Kerry's "Letter from Australia" - April 2007Mother left us safely on 3rd March and again was wonderfully looked after by Qantas staff, until reaching Heathrow, where upon British Airport Authority staff took over. There were no wheelchairs for Mum and the two other disabled passengers but a man with a buggy turned up and took them to immigration where he told them which aisle to go in, previously they had been wheeled in so they didn’t have to stand. Mum asked if he was going to wait for them to get their luggage, to which he shrugged and said his job ended there. When asked for wheelchair assistance he said the “pushers don’t come on until 6 o’clock” and it was presently just after 5am. So how are we supposed to get our luggage? he was asked. “Down the escalators and through to the carousels”. When advised they couldn’t walk that far or manage their luggage, he replied” Your luggage, your problem”.
At this an able-bodied lady travelling with her disabled husband, spoke to him in no uncertain terms as to what she thought of his callous approach and demanded to speak to someone else. He just drove off in his buggy and left her to it. She dutifully found someone else who ordered wheelchairs and they arrived within 10 minutes. As this lady told the official “We have travelled all over the world receiving excellent care in all the airports we have landed in and we come back to our own country and are treated like dirt.”
With Mother’s departure came renewed enthusiasm on Kevin’s part for decorating, firstly Holly’s room as it needed the least doing to it. Or so we thought. We moved out the furniture, stripped the laminate flooring (I say we, I actually should say Kevin: my part ends with picking colours and furniture). Firstly he found damp, there appears to be no damp proof course, and then termite damage. So plasterboard had to come down and stud walls replaced, damp course laid. The realisation dawning that all the rooms will probably be the same. We are almost a week into it now and the new plasterboard is up, so Holly is now keen to put her stamp on it with brown and blue walls. Yes, I know!!! I will hopefully be able to talk her round to fawn/beige rather than dark brown.
After that it will be Lauren’s bedroom as we need to move into that while ours is being done. We are actually planning to gut one side of one end of the house, for our bedroom and ensuite and create another bathroom for the two girls. This will obviously take months rather than weeks. Oh I am sooo looking forward to that!! (NOT).
Although we are now into Autumn, the weather has only cooled a bit but we have had some very welcome rain. Everything is so dried up and the grass everywhere is a straw colour. Hopefully, it will green up now.
Holly has had a good month; firstly spending the weekend with a friend in Melbourne, had a fish and chip supper on the beach. Her friend’s parents knowing Holly well brought a whole bottle of tomato sauce from home to service her need for dinner with her sauce rather than sauce with her dinner. It can be very embarrassing at times. They took her to a lovely restaurant for their daughter’s birthday treat a month or so ago and Holly asked the waiter for sauce, which was met by an incredulous look. In general children here, well certainly the ones we have had to our house, eat a much better diet, lots of veg and meat and rarely if ever visit McDonalds etc. We have obviously failed as parents; Holly would eat there every night given the choice!!! Then another friend had a sleepover and a trip to Luna Park (Theme park in Melbourne) for her birthday. What with this and abseiling and kayaking with the school, it has been a fun filled month.
Lauren has found time in her busy schedule to run two 10 kilometer road races and was first junior female and second female altogether over the line in both. Improving on her personal best time with each race. She has now joined the hockey team because in her words “They do hard core training”. When does she sleep, that’s what I’d like to know!!! I have already had words with her about her diet, Holly loves fatty things and Lauren is the complete opposite and doesn’t eat enough to keep a sparrow alive and deprives herself of all carbohydrates. She has promised me this has improved. I may have to email Terry, so he can spy for me.
Diesel continues to give concern, although the latest training with regards to nipping have improved but not completely eliminated the problem. He does however love the agility training that we do at the end of each class. Whilst others have trouble getting their dogs to even look in the tunnel, Diesel powers through it at break neck speed practically knocking you over in the process! He also loves walking on the raised platforms. Weaving through the poles is his only sticking point. We will keep at it.
25th March was the Gourmet crop. I had a great time, nice bunch of women and very friendly. The food was very nice and plenty of it. Not quite the cordon bleu I was expecting. It started at 10am and at 10.30 fresh muffins (berry ones covered in icing) arrived with tea and coffee. At 12am it was assorted Foccaccia’s still hot with more tea and coffee, followed by a fruit platter and then at three we had cheese and biscuits with more tea and coffee and then it finished at 5pm. What with chatting and eating I only managed one layout.
30th March - Hot Off The Press day. I was quite proud of myself, I managed to drive up into Melbourne and find my way to the Hotel with no errors. A miracle by my usual standards. The day started with making friends with the two ladies who were either side of me. Then opening a lovely gift box set on each table, full of the goodies to use for that day and many more days at home. They were very generous. We did 3 scrap booking pages, 4 cards and a Sara binder during the day, with a break for a cooked lunch in the hotel restaurant. There was also a shop selling just HOTP if you wanted to buy and let’s face, who doesn’t!!
Paulette Jarvey who runs the company did the scrapping and binder and Sara Naumann did the cards, with Paulette’s husband taking pictures. This is the first one of these days they have run for the public as opposed to retailers outside of America. It was a fantastic day which everyone thoroughly enjoyed, several ladies including the one next to me flew in from Sydney especially for it. They plan to do it again next year. I will be there.
Well that’s it for this month,
Love Kerry
