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!!