6th April - birthdays - Whitsundays within reach - ukulele

Saturday 6^th April

Birthdays!

Firstly – Angus Wakefield is eleven today.  And a most wonderful eleven year old he is.  I think this is a splendid age to be, full of the joys of childhood and the confidence of having lots of abilities and competence but not too many adult/teenage responsibilities.  Angus is happy, cheerful, very VERY funny, and extremely intelligent.  We all very much enjoy his company and his quirky conversation.

Next – Will Harmsen is eighteen today.  He is handsome, charming, much loved and an extremely talented swimmer.  And I also think he will be very grateful that I am not completely on top of loading photos onto this blog because I happen to have, in my collection, a lovely photo of him, taken only last weekend, wearing a large grey onesie and pink bunny ears…

And again – Nicole Headlam Darcey is forty one today and no I can’t believe it was only a year ago we went to her resplendent fortieth birthday party in Launceston…She is still beautiful, admirable and brave, raising her darling daughters, working alongside her darling husband, and raising many $$$$s for breast cancer research.

And last on the list because he will NOT want to have his birthday acknowledged is Allan, long-term Registrar at the Industrial Commission.  Happy birthday Allan - your birthday is now celebrated in cyberspace!

No news today from 2XS – I imagine they are sailing at high speed towards the 100 Magical Miles of the Whitsundays…

I am getting just a bit more prepared for my own magical miles…

Yesterday afternoon I had my first ukulele lesson.  My lovely new friend Tanya arrived, in a glorious bright yellow Hillman Minx, highly decorated, to show me four chords (C, C7, G and F,), with which, she says, I will be able to play many songs.  So far…I can plod along very slowly through You Are My Sunshine.  Well... I can do it while she is sitting patiently at my side singing and playing,

You are my C, C 

My only C7, C7

You make me F, F…

etc…

She says I just need to practise ten minutes a day to perfect changeovers from these four chords and then…build on my success!  How lucky am I to have met Tanya, just last week, and in the nick of time!

5th April - Gold Class - night shift

Friday 5^th April

Gold Class Cinema – oh what a joy it is!  Comfy, large recliner chairs, with soft and fluffy blankets if requested.  Staff ready and willing to kneel temptingly at one’s side with light refreshments.  Glorious technicolour movies right there.  A kind and gentle nurse-y friend of ours recently came to Hobart for a conference, with her colleagues, and her boss… They went to Gold Class to watch Skyfall – they are all keen James Bond fans.  They lined up in a companionable row, with rugs wrapped around them, the movie about to start, cups of hot cocoa nestled in their laps.  “OH bliss,” said our friend.  “JUST like night shift!”  There was a murmur of consternation up and down the row…mumble mumble ahem cough ummm…not really like night shift AT ALL!!!  They all very much hoped that their supervisor hadn’t heard this comment and that she still believes that her nurses stride up and down the peacefully sleeping corridors of her small regional hospital, ready to snap into action ASAP!  I love the thought of the row of nurses all snugged up, ready and willing to snap into action, yes, but cosy and happy while they wait…

4th April - 2XS on Gold Coast - internet trials and tribulations

Thursday 4^th April

A totally glorious Hobart day – clear blue skies, a gentle cool zephyr of a wind, nineteen degrees of crisp clear air.  It is apparently hot on the Gold Coast, but overcast – maybe it is better here!

Snapshot:  1.00-3.00

2XS is tied up to a pontoon on the Broadwater, near our friends Tim and Sally’s house. 

Pete is laboring away in Tim’s office, trying to understand a mass of documents relating to what he calls, in slightly grim tones, “your internet system.”  Trying to get it all to make sense and to connect, as an internet system should.  I could hear the weariness and frustration in his voice and I very much admire his persistence.  I would possibly be sobbing bitter tears onto the keyboard, and calling for HELP HELP HELP!!!  Pete is made of stronger stuff; he will persist until he gets it all fixed.

Rachel is in the closes library, working online – she has just started a job in an editorial capacity with Island Magazine and I assume she can work whenever and whenever, industrious hi-tech girl that she is!

James is on board 2XS, trying to MacGuyver an internal helm seat.  I have no idea how he is going to do this but…I have every faith!  Apparently they had some fiercely lashing rain over the past few days which made them all realise that sometimes it is NOT so very much fun having to sit outside at the helm in all weather.

And…I am here in beautiful Hobart, playing with Zoe and Rose in the autumnal sunshine.

3rd April - Gold Coast? - Melbourne Experience

Wednesday 3^rd April

Not sure where 2XS is – the Gold Coast, I reckon.  I will update as soon as I hear.

When Katy and Jeff taught at an international school in Santiago (Chile) they met many wealthy families. Some of them had wonderful schemes for their children.

“Oh yes, when our children turn eight, we take them to Buenos Ayres.  And when they are ten, they get a trip to New York.”

Good-o…Why didn’t we all think of that?? 

Katy and Jeff have instituted a slightly modified version of this system.  When their children turn five, they get two nights in Melbourne with Katy.  And when they turn thirteen…well the jury is out but maybe they will go on a skiing holiday with Jeff.  Perfect!

At this very moment Katy is in Melbourne with Eva, at the theatre, watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  We got a message at interval – it is, apparently, fantastic.  And we have just seen a photo of Eva, blissed out, in her theatre seat with a big chocolate-y Magnum  This morning they went shopping for new winter boots for Eva.  She was very polite to the shop assistant, who didn’t listen at all when Eva said, “this one fits really well but the other one is a bit tight.  A bit uncomfortable…”  They left the shop with Eva silent and brave, limping… Eventually she said, a bit tearfully, “Mummy, I think I saw something white inside my boot.  It REALLY isn’t very comfortable.”  So they investigated and Katy found, stuffed into the offending boot, a large wad of tissue – poor Eva must have had a very squashy foot indeed…

2nd April - food - speedy sailing - spills

Tuesday 2nd April

2XS is going gangbusters!  Pete rang as they sped past Port Macquarie.  I think they will be in the Whitsundsays in the blink of an eye…maybe I misjudged, booking my ticket to arrive on the 12^th…

And while I was writing this he rang again – they will be arriving at the Gold Coast tonight at 7; they have been going fast and steady, with no mishaps at all.  They didn’t even stop in Sydney, where Pete thought they would have had to spend a few days fixing this and that.  This and that usually goes wrong, on a boat.  But not this time!!

Ad break: He also said the food has been wonderful.  So go to Food2U in Moonah and buy some!  It is apparently very tasty and satisfying, and…easy!

At dinner last night with a cheery group of women the conversation turned to accidents…spills in particular.  My most annoying and recent spill story was on 2XS in high seas.  I had been longing for a cup of tea – the longing for a cup of tea is quite a primal urge, isn’t it?  I was at the helm and Pete struggled down into the galley to make me what my heart desired.  It had barely reached my hands when oooops over it went.  The next one I managed to sip a beautiful sip or two and then over it went.  I think I ended up spilling and NOT drinking about four cups of tea before we both, sadly, gave up.

Tanya’s most horrid spill was two large glasses of beer, which she managed to throw all over herself by tripping over the leg of a barstool while trying to impress a potential boyfriend at the tender age of seventeen.  Come to think of it…many years ago I went out to dinner with a large group of work friends, to a busy Battery Point restaurant.  The waiter arrived at the table with two large jugs of beer which he poured ALL over Tom and Pauline, who were just sitting there innocently minding their own business.  The waiter didn’t deal with this at all well. Hardly an apology; he just went off and got a few napkins and dabbed, fairly ineffectually, at their sodden clothes.  He did bring fresh jugs of beer, but that was it.  And at the end of the evening, adding insult to injury, we were overcharged by about $200

Ann-Marie had a fairly tragic spill-story… Many yeas ago she worked at a hotel on the Isle of Man.  This was in the days before there were TVs in every room as a matter of course.  There was a TV lounge, and all of the guests would gather in the evening to watch together.  They were mainly long-term guests, fairly elderly, and the high pint of the evening was cocoa and biscuits.  It was Ann-Marie’s duty to get this supper treat for them.  One evening she climbed on a stool to get the two large jugs of milk left on a high shelf.  As she climbed down, it went through her mind that the floor was wet, and possibly slippery, and that she would have to be very careful…Not careful enough… She skidded across the floor in a fairly spectacular manner, slopping milk everywhere.  And the poor oldcodgers, waiting eagerly for their hot cocoa, had to make do with seeing sodden milk-stained Ann-Marie making a chastened apology.