Trio trip to NZ

Donald and family's visit came to an end but not before another jamming session with Martin Lamb and Donald serenading us with some lovely Schubert. Jessye and Ollie kindly agreed to be photographed together to mirror the gorgeous snap we have of them as 6-month-olds giving each other a kiss on command. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to find the original - would have made for a good then and now comparison.

Rosie, Sophie and I went to the cemetery for some long-overdue maintenance. One of the plants had died of neglect so we replaced it with a new one. The rest are thriving and bursting out of their enclosure.

The day after Donald and co left I headed for NZ myself for a 4-concert little tour with Ian Munro (piano) and David Berlin (cello). We had a ball visiting Christchurch, Hamilton, Rotorua and Wellington. The concerts were OK too. In Christchurch we had lunch with good friend and the presenter of our concert, Chris Marshall and I caught up with Peter's aunt and uncle, Jean and Jack Burton, my uncle Frank and aunty Diane as well as Chris and Grant, Dave and Thomas and Rebekah who came to the concert.

The morning after our Christchurch concert I met my half-sister, Carol and for the first time, her youngest daughter, Rae, for breakfast.

We drove from Hamilton to Rotorua and on to Wellington via Martinborough where we spent a great night with Vicki and Ed who had arranged dinner at their friends, the Campbells,' French Bistro - yum.

In Wellington I met Jenny, Peter's sister, and her kids, Nat and Coco, for breakfast at Coco's in Cuba St.

The NZSO's front desk showed up to our concert so we posed for a shot of a gaggle of concertmasters.

And on our last morning there I met Rowan and Hamish's newish daughter, Freya.

Last blog I forgot to report on Rosie's last MRI which Wirginia was pleased with. Apparently they can no longer see any blood vessels feeding into or out of the AVM which is a good thing and presumably means that it will continue to shrink away without its food supply. Wirginia was very relaxed about us spending Christmas in Auckland and then a week in Whitianga (a few hours from Auckland hospital) so that was encouraging since she has been very conservative with her travel advice in the past and had earlier in the year banned Rosie from attending her school camp which was a 2-hour drive from her Melbourne hospital. Rosie started a weekly Pilates session on Thursday, arranged by Susan, the physio, who we continue to see once a month. David, our other physio is in the Czech Republic for a few weeks.