25th February - quoll - ashes - Fiddler on the Roof - Investigator returns - TMAG

Thursday 25^th February 2016

I am sitting up at the kitchen bench…a whisk of movement in my peripheral vision; for a moment I thought it was a small thylacine… But no; thylacines are still extinct…It was the mother quoll, out for a scamper and the scratch in the morning sunshine.  Usually we only see the teenagers, all black with white spots this year.  The mother is a more thylacine-coloured creature…

 Tuesday would have been Pam Headlam’s 97^th birthday.  We could just imagine her saying, ninety bloody seven! while rolling her eyes expressively.  She loved the sea, and especially the water at her beloved beach at Dodges Ferry.  

Some of the family members gathered in the late afternoon to scatter her ashes, and to remember her with love.

Lynne Pete Angela

I wasn’t able to stay – Katy and Jeff were in Melbourne, off to see a fabulous production of Fiddler on the Roof (Anthony Warlow and Sigrid Thornton.)  They left at 10am glowing with health and arrived, an hour later, in Melbourne, with poor Jeff deathly ill and vomiting into a sick bag in the taxi…The Windsor hotel behaved beautifully and let them into their room very promptly…

Possibly they didn’t want him and his sickbag in the foyer…Katy wasn’t able to leave him and go traipsing around the shops; he really was terribly ill.  He slept for three hours, like a corpse, and then woke…back into the pink of health!

Meanwhile the kiddiewinks and I held the fort in South Hobart.

Two of them, preparing schnitzel

My brother Pete will be back from his Antarctic adventure this weekend.  The Investigator has had to return earlier than expected, which is all good for us!  Pete (Headlam not Harmsen…) and I have planned a party for the 28^th and I was a bit sad that not one of my brothers or sisters would be there but now – YES!  Brother Pete!  He is a teensy bit worried…

Ahoy there Bardy!

I have had words with the master, and impressed on him the need for speed, as I have a very important social engagement to attend on Sunday, so put the foot down, hoist the spinnaker and splice the mainbrace!

In good news, we look likely to arrive in Hobart sometime on Saturday, meaning that I should be able to crash your party on Sunday. (If I'm still invited). The disturbing part of that news is that someone told me about an interesting scientific / medical possibility. Apparently when you have been "dry" for an extended period, one drink can send you over the edge. Should be an interesting social experiment then on Sunday. Watch out! And keep the coffee handy!

On Monday afternoon I asked Rose if she would like to have a special excursion to the museum!  Yes!  Yay!  We chatted away about the animals, the new Pattern Play exhibition, the fun we would have… And when we got there…bolted and barred!

Yes I do know that many museums all over the world are closed on Mondays, but not OUR TMAG (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.)  It’s all wrong!

I made her pose with a very sad face and then took her for an icecream, where it was not difficult to get a HAPPY face!