, we were again squashed up, even though
there were a maximum 7 carriages and once again, the conductor was apologetic.
Because there is only one line between Bacchus Marsh and Ballarat, putting on
an extra train is a logistical nightmare and so we put up with an hourly
service and wish someone would hurry up and duplicate the line. Wes picked me
up at Ballan and cooked yummy pizza for dinner.
He had spent most of his day helping his sister, Denise;
celebrate her 70th birthday with her partner, Barry, and sons Leon
& Shaun. Later on her eldest son, John, arrived with his wife, Dannielle
and their four children – Malachi, Kalarni, Dublin & Irish. Denise had
cooked some hot dishes and Leon provided a wonderful birthday cake.
Barry, Shaun,
Denise & Leon
On Monday, it was again quite cold but I soon warmed up at
gym, where a few brave souls were gathered for the 8am session. Afterwards Nick
Massaro arrived to give me a massage and tell me all about the holiday from
hell that he and Robyn had spent in a small country town in Queensland, where
they were house and dog sitting. The house was being renovated and had no
plaster & no power points and the dog was an escape artist. As well it was
cold and wet during most of their stay and he said they have never been so
pleased to come back home.
Wes made another yummy experimental meal for lunch – this
time it was baked cauliflower with mustard sauce and other vegetables. Bilbo
enjoyed the leftovers for his dinner that night.
Wes had a very busy day on Tuesday – while I did some
shopping and then visited Leanne, he went to the Daylesford Cinema to show the
film ‘Aloha’, which was watched by only one person. After he finished there, he
went to Margot’s home to install her new modem and make sure her computer was
working properly. When that was accomplished, he visited his sister, Denise, to
show her how to send photos from her computer and to collect his camera, which
he had left at her place when he was there on Sunday. He arrived home to find
Bilbo and I relaxing after a walk around Lake Daylesford, which we had fitted
in while the sun was shining brightly.
On Wednesday morning, I delivered about 2 dozen glass jars
to Mell Sappho, who runs ‘Keeping Daylesford Warm’ and is involved through her
kids with the Daylesford Dharma School. Leanne was thrilled to dispose of her
unwanted jars and Mell was delighted to give them to the school as containers
for craft items. Then it was off to gym, the last class for me for 4 weeks, as
Barry is going to Canada on a Buddhist retreat. There will be classes during
his absence, but not until 9.30am or at night, which doesn’t suit me. So I will
have to walk Bilbo and ride my exercise bike more often until Barry returns.
Lovely photos from a very happy celebration – David & Jane Knox looking
swish, at the wedding of their daughter, Emily, to Alan Kinnear in London on
Sunday
After visiting Lyndal Conroy for my regular fringe trim, I
went to see Trish Nield to catch up on her news, as we hadn’t met up in ages. We
spent a very happy two hours together and I was thrilled to see how relaxed she
is, especially now that she has retired from her job as a funeral director. She
had made parsnip & sage soup, followed by a freshly baked and iced carrot
& walnut cake – very yum indeed. Wes spent the morning gardening, first at
our place and then across the road with Barbara.
I went to bed early and watched Day 1 of the 3rd
Test at Edgbaston in disbelief as our wickets fell for meagre scores with the
notable exception of Chris Rogers, who probably shouldn’t have been playing.
When we woke the next morning and discovered that the Aussies had only made 136
runs, we were even more alarmed. That is nothing to the horror we are
experiencing with the dreadful racial booing of former Australian of the Year,
Adam Goodes, when he plays footy for the Sydney Swans. Some journalists and
shock jocks are fuelling the flames, while the AFL, its management, players and
coaches are all united in wanting to stamp racism out of our sport and
especially the bullying that Goodes is experiencing when he is on the field.
Bilbo sniffing the
first of our bulbs – tête-â-têtes – in bloom
Bilbo and I had a lovely long, but brisk walk to, and
around, the Wombat Gardens the next day, where the day was dry, but the wind
cold, and my phone suggested that it was 3°, but felt like -4°. After a pot of
tea and a chat with Leanne, I got changed into glad rags and we went to lunch
at the ‘Daylesford Bowling Club’, to celebrate our friend, George Killingback’s
80th birthday. We were very honoured to be part of a group of about
30, friends and family, and especially delighted when George spent about 10
minutes with us, reminiscing about his early life in England and the decision
to emigrate out here. One of his guests was the man who met them at the ship
when they docked in Melbourne.
George, Vera, son
Paul & daughter, Jane at the cutting of the cake.
In the afternoon Wes had promised to go back to help Margot
with further computer issues so I sat quietly with Bilbo until I realised I
really wanted to go to bed and I’ve basically been there ever since. Perhaps I
caught a germ on one of the very crowded trains on the previous Saturday, or
maybe I was getting cocky as Winter was nearly over and I hadn’t been sick at
all!
It has certainly been a struggle with this dose of bronchial
asthma, and when Wes rang to get me an appointment at the Medical Centre, their
suggestion was to stay warm in bed and just ride it out, that no antibiotics
would be prescribed and I would probably only get worse by going into the cold.
On Monday, Wes was able to get some decongestant tablets, which are much easier
to take than cough medicine and seem to be helping. It is just rather slow and
very frustrating, as I can’t talk without coughing.
Nurse Maloney has been fantastic – Nurse Baggins also, but
in a different way – he sees his role as one of the comforter and has been
lying by my side very diligently except when dinner time beckons and he then
gets agitated in case Nurse Maloney has forgotten that 5pm is the sacred hour.
Nurse Bilbo – TLC a
speciality
So instead of walking, breakfasting, the Farmers Market, the
Daylesford Primary School Book Fair, the Sunday Market, footy, socialising,
shopping, cleaning and resting – I’ve only been doing the resting. The boys
next door popped in some home-made doughnuts; Wes has been prepared to make
whatever I feel like (not much most of the time); provide umpteen hot lemon
& ginger drinks; give up all rights to The Age until the crosswords are
done, and he and Bilbo have moved downstairs to sleep to let me cough without
worrying about waking them. He also drove Margot to the airport yesterday after
getting someone else to do his projectionist shift at the Daylesford Cinema,
and visited Leanne afterwards. This morning he is in cold, wet Ballarat, as I
had booked the Mazda 2 in for service. He was going to help Barbara go
swimming, but they abandoned those plans when the weather was so unsuitable.
Now I’m back to bed with fingers crossed that I’ll be able
to get up again for a while this afternoon, and that the worst is over. Thanks
to everyone who sent messages wondering if I was OK when nothing appeared in
their inbox last Sunday morning. It was very lovely to know you were worried.
Hopefully I’ll have much cheerier news on Sunday.
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