Photos

These two photos where suppose to go on the last Blog.

I had seen a cashmere sweater advertised at Alda's in their weekly catalogue so I ventured up to Baulkham Hills to purchase one. However when I arrived about 11.00am there was only two sweaters hanging up but were not the ones that I wanted. Two other ladies were also looking and were disappointed also. One the shop assistants said that here had been about 20 people waiting when the store opened and that was all they had left. It was then that I notice one laying on the floor underneath the racks and quickly grapped it up. It was the kind I wanted; I looked at the size but it was only a size 10. The other ladies noticed I had found one and asked what size it was. One said could she have a look at it and then said of course you want it. I was about to give it to her then notice that it was a large 10 and may have fitted me so I would buy it and if it didn't fit I would give it to someone else. The ladies then proceeded to follow me around thinking I may put it down. It turned out to be a perfect fit and I am extremely happy with it.

The visitor

Not feeling too good have a rotten sore throat and cough. I feel I should be wearing a mask when I'm out in case people think I have the swine flu and may give it to them. We have cards tonight and I am thinking of calling it off as my friend, Christa has to go into hospital again for another operation on Tuesday and I wouldn't like her to catch my cold. Speaking of Christa the first operation they took out the lumps and surrounding tissue and both lymph nodes. The lymph nodes were clear but they want to take a bit more of the tissue just in case. If all goes well she will start radiotherapy in 3 weeks.

I love my new oven. I have been very careful to keep it clean and intend to do so forever. Might mean having to eat out more. Just baked some blueberry muffins for tonight (which may be called off) to show that I can actually cook something. The last chocolate muffins I cooked for Easter which were to have little bird's nest on came out complete black from the old oven and ended up in the bin.

Yes we have a visitor this week. Little Bandit has come to stay while his master and mistress are living it up in the Islands. I think Pinto enjoys the company although he pretends he doesn't sometimes. I know he will be sad for a couple of days when Bandit leaves. Only thing is Bandit isn't house trained or apparently he was before the "accident" happened but has reverted so I have to follow him around putting puppy nappies down everywhere. He loves going out for a walk and will run behind the kitchen door and look up at the leads. Its like having a blanket on when you watch tv and he is sitting on our lap. He's the lap dog Pinto was supposed to be. Pinto is such a wuss sometimes. He will be eating something and Bandit will come and take it out of his mouth. Pinto's reaction is to just walk away. They are both curled up on the couch behind me at the moment.

Into retirement

Well its nearly 3 months since I retired from work and I don't miss it one bit. I went in to see them all last week and it's never the same once you leave. Had a chat to all the people I wanted to and had lunch with Sokit in the lunch room but I couldn't wait to get out of there. It was like visiting someone in jail and getting back out into the fresh air. I don't think I will bother going back again, I can see all my close friends outside work.

My police record came back clean, so I am now able to venture around Tebbutt Lodge by myself
without a keeper. There was a change in exercises this week and the new ones seem a bit harder for the residents but they seem to enjoy them ( the few that will do them that is>) The rest just sit there or are asleep in their chairs. They will start to do them when you ask them but once you turn away they will stop. Most say they can't be bothered.
It was raining this week so we couldn't have the Gardening Club and ventured into the Library
instead for a discussion group. It was supposed to be on gardening but we got a bit side tracked. Asked them all what kind of work they all did before and this turned out to be very interesting.
After lunch they had a residents meeting and I sat in. Proposals were that they didn't want cheese and leek soup any more; they preferred less rice; were only able to have 1 yogurt a day
and needed a handrail on the way down to the social room. A new floor was being laid in the kitchen so they would be able to have takeaways and BBQs for the next 2 weeks.
I managed not to make any of the residents scream this week.

Had a visit to the gynacologist this week and need to go into Hills Private Hospital for day surgery as I have several foci in my cervix of uncertain significance that needs to be investigated. I am booked in to go 19 May a couple days before we leave for Perth. The
Doctor says he doesn't think it is anything to worry about and will be doing a D & C.

It was the last straw with our stove when the element blew. We have already paid nearly $800 to have it fixed and it was still burning eveything I put in the oven.........no it was not my fault. No matter how low I put the temperate it burnt. So we decided to forget our losses and get a new one. As Tony has to do everything straight away we ventured out on Thursday evening at 5.15pm to go to some places at Auburn. The traffic was horrendous and we ended up at Harvey Norman Auburn 2 hours later (its about half hour run normally) so purchased it there, couldn't be bothered looking anywhere else. It was delivered and fitted the next day. Now I think we will have to get takeaways as it looks so bright and shiny and clean and I don't want to change that.

Grandfather

My brother, David became a grandfather for the second time last week. Sam and Kristy produced another son, Benji Jarvis weighing in at 9lb old scale. Both well. I'm sure Max will be delighted with his new brother.

On a sadder note, another one of the "Dancing 10" has cancer. Our friend Christa, who we play cards with has been diagnosed with breast cancer in both breasts and goes in for an operation tomorrow at Westmead Private Hospital. We played cards last Thursday and she was in good spirits...as usual Tony made her laugh and the match was drawn. I pray that they have got it early and that it has not spread. If all goes well she will then have six lots of radiation. Her daughter and family who have been living in America for the last 5 yrs are staying with her for another six weeks. They are then moving to Sweden to live. It is good that if this had to happen that it happened now with her daughter here.

Ballet

Tony was at Newtown painting a house for a rabbits fan. I was just about to go off to the gym when Kerry rang to say she had a migraine and didn't feel well enough to go to the ballet. Only person I could think of that liked ballet and would be available at short notice was Nora. So I rang her and she was delighted. I arranged to pick her up at 11.30am and we would drive to Epping and catch the train from there. Problem was Kerry had the tickets. So after the gym I drove to Canterbury picked up the tickets and arrived home at 11.ooam just in time to change and pick up Nora at North Rocks. Parking at the station used to be 2 hrs to 12.30pm but had
changed to 5 pm. I took the chance that I wouldn't be booked as we were running out of time.
We changed at Central for the train to Circular Quay (I would have got out at Wynyard but I knew Nora had a sore foot so I wanted to get as close to the Opera House as possible) reaching
our destination by 1.pm having enough time for tea and a sandwich.
We enjoyed the 3 ballets we saw - Les Sylphides, Petrouchka and Firebird.
Then it was a race back home to get there by 6pm as Tony was waiting to go to the footy.
I just made it but had to put my dinner in a container and eat it in the car on the way.

Tony decided that we needed a bigger television so we went out today and brought a 106cm
LG Plasma. They delivered it this afternoon and put the box in the dinning room. After they had gone, I happen to glance at the box and it said Panasonic and seemed rather large. I said we got an LG didn't we? Tony raced out and got them before they left....they had given us the wrong one. Now that Tony saw how big that one was, I'm sure he will be wanting that size soon and it will consume the whole room.

Busy week

What a hectic week it has been this week. I have not been to the Royal Easter Show since it moved from Moore Park to Homebush so I thought as it was Senior's Day on Wednesday I would investigate this new venue without any grand children in toe so as to be able to see the exhibits etc and without having to go on any rides. With my friend Judi I set out about 9.30 am to catch the show bus on Windsor road only to sit behind our neighbour's "the Birds" who had left home 1 hr early. The had walked to a bus stop further away so they would get a seat but had to watch 2 full buses go by and ended up on our bus.

We first view the smelly Angora goats, cows, pigs and horses (although we only viewed a few

horses as they are not one of my favourite animals.....I hold a fear for them and I think they

know it). I had to actually hold my nose most of the time as the smell to me was overpowering

and I remembered how much Melissa couldn't stand the smell either and held her nose.

I didn't realise cows came in so many different colours....actually I hadn't thought about it before.

Also how large pigs were!!! You know how they say "pigs might fly" . Well, I'm glad they don't as I wouldn't like one of those monstrosities landing on me. However, I must admit they are very cute when they are piglets. The farmers actually stay with their animals while they are at the show. They have these box constructions with a shower & toilet downstairs and a bed upstairs next to their animal stalls. Don't know how they can stand the smell and noise but I guess they are used to it.

We then saw the showbag pavilion and I had a "bright idea" to get the bags now as we might not get back there again. I only had 2 to buy.....Kerry-Ann wanted the Women's weekly one and I was getting the Hi Five on for Felise. Judy was only getting one. Bad idea, the Women's Weekly one weighed a ton and I had to end up paying $8 for a locker to keep them in and also had to remember where it was.

Things are always much bigger and grandeur when you are little and I remembered the fruit & Veg to be this big barn with lots of different displays. There were only five in this Pavilion and each on got some kind of prize (3 of them in the photos). Judi enjoys craft; so we went in there and she explained how the different kinds of craft were done. The cake decoration was excellent. The photo of the dog is actually a cake in case you didn't know. We went on to see the dogs performing, grand parade, fashion show and eventually found the Senior Citizens stall where they were giving out free cups of tea only to find we were too late and they had run out of tea. We left the show about 4.30pm with very sore feet but a satisfying day.

Jake's first day at crawling Easter Sunday

Well Easter over for another year.....my Easter consisted on Going to Church on Good Friday, Taronga Park Zoo Easter Saturday, Family lunch Easter Sunday and rest day today.

Zoo - Kerry, Michael, Felise, Jake and myself braved a forecast of showers to go to the Zoo...we were surprised it didn't rain all day. However, it was a very long day. I left home at 8.30am and didn't return until after 6 pm. We saw lots of animal inclosures but half of them were not visable (asleep). We did see the chimpanzees which are my favourites but missed the spider monkeys. Felise and Jake like the seals and the penquins but I think most of all they enjoyed the picnic lunch. The zoo has certainly changed a lot since my last visit some years ago and is much more comfortable for the animals but basically the layout is the same.

I read in the paper yesterday that a woman in Berlin had deliberately jumped into the polar bear pool there to get up close and personal and was mauled by the bears.....obviously a nutter.

Jake and I got up close and personal with the Giraffes....

easter

today is easter