An arial view from about 20 miles north

We haven't heard from anyone today regarding Margaret's condition....taking that as a good sign.
On the phone to Jack yesterday and was rather horrified to learn that Maggie is in such awful pain....she told him two days running that she wants to die. Perry got pretty emotional when he was listening to Jack tell us on speaker phone just what has gone on the past month. It was very difficult to form thoughts into words. We just can't imagine Jack without Margaret....she is such a lovely woman. Our last visit to the U.S. was five years ago and while Mom Davis was visiting with Joe and Nan...we visited with Jack and Maggie for about a week staying in Mom Davis' cosy little house. Perry fished a little...we drove to Carson...in general just ditzed around and ate and visited with them at night...sometimes lunch. It was a really relaxing time. Margaret has had years and years of looking after her mother, father and also Mom Davis. I hope she recovers well and has lots of time having fun and being looked after by Jack and her gorgeous 'girls' Susie and Sherrie.

Our beach

Today is very overcast and looking at the weather radar, we are in for several storms. We have the heater on for the first time during the day in over 10 months. We must admit to being wimps as the temperature is only down to around 16c...62f or thereabouts. After such a long period of temps in the mid 20's it feels a bit chilly.

It's 12.30 pm and we have to wait till around 3.00pm to call Perry's brother Jack to find out how his darling wife Maggie is doing. We were shocked to hear that she is seriously ill with complications a month after having a triple bypass.

This is a time when we wish we could simply hop on a plane and go visit for awhile.

Spoke to my niece Susie two days ago and received an email from Mike yesterday....Susie sounded fairly positive about her condition, but at 78 your body doesn't respond as well as it does when much younger.

I have been feeling rather blah for a few days...can't decide whether or not to go have a check up....will give myself a few more days as I had a flu shot and I ....acting as my own diagnostician....am probably just a bit overtired from all the bowling I have been doing. It is fantastic, but after over four hours I think I am probably pushing it a bit. I have never slept very well and now I seem to dream more than usual...sometimes I wake exhausted after dealing with some nightmare or other. Oh well ! Time to put some nice music on...make a cup of vanilla coffee and some raisin toast.

It's been a lovely weekend.
Played bowls on Saturday....badly....and entertained our friends Val and Reg on Sunday afternoon thru till around 10 pm. Sitting on our deck watching the last of a boat display which ran all weekend....eating yummies....chatting....enjoying the sounds of birds as they sort themselves out for the night....the pelicans flying past in formation.....
Val started on her seven week journey of radium treatment today.
Perry attended a pre op at the local hospital as these days before any non emergency procedure a 'work up' is required. He had to have an ECG....had to present all the meds he is taking....a chat with an anesthesiologist...etc. Surgery on his arm has been brought forward to now take place Friday June 13 and he will be in and out in four hours. The third surgery has now healed completely but there certainly isn't any more loose skin to use, so skin from somewhere else on his body will be used.....Perry suggested skin from beneath his eyelids would be a good option !!! Made the nurse laugh of course..
We practised for about an hour today....again badly. Oh well....tomorrow is another day.
I wonder if I can include a cute video in this blog....here goes....

The British sense of humor....love it !

Just been watching the Chelsea Flower Show on T.V. Jamie Durie ....an Aussie....won the most coveted Gold Medal.
His career has been phenomenal....just a few years ago he was really struggling to make ends meet and of all things he was a stripper at "hens parties". Then he was on a few very ordinary "makeover" shows which has evolved into him being acclaimed as one of the worlds best gardening architects. The preparation that goes into completing an entry at the show takes almost a year and then two weeks of round the clock work to actually get the garden ready on time. This garden cost over $800,000 !!!!
Yesterday at the club we heard what sounded like a car doing "burnouts" and among the burning rubber sounds was a big thud. People ran from all over the greens to a street alongside to discover a woman had slammed on her brakes as well as the accelerator after having hit her husband as he was walking up to the their garage door. An ambulance took a long time to arrive....seemed much longer than it really was. Today we found out that the guy was O.K. and mostly just bruised and shocked. Came very close to being killed.
Spoke to Philip just briefly last night....he, Sherrene and Josh are fine....weather is foul down there....he was just checking to see how we are doing up here.
I have had some sort of bug over the past few days....O.K. now....just feeling pooped earlier in the evening than usual and also a queasy stomach.
Perry's left knee is a bit of a nightmare tho. He is seeing an orthopaedic doctor soon and if it is what he suspects...a Baker's Cyst that acts up with the extra pressure of bowling. If it is that, he wants some aggressive intervention which would probably mean some kind of steroid injections.
A few years ago we used to just nod and sympathise with friends that seemed to be getting all these sorts of age related problems....now it Perry's lot. We are both living life to the full within the constraints of our more limited income and are really very grateful for all we have.

How to tell if your feet stink !

This gave me a laugh today!!!!

Painted this with oil 2002

I have just been reminded of some things I have in common with a particularly lovely niece who visited with us back in 1995. She had decided she wanted to visit us and in order to do so she had to raise quite a large amount of money and then travel over 7000 miles unaccompanied. Her birthday was in December sometime during the visit and she and I decided we would bake and decorate her birthday cake to take to Sizzler, where quite a number of my relatives all met up and helped her celebrate this birthday.
The cake was sensational....mainly due to the fact that the frosting was every wild color of mauve....pink....purple....you name it....
We completely destroyed the kitchen, but the result was a masterpiece. We both enjoy cooking...and painting so it seems.
There is an over the top decorated cup cake craze at present..... prices for ONE cupcake...$3.50...can you believe it !
I feel my neice and I were 12 years too early!
I think she knew I enjoyed some crafts and also painting. I painted the above in 2002 ....I was pleased with it....gave it away the following year. Took up watercolouring a little later which I enjoyed also.
I get the urge to paint every now and then....but curb it as I feel I would start and not finish something due to the fact that I seem to be developing an addiction to my latest sport. I am also a voracious reader, also love watching good T.V. on our Plasma screen....however the shows I enjoy are not very numerous. Haven't rented any DVD's in quite awhile....should be some decent stuff on the shelves again....so I think I may check out the local store sometime over the weekend.
Shopping....that's another fave. Put some Maui Jim sunnies on layaway today....resisted some nifty looking tops.....but.....couldn't resist a couple of necklaces. One for Pam....a cross with fake diamonds on a silver chain....for me Coco Chanel initials ....fake diamonds again, on a silver chain. I also finally got Sherrene's sun glasses repaired. She bought them up here almost two years ago and when I saw her last January they had broken. She asked me if I would take them back to the store where she bought them and ask them to repair them free of charge......you can guess how that went. I took them to the local optometrist and she repaired them on the spot...no charge.

Perry and Ray...brother inlaw...golf course near Noosa.

Another perfect day here in Sandstone Point Queensland. May till September when it's cold down south....up here the days are absolutely sensational and the evenings only cool enough to use heat about two of these months. Temperatures hardly vary more than two or three degrees during the day. Lows overnight down to 15 C...days 23C to 26C (60 night, 80daytime).
Perry, Rick Thornton (Canadian) and I, play bowls as a team each Wednesday. Had a great day yesterday....lost our first game, but won the next and the money !!!! Perry and Rick take turns at being "skip"as it is good experience for them. I am a novice and won't be allowed to "skip" for another nine months. It is my job to "set up the head"....sounds odd, but it means I must do my best to place my bowls in advantageous placesaround the "jack". Usually a back bowl and two others as close to the "jack" as possible. Many an opposing team has been able to score a swag of points simply because they haven't had a well placed back bowl.
I surfed the net for the best air fare price for Pam, James and Rachel to visit during the school vacation in July. Around $850 return for the three of them. Pretty good really considering we are over 2000klm's apart. Petrol prices are extremely high and aviation fuel has risen dramatically also. We are paying over $1.40 for a litre ...roughly $5.60 a gallon. We couldn't have imagined prices like this in our wildest dreams ten years ago. I think the American conversion runs around $5 a gallon. The Brits pay even more...close to $7 a gallon!
My girlfriend from grade school...Val...called to update me about her recently diagnosed breast cancer. We have free of charge mammograms here every two years and on Val's last mammo an irregularity that has been monitored over the past ten years showed a slight change. Long story short...she had a lumpectomy performed three weeks ago and altho the full pathology tests are still not complete....she is scheduled to begin radiation therapy in six weeks time. Her oncologist is very relaxed about everything and whatever is going on is at a very very slow pace...stage 1 and already excised...probably completely. Radiation therapy consists of once daily each week day for one week, second week is a four day a week treatment....till seven weeks is completed. She and Reg have to drive to the Nambour Hospital which is north of us...about a thirty minute run...an hour at the treatment centre and thirty minutes back. They are arranging the times so that they won't be in rush hour traffic. Very considerate.
We all feel very positive about the care she is and will be receiving.