really isn't at all well. It's a bit of a vicious circle, really. He feels nauseous so isn't eating. He has lost a lot of weight. He is feeling very weak. He has a small something to eat or drink. He feels nauseous so doesn't eat any more. He gets a bit weaker. And he sleeps and sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. He can't take any exercise, so doesn't really get hungry. And so it goes on.
He now has some anti nausea medicine so hopefully that will help.
He has eaten a few odd bits and pieces. And he went for a stroll with me around the complex the other evening. He has some times when he feels quite bright. And other times when he feels quite terrible. Today is a feeling terrible day ;-(
It doesn't help that his medical and hospital tests keep getting messed about so no one know what is supposed to be happening and when.
Except I think that some things have now been sorted out. Lindsey came down on Monday and escorted Tony and Stella to see his surgeon on Tuesday. The first set of results are partly encouraging but not so much that further tests can be ignored. A load of tests have been arranged for Monday. Lindsey and Jim went away after the hospital visit leaving me in situ at Mount Martha for the time being. I think I will be here until at least Monday. We will review the situation then.
Tony wasn't well enough to go to the joint 60th birthday / housewarming lunch that Christian and Cassie were hosting in their beautiful new home, so he and Stella stayed at home. Fortunately Jim and I were well enough - partly because I had custody of the birthday presents from Stella and Tony, also because I had custody of the fruit platter Lindsey had asked me to get but mostly because I had Emily's car and she needed it back. We had a lovely time at the party. They had prepared some delicious salads, beautiful roast meats, lots of tasty morsels. There was lots of merriment, lots of delicious wine and two glorious birthday cakes. Then Jim and I came back to Mount Martha by train, train and taxi.
In other news - our furniture and boxes are due to be delivered to Mount Helen some time on Friday. I had thought they might never leave their consolidation home in London but now they are oh so nearly here. Now we just need to sell the house so we can get somewhere to put the furniture and contents of the boxes!
Ise Shima, Japan, November 2024
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Friday, May 26, 2017
A busy, busy few days
So. Back to last week.
I went on Tuesday morning, from Ballarat to the airport to pick up a young cousin and his companion who have been visiting Far North Queensland for a few weeks and had come to Melbourne to spend a few days with the Aussie Rellies. Most fortunately, I had checked the flight status before I set off at the crack of dawn. The plane was delayed by three hours on account of bad weather in Melbourne. I gazed out at the glorious weather in Ballarat while I drank my morning cup of coffee and pondered the vagaries of the Weather Dogs.
It was foggy in Melbourne when I got there!
I took the visitors on the tram into Melbourne for a wander around and then left them to it and took the train and bus back to Mount Helen.
Wednesday I spent mostly making roasted tomato soup, slow cooked steak and ale stew, suet pastry to sit on top of the stew and sorting out vegetables. For on Thursday Irene, Gillie, Chris and John came for lunch. I thought it would be a good plan actually to have food for them. I'm not sure that vegemite sandwiches would have cut it!
On Friday I actually managed to get to work for a few hours, then I went and picked up the youngsters and they, Lindsey and I all went back to Ballarat, where we were greeted by Jim, Sam and Ian, and an absolutely magnificent seafood paella made by Ian.
On Saturday, Lindsey, the visitors and I walked around the lake. Ian, Sam and Jim walked around a bit of the lake. In the afternoon, all of us except Ian and Sam went to Sovereign Hill for a bit of a look around. Sovereign Hill consistently wins awards as a tourist attraction - and I haven't been for decades. I suppose it's the sort of place that locals don't go to unless they have visitors. And I possibly should go more often than once every 30 years or so. There's a lot to see and we only had a couple of hours. If you wish to volunteer to come and visit so we can go again, please feel free!
On Sunday Lindsey, Ian and the visitors took themselves off to drive along part of the coast and then took the ferry across the bay and went to visit Stella and Tony, briefly. Jim and I did very little. I suppose I could have done an update here on Sunday - but I didn't!
On Monday, Jim and I pottered down to Melbourne and met Lindsey in the flat. We wandered into town, did a bit of shopping, wandered around a bit more, pottered back to the flat - and in the evening everyone went out to celebrate Ian's 60th birthday.
On Tuesday and Wednesday I actually managed to get into work. The scanning mountain is growing!!!!!
On Thursday I was in Ballarat pondering whether to buy the rather nice dressing gown I was looking at which was at half price. My phone rang. It was Lindsey with a very complicated proposal involving car swaps, travel plans, dog feeding plans and various other things because someone needed to be in Mount Martha on Friday morning to take Tony for some hospital tests. I abandoned my plans for the next couple of days and hastily packed for a week or so, grabbed Jim and we embarked on the car swap. This was slightly complicated by the fact that we arrived to swap the cars when parents were picking their children up from school. No parking spaces to be had for love nor money. Eventually we got it all sorted hopped in Emily's car to set off on our mercy mission - and Stella rang to say that the hospital visit had been postponed to next week :-(
We decided to come down anyway. We were coming on Saturday in any case and it seemed silly to re-swap the cars, cancel the dog sitter and go back and unpack, especially given that we were sitting in the car ready to go. So down we came. I could have wished not to have hit the Burnley Tunnel and the Monash Freeway at just after 5 on a weekday, but in fact the traffic wasn't as bad as it sometimes is and we arrived in Mount Martha nicely in time for dinner.
So here we are. The sun is shining. We have no real plans until Sunday late morning. It might not be quite so busy (although the irony then is that there may be time to write the blog, but there is nothing to say :-S )
This feels very much like a What I Did on my Holidays school essay! So here are some pictures from our visit to Sovereign Hill:
I went on Tuesday morning, from Ballarat to the airport to pick up a young cousin and his companion who have been visiting Far North Queensland for a few weeks and had come to Melbourne to spend a few days with the Aussie Rellies. Most fortunately, I had checked the flight status before I set off at the crack of dawn. The plane was delayed by three hours on account of bad weather in Melbourne. I gazed out at the glorious weather in Ballarat while I drank my morning cup of coffee and pondered the vagaries of the Weather Dogs.
It was foggy in Melbourne when I got there!
I took the visitors on the tram into Melbourne for a wander around and then left them to it and took the train and bus back to Mount Helen.
Wednesday I spent mostly making roasted tomato soup, slow cooked steak and ale stew, suet pastry to sit on top of the stew and sorting out vegetables. For on Thursday Irene, Gillie, Chris and John came for lunch. I thought it would be a good plan actually to have food for them. I'm not sure that vegemite sandwiches would have cut it!
On Friday I actually managed to get to work for a few hours, then I went and picked up the youngsters and they, Lindsey and I all went back to Ballarat, where we were greeted by Jim, Sam and Ian, and an absolutely magnificent seafood paella made by Ian.
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| Walking around the Lake |
On Saturday, Lindsey, the visitors and I walked around the lake. Ian, Sam and Jim walked around a bit of the lake. In the afternoon, all of us except Ian and Sam went to Sovereign Hill for a bit of a look around. Sovereign Hill consistently wins awards as a tourist attraction - and I haven't been for decades. I suppose it's the sort of place that locals don't go to unless they have visitors. And I possibly should go more often than once every 30 years or so. There's a lot to see and we only had a couple of hours. If you wish to volunteer to come and visit so we can go again, please feel free!
On Sunday Lindsey, Ian and the visitors took themselves off to drive along part of the coast and then took the ferry across the bay and went to visit Stella and Tony, briefly. Jim and I did very little. I suppose I could have done an update here on Sunday - but I didn't!
On Monday, Jim and I pottered down to Melbourne and met Lindsey in the flat. We wandered into town, did a bit of shopping, wandered around a bit more, pottered back to the flat - and in the evening everyone went out to celebrate Ian's 60th birthday.
On Tuesday and Wednesday I actually managed to get into work. The scanning mountain is growing!!!!!
On Thursday I was in Ballarat pondering whether to buy the rather nice dressing gown I was looking at which was at half price. My phone rang. It was Lindsey with a very complicated proposal involving car swaps, travel plans, dog feeding plans and various other things because someone needed to be in Mount Martha on Friday morning to take Tony for some hospital tests. I abandoned my plans for the next couple of days and hastily packed for a week or so, grabbed Jim and we embarked on the car swap. This was slightly complicated by the fact that we arrived to swap the cars when parents were picking their children up from school. No parking spaces to be had for love nor money. Eventually we got it all sorted hopped in Emily's car to set off on our mercy mission - and Stella rang to say that the hospital visit had been postponed to next week :-(
We decided to come down anyway. We were coming on Saturday in any case and it seemed silly to re-swap the cars, cancel the dog sitter and go back and unpack, especially given that we were sitting in the car ready to go. So down we came. I could have wished not to have hit the Burnley Tunnel and the Monash Freeway at just after 5 on a weekday, but in fact the traffic wasn't as bad as it sometimes is and we arrived in Mount Martha nicely in time for dinner.
So here we are. The sun is shining. We have no real plans until Sunday late morning. It might not be quite so busy (although the irony then is that there may be time to write the blog, but there is nothing to say :-S )
This feels very much like a What I Did on my Holidays school essay! So here are some pictures from our visit to Sovereign Hill:
Monday, May 15, 2017
Celebrating
It was Lindsey's 60th birthday last Thursday. It was the Practice Manager's 50th birthday, also on Thursday. It was decided to have a lunchtime celebration at the surgery on Wednesday, since neither of the birthday girls would be in on Thursday.
They got food in from the various eateries in the shopping centre that the surgery sits in. We had pizza and sushi and calamari and chips and cold platters and all sorts.
And the Practice Nurse made a cake. Except there wasn't actually any cake. It was all made of various kinds of fruit. It was amazing!
Thursday lunch time found Lindsey, Ian, Jim and me in a wine bar in Ballarat, eating Japanese style food. I was the designated driver so no wine for me, which had the unexpected benefit of introducing me to a bitter grapefruit drink. It was absolutely delicious. I may have had two!
Ian took himself off to Brisbane via the airport bus and a plane after lunch.
Lindsey, Jim and I went home and prepared our stomachs for dinner, which we had with Emily, Ant and Jess in a Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant in Ballarat. We had the tasting menu and it was amazing.
Yesterday was Mother's Day and the family (apart from Ian and Jess, but including Wendy's former mother in law Margaret) gathered at Mount Martha in celebration of all our mothers - and Lindsey's birthday. I took a vegan shepherd's pie topped with sweet potato, and a meaty one topped with traditional potato. Susie brought delicious sausage rolls and kofta. Lindsey came with salads and a fruit platter. Stella had also bought salads, green beans and a cherry pie. Belinda brought a rhubarb crumble. There was lots of wine. It was a very mighty feast indeed .
And now we have a celebratory pause. No more birthdays until next week!
They got food in from the various eateries in the shopping centre that the surgery sits in. We had pizza and sushi and calamari and chips and cold platters and all sorts.
And the Practice Nurse made a cake. Except there wasn't actually any cake. It was all made of various kinds of fruit. It was amazing!
Thursday lunch time found Lindsey, Ian, Jim and me in a wine bar in Ballarat, eating Japanese style food. I was the designated driver so no wine for me, which had the unexpected benefit of introducing me to a bitter grapefruit drink. It was absolutely delicious. I may have had two!
Ian took himself off to Brisbane via the airport bus and a plane after lunch.
Lindsey, Jim and I went home and prepared our stomachs for dinner, which we had with Emily, Ant and Jess in a Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant in Ballarat. We had the tasting menu and it was amazing.
Yesterday was Mother's Day and the family (apart from Ian and Jess, but including Wendy's former mother in law Margaret) gathered at Mount Martha in celebration of all our mothers - and Lindsey's birthday. I took a vegan shepherd's pie topped with sweet potato, and a meaty one topped with traditional potato. Susie brought delicious sausage rolls and kofta. Lindsey came with salads and a fruit platter. Stella had also bought salads, green beans and a cherry pie. Belinda brought a rhubarb crumble. There was lots of wine. It was a very mighty feast indeed .
And now we have a celebratory pause. No more birthdays until next week!
Monday, May 08, 2017
Sunday
We started the day at the Farm Gate Market, which happens on Sundays a short stroll from our house. It's not anywhere near as big as the Salamanca Market, but it is definitely a food market. We were a bit sad that we only had one more main meal to buy for!
Then we made our way up Mount Wellington, whose top was covered in cloud. It turned out that the route to the top was also covered in snow. The road to the summit was closed 6 km before you got there.
Thwarted in our ambition to reach the top we drove back down and then turned away from Hobart and headed out to Huonville in the Huon Valley, just for a look see. The Huon Valley is apple country. There were lots of cider making places. We didn't visit them :-D Instead we turned around and made our way to the historic township of Richmond where we had a rather nice lunch in the Richmond Arms, visited the model village of Colonial Hobart, collected the very pretty bridge and pottered around in the shops.
And so home where we spent out last evening watching Masterchef while eating the magnificent potatoes, veg and lamb fillets that we had bought in the market in the morning.
I could definitely live in or around Hobart. It's a nice pace of life. And the fresh food is amazing. I might need a slightly better paying job to fund all the eating, though!
We're off back to Victoria shortly. And then we have three or four weeks of birthdays and other excitements to look forward to.
Then we made our way up Mount Wellington, whose top was covered in cloud. It turned out that the route to the top was also covered in snow. The road to the summit was closed 6 km before you got there.
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| Cloud capped. We went up anyway |
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| It was very picturesque driving up the mountain |
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| View from the lookout |
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| It's me!! |
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| The road is closed up ahead. We can go no further |
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| Richmond Arms |
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| Model village |
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| Model Village |
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| Richmond Bridge |
And so home where we spent out last evening watching Masterchef while eating the magnificent potatoes, veg and lamb fillets that we had bought in the market in the morning.
I could definitely live in or around Hobart. It's a nice pace of life. And the fresh food is amazing. I might need a slightly better paying job to fund all the eating, though!
We're off back to Victoria shortly. And then we have three or four weeks of birthdays and other excitements to look forward to.
Sunday, May 07, 2017
Saturday
What do you do if you should find yourself in Hobart on a Saturday morning? Well, of course you go to the Salamanca Market.
I have been once before but it was over twenty years ago. It's grown quite a lot since then! There were hundreds of stalls and lots of people wandering around. It was an excellent way of spending an hour or so on a Saturday morning - and perhaps one or two dollars as well :-)
We went for a wander around the Hobart City Centre. It's a pretty little city. Apart from its size, it reminds me a bit of Edinburgh.
It has a beautiful bridge which connects the two sides of the city in an easy drive. We've been over it several times. It got knocked down by a rogue ship in the 1970s. This was a serious inconvenience to the people who lived on one side of the harbour but who worked in the city centre!
You would think that we might have thought to check the ferry time to Maria Island before we embarked on the day's activities. But we didn't. We just hopped in the car when we had finished the things we wanted to do in the morning and took ourselves off on the rather beautiful drive to Orford and Triabunna - only to find that we had missed the lunchtime ferry by about 20 minutes. The next ferry wasn't until mid-afternoon and would only give you about half an hour on the island before the last ferry came back. There's no late afternoon ferry in the off season. So we abandoned the idea of Maria Island and went here for lunch instead, attracted by the chalk board out the front which advised us that the combination of a wood fire and shepherd's pie was not to to be missed
And it was a mighty fine shepherd's pie indeed. Country cooking at its best!
We liked Triabunna. It's a small settlement, but it has cafes, a small supermarket, a gift shop, a butcher, a ferry port and marina, a pub and various other things. You could almost live there even without a car to take you to Sorrel or Swansea. I'm not so sure you could live in Orford without a car. It has many, many more houses but seems to have far fewer facilities. It does have a nice beach, though.
However, we aren't planning to move to either of these places and made our way back to Hobart, via the veg shop we were in on Friday, and an oyster shop where Lindsey bought oysters and prawns as an entree for our dinner. We followed them with fish poached in lemon and olive oil, roast potatoes and lots of lovely veg
I have been once before but it was over twenty years ago. It's grown quite a lot since then! There were hundreds of stalls and lots of people wandering around. It was an excellent way of spending an hour or so on a Saturday morning - and perhaps one or two dollars as well :-)
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| Lindsey entering the Salamanca Market |
We went for a wander around the Hobart City Centre. It's a pretty little city. Apart from its size, it reminds me a bit of Edinburgh.
It has a beautiful bridge which connects the two sides of the city in an easy drive. We've been over it several times. It got knocked down by a rogue ship in the 1970s. This was a serious inconvenience to the people who lived on one side of the harbour but who worked in the city centre!
You would think that we might have thought to check the ferry time to Maria Island before we embarked on the day's activities. But we didn't. We just hopped in the car when we had finished the things we wanted to do in the morning and took ourselves off on the rather beautiful drive to Orford and Triabunna - only to find that we had missed the lunchtime ferry by about 20 minutes. The next ferry wasn't until mid-afternoon and would only give you about half an hour on the island before the last ferry came back. There's no late afternoon ferry in the off season. So we abandoned the idea of Maria Island and went here for lunch instead, attracted by the chalk board out the front which advised us that the combination of a wood fire and shepherd's pie was not to to be missed
And it was a mighty fine shepherd's pie indeed. Country cooking at its best!
We liked Triabunna. It's a small settlement, but it has cafes, a small supermarket, a gift shop, a butcher, a ferry port and marina, a pub and various other things. You could almost live there even without a car to take you to Sorrel or Swansea. I'm not so sure you could live in Orford without a car. It has many, many more houses but seems to have far fewer facilities. It does have a nice beach, though.
However, we aren't planning to move to either of these places and made our way back to Hobart, via the veg shop we were in on Friday, and an oyster shop where Lindsey bought oysters and prawns as an entree for our dinner. We followed them with fish poached in lemon and olive oil, roast potatoes and lots of lovely veg
Saturday, May 06, 2017
Port Arthur
Lindsey and I thought it would be a good thing to take Jim to Port Arthur while we were here. As you may know, he has a passing interest in Things Penitential and Port Arthur is extremely interesting as far as prisons go. We had thought we might go today or even tomorrow but yesterday's weather forecast looked the best of the three days so we hopped in the car and went after breakfast.
We were not in any hurry and were definitely in exploring mode, so we stopped a few times on the way, including here at Pirate Bay (well, you almost have to take a detour if you are offered pirates en route to your destination!!)
Then on we drove to Port Arthur. It is a truly beautiful place with a truly ugly history. I have once, many years ago, done a night walk around the site. I would never do that again! Yesterday, however, with the sun shining and in daylight you could admire the beauty and appreciate some of the good things that happened there, as well as pondering how even well intentioned people can also do truly appalling things. The Separate prison was meant to be a model of prison reform!
We didn't go on a guided walk and just wandered around looking at the buildings. We did go on the ferry trip around the harbour.
We were not in any hurry and were definitely in exploring mode, so we stopped a few times on the way, including here at Pirate Bay (well, you almost have to take a detour if you are offered pirates en route to your destination!!)
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| Looking over Pirate Bay |
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| Inspecting the Tesselated Pavement |
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| The cobbles have been made by the sea, not by humans |
We didn't go on a guided walk and just wandered around looking at the buildings. We did go on the ferry trip around the harbour.
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| The chapel, in the Separate Prison, which is set up so the prisoners couldn't see one another |
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| The cells are tiny, and were very, very dark |
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| The Separate prison was not just dark, but also entirely silent. No talking by the convicts |
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| Guard tower |
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| Outside the main penitentiary |
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| The Isle of the Dead |
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| Port Arthur penitentiary looking for all the world like a stately house from the water |
Friday, May 05, 2017
Tassie
I wouldn't normally arrange to be in Christchurch, followed by Hobart in quite such a rush, but that was the way the discount flights fell. It's not so much that there wasn't time to turn around. There was plenty of time to do the washing, pack a bag for Hobart, pack another bag for town, head to Melbourne, go to work for a couple of days, head back to Ballarat, go to bed late, get up very early and make our way to Avalon Airport. Plenty of time, I tell you. (But it was all a bit of a rush :-P )
Anyway. Here we are. I bought the flights to Hobart back in November when Jetstar had them on offer. It's Lindsey's 60th birthday next week and it seemed like a good plan to kickstart the birthday celebrations with a long weekend pottering around and exploring around Hobart. Jim hasn't been to this bit of Tasmania before and it's years and years since I've been. Last time I was in Tasmania was when we came with Lindsey and Ian and we stayed in the north of the island.
The flights were out of Avalon which is a tiny airport near to Geelong. I've never been to it before and it's very cute. I'm not sure which would win the prize for the smallest airport I've ever been to. Avalon is definitely smaller than Sandakan, but it would be a close run thing in the race between Avalon and the little airport in Orkney. But whichever were to win, they get a joint first prize for the ease of checkin in and going through security. No immigration to worry about. Flights to Orkney from Edinburgh and Hobart from Avalon are domestic flights.
We arrived in time for an early lunch. Please note that if you decide to go into Mures Lower Deck for your early lunch that the portion sizes are ENORMOUS. Humungous. I think that if Lindsey and I had shared her fisherman's basket we would still have struggled to eat it. As it happened we didn't share it. I had a gigantic seafood pizza to tackle. Even Jim was surprised to get two large pieces of fish with his fish and chips. The couple who came to the table next to us had obviously been there before. They had a single plate of fish and chips with two sets of cutlery! Oh- and Mures also has sparkling water as a complementary water offering, along with still water, both on tap for you to help yourself.
We are staying in an older part of Hobart, within easy walking distance of the centre of town. If you head up our road, there is an amazing butcher 5 minutes walk away. If you turn around the corner from our place there is a magnificent whole food and organic shop. Go the other way and there is a cheese and wine store. Hop in the car and go in almost any direction and there are farm shops, little fish shops, fruit shops, all selling local produce together, in the case of some of the farm shops, supermarket staples. It is a great great pity that Ian couldn't join us. It's definitely his kind of place!
It pays to look up when you are wandering around in Hobart:
Anyway. Here we are. I bought the flights to Hobart back in November when Jetstar had them on offer. It's Lindsey's 60th birthday next week and it seemed like a good plan to kickstart the birthday celebrations with a long weekend pottering around and exploring around Hobart. Jim hasn't been to this bit of Tasmania before and it's years and years since I've been. Last time I was in Tasmania was when we came with Lindsey and Ian and we stayed in the north of the island.
The flights were out of Avalon which is a tiny airport near to Geelong. I've never been to it before and it's very cute. I'm not sure which would win the prize for the smallest airport I've ever been to. Avalon is definitely smaller than Sandakan, but it would be a close run thing in the race between Avalon and the little airport in Orkney. But whichever were to win, they get a joint first prize for the ease of checkin in and going through security. No immigration to worry about. Flights to Orkney from Edinburgh and Hobart from Avalon are domestic flights.
We arrived in time for an early lunch. Please note that if you decide to go into Mures Lower Deck for your early lunch that the portion sizes are ENORMOUS. Humungous. I think that if Lindsey and I had shared her fisherman's basket we would still have struggled to eat it. As it happened we didn't share it. I had a gigantic seafood pizza to tackle. Even Jim was surprised to get two large pieces of fish with his fish and chips. The couple who came to the table next to us had obviously been there before. They had a single plate of fish and chips with two sets of cutlery! Oh- and Mures also has sparkling water as a complementary water offering, along with still water, both on tap for you to help yourself.
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| Lunchtime view |
It pays to look up when you are wandering around in Hobart:
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