Dear Friends, when
I left you last Sunday, we were heading off to the Sunday Market, followed by
breakfast. We enjoyed some wonderful conversations as well as yummy meals –
yoga meditation, veggie gardens, Alzheimer’s to name but a few.
When we arrived home,
I took over the kitchen briefly to make a big bowl of potato salad before Wes
prepared and marinated chicken drumsticks & Atlantic salmon fillets for
lunch. David & Helen Lazzaro arrived with their three children – Jessica
(14), Maya (11) & Daniel (8). We sat on the decking, as it wasn’t too hot
and had some very interesting conversations indeed. Helen & another teacher
are heading to Cambodia in June with 18 students as part of an Outreach
programme. Their three weeks includes a five-day trek and part of the preparation
involves a walk from Daylesford to Mt Franklin, staying there overnight and
returning on Sunday. This is happening on the long weekend in March, which is
our ChillOut Festival and a very busy time indeed.
We sent them home
with nectarines & tomatoes, after having enough of each to distribute to
everyone at breakfast & the boys next door. As everyone with stone fruit
knows, you have a very small window in which to pick the fruit – miss it and
the birds are the winners!
It was a beautiful
day on Monday, so Wes & Bilbo walked early and I went to gym. Wes spent the
morning in the garden and filled up the green bin with garden waste. I watched
the Aussies polish off the Kiwis to win the first Test by an innings & 52
runs. Nick had been due to give me a massage, but was unable to keep the
appointment as he had hurt his back and couldn’t lift his very heavy massage
table.
The next morning
Wes found it was damp underfoot as he and Bilbo walked around the Lake – there
wasn’t enough to register in the rain gauge, but the plants were all most
appreciative. After dropping Wes at the Cinema, Bilbo and I headed to Leitches
Creek to pump water before I went back to see the film ‘Joy’. Wes and I both
want those two hours back – what a dreadful schmalzy film – we had hoped it
would be the celebration of the success of a determined female inventor, but no
such luck and I can’t understand how Robert de Niro was persuaded to play her
appalling father.
Wes had invited
Jeanette & Lauren to lunch afterwards to say goodbye to Lauren who is off
to uni – I joined them for 10 minutes and quickly enjoyed a scone, jam &
cream at the Food Gallery, before walking to EKO for my 1pm appointment with
Emma.
EKO’s beautiful outdoor waiting
area
Sadly, it wasn’t to be, as my
appointment hadn’t been transferred from the manual book to the new computer
system, so I went back home and read Magda Szubanski’s autobiography instead.
On Wednesday, Wes
spent the morning over at Barbara’s place working in the garden and chatting,
while I survived a bad asthma attack at gym (caused by a very strong perfume)
and then enjoyed a morning of Mah Jong with Dot & Valerie. We always have
lots to talk about and it is sometimes a struggle to stop talking and start
playing!
We had decided to
go to Melbourne for the day on Thursday, as we were keen to visit the National
Gallery of Victoria and see the Andy Warhol – Ai Weiwei major exhibition at St
Kilda Road. We drove to Melville Road, West Brunswick, parked the car and
caught the no 59 tram into town. This is a lovely ride as it goes through Royal
Park and by the side of the Zoo, before heading into William Street past the
Children’s Hospital. We had a pleasant walk along the side of the Yarra to the
NGV and headed straight for the Members’ Lounge when we arrived for a hot
drink. The friendly staff member on reception organised our free tickets into
the Exhibition (members are entitled to one free ticket per year) and brought
them to us as we sat with our drinks.
We found the Exhibition
was beautifully curated, immense in size and almost too much to take in.
Neither of us has ever really understood Andy Warhol on any level, but this is
a huge body of work and there were lots of very excited schoolchildren swarming
all over everything. We were more impressed with Ai Weiwei, especially his
incredible wooden map of China, which uses ancient timbers and confronts you
early on in the piece. His photos and videos were most interesting and
instructive and we had information overload by the time we wandered out again.
A friendly staff
member suggested we go upstairs to the European Art for something different and
we did particularly enjoy the French Impressionists room and this painting
which neither of us had ever seen before, and which we will not forget in a
hurry.
“Anguish” by Alfred Schenck (1878)
We were desperate
for a yum cha lunch, so wandered into Southbank to the Red Emperor Restaurant,
which had shifted down a floor since we were last there, and enjoyed some very
fine delicacies, accompanied by fiery chillies and lots of Jasmine tea.
Then back on the
East Brunswick tram to Lygon Street, where we went to Cinema Nova to see ‘The
Belier Family’, the film that everyone has been talking about. I found it hard
to get into to start with, especially as the mother overacts dreadfully, but we
both were very pleased we saw it, and Wes managed to cry at the end. One of the
best things about the Nova is their wonderful choc-tops, which are still the
biggest and best in town.
We walked back to
the Coburg tram through Melbourne Uni, which is gearing up for the start of the
year in the next couple of weeks. It was very nostalgic indeed – we spent very
happy times there in 1968-69 before earning money so we could get married came in
between getting degrees. We visited the Public Lecture Theatre, the Cafeteria,
the Law Building, Library and Lawn and even spotted the NAB, where we opened
our first joint bank account in 1969 with $1.
We finally arrived
back home, tired but happy, around 7.15pm and I opened the door to the Dog Room
AKA the laundry, to find a very indignant Bilbo checking the time and barking
at me to feed him at once or else!!! Bilbo never barks – so this was very
funny.
On Friday, I headed
off to do Coles shopping before getting my nails done by Alanna in time for
yesterday’s wedding. Leanne rang me to say she had received a parcel I posted
to her on Wednesday – we keep being told the post will take longer and longer,
but this arrived in 2 days and she was tickled pink. I spent the rest of the
morning stewing the remainder of our nectarines, while Wes mulched, mowed and
clipped the garden, before coming indoors to try to install the new Foxtel set
top boxes we had been sent in the post.
Nearly 8 hours and
8 phone calls later, Wes had installed the replacement set top boxes. 6 of his
phone calls were frustrating times spent with underlings, so he decided to
comment in upper case on Foxtel’s Facebook page and very quickly got the
response he wanted. We have our fingers crossed that all is well and the last
and most effective person he spoke with has booked a technician for Tuesday
just in case we experience difficulties between now and then.
Yesterday we were
up and about – me to bake a fruit cake and stew the rest of the nectarines, and
Wes to double check everything Foxtel to make sure that I could watch the 2nd
Test when it started in Christchurch at 8.30am our time. At the lunch break, we
went to Wombat Hill Nursery to pick up the lemon tree Wes had ordered as our
wedding gift to Wendy & Roberto. Donna suggested it had grown at least a
foot since it was bought – she wrapped it well in red, green & white and we
made it fit snugly in the station wagon.
Back home we
watched just about every ball in Brendon McCullum’s record-breaking innings –
what a great day to have been at the cricket, whichever side you followed. From
the minute he arrived the nature of the game changed and he has put NZ in a
much better position than it dreamed of during the morning session.
Wendy Owen & Roberto Antonini
being married at Rip View, Point Lonsdale
We decided to feed
Bilbo at 2pm before we set off to drive to Point Lonsdale and that seems to
have been a very wise decision as he was quite content when we arrived back home
6 hours later.
Wendy & Roberto’s
wedding was a very happy, loving affair and we were thrilled to have been
invited. It was wonderful to see Wendy’s mother, Molly Owen, again – she is 95
and still sharp as a tack. After the ceremony, we went for drinks and canapés at
Pasquini’s Bistro in the main street, where we spent most of our time speaking
with Anita, a Croatian refugee, who arrived here 15 years ago with not a word
of English. She and Wendy have been friends for quite a few years and Wendy recently
edited her PhD.
We left after the
short speeches and before the barbecue, delivering our gift of a Meyer Lemon
tree (with budding lemons) to their home on our way. Wendy & Roberto met 13
years ago – it was love at first sight, and they have been trying to live
permanently together ever since. Roberto has finally retired and decided to
leave his family and friends in Italy and live in Australia for most of each
year.
This morning Bilbo
is waiting patiently for me to take him to the Sunday Market, before we head to
breakfast, where Gillie will be coming with her sister, Wendy, and her husband,
Alex, who live in South Africa. We are looking forward to seeing them all again.
Finally, it has
been interesting living with one car – because I am not anywhere near as active
as I used to be, we are coping quite well and find it easy to keep each other
informed about our needs and to go out together if need be. Judi & Michael
got their car back on Thursday and drove it to Castlemaine on Friday to see how
it went. Sadly, it overheated again, so the problem is not yet solved, and the
car has gone back to the mechanics.
Lovely photo of our Sydney
friends – Jane & David Knox, happily reunited with their daughter, Emily, in
Tokyo
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