In
the afternoon, the footy was a mixed bag – Eleni Glouftsis made a successful
debut as a field umpire in the Essendon vs West Coast game, which Essendon won
by 10 goals; North Melbourne held Melbourne at bay, and after a promising start
in driving rain in Freo, Carlton went down to a more determined side that
played the conditions better.
We
are at the end of Autumn here, but there is still much beauty to be seen, as
some of the trees have been very slow to lose their leaves, and as I look up
from my desk I can see all the shades of yellow, orange, red & green in the
gardens around us. The birds are still here in good numbers & we have been visited
again by a pair of kookaburras, much to our delight, until we discovered they
had pulled all the Brussel sprouts seedlings out of their planter box &
strewn them around the decking.
Kookaburras – one on
Fawlty Towers in the garden & the other on our window ledge upstairs
We
have had a very social week here. It started on Monday late afternoon when we
met up with Jan & Warren (Secundus) Pengilley, for drinks at ‘Wine &
the Country’. Jan has just published a 324-page A4 size story of their family
from 1830 to 2016 & we have a copy to read, which will be a delight. We
have known the Pengilleys for as long as they have lived in Daylesford. They
moved here with Jan’s mother, Olga, to be near their daughter, Tara, & her
husband, Diedrich & son, Renier. We first met them at Rotary & as Wes
was already a member & the first Warren to do so, he became known as
Primus, hence Secundus. We loved them from the minute we met, and although we
don’t see each other as much as we would like, we are always in each other’s
thoughts.
After
Tuesday’s film, ‘Their Finest’ starring Bill Nighy et al, we had a lunch at
‘Jackie’s on Vincent’ with the 10am crew & their partners. We all loved the
film, which includes some wonderful bit parts from well-known actors, and is
much better & more thoughtful than the trailer suggested. Lunch was fun
& Chris Soper discovered that he & Jeannette’s father-in-law had been
born near each other in country NSW and had a common ancestor.
Clockwise
– Jeanette, Malcolm, Chris, Betty, Norm, Ken & Wes
The
next day after Dot & I had played Mah Jong & Wes had spent the morning
with Barbara, we met up with friends of 45 years – Kathy & Gerard Lazzaro,
who had driven up to Daylesford to have lunch with us at ‘Boathouse
Daylesford’. This was the perfect spot to catch up over 2½ hours as the weather
was cold & alternated between dull & drizzling & sunny &
drizzling! Kathy & Ged have recently returned from a wonderful trip to
Poland, Wales & England & we had loaned them our Tom Tom for the
journey. Of course, when they picked up their car in Bristol, the one they had
ordered & paid for wasn’t available & they had to take the bigger, less
suitable model that Europa cars gave them. It turned out to have an inbuilt
GPS, so they returned our Tom Tom, without having used it. They had plenty of
serious & amusing stories to tell & we enjoyed our time together very
much indeed.
On
Thursday, I drove to Strathmore to spend time with Leanne, as it had been 4
weeks since I had seen her as I wasn’t prepared to risk driving a manual car
with my sprained wrist. We achieved heaps together & I plan to visit again
next Thursday to finish off some of the tasks we started. Meanwhile Wes invited
Glenn Mack over for lunch & they had an enjoyable time together. He also
took Bilbo to the vet for his annual check-up & we were delighted that he
is in good shape for a 12½ year-old.
By
Friday, I was very happy to spend the day at home after doing the shopping
early & made a big pot of minestrone soup, which usually lasts three or
four meals.
Wes
went off with Brian Nash & they ended up spending time with Nick Massaro at
his property in Porcupine Ridge.
Yesterday
we started with breakfast at ‘Larder’ & chose something different from the
interesting menu. My scrambled eggs were delightful & Wes enjoyed an
avocado & heirloom tomato designer meal. This gave me some energy to sweep
up Autumn leaves & wash the cars before sitting down to an afternoon of
footy on TV.
This
weekend is Indigenous Round & all the teams wear jumpers designed especially
for the event. Yesterday was 50 years to the day since the 1967 Referendum (passed
by over 90% of the vote) that finally included Aboriginals in our population
and gave the Government the power to legislate with respect to Aboriginals.
Some of the Indigenous players wore the number, 67, on their backs in lieu of
their usual number, and at the tossing of the coin to start each game,
Indigenous players represented their teams instead of the Captains, and gave
each other gifts. The most important game played was last night when Richmond
hosted Essendon at ‘Dreamtime at the G’ in front of 85,000+. Even the centre
square was painted in the striking colours of the Aboriginal flag.
It
has been raining quite heavily overnight, but the rain has settled down, so
Bilbo is waiting patiently for us to go to the Sunday Market, followed by
breakfast. Wes and I are then heading off to the MCG to see Collingwood play
Brisbane in a game that starts at the very friendly time of 1.10pm. This should
see us back home before dark & hopefully smiling as we listen to Carlton
play North Melbourne on the drive back.
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