March 2019

The wild man of cricket fires one in. He looks fast, because he is fast! Ollie is a demon of bowling.

Look out batter. I'd be keeping the bat low, if I was you.

At the Fix NSW protest. There's a lot to be annoyed with! Fish kills, massive land clearing, motorway madness, unneeded stadium rebuilds, fracking for gas, cruise boat terminals, etc etc! If my kids are reading this: know that a minority did try to take action back in the day. I participated in the committee. If things are shit now, it's because the apathy of the majority wins. Our politicians do not have our best interests at heart.

 Do get mad! Get protesting!

 Can we fix it?? That's up to the voters of NSW.

 Afternoon tea in the back yard.

 Collecting ants at Barangaroo. We got a few, sadly we couldn't manage to keep them happy.

 Barangaroo rocks!

Sohi, Rob, my two boys clearly are facing the invisible fan, Pete and Jennie, Marie, plus many kids.

Feb 2019 - important stuff

Some important stuff here!
Just kidding.

News: We found some really big mushrooms at the shop.

For the nostalgia - the batting order for cricket. Never having played cricket in a proper game ever, I am a qualified umpire and scorer.

 Me and the cat.

How do you make sure each person gets a fair share of a can of soft drink?

 Louis's new favourite restaurant Hachiju-Roku (probably spelt wrong. It means 86 apparently). Ollie takes a Chicken Katsu Curry every time. Delicious!

 Lou takes a sushi - Salmon Aburi - every time.

 Old bottles of spirits, ranging in price from $3, $5.40 and $12.95, not a bad deal eh.

The house has been totally ripped apart for renos.

 In other news, I'm going bald. Although apparently it's been happening for a long time. You know, once you're married, it's locked in, so your appearance no longer matters :)

 More reno shots - this is viewing the staircase looking towards Ollie's room.

Oh yeah!!! He/she made it!
Googly eyed Joe almost loses his eyebrows, they're so high.

 Weird bricks and a huge blue pole in the middle of the "feature wall." An unplanned surprise! The builder paid for the pole and bricks to be all cut out, the pole moved back and the heritage bricks to be put back in to cover the pole/hole.

 How to tackle a tall fridge.

 Lou at home:

Can we fix it? Yes we can, if the election result is correct at the one next month... my bolshie bro, demo pro and a cycle riding hero Peter B.

Sad news 16th Feb 2019

 On the 27th of Jan we had lunch at Sud's. Mum was not there. It seemed odd but noone had any idea that it was bad, including herself. A few days before things got bad, Mum had been shopping with Ceal, walking around fine, doing all the normal stuff.

One day at home, suddenly she could feel herself falling, placed her drink on the table, and lay down. She had no strength and could not get up. The plumber was due to visit, so luckily she could call out to him.

He helped her up. When John got home, she was functional but clearly not great. They took her to the GP, Nerida an old buddy of mine from Uni. She ran tests, which indicated elevated Calcium in the blood. Nerida said it is not good, and to go to hospital. Celia asked her to call if things got worse. Finally the pain was bad enough even for Mum to call Ceal and ask to go to hospital.

We visited every day. At first Mum was quite chatty, giving us her theories on why the calcium was up, telling me about her fall. As the pain got worse, the doctors used Endone which kills the pain, but made Mum sleepy. Plus she had fluid on the lungs so breathing was difficult and short. They drained the lungs once and that Saturday she was back up again and chatty as ever.

They ran tests for the first week odd, then finally Tuesday, I think it was, they said Neuro Endocrine Tumour. Maryanne said it would be years for a young person, but without treatment, it would be weeks. On Friday they moved her to Greenwich, in her own room, with a view over the garden. The lady with a trolley gave us some Baileys, nice.

On Saturday, I got down there about 10.30am. It had only been two weeks since she first got into hospital. Bev, Ron, Maryanne, Ceal and Fil were there. I'd brought a Botrytis port, an old favourite, thinking she might like a shot. Ron told me she's taken a turn for the worse, like she wouldn't be having some today. She did seem to be sleeping ok. Mum slowed her breathing at odd times. Someone would hush the room and we all stopped to see if she was ok. She'd start breathing again a moment later. I thought she was ok. Mum did it once more, a bit longer, then again but did not start breathing again. She died at about 11.20am. Everyone was upset, making phone calls. Trish and Steve came to visit straight away, Trish saying "I'm going to miss her like hell." I was very glad to have been there and not miss it.

Here's my eulogy for the funeral. I choked on it a couple of times, but mainly people could understand the speech.

= =
Our mum was born in 1934, only a few years after the Great Depression. When she was 5, a second world war started, not very long after they’d finished the War to end all Wars, and continued until she was 11.

Her parents were Ron and Margaret. She was the eldest of 5. Her siblings were Ron, Trish, Cliff and Ellen. She went to schools in Auburn, Parramatta, Saint Vincents at Potts Point, then University.

She studied all the time, said Ellen who shared a room with her, even falling asleep at the desk. It was tough. She had to repeat first year.

While anyone could go to university at the time, women were expected to stay at home. But, her father, who we knew as Pop Pop, proudly paid for anyone who wanted to go. Mum said Pop would often walk rather than take the bus, to save a few bob.

She was one of only three women in the whole year. People would say: you’re taking a spot from a man. Don’t waste it. You’ll just get married, and stay at home. Pop pop clearly didn’t care what people said. With the hard times of the Depression in mind, I suppose, he wanted security for the both the boys and the girls of the family, and thought everyone should have a job they could fall back on. Pop said medicine is a great choice because people will always get sick; so you’ll always have a job.

At university they sat alphabetically. So my mum who’s named Redwin, sat next to my Dad who’s named Re, while they dissected frogs and rats. They got married. She finished the course and worked at St Vincents in the city and St Josephs at Auburn. Then she had 6 children, and stayed at home.

After a decade, Mum started working again, and had to read up the old text books. Dad was never too healthy and died in 1974, leaving her the sole breadwinner, home maker and carer of the kids. She was lucky to have a job to fall back on thanks to Pop, and to receive lots of live in help thanks to Aunty Beat, who never married, and enjoyed being with children. Mum had amazing energy and was fast, washing, cooking, driving kids to Saturday sport, and forgetting to pick them up. Aunty Trish said she was the fastest potato peeler in the world.

To add to her concerns, death duties equal to half the value of the house and contents meant there was no frivolous spending. She never threw out anything if possible.

We always had a good time though, driving her half insane while she tried to watch the TV news on 3 different channels each night during dinner. Though money was scarce, Mum took us on holidays to Jindabyne in summer, in cabins with bunk beds and a communal kitchen, bushwalking in Kosciusko, sliding down on patches of snow. Trips to Palm Beach are lifelong memories, as is staying in the car, in the hot sun on vinyl seats, while she and Aunty Trish shopped in Dee Why textiles. They would fit 2 adults and 9 children in the car with 2 bench seats. At Warringah Mall, we’d entertain ourselves in the Lego area for hours, while mum went off and shopped.

While times were tough at the start, to show what a determined woman she was, 9 years later she’d saved enough to take all of us on holidays to France in 1983(?). We stayed in the same apartment the whole time. She wouldn’t get out until around midday, so Celia and I would jump on any old bus and get completely lost, like any average kids visiting a foreign city.

3 years later she took us to China. It truly was a random destination. Few visited China, and fewer during the minus 20 winter. Mum said it was cheaper than a holiday to the Gold Coast. As a family of 6 kids in a Communist country with a single child policy, we did get stared at a bit. Her favourite story was when she rang us up to yell at us bloody kids, the bus is about to leave, get ready and come quickly. The voice on the phone said “I’m sorry M’aam, but I just can’t make it.”

She left work in Campsie, started working solo, close to home, but had to leave due to the Lane Cove Tunnel, and had to move work once more after that. As per Pop, she was often worried about work, so she made all of us go to Uni as well.

Faith was very important. During hard times, her faith gave her comfort and strength.

She was fierce. An old friend of mine, a doctor at RNSH, who got to know mum, said other doctors at the hospital would make her call mum about referred patients because they were too scared to talk to her. But the patients loved mum. She loved work, chatting with patients, and taking care of people. Patients gave her Christmas cards, wrote postcards, gave her chocolate, enough alcohol to sink a ship, painted her pictures and one made her a piece of furniture.

We worried about Mum, mentioning to move into a smaller home. But she wanted to be in her home, a self funded retiree, and stubbornly stayed there all along.

We’ve been very lucky to have her for 84 years. We will miss her.
= =

Jan 2019 - a few random shots

 Driving near Gloucester. No idea why the photo was taken. This is what the inside of our car looks like. It's pretty space age, for 2019 anyway.

 What do you call these blow up things? The boys at Darling Harbour.

 High tea at Steve and Angela's house - Vonne, Margaret, Cherice, Marie, Fil, Ceal and Tess.

 You'll find us at Balmoral Beach during summer, often with Louis dug into a hole.

 A brilliant day - some jumping off the jetty into the water. We had dinner here as well.

Photos from old friends - Sylvie at the cafe with Carol.

This was one of Louis's old friends.  Rubina, a few years on.

Jan 2019 - Aust day lunch etc

 Selfie with Ollie!

 This cat manages to look that bit more relaxed than before.

 At Anke and Lauren's place just near Gloucester, with Arush and Rohan, David, Michael and Kevin.

 At Balmoral.

 For Tess's birthday we went to Sud on the 27th of Jan. John said Mum felt too sick to make it. I wished I had have taken that as seriously as it was. I thought it was just a stomach bug or similar, no idea it was grave.

Come on Lou, smile for the camera!
Will, Ollie, Lou, Belle, Darcy, Tess, Ava and Mill.

Jan 2019

 Lola makes a crazy straw. It actually works.

 Good times with Charlie.

We went out to the ball game. Had dinner at the Ethiopian restaurant in Blacktown - too much food, but v good.

The match got rained out for an hour or so, and started up again at 10pm. We stayed until nearly midnight before giving up. No idea what the result was. We enjoyed it.

Jan 2019 New England National Park

 The New England National Park is pretty, spectacular and mostly untouched.

 Thungutti Campground in the New England NP. At twilight it's really magic. The boys helping out with dinner.

 Looks like we ate hamburger. I hope it tastes better when you do it yourself.

 Cliff top walk - Louis complained a bit. We got around in the end. Some friendly walkers gave us wrong advice. Luckily we continued on and the path was perfectly passable.

The hills have eyes, a really smiley face and some wild looking eyebrows that merge into the mustache.

 The trout hatchery on the way out of the park. Trout are introduced species. They breed them here. Then the fishing clubs come and pick them up to place them into rivers, so that people can go fly fishing. What a big effort.

 They give each person a bag of fish food which drives the fish crazy. Good fun.

Point Lookout New England NP.

To do this trick, the boys run around behind Marie to get back into the shot, while she is panning the camera around.