We began the day by going to the Cinema Paradiso to see an opera film. The libretto is so silly that the producers of this version said that they got around it by changing the story to a girl hallucinating that she is Joan of Arc. Our heroine spent a lot of her time in plain white nightgowns.

Then we went home via the newly named Elizabeth Quay Busport – a Blue Cat from Northbridge and one of our usual buses home. We were able to see some of the Elizabeth Quay area from outside of the bus station on the second level. There is a little park there with quite large trees, I was quite taken with the fact that this was a park with mature largish trees on the upper level of a building.

In the even we went over to the Hawkers’ Market for a meal and to enjoy the atmosphere. It is quite noisy so if you were meeting friends it would be best to bring your own table and chairs so that you could sit well away from the DJ and children playing.

Today I have reworked some of my Kew Gardens photos using PhotoTraces presets to see whether I like the enhancements. I want to go through all of my photos from 2015 as an exercise to see if I feel like including a couple in the Workshop Camera Club photo book. And also because I want to choose a subset of favourites from our travels for Stephen and I to enjoy.

Yesterday I saw Mum and we went to see Dr Illich. She had a phone call from the Silver Chain to say that her personal alarm should get to her soon. Jamie knows and should be able to install it for her. Dr Illich filled in his section of the form for an ACROD sticker and also gave Mum a letter of referral to the local ACAT team. Mission accomplished and I have forwarded both forms scanned into emails this morning, and have had them acknowledged as received.

We watched ‘Elizabeth, the Golden Age’ – quite stunningly beautiful on her 50″ TV. We had a rest before watching it, but were both a bit tired when we parted. I rang her this morning just to check that she was OK. Jamie had been to see her. It is very hot up there apparently, but only 32 degrees here, fortunately.

So, on to looking at the photos. The featured photo is of grasses at Kew Gardens.

The other thing that happened yesterday was that our air-conditioning cut out, we think about 4.00 p.m. It was 42 degrees (about 107 F) at the hottest part of the day and we had been running all the rooms. I had just added the bedroom.

We thought it was the same problem as before where a part had to be replaced and took ages to arrive. We set in motion a backup plan (packed up to go to stay with Mum) and then switched everything off. We had rather a hot night again, though it did cool down in the morning. I set up the little evaporative cooler when I made our cups of tea.

Then, we switched on. And it worked. Such a relief!

The lesson learned is that for such extreme weather we need to try to not overuse the system. Today we were out until about 2.00 p.m., and had closed up the house and put down the blinds everywhere, and it wasn’t too bad when we got home. We switched on and it has been working this afternoon. We have closed the studies and the bedroom and switched off those rooms. We have always done this in the past when using the system to save electricity, so I don’t quite know why we were so blasé about it.

Of course, we are having about a week of extreme temperatures, although I notice that the maximum temperatures have been revised slightly downwards for the next few days.

Yesterday (Monday 8th) was finally the day for Stephen to see the neurologist, Susan Ho. She asked me to join in on the consultation so that I could give my take on what I saw happen. She said that she would not prescribe medication for a one off seizure as if he never had another one, we wouldn’t know if it was because of the medication or just that it was going to be a one off. She said that the scans from the MRI were too grainy for her to be able to make a diagnosis and asked Stephen to book in for another MRI and an EEG in the next couple of days.

She took a fairly detailed history and asked many questions. Basically, she established that there were no factors that could have triggered the seizure, such as extreme fatigue, heaving drinking the night before, or anything else.

After the consultation we went to a couch near her rooms and made the calls. We were able to book the MRI at Hollywood SKG and the EEG at St John of God, Subiaco. Stephen said that the EEG was much more thoroughly done this time, with several different phases and electrodes directly connected to his head. Like this:

Dr Ho was not able to offer Stephen a second appointment until the end of February. She checked the diary herself. She said that if she felt it warranted, she would contact Stephen sooner to make an earlier appointment. I guess it means she would have to work a longer day. She already looks like she works very long days.

After lunch at St John of God, we did some shopping and came home for a rest. I suggested that we not go to the Cabaret at St George’s tonight as it is going to be hot and Stephen should not risk the heat stress.

On Sunday I subscribed to a new photography site called PhotoTraces.com run by Viktor Elizarov. It included some free Lightroom presets and after installing them, I did some reworking of images from Stara Boleslav and Brandys Nad Labem taken on the day of Stephen’s seizure. We had completed a long walk across the bridge to the other village. I used a couple of the presets, HDR and Heavy Shadows. It is possible to adjust them to taste. One is used as the Featured Image for this post and some others are included below. These have been resized in ImageBucket, so I hope they are not too small.

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We cleaned the floors yesterday. Even with the two of us working, Stephen with the vacuum cleaner and me with the mop and broom, it took about an hour. Stephen did a thorough clean, including under the queen bed where there are lots of his musical instruments stored, so it took longer than it could have done.

In the evening we had Matt to tea. I seem to be getting a bit better with guiding the wheelchair. He is still leaning back too far and I think it makes it harder for him to switch on the dishwasher, as well as being bad for when he is eating. Maybe needs a bit of a ‘push’ to get them to adjust it. When Matt had a go outside I noticed he was better at being able to go in a straight line, so practice is paying off for him as well.

Stephen and I are proofreading Eversley’s new book on Rottnest. The featured photo is of Stephen working on the Mac in the study nook in the living area.

And a photo of Matt. I took lots, but this was the best, with a little catchlight in his eye.

Yesterday Stephen went to one of his opera movies, a modern work that I wasn’t interested in. I went to look for sandals for Mum, and also spent time near the sea. Several degrees cooler than inland, of course. In the evening after the usual news and 7.30 report we watched Chariots of Fire. Very dated, but still a great movie. The music didn’t sound too good, it seemed to be a rather poor copy of the original movie as I am sure the sound was wonderful when we first saw the movie.

Yesterday (Friday) we spent much of the day at home. I caught up with Stephanie from Townsend Studio re what Matt is doing this year. An individual programme. I said that it was important to us that staff write in his Chat Book so that we can share in what he is doing.

I phoned Mum to say that I would look for a pair of the same sandals that I have. I asked if Marie visited yesterday, she wasn’t sure. I couldn’t resist ringing and speaking with Marie – confirmed that she did go to see Mum yesterday. Marie wasn’t feeling too well and she was able to go home fairly early, hopefully to have some rest.

In the evening we went to the rehearsal and met with Eversley for a shared supper. Jeff Caroll came as well and appreciated the supper, plus the extra folding chair we brought along for him. It was an enjoyable night and although we took light jumpers/jackets, they were quite enough, it didn’t get cold.

The photos were taken on the Nikon D7200 with 16-85mm lens. I processed some in Snapseed on my iPad, then sent them to myself via email. Not wonderful photos, but I enjoyed having the camera and playing in Snapseed.

All in all, a very pleasant time. This opera only lasts about 50 minutes. Sometimes there was a loss of the sound, or the sub titles didn’t work, but basically it went very well. They went through it again, but we felt that once was enough for us and after sitting talking for a while we left as it started up again.

Yesterday we did shopping during the day and had the first meeting of our choir for the year. A very good turnout of about 20 people meant that we could stop worrying about the viability of the choir, for now. It was great seeing everyone again. Raelene, our new choir director, is very encouraging as she works on getting us to sing songs as they are written, rather than approximations. Bernard had rather given up I think.

Today not much happening. Stephen swept the outdoor area and I walked around the block. I was rewarded by finding a $5.00 note on the footpath in Miller Street, quite an unusual thing to happen.

A bit of washing.