Bring in the New Year

I have just celebrated Christmas for the 67th time. Wow that's a lot of Christmas's. Although the first few I don't remember and probably a few more I have wiped out. It was great this year to see the grandchildren so excited. We were also lucky with the weather. Tony had been working on the pool to have it "just right" for Xmas and we got a 33 degree day.

We started the day by opening the presents then going for a swim. By the time we were ready to eat the weather had cooled down a bit and we were able to sit outside. Craig and Anny provided the Enchiladas for entree. David cooked the turkey and Simone made the stuffing to go with the ham, pork, prawns, oysters, mixed veggies and salad. When all this had settled we went inside to have a beautiful dessert of Lime cheesecake and Berry Yogurt Cake which Kerry-Ann had made.

Of course I always have some disasters ......one the Christmas cake I burnt. Its not too bad if you cut off the top and bottom. I also had a problem when I was making some small quiches to take to our card night party. I could not get the pastry to kneed properly. I was getting rather angry and was about to throw it all in the bin. I then decided I was not going to let it beat me. I put some more milk in and broke it up into smaller pieces and rolled them out. They turned out ok but next time I'm just going to buy the ready made pastry.

I was waiting for Melissa to call on Christmas Day and when she did I said the wrong thing and made her cry. I hope this did not spoil her day!

The last 2 days have been quite relaxing. I have watched 10 episodes of the latest series of Dexter......only 2 to go. I can then start the 2nd series of Glee. Felise is wrapped in Glee and know all the characters.

We are going out on a friend of a friend's boat for a bbq on Wednesday. Will let you know if I have survived this in my next blog.

Forgot my password

Its been a while since I have had to log in my password and it slipped my mind completely. So I have spent the last ten minutes trying to reset a new one. Well here I am. That's not the only thing I have forgotten lately. I spend all last Sunday afternoon searching through old papers trying to find my maternal grandmother's birth certificate. I found it some months ago and noticed that she was born in England. At the time I did not notice where abouts in England so I have made it my mission to find out. Of course, I cannot remember where I put it but came across some interesting old letters. One was from my Dad's cousin written in 1938 advising him that he had been left some money by his Uncle. This is the uncle that lived in Belluvue Hill and where we spent many Christmas's when we were wee tots with all our cousins. The cousin is also the brother of Laurence, the one the caused a ruckus at my brother, Geoff's, funeral. Anyway the sum he was left was £34.7.7 which must have been a decent amount in those days. It probably paid for my Mum's engagement ring. I also found letters written by Kerry-Ann when she was overseas in 1991 and a letter from David when he was at a school camp telling me how dreadful the food was, how the rain was spoiling everything and would I have his favourite food and a warm bed for him when he got home. It was an interesting afternoon but I did not find that certificate. I am more determined than ever to do so. I know I can go on to ancestry.com and get a 14 day free trial but you then have to ring up to cancel it so you don't get charged. I have done that several times with dvd offers and would like to avoid it if possible. Sooooo onward looking.

We had our Christmas lunch at Tebbutt Lodge last week. Rev Gardner and all the dignities where there as our Manager, Helga, was receiving an award for her Special Services to the Wesley Mission. I had my last day for the year on Tuesday. Nellie, the lady that always holds on to her handbag for dear life and grunts, has come a long way we me this year. She now participates in trivia and even cracks a few smart remarks. The wedding is off between John and Diane. John has been in hospital for the last 2 months and Diane had now found out he won't be coming back to Tebbutt as he needs a place with a bit higher care. We are giving our pregnant volunteer, Olga, a baby shower after Christmas. She is such a sweet little thing. I think the resident's will get a kick out of that.

Last Thursday they held a ham raffle at Parramatta RSL........lots of whole hams and half hams.

We were going out on Friday with Peter and Carol (Dubbo friends) for dinner there so we asked them would they mind going Thursday instead so we could go in the ham raffle. They agreed so we brought $10 worth and they did as well. Guess who won the ham. That's right, they did.......and a whole one at that. The previous Sunday we had spend a few hours they waiting for this $10,000 draw. Only they drew 2 names out every 1/2 hr which meant we had to stay there. So we had afternoon tea, then dinner and didn't even get our names pulled out. There was one consolation, I had my name with another lady's pulled out for "the price is right" and had to guess the price of a bottle of olive oil with garlic. For the correct answer I received a gift basket. So the time was not completely wasted.

.......Roll on Christmas.

Nelson Bay is not the same when it is wet.

Hi............I'm back after a couple of months rest. I shouldn't say rest because it has been quite hectic and nerve racking and I haven't felt up to putting words on paper.

This is a photo of the Dancing Ten (although there is only nine now). It was taken at the Hogs Breath Cafe at Nelson Bay where we had our six monthly get together and stayed overnight at the Nelson Bay Lodge. Our 2 monthly meetings at Raymond Terrace became a bit of a chore as we are all getting on now so we decided to do overnights 6 monthly instead.

I was looking forward to taking the track to Dutches Beach and having a swim but the skies opened up and down came the rain and that was the end of that.

Tony's Brother and sister in law, Kenneth and Sheila are coming to Sydney next Thursday for 5 days. It is Kenneth's birthday on Friday so, guess what, we are going to Zacs. On Saturday, for his birthday, we are taking him on a seafood Harbour Cruise and on Sunday we are having a family BBQ.

Do you like our little frog? We found him sitting on our front window but we didn't invite him in.

This weekend we are off to the annual volunteer dinner at Wesley Mission in the city. Hopefully we won't have a heat wave like last year on this day. We will also be able to have a look at the David Jones Christmas Windows.

What .....is it only 37 days until Christmas? Where did the other 328 go?

We will do the Kris Kringle draw at the BBQ on Sunday.

Only a short blog today until I get into the swing of things.

Happy Birthday Jake

Jake is really into dinosaurs. We took him to Kids Playland for his Birthday but all day long he was waiting to have his dinosaur cake his Mum made. He was so excited about all the dinosaurs.

When a garden's not a garden.

We went to our friendly neighbour bowling club at Northmead on Saturday night for a Christmas in July dinner. I was never keen on the interception of Christmas in July and think it should be called "Winterfest". Some of our card friends asked us to come along so we did in spite of the fact the Tigers were playing that night. Anyway the people who run the restaurant at the club are Chinese and I don't know if they were quite sure what a typical Christmas in July dinner was but they tried their best. They served Chicken and Pork (without the apple sauce much to my disgust) and Chocolate Muffins with custard (which I left as I was looking forward to the plum pudding). Despite the disappointment with the dinner we had a good night with lots of dancing.
To my surprise the next day my knees were ok and I could move around. I managed during the night to go into the other room where the screens were and watch the end of the Tigers match with Peter, one of our friends who is also a tigers fan.

Tebbut Lodge news...... Last week we arranged a garden bed in a pattern and planted some different types of flowers. This week we were told my the Manager that we had to dig them all up and plant them somewhere else and this patch was to be lawn and not a garden. So Robert and Thomas dug them up and we replanted them. Although I don't know how they are going to go after their poor start.
I manage to type up a bit of Ron's book on Sunday and discussed some of the pages with him today. There are quite a few spelling and grammer corrections I have to make as I go along. I think I need Melissa to do some editing. I will send her some of the book shortly.
Trivia gets a good turn up these days. I think it may be the chocolates I hand out afterwards. Even the ones that have been asleep seem to wake up at handout time.

A new novel

I should be rather busy for the next few weeks .... months. One of the residents of Tebbutt Lodge who has written a book has asked me to type out the 400 pages for him. The title is "The Dream of Oscar Wilde". I haven't read any of it yet but David read the first couple of pages last night and said it didn't keep his interest. Then again it mightn't be the type of book of interest to David. Ron said he wasn't in a hurry for it as he had been waiting a year already. On the front cover it says "Should I die before this work is published and the family is not interested in its progress, please hand over to Tebbutt Lodge for publication and royalties". I most likely will start it tomorrow.

Diane and John were thrilled with the engagement card I gave them and said, of course, you
are invited to the wedding. They have not settled on a date as yet.


Jake turns 2 next Thursday and he is having a Birthday afternoon tea with lots of dinosaurs.

A few days in the Mid West

Here I am blogging again. I have to be in the mood to write and lately I have been distracted with other things. One reason being a jigsaw puzzle which is now finally completed. It's amazing you can spend hours looking for one piece, you give it a break for a day or so come back and pick up the piece you found so hard to find.

Also we had a break in Mudgee this week which was very relaxing. The accommodation was brilliant and worth 5 stars. We went with our friends we met on our New Zealand trip, Peter and Gina and we all got on fabulously. Only don't go there on a Monday or Tuesday as everything is closed those days. Despite this, we found a couple of wineries and attractions open and managed to polish off a couple of tasty cheese platters.

The great granddaughter of the original owner Dr Lester, who built the Federation house where we stayed, had purchased this house about 10 years ago when it came up for auction. Apparently it had been sold some years back and had been doctor's surgeries and when the previous owner purchased it she spent quite a lot of money turning it into a B & B but never completed it as she was charged with embezzlement and the bank put the house up for auction. Hence, Robbie the granddaughter, who had her eye on the place for some time and wanted it in back in the family. They certainly did a good job of restoring it to its original condition. We were in the East Wing and had the Red Queen Room and our friends had the Blue Queen Room. Our hosts, Robbie and Errol, were magnificent and made us feel welcome with all the comforts we could ask for.

About 16 kms away was a town called Gulgong. It looked like one of the towns out west in the US. This town is famous and is called the Ten Dollar Town as its picture was featured on the original Ten Dollar Note. But of course, being Tuesday, there was not some many things open. So we carried on to another winery with magnificent views. Our next couple of days away will most likely be Wollongong or Orange.

Last Sunday Kerry-Ann, Felise, Jake and myself took a trip to Thirlmere Heritage Railway for a Day out with Thomas the Tank Engine. However we did not ride on Thomas but another one of his friends, called Donald and boarded this on a heritage-listed 1880s railway station called Sodar. There were over 40 locomotives and 80 carriages on display in the Museum. Our favourite was the goal train. After a picnic lunch and some serious fun on the jumping castle we took 2 tired little bunnies home but not forgetting to stop and play for 5 minutes at Grandma's as Felise had wanted to do.

I have had a couple of weeks off Tebbut Lodge ...reason being first week I looked after Felise and Jake and second week I was in Mudgee. Will have to prepare my trivia tomorrow as I know they will all be looking forwarded to it. Especially the newly engaged couple, Diane and John who are my no 1 fans. Their wedding will be a first at the Lodge.

Tony has gone to the footy today and taken a Warriors supporter in my place and this has allowed me to catch up on some important "me time". I will be watching the tigers play in a moment and if they can beat Manly they will be in second place on the ladder.

Home Alone ......in the Dark

Well here I am home alone. I find myself having conversations with my dog Pinto. Only good thing is he listens to me and doesn't answer my back. Only bad thing is he barks every now and then and gives me a fright. We both have to go to the door or window and look out to see if anyone is sneaking around. Also he wanders into bed before I do and leaves me up alone.

Tony is in Perth until the 3oth of this month with granddaughter Amy. They are dividing their time up between his brother, Kenneth in the North and daughter, Catherine and grandchildren in the south. The South Sydney team just happens to be playing a game against the Melbourne Storm over there and they will all be attending the game as Catherine and Jazmin are rabbitoe fans..

Just before going to play euchre at the club on Monday night I was washing up and I had just turned the insinkerater on when everything went pitch black. First I thought someone had turned the power off and I was a bit frightened (I have seen too many movies). I felt my way into the laundry where there is a large torch and went outside to see if anybody else's power was off but all there lights were on. I checked out power box and there was one switch that said off. This wasn't one of the usual ones that turn off so I gather it must be the main switch. When I turned it back on (or should I say George our neighbour turned it on as I didn't want to blow up the house) it went back off again. I then realised it must have been the insinkerater that was faulty and I hadn't turn its switch off. When I did this the power switch stayed on. I now have to get a plumber to look at the insinkerator. I would like to get rid of this anyway and get a normal sink as I have always hated it. As for euchre I don't know why I turned up this week as I only won 1 game, my worst night ever......although the company was good.

What beautiful weather we had on Sunday. I caught the M2 bus into the city and met Kerry, Michael and the children and we went to the Museum of Sydney and the Botanical Gardens. I hadn't been to this museum before and found it quite interesting. It was grandparents day and they had a live 3 piece band and singer which was a bit much for Felise as she doesn't like loud music so we were unable to watch them. At the moment they also have an exhibition about the depression years and I plan to go back with Tony and have a more detailed look as it was a bit hard to see everything with the children.

Freddo frogs went down well at trivia today.

Welcome home David

David returned on Monday from his travels and after a couple of days to recover has returned to work today. I am looking forward to seeing his photos and hearing his tales.

Yesterday at Tebbutt Lodge there was a concert in the afternoon and I was sitting there watching one of the residents, Lisabeth, dancing around to the music, with a couple of biscuits down shoved down her bra saved from morning tea. She used to be a dancer in her bygone days and well the biscuits I had made a mistake of giving to her as that's what she does with them. I began thinking about life and what happens when you get old and unable to care for yourself.
She seemed happy enough dancing around in her own little world but I began to get tears in my eyes thinking this could be me one day. Just then I was interrupted by Billy who wanted me to take him back to his room. On the way to his room he began crying and saying he was going to fall down as he thought we were lost an unable to find his room. I calmed him down and told him we were nearly there and we eventually made it and I told him to have a little nap. Billy is one of the residents that came from the hostel at Glebe which closed down and is taking a little bit of time to adjust to his new home.
That was the second person yesterday I had to take back to their room. In the morning Barbara had asked would I take her as she wanted to use the toilet. She uses a walking frame and it must have taken about 15mins to get there. However, the cleaners hadn't been into her room to clean it yet and when I saw her bathroom I had to go and get one of the PCs as it was so disgusting I couldn't go in.
As the concert was in the afternoon I decided to do Trivia in the morning. I told them some one line jokes which made them all laugh. Even Nellie was answering questions, even if they were a bit cynical. There was such a big turn up and I realised why. It was because last time I had given out chocolates. I promised them I would bring some next time.

Michael is spending 10 days in New Zealand so last weekend Kerry-Ann, Felise and Jake slept over at our place. Kerry-Ann had to work on Saturday so we took Felise and Jake to North Rocks shops to have coffee with Nora. However, Nora didn't turn up and had forgotten about it completely even though we only spoke to her the night before. Anyway we meet up with Burne and Jan who happened to be going to have coffee and joined them.

The First Day of Winter

Happy Birthday to Tony who is officially an old age pensioner today. He spent the day painting at a friends house and had lunch with another friend. We are celebrating this special occasion at the Parramatta Leagues Club (boo boo) tonight with Kerry & Michael, Craig & Danielle and the 3 girls and 1 boy. I have brought a cake so I hope all the 65 candles don't set the sprinklers off.

Last Saturday we had lunch at Hornsby with our New Zealand travellers, Gina and Peter and planned our 2 day stay in Mudgee which is not until July.

We have booked at Forgandenny House (circa 1900) which is a magnificent Heritage Federation home, 250 metres from the heart of Mudgee, overlooking the beautiful Lawson Park and the Cudgegong River.
The house was commissioned to be built by Dr. Charles Lester, who was the first surgeon to practice in Mudgee (circa 1895). An historic home, complete with the ambience of a bygone era, In 1900 Dr. Lester commissioned Architect Harold Hardwick to design Forgandenny House to be his practice and residence for years to come. Built by Master craftsman Collier and Carmichael, on the corner of Short and Lewis Streets, overlooking Lawson Park and Cudgegong River, this magnificent Federation home still proudly stands today.

There seems to be lots of things to do and see so hopefully we should all enjoy it.

Getting back to Saturday at Hornsby. While we were waiting to meet our friends we had a look around the giant shopping centre. It has certainly changed since I last saw it about 10 years ago.

Got a call from David on Skye. He has arrived back in Vienna and he said the trip to France was very interesting and enjoyable but was rather a long drive and he was looking forward to riding a bike for awhile as a different mode of transport.

Not much else happening at the moment just the normal day to day things. Although Tony didn't lose a game of euchre last night and was an outright winner.

Tigers on comeback trail

The Tigers made a comeback this weekend against Newcastle in pouring rain after the flogging they received last week from the Rabbits. They just didn't "want to be there" last week and made so many mistakes I thought I was watching the under 4's. We had good seats and all in the Ladies Stand at the Cricket Ground I had on my members Tiger's cap and it was such a waste although Tony enjoyed it. The shoe was on the other foot this weekend and the Rabbits lost to the Warriors in NZ. Debbie who sits next to us at the footy and is an ardent Rabbitoes supporter came out to the sticks today (she lives at Newtown} to watch the game on foxtell with us. She went home crying as they lost by 2 points.

More car trouble ......this time it wasn't the new car it was my dear old Lancer. I arrived at Kerry's to babysit Jake and found smoke coming out from under the bonnet. Tony who was doing a small painting job nearby called in when he was finished and took my car to a radiator specialist at nearby Marrickville. The radiator was corroded and needed a new one so he had to leave the car there and we had to come back the next day to pick it up.

This last photo was taken by Felise. She did a better job than we did except for her thumb.

A funny thing happen when Felise was getting ready to go to Kindy. I told her to go the toilet before she left which she proceed to do. She did her wee then pulled up her undies. I said "Felise you didn't wipe your bottom" to which she replied "Its alright Grandma, I did that last week". She sure makes you laugh sometimes.

Tebbutt news ......Erwin gave me an envelope last week and in it was $10 and 3 lottery tickets. He wanted me to have it as I had given him a bird of paradise plant and had printed out a lot of different information for him in the past. I notice he had printed Erwin and Cathy on the 3 tickets so I suppose he expected me to share them with him so I didn't feel so bad. Unfortunately they didn't win a brass razzoo.

Kerry and I went to see the ballet "Coppellia" (The girl with the enamel eyes) at the Opera House. Kerry had seen it several times but for me it was a first. It was an enjoyable production although we both preferred the ballet we saw last month. Our next ballet is not until December when we see the Nutcracker again which I will be looking forward to. Maybe next year we will take Felise along.

Son, David has taken off for an adventure overseas with his Dad and sister Melissa. Hope they all have an enjoyable trip.

This is a photo of neighbour Graham's new caravan. The other photo is the view from our place where it will be parked. Luckily the bush will cover most of it. It has everything imaginable in it.

Mother's Day 2010

We celebrated Mother's Day with a glorious sunny day at Fagan Park, Galston on Sunday. It is beginning to be a tradition that we have a picnic on this day. The venue was very picturesque, although a bit far out for a few people, but it had plenty of parking and spaces to set up the picnic. After a scrumptious lunch, Amy and her friend, Haley went down to the pond with Tony and caught some tadpoles while I took Felise and Jake up to the children's playground where Felise got her long pants all wet from playing in the sand and water. After kicking and throwing the ball around there was some tired little teddy bears and it was time to head off home.

Trivia took at rest at Tebbutt this week as the lodge had their monthly resident meeting which I sat in on. They discussed things like....some residents missed out on dinner one night because there was a lot of staff away sick and the people filling in for them didn't realise some people hadn't been served. Also the language in the dinning room from some of the men is inappropriate and they want to draw up a code of conduct. Plus there was not enough pea & ham in the pea and ham soup.

The ex Baptist Minister that helps out with the gardening group didn't turn up this week and he was bringing some paint to paint some pots. I had to think of something else to do so we prepared this planter box and filled in with all different types of flower seeds. Hopefully one or two will come up.

I took Felise to Kindergarten this morning as Kerry-Ann had to go into the city library. Felise showed me where to put her lunch and where to put her morning tea and where to hang her bag. She then proceeded to sit down and start working on a project the teachers had set out for the children. Jake in the meantime managed to spill the glue.

My visit to the specialist for my knee was not that successful. $300 later he told me that the only thing that would fix it (mainly arthritis)was to have a knee replacement. He gave me a brochure to read and to go and think about it. After reading the pros and cons of the major surgery I have decided that I am not ready to go through that sought of pain at the moment and will keep my lot. He also told me to keep up with the gym and this may help.

This weekend we are off to a trivia night on Saturday and on Sunday, its the big game..Tigers v Rabbits.

On this Day

Thirty-two years ago my little boy was born. I was expecting another girl and he was such

a wonderful surprise. He was only 3 days old when he became a television star. They pleaded

with me to let him appear in a television documentary about the Jewish faith which was going to be aired on a long running news events show called "Four Corners". I agreed and it took all afternoon to film. He was such a good actor he cried on cue. Unfortunately that was his last starring role in a film.

When he was about 5 he used to 'call' all the football games quite well and I thought maybe he was going to be a football commentator. This was not to be. When he was 9 he became an altar boy and used to act out the Mass with a couple of his friends next door. I thought maybe he was going to be a priest. This didn't happen.

When he was 13 he liked photography and used to take everything in sight. No he didn't become a photographer either.

When he was 17 he became a professional university student. However, this only lasted about

5 years.

He is now married to a lovely lady, Simone and is the Technical and Production Service Manager at the Wesley Mission Conference Centre and has been there for over 10 years. I am very proud of him and love him dearly. "Happy Birthday David"

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Gossip from Tebbutt Lodge - Ada, the lady that gave me the Tintams for Christmas is going on a holiday for a month with her daughter to United States. She leaves tomorrow and was very exited about this as was everyone else.

Erwin, the guy that was really depressed awhile back has taken an interest in gardening again and is very pleased with the mango seeds he has planted as they are beginning to shoot up. He is interested in the Bird of Paradise plant and has asked me to see if I can get some seeds which I will do for him this week.

Jean, one of the residents, escaped this afternoon after someone thoughtlessly didn't close the gate properly. Fortunately Jean does have an alarm monitor on her and they traced her down outside. She is a lovely lady 93 years old and still thinks her Mum and Dad are alive. She loves to sit in the garden and watch the cars go by. I sometimes sit with her while she tells me of her growing up years.

John (Sarge they call him as he was in the Vietnam War) and Diane are my two most ardent trivia fanatics.

Marge, who always has a cross look on her face, doesn't approve of me one bit. She tells me I am stupid and everything I say is rubbish and looks at me in disgust. Nellie on the other hand as mellowed abit (not too much) but at least will answer me (still abruptly)when I speak to her now.

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News on my knee next blog as I had an MRI scan and go back to the specialist next Monday.

I can't believe it!

My brother and sister-in-law are finally spreading their wings and heading off overseas for a holiday in July. This will be the first time they have been in a plane and been out of NSW. It must have taken great courage for them to commit to this as I know Amanda has never been too keen and David is quite happy being a home boy. They will be travelling to Italy, England, France and Germany and Dubai. Olivia and Brooklyn will be meeting them in London and Edwina will be going to a wedding in Portugal then meeting up with them in France. They have friends with a house in the south of France and will be staying with them for a while.

Happy Birthday Lenny. I believe Lenny has turned 3 today. The first day I saw Lenny was on Mother's Day 3 years ago when David and Simone brought him along to a Mother's Day picnic at Homebush. Hope everyone treated you well today Lenny and you got your favourite dinner.

I didn't get to do my Trivia on Tuesday at Tebbutt as they had a concert on instead. Although I did get to do lots of dancing and Nellie even said to me get up the front and dance. I think Nellie is beginning to trust me now as she sits in on my exercise class which she didn't do before. Some of them asked whether I was doing trivia after the concert but I told them I had to go home then but would be back next week which seemed to satisfy them.

A funny thing happened at gardening. The front garden had some large weeds so I thought I would get Robert to pull them out. I told him what to look for but when I turned around he was pulling out the plants. I quickly stomped them back in again but there is no guarantee they will survive. Next week we are painting a couple of old pots we found out the back. I can't image what that will be like.

Remember the Vampires?

We had our friends from our New Zealand holiday, Peter and Gina over for dinner on Friday night. Gina is a vegetarian, not strictly vegetarian as she eats fish and other things from the sea, so I planned the dinner to accommodate her. We started with Tomato Cheese Tarts (a combination of filo pastry, ricotta cheese, basil and tomatoes) followed by Salmon fillets with Mornay Sauce served on a bed of potato and cauliflower mash and accompanied by snow peas and flaked almonds. This was washed down with a bottle of McWilliams, Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon. A baked rice custard was served for dessert. I pretended I was in "My Kitchen Rules" but unlike a lot of those contestants mine turned out ok. Although I would have lost a few points for the first course as I forgot to grease the tins and the pastry got a bit stuck. All in all we enjoyed a good night and made plans for a trip to Mudgee for a couple of days in July. I must tell you about a strange thing that happened to me while I was in the supermarket shopping for this dinner. I needed a certain cheese and was looking through the hundreds 0f cheeses they seemed to have on display and was thinking to myself that I would never be able to find this particular cheese when I heard a thud behind me. I looked around and there on the floor were a couple of cheeses that must have fallen off the shelf. Guess what they happened to be the cheese I was looking for. How weird's that?
Last Tuesday we had lunch at Terry and Janet's at Stanmore and they had invited another couple who we had previously meet at their 50th wedding anniversary. This couple live down Picnic Point way and have a large boat moored outside their house which they have invited us to go on next time with Janet & Terry. Because of this lunch I had to miss out on Tebbut Lodge so I am looking forward to seeing the residents this week and have prepared some trivia and jokes plus some information on plants they had asked me for.

Kerry and I went to see "The Silver Rose " Ballet yesterday. This was a new ballet and all the cast were outstanding. It had a story and was easy to follow and very enjoyable. I caught the M2 bus and met Kerry at the Opera House. However, before this I did a bit of shopping and walking around and by the time I got to Bennalong point my knee was killing me. I go to the specialist next Monday but before this I have an appointment at the dentist so this week I am not looking forward to.

As Tony's car was still out of action we had to take Rolf and Christa's car to Raymond Terrace

last Saturday. Thankfully we have decided to change our 6/7 week meeting routine and are now going to meet 6 monthly. On the 6 monthly meeting we will be going to Nelson Bay and staying overnight which is a much better plan as driving to Raymond Terrace is more like a chore now as it is such a long way to go for a few hours.

Remember the Vampires Melissa? I watched the next one New Moon. I preferred the first one as this one was about Werewolves and everyone knows vampires outdo werewolves. Apparently there are 4 books in the Twilight series and they have already began on the next movie so I can't wait to see that one now.

Are you for real?

That is what Tony said to me when I told him I had brought a dog for 300,000 coins on Farmville and I needed to feed it everyday for 14 days otherwise it would run away. Unfortunately the farm is part of my life now. I am not that interested in my cafe so I won't be going there for awhile. Enough of this nonsense....

I was sitting in the doctors waiting room on Friday and I began to think of how many hours I must have waited in there over the years. About 40 years ago when I first moved to North Rocks I used to see Dr Penney in the old surgery in Lawndale Ave. He then moved to new premises in Pembury St and when he retired about 20 odd years ago I began seeing another doctor in the same surgery, namely Dr Lee, and I have been seeing him ever since. Patients for the other 2 doctors there are in and out. Whereas there is always about an hour or so wait to see Dr Lee.

Anyway, I eventually got in to see him and he gave me a referral to an orthopedic specialist.

He then suggested I have the flu/swine flu needle and preceded to tell me the side effects you can get with it...... paralyses etc. I said "and you want me to have it". He said it is very rare so I agreed and now I have a very sore arm. I rang the specialist when I got home to make an appointment for my knee. However, the girl said he was on holidays and asked was it urgent. I said no I have put up with this sore knee for over 3 months and little bit longer won't matter. She then said, "oh I'm sorry but doctor only does feet and ankles." So I had to get back to Dr Lee for another referral which I will pick up on Monday.

We have only had our new car for about six weeks and already it is going back to the smash repairs for the second time. A week after we got it, Tony reversed down the driveway into the neighbour's car parked across the road. Then on Thursday coming along the M4 Tony was sitting behind a couple of large trucks and by the time he saw the tyre sitting on the road it was to late to change lanes so he had to go over it. He didn't realise until he got home how much damage it had caused. The front bumper was hanging down and all underneath was damaged. I think this car is jinxed. I guess we are making the most out of our present insurance company as we will be leaving them on the 17 of the month and going to APIA.

Yes the Easter Bunny did come this year......we had our usually Easter Egg Hunt in the front

garden and for lunch we had roast lamb and mint sauce.

This is a photo of the children looking pleased with their find. We also celebrated Michael's

birthday with some fairy cup cakes. This is a photo of Michael trying really hard to blow out his candle. Other important Birthday's .......Jazmin turned 14 today and Rob, our friend in Scotland, also celebrated today.

The "rabbits" played at Gosford last night so we went up there and had lunch with one of my oldest friends I have known since kindergarten. We meet Dale and John at the Leagues Club

and had a good chat for a few hours before we ventured across the road to see the game. The Rabbits won so Tony was happy and we got home and watch the Tigers go on to win as well.

How long can they keep this up???? For awhile I hope, although the Tigers lost a very good halfback, Tim Moltzen, for the rest of the season with a knee injury which is unfortunate.

Have a good week everyone!!

Happy Easter Everyone

It is Good Friday. I have just been on a walk as the gym is shut for the next 4 days. I should have said a hobble not a walk as that is how i get around these days. I have been putting off the inevitable... ie having a knee operation but the time has come when I can no longer do this as it is interfering with day to day living. I will make an appointment with the GP next week and he most definitely will send me to a specialist.

Sokit had a baby shower for her daughter-in-law. They were mostly Sokit's friends as Laura had already had a shower with her friends the previous week. Have you ever been to a "do" with a roomful of Filipino's. It is so interesting to watch and listen. They all talk together and no one listens to what the others are saying. I made my famous lemon merinque pie as you will notice in the photo. The dishes Sokit made were yummy.

Tony and I went to the Premiers Concert for Seniors at the Entertainment Centre with Rolf and Christa during seniors week. Kristina Kennealy welcomed us all and gave a very good speech. I didn't realise there was so many older people and I don't think the city would have seen so many in there since the Christmas concert. Thirty thousand people attended the concerts over 2 days. The show was called " After Dark" and we were transported back to the magic and excitement of a 1930s nightclub. The cast featured some of Australia's leading talent (although you may not have heard of them) including Valerie Bader, Rachael Beck, Blazey Best, Anthony Harkin, Ian Stenlake and Greg Stone. They were accompanied by the seven-piece gypsy fusion band Monsieur Camembert. We are not looking forward to the Christmas one.

Felise and Jake were out guests last weekend. They came for a 2 nights sleepover while their parents headed down to Canberra to see the Musée D'Orsay exhibition at the Art Gallery. We headed off to Featherdale Farm. Jake wasn't afraid of the Kangaroos like he is with Pinto. Although I think he is getting better with Pinto now but he doesn't like it when pinto corners him. We spend a couple of hours at the Park and I think the best thing they liked was the crocodile and the gingerbread men they had for morning tea. The rest of the weekend was taken up with a visit to see Emily and Amy, park, shops, lots of games and eating. Felise helped cheer on the "Tigers" to a win on Friday night while Jake was curled up asleep in bed.