Retirement for Tony

This week for Tony has been exciting, happy and sad. He was given a farewell in the dining room on Wednesday and the General Manager of the hospital gave a speech. There was a good turn up, people even coming from Liverpool hospital. Jack, the plumber, also wrote a speech but as he is a bit shy of speaking gave it to Peter, the carpenter, to read and it was very moving. Tony had jotted down a few words to say but in the end did it "off the cuff". He was presented with a trophy of a gold paint tin and brush. Apparently the collection for his present was the most the hospital had even collected for anyone leaving. They gave him a lawn mower with a mulcher, a petrol leaf blower, $250 Bunnings gift vouchers, bottle of Ouzo and a bottle of some Greek drink that I am not too sure of but it has a bottle shaped like a guitar. He also received a lot of individual gifts. He didn't finish work until Friday and has been bringing home lots of stuff from the hospital this week so our garage is getting quite full. He looked a bit depleted when he came home on Friday and is finding it a bit hard to comprehend that he has retired even though it is only Saturday. He is planning on doing a couple of days work for himself and has already a few jobs lined up. This should keep him out of my hair for a bit.

As long as he had plenty of people to talk to he will be ok. He spends a lot of time talking to friend and family on skype and has lined up a lot of colleagues from work to keep in touch with.

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I had a rather panicky situation this week when I was looking after Felise and Jake. I had put Jake to sleep and Felise and I were getting the washing off the line. Felise was putting the pegs in the bucket for me. However, she took the bucket inside. I told her it stays outside and took in back out. This only took a second but in that time Felise had slammed the back door shut and I was locked out. I didn't have my mobile on me and in any case didn't know Kerry's number. I danced around in a panic for a couple of minutes then I heard Felise calling out Grandma, Grandma. I calmly said to her " You have locked Grandma outside. Go and get a chair and stand on it to open the door." I then saw the knob wobbling. I told her to reach up to the other lock above that. This she did and the door opened. Luckily the deadlock was not on. I never felt so relieved in all my life. A bravery award should go to Felise for being such a clever little girl.

Happy Birthday Henri

Best wishes to Henri for a very "Happy Birthday"

Just got back from Raymond Terrace after having dinner with the "Dancing 9" or should I say dancing 7 as Bill and Beryl were both sick and unable to make it. Despite being down in numbers we had a good chat and a scrumptious lunch of lamb cutlets. Each time we go there now I seem to have the lamb cutlets. Before that it used to be the sweet chilli chicken. We meet again on 26th September after we get back from New Zealand.

It has been a little time since I last wrote in my blog and that it due to a very hectic week; or it was for us. Monday night we went off to Northmead Bowling club to try our hand again at euchre. This time Tony won 6 out of 7 games and shared the $28 price with another guy (sorry, I can't remember his name. I am still trying to learn all the ones at the aged care place) and also received a free drink voucher. I on the other hand only won 3 games and got nothing. So we will see what happens next Monday.

Tuesday was aged care day and I got a surprise when I arrived and found the office was neat and clean and all the filing cabinets locked. You see it was their accreditation day and two people from the Wesley Mission head office were there checking everything out. I can't wait to find out this week how they went. Shirlee took the garden club this week and I did trivia with the ones that didn't go as they wanted to make a good impression and not just have the residents all sitting there watching telly. I sat in on their residents meeting this week and I looked across and a whole row of residents were asleep so I guess they didn't get much out of the meeting. Thursday was going to be pyjama day and staff and residents had to wear PJ's and on Friday they were having Christmas in July which consisted of Chicken and chips and Pavlova and fruit for lunch and hot chocolate and marsh mellows for morning tea.

Wednesday I went to the hairdressers and had the usual. I am letting my hair grow a bit as I like tying it back when I get sick of it. In the evening we went to dinner at Winston Hills pub with Sokit & Henri and Jolanta and John. I haven't been in the pub since the old days before it was revamped and looking rather upmarket inside. The food was quite reasonable in price and we had the bonus of being able to watch a good game of footy on the screens with the State of Origin. Sokit turns 60 on 1st September and will be in Las Vegas on the day so we will be having a big get together to celebrate her birthday before she goes.

Last Thursday as well as looking after Jake I had the pleasure of chatter box Felise as Kindy is on holidays for 2 weeks. We all had a bit of a play and then went down to the park. Felise was happy having a bag of chips and watching two girls playing on the pirate ship. After she had finished her chips she also had a play on the ship while Jake had a ride on the rocking horse. Felise was too tired to walk back home so I bundled them both in the stroller and we went home to have lunch. I cooked some noodles for Felise and Jake had baked beans and cheese. After a bit more play Jake had a sleep and Felise and I made tea for the teddies and dollys. Afterwards we read a book but Felise kept getting phone calls and we had to answer them.

Tony and I meet a nice couple, Carol and Peter on our Dubbo trip who live around the corner from Craig at Greystanes. We met up with them at Parramatta Leagues club for a meal on Thursday evening. Carol would I think only be in her late fifties but she is already a great grandma. Peter has the same sense of humour as Tony so they got on well. We have left it to them to ring us if they want to go out again. So we will wait and see if we made an impression on them.

I had an appointment at the doctor's on Friday morning to get the results of my blood tests I had on Monday. I was dreading this as I didn't want to have to go on any more pills. Results were good. My blood sugar level had dropped down from 7.1 to 6.2 over the last six months so the gym must be doing some good. Also my cholesterol was 3.8 also good.

In the evening we went to our accountant and he completed and submitted our tax for last year.I have always done my own tax but because of my retirement I was not sure of a few things.

Speaking of retirement, Tony's last day is this Friday. They are giving him a big farewell in the dining room on Wednesday and the whole hospital including Liverpool hospital have been invited. Tony is a bit nervious about giving a speech but I don't think he has anything to worry about as he never seems lost for words.

At the Gym the other day some women were talking about a show on tv that reinacted events that happen to people in dangerous foreign countries. It reminded me of an incident that happen to Tony, Peter, Karen and myself when we were in Kuala Lumpur. We had hired a taxi driver to show us around and also take us to see the fireflies. Our driver seemed friendly enough and was laughing and joking. We had a good afternoon and then it was time to see the fireflies at Majlis Daerah which was a fair distance away. We were also asked to bring our passports. I was in the front seat with the driver and Tony, Peter and Karen were in the back seat. We were all chatting away including the driver then the sun went down and the darkness came and we were out in the middle of nowhere. The driver then seemed to change. Someone rang him on his mobile and there was a lot a yelling then he went all quite. He received a number of phone calls and I kept asking him is everything ok. The three in the back seat weren't saying a word and I didn't know what they were thinking. I was thinking this is it! There is going to be a group waiting somewhere in this darkness to ambush us and we would not make it out alive. Finally after some terrifying moments we reached our destination and got in these tiny dingys in complete darkness and travelled along in this murky water and saw millions of fireflies. We took photos but none of them came out because it was pitch black. This all happened after an incident we had had earlier that day with a small bus tour company and we thought something might have lead on from that but all was ok. Discussing it later the other 3 in the backseat were all thinking the same as me.

New arrival at the zoo

The first baby elephant to be born at Taronga Zoo arrived a few days ago. He is so cute and weighed in at 100kgs. He hasn't been named yet and the zoo have decided to have a competition for the people to put in their choice. As the elephants come from Thailand they are looking for a Thai name for the little one. Can anybody think of one?

We went along last night to the Northmead Bowling Club to play euchre. We have been looking to get into a club to play seriously. This was not exactly what we were looking for but there was a sociable lot of people there and it was a bit of fun. We are returning next week to give it another go.

It was hectic at Tebbut Lodge today. The people from Wesley head office were out and the home is having an accreditation done next week so the staff were all running around like "chooks without their heads". I even took on serving the lunches today and clearing up in the kitchen.

This afternoon I did some therapy with a few dementia resident. However, one of them, Jean, kept saying someone had come to visit her and was waiting to see her in the lounge room....that he had come all the way from West Ryde and that she was annoyed that she had to do this therapy and keep him waiting. Actually there was no one waiting......she had been sitting in the loungeroom talking to another resident, Kevin, and this is who she thought her visitor was. After about 1/2 hr of her non stop saying she was annoyed, I asked would you like to go back to the lounge. She said yes but could I show her the way.

Tigers.....Tigers.....Tigers......big winners over the rabbits last weekend 54 -20.

Back to the office

I know I said I would never go back into my old work place again but it is Diana's birthday on Sunday and I had to see her. She didn't want a present so I took in a card and some lavender I had picked from our garden this morning. It wasn't so bad this time around everyone seemed a lot friendlier than they did last time. I'm meeting up with a few for coffee on Monday.

This week seems to have gone very fast and I really don't know what I have done.....it seems like nothing. I did babysit an extra day with Jake as he had a bit of a cold and was not well enough to go to Cheeky Monkeys. He was a happy little boy this week and loved going to the park and watching the hundreds of Cockatoos that flock around there. He is actually taking a few steps on his own now before tumbling down and I guess it won't be long and I will be chasing him around.

I had my usual Tuesday at Tebbutt Lodge. Cathy the lady that work's in the kitchen had an accident where hot water was splashed on her eyes and was badly burned. She was off work and Bernadette the lady filling in for her was not up to date on the morning tea and didn't know who has what. So I had to help out ......being the expert on serving morning tea now. Although I did get a bit frazzled as everyone kept changing their minds.

We had karaoke ........extremely old songs which I didn't know.....and I had to sing along and get the residents to sing also. I also held trivia and the gardening club. There was also the usual staff bitching.

We went to see our Financial Adviser, Rod on Wednesday as Tony retires on 24th of this month.

Everything seems to be going to plan. However, Rod is moving to Shepparton, Vic to be near his daughter and family but will be making visits to Sydney quarterly to see his clients.

Tigers and Rabbits play tomorrow night.......may the best team win.....and it better be the tigers. This is the first game we have gone to in about 5 weeks.

The weather forecast for next week is sun sun sun.