We have been having a lot of rumbling and things rattling in the kitchen as work is done on the foundations for the new apartment block being built behind us. The rumbling has eased a bit in the last few days, Stephen found out that our neighbour complained about the effects of the compacters to the Council. The neighbour had originally told me that the compacting can be done more gently these days. However, he felt that lately they had tried to speed things up, sending sound and vibrations through our homes. We have had another light fitting come down, but the builder has not sent anyone around to repair it.
Yesterday evening I did a fair bit of sorting out of stuff, including a box of photos from Matt’s room. I found the lovely photo of Matt with Katarina, taken we think, in 1988. Brian’s family always had their Christmas celebration on Boxing Day, and in the year Katarina was born we put her on Matt’s lap for this photo. In subsequent years we tried taking the same photo – of course she got too big in the end. When I posted the photo on Facebook Katarina posted a couple of photos of later years, including one where she is standing next to Matt holding his hand. Katarina is actually Matt’s cousin on his father’s side – she must be 29 now.
I’m not sure who took the photos – I think it was someone in Brian’s family.
Today we took the Winnie up to Marie and Geoff’s place in Roleystone. I miss it terribly already, but am glad to have it in a safe place, with shade for part of the day. We left there at about lunch time, so dropped in at the shopping centre to get a pie or something. We ended up at the Orchard Expresso Cafe having a light lunch. We go into discussion about our books and ended up leaving there at about 2.00 p.m. We had told Geoff Stephen needed to be home, so it was a bit embarrassing to see him at the shopping centre as we left the cafe. We couldn’t really explain that we got immersed in things and hadn’t realised the time.
Stephen did his usual thing of posing so that I could take a photo. We were particularly noticing how beautiful it is in Roleystone, with gum trees in bloom and all the green. It was a bit cooler than Victoria Park as well. We are looking forward to staying there for a while whilst we have guests from England staying in our house. I was noting all the useful shops for future reference.
We did a major shopping expedition this morning and our freezer is full (it’s a small, front loading freezer). I have bought a few things that don’t need to be cooked in my electric pressure cooker, but it has definitely become my favourite way of cooking food.
On Monday morning we had our routine swim as usual, so routine that we didn’t even have a discussion in the morning, just got up and ready at the right time. Going swimming tomorrow morning was discussed today, Stephen is singing in concerts tomorrow evening and Saturday afternoon and has had rehearsals each evening from Tuesday so he is not sure if it is wise to push things. I want to go by myself if necessary, but would have to push myself a little to go on my own.
On Tuesday morning we had a meeting of the writers’ group organised by Eversley. We meet in one of the social areas at her retirement village. The room is large and attractive, with a kitchen area for making hot drinks and preparing our food for the shared lunch. This was the first meeting of the year, with two new people, and there was really good energy in the group.
I’ve finished both of my books – and enjoyed reading them although they have not left me feeling optimistic about life on earth. The Chinese author writes of being happily settled in the US, able to speak far more frankly than she could when living in China. I suspect she did not lose her ingrained politeness when she disagreed with people. She found her new country very open and accepting of people from different countries and ethnic backgrounds and I feel she would not feel the same way if she was writing now.
Daniel’s book left me feeling depressed about the future of the world where the US is unlikely to lead with getting rid of weapons of mass destruction. Which means that all we can do is hope that the horror of the thought of killing off all life on the planet is enough to deter them from being used. Stephen and I were discussing this at lunch time. He, as always, took a much more optimistic view.
Working Voices Choir was supposed to start this week, but there has been a delay. The Teacher’s Union have not long moved in and they weren’t ready. We hope to start next week.