Day 258 - Mr Nil Orally

Pretty much spent all of today in a little hospital in Heidelberg - of all places - waiting with Nick for his knee operation. Arrived at 11.30am as requested, operation did not take place until about 6pm that evening.I wanted to wait until he came out of surgery to make sure he was fine - which thankfully he was. He could finally eat but had no appetite. So, didn't get home until about 9.30pm.Spent much of the day reading The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - what a poignant but clever idea for a book dealing with the Holocaust.

Day 257 - Zimmer Splint

Now I know what a zimmer splint is - pictured. Tomorrow Nick has his operation to sew together his ruptured quadraceps tendon. He will have to wear this splint with its velcro straps for 6 weeks. At least he can remove it for showering and it's not as cumbersome as the old plaster cast. I will be glad when he has this little op behind him.

Day 256 Reading treats

I've been reading a mixture of books lately. I really enjoyed Felicity Pulman's young adult novel Rosemary for Remembrance -part of the Janna Mysteries series. Margaret Clark's Pulling the Moves was a total contrast but also had its appeal- I'll recommend both these novels for consideration for next year's junior classes. I read Alice Munroe's View From Castle Rock a while ago (it was wonderful) but am presently reading Anne Tyler's Noah's Compass which is totally delightful - certainly overtones of the Accidental Tourist - but with its own particular uniqueness.

Day 255 Back to Egypt

We had relatives over today and dug out some old photos they wanted to see - which is how I've come up with today's pic. Taken by Nick's automatic camera mounted on its tripod it shows a very carefree young, childless couple posing in front of the great pyramid of Cheops and the bullet riddled face of the Sphinx (Napolean's soldiers had used it for targat practice!)

Day 254 - White rododendron and friends

Our friends Jon and Allison gave us this plant as a gift 26 years ago when our youngest daughter was born. They have been good friends all these years even though they have moved out of the area about 11 years ago. Allison had her third child at the same times as I did and we used to mind each other's children while we were trying to return to the workforce. Penelope and Nicky were great friends when they were little. The white flowers of the rododendron always bloom around Penelope's birthday - which is next week. Today, we heard that Allison has bowel cancer and will need an operation. It's not known how far advanced the disease is yet,but we are feeling very concerned for her and her family.Allison has always been a tower of stength in her family and is highly respected in her profession of infant and maternal welfare. We can only hope for the best.

Day 253 - Egyptian memento

Nick was born in Alexandria,Egypt into a bustling and thriving community of Greeks, French, Jews, Pommies and of course, their servants, the Arabs. Abdul Nasser reversed all that in the 1950's and sent the Europeans packing to various corners of the globe.This land of camels and pyramids, sand and poverty still has its allure for the expats though. Nick and I visited his home town, many years ago and recently his sister went there and brought back this mat with its woven pictures. It was a gift for Michael actually and I'm sure he will take possession of it some day soon.

Day 252 - Rain and Sun

Had some very heavy rain today - I was driving home through overflowing gutters and rivers of gushing water running down the middle of steets - no camera of course.By the time I got home and organized myself the dramatic opportunities were long gone - but you can see the healthy flow from a drain that lines the front of our carport. Later in the afternoon the sky had turned a deep blue - here's a view from our cloistery window over the front door

Day 251 visiting mother's place

Penelope was helping mum sort out her wardrobe today but is taking a break here playing with her little cousin, Selvi. Pictured as well is my mother's art studio with her latest pastel in progress

Day 250 - the naughty puppy

The Naughty Puppy was the name of an old Golden Book story I used to read my children when they were little. Charlie fills the role perfectly.

Day 249 - visit from old friend

Two old accountants together. Fong se Leung called around to deliver files for the injured Nick to work on and stayed for tea. We had baked snapper and Fong showed me how to cook the rice Chinese style (the absorbtion method). Fong first worked with Nick back in'68 and they became firm friends. Fong was a member of our wedding party. Now they are working together again just like old times.

Day 248 Yert building and puppy minding

More progress with the yert today with a big window being cut. We're also minding the neighbour's puppy for a few days - a cute King Charles spaniel called Charlie.

Day 247 Quiet garden moments

Azaleas and Rhododendrons beginning to bloom in our garden made for a peaceful escape from a hectic and rather tiring day being a nursemaid to injured husband and general bottle washer. But lovely to see lots of family members this evening. Nick sad that his football team did not win though.

Day 246 - Unexpected Events

Last day of school, raced up to mum's to take her to hairdresser's. Later received a call from Nick who had hurt his leg attempting to rescue a neighbour's sheep from entanglement...(why??) Had crashed on his face and as it turned out, fractured a bone in his knee. So raced down to emergency dept, local hospital and after the usual many hours,finally home with one very sad and sorry husband.

Day 245 - more on hair

Ishaa and her brother came to stay today - watched videos, played Age of Empires, went swimming and shopping. Baya is heavily into Rubic's cube at the moment.
Ishaa's hair is looking luxurious.

Day 244 - welcomed bulbs popping up.

Don't know what these wild bulbs are called. They're just popping up in the long grass - much more attractive than the pervasive onion weed

Day 243 - Hair cut day

Goodness, 6 weeks comes around quickly! I like to keep my hair short and shaped. It's rather curly and starts looking slightly woolly after a while. Holly (an ex student of mine, now about 34 years with 2 school aged children) works from home and doesn't charge too high a price for my beautification.

Day 242 - VCE Exam Preparation

Three other local hills schools joined us today for a day of English and Maths revision lectures and advice.Ross Huggard gave us some very useful exams insights from VCAA.And yr12 teachers had their classes covered so they could attend - all very agreeable.

Day 241 - Cello Exam

Michael's preparing for Grade 5 Cello exams in November - a new instrument he has taken up in the last couple of years.

Day 240 - Saturday

We're under kookaburra attack. This young fellow was banging his beak on our back bedroom window. I shooed him away and the next minute there is this resounding banging sound coming from the kitchen window. I thought he would break the glass!
We had a less threatening evening going out for dinner and on to the local amateur theatre group's production of the Alan Ayckbourn's play, Improbable Fiction that everyone found very entertaining and enjoyable.

Day 239 - clean windows and bookclub

Every spring Adrian comes and cleans all our windows and glass partitions - inside and out. It's a lovely feeling to have all this polished and gleaming glass beaming at us and our glass partitions seem transparent.

Bookclub tonight we were discussing Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. A confronting book inspiring some heated and intriguing discussion. Basically South Africa is a mess and I'm glad I don't live there - so is J.M. Coetzee most probably.

Day 238 - new curtains!

Finally - our new family room curtains have arrived. We're very pleased with them. They have a stronger lining than our old ones and will block out heat and cold more effectively. The old ones will go up in Nick's curtainless study. If you look closely on the big beam that runs across the room, you will see a chalked "M". Michael jumped up and did this when he was about 8years old - and it's been left there ever since. I'm not cleaning it off and the beam won't be painted.

Day 237 - Selvi's grandma's birthday, 09/09/09

The 9th of September is my mother's birthday. I didn't take her photo - she had a fall recently and her face is bruised. But here is her perfect and newest grandchild, looking very adorable.

Day 236 - Rainy Tuesday and other things

Thought I may as well continue the chicken theme as one of my colleagues brought in a giant egg that one of her chickens laid - it had a clear join in the middle. My chickens haven't managed to lay an egg like that as yet. The other photo is part of a fence mural the next door primary school children are creating. This is the primary school that our 3 children attended and with which Nick and I were very involved when the children were little - Nick was president of the school council for many years and we ran the school fete for about 5 years.In the foreground of the pic is the ubiquitous onion plant - the scourge of spring gardens.Oh, and it rained persistently today - maybe our dams will be a little more flowing tomorrow.

Day 235 - chicken Monday

Another Monday is over, looks like my highlight was locking away the chickens.Their feathers are really that soft and glossy and lovely to stroke. Also really enjoying Alice Munroe's The View from Castle Rock.

Day 234 - Father's Day

Father's Day - after a sleep in Nick and I went for a swim, breakfast at the pool and then drove to Warburton where Damien was holding a wood fired pizza gathering.Stef had gone to Canberra for a big homebirth rally to dissuade Nicola Roxin from pandering to the AMA and retaining women's right to choose where and how they give birth. Very yummy pizzas. Also helped Ishaa make a vest for her Teddy. Later drove to Belgrave to see the old classic Dr Zhivago - loved this 40 years ago but rather dated now.

Day 233 - Friendly kookaburra

I know I've taken a kookaburra pic before but I'm sure this is a different bird. Taken through the flywire gives an interesting texture to the photo.

Day 232 Friday!

Weekend awaits - lovely. Found this pic of Pen on Facebook today. I photoshopped out her friend - she was doing a film shoot at Half Moon Bay.

Day 231 - the East Brunswick Club Hotel

Album launch for the Jed Rowe Band (Michael's band).Good crowd, band sounded great, was an enjoyable night out with friends and rellies.See more pics on flickr

Day 230 -piano practice

This is my right hand playing "Für Elise". My left hand was obviously holding the camera. I am really enjoying the piano playing and perhaps should consider having some lessons. I've got about 8-9 pieces that I can play well (easy pieces.) Every so often I will add a new piece to my repertoire and struggle through it until it becomes more familiar. I tend to pick tunes I know which is a bit cheaty I suppose. Anyway, it's developing into a pleasant past time.

Day 229 - Rehearsal

The Jed Rowe Band (an important section of it) is rehearsing at our place tonight for a gig this Thursday at the East Brunswick Club.They sound great check them out on utube.