Pills, shopping and furniture

This morning, I went to the Health Centre for much needed pills, then picked up Billy the Corolla and P. and Frank and off to Victoria Gardens to get sustenance for us and Noel. We dropped Noel's off at his place, then P. and I went home for a scratch lunch of leftovers out of the fridge. After a nap, we went off to the Potter Gallery (Melbourne Uni.) for the launch of an exhibition of Clement Meadmore's design work in Melbourne in the early 50s. It was good to see and hear the launch speech by Alan Pert the professor of design whom we have heard before. He is a very impressive speaker (though perhaps a bit of an egotist) who had some interesting insights. We'll have to go back to see the exhibition when it is quieter. Home for a scratch dinner and a viewing of the new Blake Mysteries starring Nadine Garner (perhaps she engineered Craig McLachlan's demise so she could star in the show).

A bit of work plus dinner

After three days off, I did a bit of catch-up work this morning plus ordered some music tickets for next year at the Salon in the Recital Centre as more of the Local Heroes come on sale. Unfortunately, because they are late appearing, some of them are blocked off by other bookings and I'm trying not to overload next year with two nights out in a row and so on. There are some good new groups appearing though. We had newly made leek-and-potato soup for lunch. As the stock was very tasty it made for a good and nutritious soup. We were also finishing off some of the smallgoods from Avenel yesterday: very good pastrami and smoked chook. After a nap, P. went off to join Frank for a concert at Iwaki Hall, Mahler's 9th for chamber orchestra, while I went off for a very noisy and pleasant dinner with the old Penguinis, this time a large one in honour of George and Rosanne our departed members, with Anne, Lou, Peg, Bryony, Andrew, Jackie, Ann, Pat, me, Carla and Julie. There was a lot of talking, reminiscing and planning.

Home again from Michelton

Next day (Tuesday), we went to see the interesting Pink Cliffs in Heathcote, a remnant of the goldrush days, then went through the National Park of whipstick forest to Nagambie where we sat by the Lake to have a quite good lunch, eyed by the seagulls waiting for food to be left behind. We then went to Tahbilk winery where we bought some wine and looked around at their splendid old buildings. Then on to Michelton where we checked in to the comfy (and quite extravagant) hotel. We had a meal that night which couldn't have been more different from the night before. It was very tasty food, impeccably served. This morning, we had a very good breakfast in the same dining room and headed home via the beautiful hamlet of Avenel, where I got some cold meats and lamb cutlets from the very good local butcher. AT LAST, at the end of three days away, we finally got some of the much vaunted but absent local produce. Even though the crispy school prawns with licorice sauce I had a Michelton were delicious, I doubt that they were caught locally.

MCO plus countryside

Crossword was completed quickly yesterday morning (Sunday), then Sal came round for a chat. She and I met up at the MCO concert this arvo which was mostly Bach but with a new piece by Richard Mills, a concerto for two violins. Then home for roast lamb dinner (rolled) and a couple of episodes of Treme because there was nothing on the teev. This morning (Monday), we packed up Franz the Corolla and headed up the (old) Hume Highway to Broadford which took a lot longer than we thought it would because St George's Road was closed for tramworks so High Street (and every other northwards route) was clogged. We got there eventually and had a long overdue coffee and a good mag with cousin Wendy. We then went on to Tooboorac which has a very picturesque pub and quite good food for lunch. Then we went on to Heathcote and another old pub from the goldfields (no longer operative as a pub) which is now a B&B, the Emeu Hotel (called after the Portuguese word for ostrich which many at the time thought emus were). The host, Eevelyn, was very genial and we had a comfy room, plus a good breakfast the next day. The same couldn't be said for the nearby hotel, where we had the worst meal we've had for a long time. I ordered rissoles and gravy, but there was no gravy. I went back and asked and was grudgingly given a small pot. P.'s roast pork had a surplus of gravy and the meat was probably pork.

Shopping plus

Yesterday (Friday), Frank and I went in Barnaby the Yaris to pick up P. from St V.'s. We installed him at home then went off to Victoria Gardens for our shopping. Noel didn't need any this week. We had salmon cakes for lunch and garlic prawns for dinner then settled in for a night of tellie. This morning we gorged on the Saturday papers, had leftover chook for lunch (with roast vegies), then went off to the Collingwood College to vote. P. went home to rest and I went off to Kevin C.'s 80th birthday at the Stranded in Fitzroy. It was good to catch up with some people I hadn't seen for a long time including Kathy Hope and Kevin's son Nick. It didn't turn out to be Kevin's Party as in Don's Party even though it was election day. I don't think any right wing people were allowed or at least they were keeping it quiet. Home again for the election results. We had chicken kiev for dinner while watching the Guy opposition get minced. Sadly, Kathleen Maltzahn didn't get up in our electorate: Richmond. We await the results in the upper house which will take a while.

Novellas plus procedure

I finished off both novellas today but I still have to think about a report on them. They are difficult to assess, not because of their existing shape but because of what their potential is. Meanwhile, P. went off to St V.'s for his day procedure, but he rang around lunchtime to say he probably wouldn't be finished till between five and six. That put the kybosh on dinner with my sister, so Frank has dropped by to pick up the tickets in case I can't make the concert. Instead of going to the concert, I visited P. in the hospital. He seems fine and should emerge tomorrow. Meanwhile, according to my sister, the concert was good.

A visit

This morning as well as the usual administrative trivia, I got on with a bit more novella, then P. and I went to Richmond on two buses and a tram (ref. Carnival the musical) to visit Sally M. and John H. We had an engaging chat and a coffee. It was good to see them. Home again for leftovers for lunch (anchovy pasta and vera b. on toast) then a nap. P. made a delicious roast chook for dinner and we settled in for a Wednesday night of teev. We are very boring.

More novella

I continued reading the novella today and will probably finish it tomorrow. P. went off to lunch with Robin S. and I organised travel insurance for our trip next year which I hope I can trust (APIA). After a nap, I did some ticket booking with Ticketmaster which turned out to be diabolical as usual. It is as though they don't actually want you to buy any tickets. Then their confirming email jammed my email program but I finally printed the tickets with much cursing (phew!). P. is serving Vera Bolognese for dinner. After dinner, I had a good conversation with the novelist about the final changes to the manuscript.

Lunch and BIG opera

After a small amount of work on the first novella, P. and I went into town to Uncle where we had a really good lunch and catch up with Rachel B-S as well as goings-on with people in Broome. She gave us a really good bottle of plonk for Christmas. We came home for a short rest then headed back into town to the State Theatre for a marathon opera, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. We joined Frank and enjoyed a splendid production with great music and mostly absorbing action in spite of a few Wagnerian longeurs. From go to whoa it lasted six-and-a-half hours including two intervals. We had a quick and satisfying dinner at Fatto after the second act and returned for the longest act, III. Congratulations to Opera Australia and all concerned for a good experience.

More meals out

This morning, I sent the novel back to the author with (I hope) final queries. I've got too new short novels for report and I'm still working on comments for the autobiography/memoir. I expect to get another biography for cutting shortly, so I'll be fairly busy. Meanwhile, P. and I are off for lunch with my sister and brother-in-law. We had a very pleasant lunch with them and their friend, Russell, at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow in the city. After a short nap, I cooked French onion soup (all we needed after a big lunch) and P. made Vera Bolognese f'rafter.

Flick plus Song

Yesterday (Friday) was fairly busy. In the morning, P. and I went to the Library for the U3A film, Don's Party, which is now nearly 50 years old. Many viewers said it showed how much we had changed, but I'm not so sure about that. One thing that has changed a bit was that though the film was resolutely heterosexual, except for a homoerotically-charged scene between Ray Barrett and John Hargreaves, the final scene consisted of two closeted male actors, Hargreaves and Graeme Kennedy. We had a good lunch and continued the discussion at Red Bird or whatever it's called nearby. We joined Frank in the early evening for a meal at Tiamo's then ambled over to Trinity Chapel for the Song Company who warbled a set of old and new songs. I must say, I preferred the old, finding some of the new a bit self-indulgent but they were beautifully performed. Tatt kindly gave us a lift home (she is off on another cruise shortly). This morning, we picked up Billy the Corolla from near the Vespa shop, went off to Victoria Gardens, dropped Noel's shopping off then went home for salmon cakes. After a much-needed nap, we had oysters natural, then I made pan-fried scallops for dinner to round off an all-fish day.

Shopping and not much else

I went up to Smurf Street this morning to get Noel's bedside clock fixed. The jeweller was very good. He didn't have the right battery so with no charge sent me into the newsagent next door to buy one. Total cost: one battery $5. I then got milk and the paper and goodies from the French patisserie: cereal baguettes (are they like serial killers?) and salted caramel eclairs for dinner tonight. However, the bus coming home was very late so I was thwarted in getting any work done. However, I did get a little progress on the novel before and after lunch. P. is off to the surgeon later today to discuss the results of his colonoscopy. We had leftovers for lunch so cleaned out a lot of the fridge. P. came back from the surgeon with an appointment next week for a day procedure to remove the remaining polyps or whatever. We had delicious anchovy, bread and lemon pasta for dinner aided by P.'s leftover breadcrumbs from the lamb.

Work day plus Syzygy

This morning I went on with the novel while P. went off to a U3A committee meeting. I am almost halfway through the novel now and it is coming along well with only a few glitches. In the evening, P. and I went to the Recital Centre for the ever-reliable Syzygy who performed works with an 'elegiac' theme. A beautiful Debussy violin and piano sonata opened, then works by Turnage, Catherine Sullivan, Lachlan Skipworth and Gyorgy Kurtag. An excellent concert, though the two gents I refer to as 'the two pillars of slumber' slept through most of it. We had a good but more than ample meal at the Green Man Hotel afterwards. We should go there more often for a tasty vego meal. We feel so virtuous.

New hot water

We were up early for the plumber but Guy came a bit late, then made up for it by installing the new water heater lickety-split. We are now poorer but will be cleaner. A bit of work on the novel followed and I am more than a third through but I will need some catch-up sleep. We had tomato soup for lunch, then a nap. In the evening, P. made rack-off lamb for dinner and we caught up with the end of Pine Gap which continued right up to the end to be fairly unbelievable.

Railway station

There's lot of coming and going here today: the lickety-split cleaners came and went, the wine delivery came and we should be right till Christmas, P. went up to Carlton and bought Elizabeth Kleinheinz's book on Germaine Greer and I am getting some work done on the novel while I wait for the plumber as the hot water has gone off again. As well, I renewed our ANAM subscription for next year which took a bit longer than I thought. I got lots of work on the novel waiting for the plumber. Then Guy the plumber came briefly to rule, what we had already thought, that we need an interim replacement gas water heater before the renovations are done. He will arrive at 7am tomorrow to do same. Then, in the evening, P. and I went to Teatro for a good meal, thence to Homo Hall for an Australian Chamber Orchestra concert, a real crowd-pleaser: Tognetti's Beethoven. We were treated to very good performances of Beethoven's violin concerto and symphony no 5 (Da-da-da-dum). However, when you've got a combo of almost 50 players, pretending that you don't need a conductor is crazy. So we had Helena Rathbone, the so-called Principal Violin, really the concertmaster, conducting when Tognetti was busy being the soloist, then when he had a pause, he took over. In the symphony, he really spent most of his time conducting with the occasional flourish on the violin, which he should have abandoned and just conducted. However, in spite of the nail-biting moments, it all came together and was quite splendid. We also caught up with Bryony and Philip for a drink at interval. We came home for a very boring Q&A with very boring people. Up early for the plumbers.

Crossword then a rest then work

I got up too early this morning after finding it hard to come down after the brilliant concert last night. However, P. and I did the Sunday crossword before 9am for the first time ever. We also found that they did mispell 'Ceausescu' in last week's edition. Now for a quick rest before getting into the memoir and the novel. After a bit of work on both and some correspondence, we had soup for lunch then a nap, then off to Noel T.'s for an excellent meal including cottechino sausage and a lentil dish. I'd never had this kind of sausage before and it's delicious. Thanks Noel. Home again to see the beginning of Line of Duty, which we missed the other night.

Molto musica

Yesterday (Friday), we picked up Barnaby the Yaris from the Health Centre (after getting pills) then completed the drug run by buying coffee at Jaspers in Brunswick Street, then we picked up Frank and went to Victoria Gardens, dropped off Noel's shopping and his drugs from Swan Street. We then had an excellent brunch at Dr Morse so that Frank felt he was truly at home again. After a nap, P. and I headed to town. Our tram was about to be diverted because of the 'terrorist' attack in Bourke Street, so we hopped off and caught a cab to the Recital Centre. We finished up being only half-an-hour late for our booking at Blondie so had a fairly leisurely dinner after the heart-stopping drama in the city. We then went to the ANAM concert which was conducted by Brett Dean in his own honour and including a song extract from a piece (not from the opera Hamlet) about Hamlet and Ophelia beautifully sung by Lorina Gore and Topi Lehtipuu (another Finn with a funny name). The program with a huge orchestra was a very well balanced all-Australian show with pieces by Richard Meale, Lisa Illiean and Georges Lentz (for a thundering finale). We came home to find out (a) how Line of Duty finished and (b) what really happened to make us bypass the city. Today, it was normal Saturday newspaper time then lunch (oysters and salmon cakes) then in the evening a quickie at Yoyogi and the Recital Centre (AGAIN) for the Brandenburg Orchestra with among others Lixsania Fernandez, a Cuban viola da gamba player, I kid you not. She was excellent, though three frocks in one concert is a bit excessive and she is all skin and bone and must eat only lettuce. There were works by Scarlatti, Corelli, Marais, Vivaldi, Locatelli and Graun (who?), including concertos for violin, viola da gamba, and two violins and a viola da gamba, all quite rivetting, finishing with a tango from a concerto by Duchiffre for two violas da gamba. Home again to find a new draft of the young adult novel, so with the memoir on my desk as well, I'm going to be very busy in the next week or so.

A bit of hard slog

Now I've had a response from the memoir author who agrees with my first round of off-the-cuff comments, so now I've got to get down to detailed questions and suggestions. Before that a few health issues need attention (my bowel screening results seem to have gone missing) and I've got an Ear, Nose and Throat appointment this afternoon. As well French opera tickets must be booked. Now that all that's done: my bowel screening was negative, and, after waiting for two hours for a two-minute consultation, my ENT is okay and the doctor was very helpful on my poor saliva production, even though not much can be done about it. P. made delicious pork chops, David Herbert recipe, for dinner. I've made quite good progress on the memoir though I can't say I've 'cracked' it yet.

Plumbing problem

Yesterday, our hot water went off, so we called a plumber this morning. Guy came (he's been before) and there is a problem with our eleven-year-old present Bosch system. One of the burners is not working properly causing carbon build-up. We really should get a more up-to-date unit but this would need redoing some of the pipes and electricity, which would then need to be redone in the renovations. For the moment, we just have to hang on with the existing unit and hope it lasts till the renos start. I whizzed off an interim response to the memoir writer and await their reply. In the evening, we met Frank at the Malthouse, had a good meal, then saw Lorelei billed as a cabaret/opera by Victorian Opera. The three women singers/actors played and sung very well to an excellent chamber orchestra. The 75-minute show was memorable.

Sodden Cup Day

As the rain poured down on Melbourne, I finished a very quick read through the memoir, which is very good, but needs some attention by the author. We had warming tomato soup for lunch and leftover fish curry for dinner. I'm still puzzling over the memoir.

Pills and the new book

This morning, in need of new pills, I went off to the Health Centre to get my scrips renewed as ordered by Carlo the Pharmacist. I saw Dr Christine, who I saw three years ago for exactly the same thing, she told me. That done, it's home again and back to the new manuscript. P. made delicious David Herbert scrambled eggs with smoked salmon for lunch. For dinner, P. cooked pepper steak which was great with various accompaniments. Normal Monday night TV.

Sunday, sweet Sunday

The crossword was despatched quickly after we both slept in a bit. There seems to be one mistake in this week's effort (sigh!). I then went on with the filing (sigh!). Now all the concert and theatre programs are filed up-to-date. Tomorrow the CDs. We had salmon cakes for lunch and fish and pea curry for dinner. And I've got the final questionnaire and letter to send off to Memory Train. I hope that is it after a saga which started in August (!!). Also, today a part of the draft of a new memoir arrived for comment, so my arvo nap was curtailed while I had a quick peek. It is very interesting.

Shopping plus trio

This morning, after the Saturday papers, P. and I picked up Franz and did a quick shop (we were amazingly efficient) at Victoria Gardens then dropped off Noel's shopping at his place. Home again, where P. made hamburgers with booty from the mall. Early evening, we had a good meal at Yoyogi and went to Musica Viva at the Recital Centre, our home from home, where a trio had an elegant programming idea. In the first half, they split up for two sonatas by Richard Strauss, his cello sonata op. 6 and his violin sonata, op 18. Then the trio played Gordon Kerry's Im Winde (piano trio no 2) and Brahms piano trio no 2. The performers were Nicola Benedetti, violin, Leonard Elschenbroich, cello and Alexei Grynyuk, piano. A good time was had by all. As a bonus, this morning's Age Review had a short, but very good review by Kerryn Goldsworthy of The Wounded Sinner by Gus Henderson which I worked on for Magabala Books.

Mainly admin

I went on with end-of-the-month tasks, plus various admin things, like renewing U3A membership and, importantly, buying wine. P. went off to American literature. My Memory Train phone tasks are going all right, except I can't keep the phone with me at all times because I can't turn it off, so I missed a random quiz yesterday while at the theatre (someone else's phone went off during Krapp's Last Tape, how shameful). I also can miss them during my arvo nap. Quelle dommage! P. came home for lunch, feeling a bit unwell, so we had tinned soup, duly photographed for Memory Train (finsh, please finish!) In the evening, P. cooked sausages and gravy with scalloped potatoes and onions as we settled in for a night of tellie. Line of Duty at last remedied the plothole.

Coffee and relief

Yesterday (Wednesday) I went off to the Australian Catholic University for what I thought was the last part of Memory Training. No such luck! (see below). P. went off to do some supplementary shopping for Noel T. We finished off the soto ayam for dinner. It was a bit like the magic pudding, helped by me topping it up with extra chicken stock. What a relief! We're going out this morning so I don't have to do more tidying and filing. I don't quite understand why I hate it so much when I like doing the end-of-month financials which happen today. I'm also starting my three days of phone-centred exercises which I hope are the last of the Memory Training. I thought my session at the ACU yesterday was the end of it (it was pretty gruelling) but then Emma sprung this reboot of the telephone trial which we started with way back when. Sigh! I've already taken two of the four photos and await the four quizzes which will pop up on the phone through the day. I then went up to the Health Centre to pick up some pills but I'll have to go back for a scrip for one of them. Then P. joined me and we went up to Clifton Hill for a coffee with Andrea G. (whom we hadn't seen for ages) and Sally S. It was very good to catch up. Andrea has a new novel out in April with Scribe. In the early evening, P. and I went to Uncle in Collins Street for a very tasty dinner, thence to 45downstairs where everyone who was anyone was there to see the opening night of Max Gillies in Krapp's Last Tape. It was a bravura performance and good as well to catch up with John Flaus who was in the play 16 years ago with the same director (Laurence Strangio) at La Mama. I doubt this performance has been equalled anywhere in the world, but I didn't see the original Flaus one.