Between Europe and Marshmead

Blogging seems to have got rather sporadic of late but I thought I'd better fill in some gaps in 2009 so that when I'm an old lady in a few years, I'll be able to read it and find out what happened. So this blog's going to fill the gap between our European adventure and Rosie's term at Marshmead. We were lucky and Fred and Barney were especially lucky that my cousin, Kasi, and her husband, Raymond, were available to come to Melbourne for the month that we were in Europe to house and pet-sit. Kasi's a keen tennis fan and used to play quite a bit so I took her down the road to the Kooyong Tennis Club (where the Australian Open used to be held before the Rod Laver Arena was built) to watch one day of the pre-Open tournament that happens there every January. Federer and a few other notable players from the men's game use it as a warm-up for the Open and it's a chance to see them close up in a much more intimate setting. We got great seats just a few rows back from the service line - it was the first time I'd seen Federer live and Kasi too I think.

Kasi's nephew and his family (wife and 6 or 7 kids - I lose count), who immigrated to Bendigo from Fiji about a year ago, spent Christmas with Kasi and Raymond and came to visit again after we got back from Europe. The kids range from tiny to 19 so our 3 had a great time at the park with them. Apart from get the house ship-shape, clean out the pond in the front yard, tidy the rest of the garden and get Fred and Barney fit, Raymond also found our derelict bikes in the garage and sorted out what needed doing so that they are now usable again.

While Jessye was at rowing camp, Sophie, Rosie and I went to Sandra's place one afternoon for a swim and tea. Sandra's sister, Janice, was visiting from Auckland. The girls had the company of Henry and a friend for a swim and cards.

Since Raymond had found (by stepping in it while gardening) and cleaned our pond, we thought the least we could do was put some fish in it so Rosie, Sophie and I went fish shopping and came back with 10 carefully selected specimens, 2 bigs oranges, 2 little white-and-oranges, 1 medium orange and 5 little oranges. They were individually named and duly ceremoniously poured from their plastic bags into the pond. Greenery was added for ambience and shelter and they took to their new home like, er, fish to water. For quite a few months I could verify there were 10 fish in the pond but lately I've only been able to count 7. I suspect Harry Potter, Finn and one of the little orange ones (hard to tell apart) may have been eaten by birds. The cats seem to show no interest in them as food although they quite like to drink out of the pond.

On Feb 17, with everybody back in full swing at school, Sophie got a couple of ribbons at her school's swimming carnival - her best event was 50m breaststroke.

Jessye, meanwhile, was deep in the thick of rowing training. She was in the 2nd Four and they trained hard and often with 3 early morning sessions on the river (5:30) and gym work and after school sometimes as well. Lauriston had 3 senior crews training in coxed Fours and the 1st and 2nd Fours combined to make an Eight for the first big regatta of the season, the Australian Henley Regatta, on the Yarra. I was able to watch before I had to go to work (a rehearsal for the memorial service for the families and other affected people after the awful bushfire tragedy of Feb 7). The Lauriston girls did themselves proud winning their semifinal over arch-rival MLC handsomely and only losing the final by a small margin to the mighty Geelong Grammar. Their delight at beating MLC seemed to compensate for losing the final to Geelong. They looked beautiful on the water - very good form, I thought.

Next big excitement on the rowing calendar was the chance for the Lauriston 1st and 2nd Fours to go to the National Rowing Championships in Tasmania. Jessye had been hoping to make it to the Nationals this year so there was keen anticipation as the time approached. The girls and their coaches flew down and came back by ferry. They were there from March 2 - 8, the first couple of days training on the course before racing started. We were able to track their progress on the internet - race results were posted almost immediately with times and various statistics - so it was exciting at home too to cheer them on from a distance as they made it through their heats into the semi-final and then the final. Both Fours made their division finals with the 1st Four winning the silver medal and Jessye's Four coming 5th. Their fine performance at Nationals augered well for the next big event in Geelong, the Head of Schoolgirls, the end of season finale for all the girls' crews from Victorian rowing schools.

On March 14, the MLC Marching Band, featuring Rosie on horn, was invited to be the star attraction of the parade during the Kew Festival. Unfortunately, several months or years worth of Melbourne rain bucketed down that day but even more unfortunately, the show was deemed necessary to go on so the girls were kitted out in glorified plastic bags and march they did! It was quite hilarious. The following evening Eleanor came over for dinner.

Jessye left for Geelong on Thursday March 19 with the rest of the Lauriston crews for a couple of days training on the Barwon River before the regatta. I had the weekend off so the rest of us went down on the Saturday morning and stayed at a motel with a pool. We gave the heats a miss on the Saturday and celebrated Sophie's and my birthday instead with a lazy day by the pool and on the beach. Then on Sunday we went to the river and watched the finals action. Lauriston excelled. All 3 of their senior Fours made their division finals and the 1st Four and Jessye's Four won gold medals with the 3rd Four getting silver. Jessye was very pleased with herself because it was her first actual medal and the presentation ceremony was pretty flash.

On March 23 and 24 I took a couple of days to catch a train to Hamilton, Victoria and visit an old mate from my early NZSO days, trumpeter, George Duncombe. George and his wife moved back to his native land after he retired from the NZSO many years ago and he now lives by himself since his wife died a couple of years ago. He has a daughter and granddaughter in the neighbourhood though and some good friends who I met during my visit.

The Lauriston Rowing Presentation Dinner wrapped up the season formally in suitable style at the Royal South Yarra Lawn Tennis Club. The girls gave their coaches presents and made speeches and the director of rowing showed us his photo montage of the season as captured by him - lots of great photos of the camps and trips away and training sessions that we don't see.

I don't know what the occasion was but Sophie went to school one day dressed as a super-lunatic.

Another MLC Marching Band gig came along, this time the opening ceremony for the Special Olympics, Victorian division. They really are getting pretty slick.

A couple of weeks after Rosie left for Marshmead, we had word that Will was coming home after his 3 months of European and South American adventure. He and Eleanor came over for brunch on Mothers' Day which had started very early for this mother due to Sophie wanting to do the Mothers' Day Classic with some of her friends from school. This is an annual event which is used to torture mothers on their special day. You can either run or walk the 4 km around the botanical gardens and thousands of people show up every year to do it. Sophie did the run first with her friends and then they did the walk as well while I agreed to do the walk only with the friends' mothers. Then we had to queue up for ages to get the loot bags with various souvenirs inside. Sophie managed to get several because of registering for both events.

We are currently house hunting because the house we're renting is being sold and we need to vacate by Oct 4. I thought I might attempt to get the blog up to date with the rest of the year before we move so watch this space but at the same time don't hold your breath.