Partying

It was a weekend of partying.

Saturday afternoon was Stella's Family Farewell Party, in a wine bar in East Melbourne. Very conveniently, the Life's Too Short  wine bar is in the same complex as Lindsey and Ian's flat. Ian was heading back to Ballarat after the event, so I stayed in the flat overnight.

It was a good do. Stella would have much enjoyed it. I think everyone who is in Victoria was there, plus distant cousin Ken, and Bob and Marie Rogers. Marie met us at the airport when we very first came to Australia. Bob was a partner in the surgery when Tony joined it. Bob and Marie are in their nineties, live in Kew and came to East Melbourne on the tram! Bob is the only original partner still standing.

We had cocktails, wine, non alcoholic alternatives, coffee, tea and very tasty small canapés. Stella and Tony were there in the form of a large portrait that Lindsey's daughter in law's father painted 

The painting is in the background at
Hill House.
Rupert and Hugo are with Stella
January, 2020

Here we all are:

And a few of the people who were there:

And this is inside the venue:

On Sunday, I was off to Geelong. The Sunday lunchers were meeting at Irene's place, although Chris and John were unexpectedly unable to come. 

People say that the road from Melbourne to Geelong is very boring, and that may well be the case if you drive it frequently. I almost never drive it, going as I usually do from Ballarat, so I didn't find it boring. And especially not once I got to Geelong itself and drove around Corio Bay for part of the journey. I wasn't expecting to see the sea, which was deep blue and sparkling in the sunshine.

This is what Chris and John missed out on:

There was tiramisu for dessert, but I didn't get a photo of that. It was all very delicious.

Gillie and Irene

In other news, I FINALLY got around to getting the gutters cleaned out on Saturday morning before I went to Melbourne. I've been trying to think when it was last done. It was quite some time ago. When Jim was here, the council came out and cleared them as part of his aged care support, although I think that might have stopped when the My Aged Care package came into play. Whenever it stopped, it certainly didn't continue after he moved into residential care. I suspect it might have been perhaps three years since the gutters were last done. The gutters were very full. The bloke who came and did it was very careful but the green waste bin is very full and there is still a lot of leaf and twig litter to go in. I shall have to remember to have it done more often!

Whiskey was very keen to get out and see
what had been going on

Brandy was more than happy
to look at it from inside

The Handy Girls are coming on Thursday to sort out the agapanthus down the driveway. They were going to come last Thursday but they were running very late and I had to go out. Lindsey and I were meeting Sandy from Perth in Sunbury at 6pm and that's slightly over an hour away. I put the Handy Girls off to this week and Lindsey and I went off to Sunbury, to Okami for Japanese food and a catch up with Sandy and another friend.

All in all it's been quite a sociable few days