A PINK PARTY

 One of our energetic, vivacious residents organised a Pink Party to celebrate her 70th birthday. It was a fun night with everyone wearing pink and enjoying dancing to the band and eating the delicious food, which she cooked herself.

Annie and her husband Herbie.

It's great to see the oldies up and dancing.

Everyone wore pink.

We sat with Tony and Lois. I used to teach with Tony's daughter, Donna.

Wishing Annie Happy Birthday under the pink flamingos.

So great to see Bill enjoying himself again.

"MURDER MOST FOUL"

 Thank you to those friends who wished Bill a speedy recovery. Once he got home and had me looking after him and physiotherapist visits he did start to recover some strength. He still uses a walker  for confidence and stability. Luckily, he was fit enough to attend our village's 13th Anniversary Dinner.

Our managing director, Chiou See's husband, Brendan, decided to provide the entertainment instead of hiring anyone. He wrote an interactive play similar to a murder mystery dinner. He called it "Murder Most Foul", which was about the murder of a promiscuous woman in our village.(fictional of course) He chose some villagers to take parts in the play but we were sworn to secrecy before the night.

Bill made a powerpoint presentation of famous detective shows on TV to be run on a loop on the screen. He also took video footage of the play to make into a short video for the village residents.

Everyone was encouraged to come dressed as a detective or police officers and many did. I had the role of police crime scene photographer and suspects photographer.

Taking photos of a condom at the crime scene.

Bill was back on deck.

Many residents dressed up.

I'm photographing Kathleen, the first of five suspects. Eric was the arresting police officer.

I took a mugshot of Bill as a practise shot before the show started.

Brendan was the investigating detective. (He is a real one in his day job)

The suspects are arrested and put into a holding cell.

Then they are put into interrogation rooms.

The set is changed and it becomes a courtroom and Brendan is the prosecutor. The residents who go to the workshop every Tuesday made the sets. 

There was a twist at the end. None of the suspects were found guilty but another well known resident who was in the audience was found guilty. He had motive and blood on his coat besides his phone calls gave him away.

It was a fun night. Chiou See cooked dinner for the 120 guests because the chef was away. It was Osso Buco and almond cake or poached pears. The dinner committee and the highschool students helped out.

AROUND THE VILLAGE

 

It was sad to see Bill in hospital but he is home now and I'm looking after him. But when he was in hospital I went for a walk with my buddies into the forest early in the morning.

The Wattle, our national flower, was blooming and the Eucalypts were reaching for the sky.

That evening I walked down our street to visit a friend, who invites the neighbours for Happy Hour drinks. The sun was setting and lighting up the forest.

Now that Bill is home I go for short walks around the village. My mailbox is getting swallowed by the lavender bush.

This big Blue Tongue Lizard paid us a visit on the porch. They are beautiful and harmless.

One of the residents had another kind of visitor, A wallaby with a full pouch.

It's the first day of Spring today but these beautiful Magnolias were flowering early this year. They are in village Zen Garden.

We have been warned that it is going to be a hot summer with a high chance of bushfires. Not looking forward to that but I'm loving the beautiful Spring day today. Bill even went for a short walk on his wheelie walker. His knee is getting better and his cough has gone.

HOME AT LAST

After a CT scan of his lungs showed Bill's lungs were clear, he was allowed to come home even though they wanted to keep him for another two weeks for rehab. He wasn't keen on this idea so I said we had our own physiotherapist who will do the rehab and our health fund will pay. So he was transported home in an ambulance as he is still not agile enough to get into and out of the car.

The ambos bring him right inside the unit and help him into a chair.

He was happy to be home.

I made him his favourite lunch. Continental frankfurters and sauerkraut because he had lost his appetite from the antibiotics. He enjoyed it but couldn't eat it all.

We bought a new chair which is easier to get in and out of as well as having a variety of positions. He's learning how to fly it. It actually stands him up.

Bill used to do all the cooking now there is a new cook in the kitchen. I have to learn all over again after he has cooked for the last fifty years. Chicken, mushrooms, spinach and egg noodles. Easy stuff for the beginner. Unfortunately Bill is still coughing but is walking on a walker a little better. Slowly, slowly getting better.

YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT IS AROUND THE CORNER

 It has been ages since I posted. A lot has been going on in real life and I haven't had time or inclination to post. On 23 July, Bill got up from the table and walked around the corner to his study when I suddenly heard him say, "What's going on ?". Then I heard his feet shuffling followed by a crash. I knew he had fallen. I rushed into his study and found him unconscious on the floor. He came to when I touched him and spoke to him. He was on his side and he rolled over and attempted to get up but I insisted he stay still and rest for a bit. His glasses were broken on the floor and his face was bleeding where they had dug into his head. His paper thin skin had been torn off his arms and bleeding. Luckily, it wasn't too hard to stop with a handful of tissues. While I was doing this his Apple watch was asking if he was okay as it had detected a fall. I knew he wouldn't be able to get up off the floor so I said let the watch do its job. So after 60 seconds the ambulance service spoke I answered and explained what happened and they told me how to stop the bleeding and sent an ambulance. 

Bill spent three days in hospital. They x-rayed his head to try to establish why he blacked out. Everything looked okay except they found a screw loose!!!(Hee Hee). The little screw that holds on the arm of his glasses had embedded in his head. So they dug it out and sewed him up and patched up his arms and sent him home with a change to his medication to try to avoid low blood pressure.

The next day his knee swelled up and he was in a lot of pain and couldn't walk on it. He was having loads of trouble trying to get around the house. Village friends lent us a wheelie walker and we hired devices to help him get out of bed and chairs and in the bathroom. Our daughter flew from Melbourne to come and help. She is an angel. However, the pain got worse and the skin went red so we had a video consultation with the doctor who suggested he went back to hospital in case it was cellulitis. 

Unfortunately, our favourite private hospital was full so he was taken to our local public hospital. After a week of investigations and intravenous antibiotics they transferred him to a private hospital where he still is today. He has been treated for gout (uric acid crystals) and pseudogout  (calcium crystals) in the knee. He is having more drugs and physiotherapy. Just as he was beginning to walk a little on the painful leg  he developed pneumonia so that was a set back and more intravenous antibiotics needed but all his veins collapsed when they tried to insert yet another cannula after a few days. So now he is on another tablet.

He had a terrible cough but it is subsiding now. The doc said his chest is clear but they saw a shadow on his lung in the X-Ray so now they are investigating that. Poor guy has had enough. He is sick of being unwell and of being in hospital. Our other daughter flew from Melbourne for a week to cheer us up and help at home. We are so lucky to have such fabulous daughters. They both flew home last Monday.

Hopefully I'll have some fun things to write about soon.

The public hospital had modern equipment, great nurses but too many people and not easy to communicate with doctors.

Learning to walk again but it was painful. In a private hospital, which is showing its age but he had a room of his own with a view and good nurses and a doctor who spoke with us every day.

Our girls come to cheer up their dad.

Then pneumonia strikes.

MONET IN PARIS

Two of the lovely ladies in our art group in the village organised a trip into the city to see the Monet in Paris exhibition. It included other impressionist artists as well. Lynne borrowed the village mini bus and drove us into North Shore. It wasn't an exhibition of real paintings like on the walls of an art gallery but a moving projection of the real works set to the most beautiful classical music. The images were projected onto many screens and the floor. There was also printed information projected onto the screens too. There were different images on different screens but it didn't matter where you stood, sat or wandered you could see them all. It was beautiful and relaxing. 

The first room was full of flowers (artificial) but it certainly felt like you were in a Monet painting. 

The main hall was huge 

The artists thoughts and words were also projected.

The floor changed to match the changing paintings which also moved along the walls sometimes.

After the show we could have a photo taken in a painting.

 We could also get painted into a picture in an impressionist style.

When they were projecting Monet's water lily scenes the floor turned into a pond with rippling water. It was amazing. Here is a 25 sec video to hopefully give you an idea what the floor was like. It kept changing to match the paintings.

OUR FOREST ENTRANCE IS OPEN AGAIN

Some months ago our forest entrance was closed while some of the paths were upgraded to be suitable for wheelchairs and mobility scooters. The good new is that the work is finished and our entrance is open again. I say 'our entrance' because it is right next to our village. There is another entrance but we need to drive there because it is a few miles away.

So this is how the entrance looked for months.

Now it has been revealed.

There is a special gate that will let in wheelchairs but not dirt bikes, they are not allowed in this forest.

The walk through space is quite narrow.

There is a group of volunteers called Friends of the Forest and they liaised with the minister and discussed what they would like improved. The man on the scooter is Rex and his wife standing next to him is Beryl. They are residents of our village. They had a lot of input in the discussions and were our representatives. The guy in the blue shirt and dark jacket is our local member of the state parliament, Mick De Brenni. He is the minister for  Energy and Hydrogen and the Minister for Public Works and Procurement  but when the forest improvements were planned he was the Minister for Sport and Recreation. He was keen to better the mountain bike tracks in the forest as well as the disabled walkways.

This group of volunteers and the workers who completed the job were invited to the official opening.

Our Rex and Mick cut the ribbon.

The workers and Mick outside the new toilet block.

The new track from our entrance into the forest.

I even got Bill to try to walk on the new surface which is crusher dust. He hasn't been able to walk for many weeks as he has not been well. He is feeling better but his heart is failing and it makes life tough.

When we arrived home we were greeted by some wallabies. One of them was hopping down our street. I took the following video. He hops out from behind a bush.