Kerry's "Letter from Australia" - March 2008 Mother departed for Blighty on the 5th at midnight and with her went my last access to English chocolate for another year, having devoured with relish the two large bars of Cadbury’s that she brought. Despite extensive research and taste testing on my part (I have been nothing if not diligent in my search, leaving no stone or wrapper unturned), I have yet to find a tasty equivalent. I now have to rely on Lindt for my sugar fix. Poor old Mum suffered on her return journey; the turbulence was so bad that they had to take the plane much higher to avoid it, causing her severe breathing difficulties, pains in her body and a raised temperature. She had to be given oxygen and ice water for half an hour to bring it under control, by which time the plane had descended to the correct height. She wasn’t the only one though, 5 others suffered a similar fate. Not unsurprisingly this has put her off somewhat and she is not sure she will be able to undertake the trip again. You may remember from last month that Holly had a mole removed from her back , which reopened after the stitches were taken out and had to be restitched, well it got infected as well and the stitches didn’t hold and it ended up a right old mess. Thankfully it has healed now but she has a bright red scar in the shape of an eye and where the stitches were are lines resembling eyelashes. Very attractive, she will truly be able to say to her children that she has an eye in her back (if not in the back of her head). The doctor has assured us this will all fade in time. At Easter, Kevin went away for four days to the very grandly named South Pacific Cycling Championships. There were to be five races over the four days, things started badly for him as he punctured 3 km’s into a 65 km race. So that was him out on day one. Day two was a three hundred metre sprint raced in pairs, the person Kevin was paired up with failed to appear so he had to go on his own, very difficult to race your fastest when there is no one to judge your speed by. He came 9th in the 16km Time Trial, was unplaced in the 65km Handicap and came 8th in the track race. There were 40 odd entrants in Kevin’s age group so he didn’t do too badly, although as usual he wasn’t pleased with his performance! The overall title was won by a bloke from Kevin’s club, so that was something to celebrate. Lauren is working on a game ranch in South Africa until her visa runs out. She is having great fun as they have a stable full of horses for guests and Lauren has been leading the rides and acting as a guide. There are also two young horses she is helping to break in which has been very rewarding. Plus she has been indulging her passion for cookery by working in the kitchens. There was some excitement one afternoon, Lauren was laying on her bed reading (she has been allocated a little cottage in the grounds) when she heard noises from the lounge, she opened her bedroom door to see a warthog thrashing around! She quickly closed the bedroom door not wishing to be cornered by the beast. Apparently the front door must have been ajar and it had wandered in and the door had swung to again and it couldn’t get out. Anyway she jumped out of the bedroom window and ran round to the front door to open it, but it was too late - the terrified animal could take it no longer and crashed through the large window in his bid for freedom. As you can see, she and Terry’s ability to break things isn’t just confined to our house!!!! He wasn’t the first intruder either, a piglet and a calf have both put in an appearance. We always said Lauren was born in a barn, as she could never remember to shut doors; she is certainly living up to it. For my birthday, Holly laid on a special tea, she had arranged candles on the table and put together a cheese board, she had also cooked spaghetti and sauce (ready made). She had told me to stay out of the room until she was ready. There were wine glasses on the table and the wine just had to be opened, she couldn’t quite manage that. She had done the whole thing by herself, Kevin had been out and when he came in we sat down to eat. She did a really good job and the spaghetti was lovely. So sweet!! Well, there is no more to tell this month, speak to you all again at the end of April. Until next month, Kerry