20th March to 31at March 2013

20^th March 2013

We have now heard that Merry has an appointment at Peter Mac Hospital on 26^th March and unfortunately at 8.30am.  They don’t take into account the fact that we have a 1.5 hour journey to get there, however, unless we misinterpreted the booklet they sent us, the treatment is not going to cost us much if anything.  We will know more next week which coincides with our daughter, Colleen arriving with her husband Craig and two girls, Emma and Abby.   It is a fair bet that Colleen will go to the hospital with Merry in place of Barry who will look after Craig and the girls.

21^st March 2013

We had a trial run to Peter Mac hospital so that we knew the exact whereabouts and the train times merry needs to know to ensure she arrives on time on Tuesday.  We got to Parliament station alright but exited by the wrong exit which caused us to take about half an hour to get to the hospital instead of the ten minutes that it should take.  We timed the correct return trip to the station so that we were sure of the overall timing and then found somewhere to have a late breakfast.  From there we went to Carlton Gardens to a Garden and Flower show with the sales type stalls in the gardens and the flower show in the Royal exhibition Hall.  The Hall is a massive, beautiful building that looks like it should be someone’s palace but is completely empty except for the flower displays.  We spent several hours at this show before heading to find that Foxy had managed to escape.  We don’t know long she had been out for but Barry found her sitting on the pavement just around the corner about 30 metres away, but she seemed worn out as if she had been going round some of the walks we take her on, possibly in the hope of finding us.  Fortunately it all turned out okay but we now have to make the fence somewhat more secure before we leave her again.   

22^nd March 2013

Merry had her MRI scan at Clayton that took about 2.5 hours by the time they had done the scans and made the CD for her to take to the Peter Mac Hospital on Tuesday.

24^th March 2013

We all spent a fair part of yesterday and today preparing the house for Colleen, Craig, Emma and Abby arriving tomorrow, which involved organising two double airbeds. Moving our stuff down to the lounge which will become our bedroom so that Colleen’s lot can have the upper level and Garon, Sue and us use the bottom half of the house for sleeping, etc.  Soxy the cat, has also had a slight infection and had to have a visit to the Vet but seems to be okay now but is on antibiotics as a precaution.

25^th March 2013

Susanne collected Colleen, Craig, Emma and Abby from the airport, for which Barry will be forever grateful, and they arrived home in time for the dinner Merry had prepared, after a not too brilliant flying experience with Virgin Airways.

26^th March 2013

Merry and Colleen were dropped off at the railway station to go to Peter Mac Hospital for Merry to meet her surgeon.  This took her about 2 hours which worked out fine by the time the rest of colleen’s tribe had come up for air and went with Barry to the train station and meet up with Colleen and Merry to all go to the Victoria Street Markets.  After some lunch we all took the City Tram which did a roundabout trip to Harbour town, and then in to Federation Square.  We bailed out at a stop before Fed Square and went into the Melbourne Aquarium to see the Penguins, etc before crossing the Yarra River via one of the many footbridges and walked along the West Bank and veered off to the Eureka Skydeck were Colleen’s tribe took the trip to the top whilst Merry and Barry waited at the bottom as we did this during are previous trip to Melbourne.  We then all walked to Fed Square where we took in the atmosphere for a while and then took a Horse and carriage ride out to the Botanic gardens and back. 

This was followed by dinner and then back to the casino on the West Bank so our visitors could see the gas flares on the riverside and a look inside the Casino.  We then headed home to avoid keeping Garon and Sue up too long . Whilst we waited for Colleen’s tribe in the Sky tower we had a phone call from one of Garon/Sue’s neighbours to let us know that they had Foxy in their house as she had escaped again despite Garon and Barry putting in a much improved barrier to keep her in.  Apparently she burrowed out and Garon has now improved on our improvement.

Merry now has more information with respect to her treatment and knows that it starts in three to four weeks time for six weeks.

27^th March 2013

Barry took Colleen’s tribe out to the Dandenong ranges to enjoy the views, have lunch at Grant’s Picnic Area cafe were one used to be able to feed the birds which now isn’t allowed.  We had lunch in the cafe and moved on the Belgrave to the Puffing Billy Train ride but Colleen/Craig considered it too expensive and also didn’t fancy sitting on a train for two hours, so we headed home.  However, they did get to see an Echidna cross the road during our travels.

28^th March 2013

We took our car plus Sue’s car to the railway station and then took the train into Melbourne where we walked from the Richmond station to the MCG and took the tour of the facilities which are used by both Australian Rules Football (aerial ping pong) and cricket.  We had lunch in the 'Paddock' cafe and then descended into the Sports Museum which has an interactive sections where the girls could practice there skills at archery, football, soccer, running out batsmen, netball and more, which they enjoyed more than the museum as such.  We then crossed over the road and railway via the footbridge to the Rod Laver Tennis Arena, but unfortunately that was closed.   The footbridge interconnects with about five different sporting venues as well as accessing the trams, trains and walking back into Federation Square (about tem minutes).  We took the tram into Fed Square where Merry and the girls took the train from Flinders Street station to go back to our car at Mentone and to take the girls shopping and to the cinema.  Craig, Colleen and Barry stayed in town and walked some of the lanes and alleys to pass some time until meeting up with Sue and Garon in Fed Square.  During this time Barry received a phone call from a neighbour that was in possession of Foxy who had escaped once again, so Barry phoned merry who was heading that way so that she could retrieve her.  Hoe she managed to escape is a mystery as the improved barricades show no signs of disturbance, no tunnels, etc.  After meeting up with Sue and Garon we all walked back to the MCG and watched the Footy match between Carlton and Richmond.  We left at three quarter time as the preferred team was losing badly, and walked back into town for a coffee were we discovered that the preferred team had come back dramatically, but eventually lost narrowly having had at least two missed chances to win.  

29^th March 2013

Barry transported Colleen, Craig and the girls to the railway station so that they could take a train up to the Melbourne Zoo, and collected them on their return.  Meanwhile the rest of us had a lazy Good Friday around the house.  The evening dinner was to be homemade pizzas Sue mixed the base ingredient and allowed to rise and from there the two girls took over and kneaded and rolled the mixture to produce the three bases and applied the variety of chosen toppings.  Garon cooked two of them in the Weber Q whilst Sue did the third one in the oven, and all three were really good.

30^th March 2013

Being a Saturday there was a late arising, especially with the teenagers but we eventually drove along to Saint Kilda for a fancy breakfast and a walk through the shopping area to buy a heap of cakes for afternoon tea.  Dinner was to be Indian style made by Colleen but Garon thinks his Indian meals are better so we had an Indian cook off.  After the cook off, Abby and Garon went for a run which pushed it a bit for Abby who was running in sand shoes which was tough on her legs.  The eventual conclusion of the cook off was that both were great in their own right and complemented each other despite the obvious differences. 

31^st March 2013

Colleen and her tribe, along with Merry went to a Direct factory Outlet to that Abby could buy some proper running shoes for future runs.  Unfortunately that will not happen today as Colleen’s tribe have to fly back to Perth in the afternoon.  It has been a short but sweet visit which has been great for us as it was five years ago that we last saw them.  The girls were literally little girls and are now young ladies, although lady doesn’t quite suit Abby as she is the impish one.  Emma is the bright academic type and Abby is the energetic sporting type although Emma does play netball and also referees netball.  Merry was very happy to have colleen with her at her hospital meeting with the surgeon as she know the right questions to ask, and now that she knows exactly what is happening with her mother cam stop worrying about her.

25th February to 15th March 2013

25th February 2013

We ventured into Melbourne using the bus/train combination and suffered the same problem that we encountered 2 years ago where by the train returns to Mentone Station where you then walk through a subway to the other side of the railway in time to see the bus you need pulling away from the bus stop and heading into the distance.  We then sat around at a cafe with a coffee for the next bus in an hour’s time.   We only visited Melbourne because we had to go to the electoral offices to do an absentee vote for the WA elections so that we didn’t receive a fine.  Voting in Australia is mandatory.

27^th February 2013

Rain has reduced our activities to nil.

28^th February 2013

We returned to the specialist to get Merry’s biopsy results.  These turned out to not be as good as we had previously been led to believe as the more thorough examination revealed more than was first seen.  It means that it can’t be removed with laser surgery and therefore requires radiation therapy over a 6 to 8 week course.  Much better than the knife with the possibility of no voice.  Fortunately we can store our caravan at Steve and Terry’s in Woodend and move in with Garon and Sue for the duration, if they can bear it for that long.  Racing down to Melbourne from Canberra in the hope of seeing a specialist proved to be a good move.  So far getting appointments with doctors and specialists has fallen into place very easily.  Merry meets with the specialist and the radiation team on the 7^th March for the final decision on the method of attack prior to the first treatment.

2^nd March 2013

We packed up our annex, etc and moved out of Dingley Village and towed the caravan up to Woodend and managed to manoeuvre it into the parking area beside the house without any tree lopping required.  We settled in with Steve and Terry whilst Foxy argued with Badger (their dog) and Gypsy (their cat) as to who was in charge, which turned out to be Gypsy and Foxy and Badger resolved their differences.  In the afternoon Steve and Barry attacked the gas heating system that had stopped working as the installer had advised Steve to contact the manufactures, but that couldn’t happen until Monday and this is Saturday.  They found a hidden blown fuse in the igniter circuit which resolved the problem after it was replaced.

3^rd March2013

Other than a quick visit into the town for a small amount of shopping and a couple of photos, Merry had an afternoon of social chatter while Barry did an oil change on the car.

4^th March 2013

This was another day of socialising with our hosts and making future plans. 

5^th March 2013

We went with Steve and Terry on a trip to the small town of Molden and took a stroll around the town to take a few photos of the points of interest and moved on to Castlemaine to have some lunch and then walk the town.  On the return journey we called into Taradale to check out the railway trestle bridge before heading home via Kyneton where we had a quick look at another grey stone bridge.

 6^th March 2013

We packed all that we considered necessary to take with us to Garon and Sue’s, which almost filled the car and headed for Melbourne in the late afternoon and endured the frantic rush hour traffic getting through to Beaumaris.

7^th March 2013

We met with Merry’s surgeon and Radiation therapist at Murdoch hospital expecting to meet a team of ten but in fact a tea of fifteen had already discussed the situation and decided that radiation is the only option as the problem is a bit worse than first thought.  We are now waiting for an appointment for anMrI scan to get a better idea of what is going on.

8^th March 2013

We went out and bought a new computer for Merry as her current one is like us, getting old and slow, and generally becoming a painful experience, unlike us.  The idea being that we will be using a worthwhile fast computer for a devious little scheme (legal) that we are getting involved in with Richard.  

10^th March 2013

We drove out to Woodend to Steve and Terry’s again to collect some more of the caravan contents, and spent most of the day with them and Steve’s sister, another Sue.

12^th March 2013

We used the train to the Caulfield racetrack railway station and spent most of the day at the Caravan & Camping Show which is always dubious were we are concerned as it is difficult to leave without buying anything.  However, on this occasion it was at least something that should prove very useful, in the form of a TV antenna.  The caravan has a wind up antenna which we found to be only partially useful from a very early stage of our journey as it only receives horizontally transmitted signals.  When we got to Adelaide, some years ago, we bought another unit that fitted externally that can be rotated to receive a vertically transmitted signal.  Many of the country areas use the vertical signal.  When all else fails we use our satellite dish.  The new antenna is a retrofit unit to replace the roof mounted wind up antenna that can receive both transmission systems, which will replace the old horizontal bar.  Once we have proved it works to our satisfaction we will try to sell the additional external antenna which has to be removed each time we pack up.

15^th March 2013

The MRI scan appointment is not until next week, but Merry has had a blood test done as a prior requirement.  Now we just wait again, which we aren’t good at.