Busy weekend

The weather is changing and it is dark when I wake now, but with daylight saving ending on April 5th so I will be heading out in the light soon. The rain over the last 2 weeks has made some changes on my morning walk. I was delighted by the appearance of the lovely flowers on the hedge alongside the park each morning. I kept meaning to take my camera to get a photo so when I finally remembered I was cross with myself to find that it had been clipped over the weekend, so the photo is only a small measure of its glory! I think it is boobialla isn't that a great name!but not sure of the plant.

Friday was my god daughters Michelle's & Pauline's 18th birthday and they came down to go out to a night club with their sister and brother (now they are 18 they are allowed in!) I gave them each a small cabin roller suitcase. Very well received! They stayed the night and on Sunday, Fran came down and we all went out to lunch at a Vietnamese BBQ restaurant. This was their first experience of Vietnamese food so we tried the delicious Viet Spring rolls and then the BBQ beef with rice paper rolls to prepare ourselves. All delicious. Returning to the house we had candles and cake then they headed back home.

In a previous blog I mourned the loss of the huge Peppercorn Trees along the Arden St oval, and no idea what the construction going on was to be. Well they had a sign up this week with news of the new development; it's to be a community Centre and meeting rooms under the support of the North Melbourne Football Club; I should have been pleased if they could have left one tree!

I had some days of lovely long walks to work , with time to wind down from some very stressful days. The absolutely still water of the Creek made a great reflection, and I had a laugh when I saw this graffiti in the concrete!!
I had returned to work after the long weekend to find the emergency Paediatricians had booked in 3 cases for me to 'sort out' as they had come on Friday and they then realised I was a not there. That was on top of a fairly heavily booked schedule. It was funny because yesterday they apologised for how much work they were throwing at me this week!! They were just as busy though, but there are 3 of them! Sadly one of the babies died. She was 7 months and suddenly collapsed and arrested at home. She was found to have a very rare disease (10 in the world) and while she seemed to be responding she went into heart failure and died on Thursday morning. She was a real sweetie so everyone was very distressed for her parents.

I had some great days with good changes in two cases. One of a baby who would cry if not in mums arms (10 months) but over the last 4 weeks has become much better,with my therapy and intervention! now actually letting her father in and he is thrilled. He looked after her all day Sat when mum was in the bridal party of a wedding. The other was a boy who was not eating and I had seen him for 6months then Kerry took over He came back to see me on Friday and he has his NG tube out and while still a terrible fussy eater, is thriving and doing well. Mum wanted to take a picture of him with me at the table with the toy food ,as she says this has been a huge part of his life and should be in his childhood pictures!

With some rain and a bit of nurturing the Cecil Brunner Rose has finally come into its glory.This was from Celia when she left for the USA but it has not done well in the garden so I replanted it before I went to Japan and put in a pot and told Michael he MUST water it. It has lots of bracts of flowers at present.

When I went to the concert at Albert Park Yacht Club last night I turned off Clarendon Street and into the Lake area and turned left ---onto the Grand Prix race Track!!

Streets & Lanes

On a tour of the sites of Women’s Suffrage in Melbourne I came across some of the graffiti are as of the Lanes in Melbourne. I gather people have it on their list of walking tours of Melbourne! The first photo is of the site of the first Public toilet for women in the City; this is now the site of this piece of Art that has been there for a while; outside the Russell Cinemas.

The decorated light pole is by a woman Melbourne Artist, can’t remember her name but she did the Art pieces that used to be in the Gallery Fountain. Is it enough to acknowledge her work or is it a bit pathetic to not know her name?

The graffiti walls were down tiny little lanes, the garbage bins in front of some took away some of the appeal. There was an article in the Age last week talking about the state of rubbish in the Lanes and Alleys a lot of which is dumped.


The last picture is not really spectacular but I love the building, and wonder what scope there could be in renovating it?

Gen Med Lunch

There are probably not too many departments at the Hospital who would drive for 2 hours to have lunch, just for a summer get together! But 51 people did. These were the paediatricians from the Department of General Medicine, Geelong Hospital paediatricians (ex RCH) myself, and these staff''s partners and children. And what a spot to have it!!

We met at Mike's house on 20 acres just out of Lorne. There is the George River running through the property, which he had bought it 16 years ago but built 5-6 ago. The house is lovely as you can see, with views out over the valley. The hills at the back are part of the Otways State Forests so no-one building to block your view. When you drive in off the Highway you come through 2 gates and then around a bend is the house, not visible from the road. The walk to the beach (on the highway is only 8-10 minutes) and they have the river as well!
The lunch was a challenge, well met by the very organised Mike. He (and his wife!) had hired tables, set up running all along the veranda and people brought narrow folding chairs that all fitted very well. We had salads, cold meat platters, quiches, beef and chicken, bread and dukkah, as well as desserts, wine, beer and Sangria complements of the med dept and guests bringing dessert and $10.

There were about 20 kids who were in heaven. The billiard table looked like it was going to be annihilated so it was turned over and there is a shuffle board sort of game on the other side. There was a Koala, horses, tree House, a barn to explore, paths to climb and a Flying fox!!

I caught up with lots of people I had not seen for a while (not just because I was in Japan,) including Cathie Nolan. There were quite a few of the Paeds who have houses in Aireys Inlet and we compared notes on who we knew!

We had lunch from 12 till about 4.30pm The I drove back to Footscray by 7pm.

Well worth the drive.