20th March 2013
We have now heard that Merry has an appointment at Peter Mac
Hospital on 26th 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.
21st 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.
22nd 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.
24th 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.
25th 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.
26th 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.
27th 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.
28th 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.
29th 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.
30th 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.
31st 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.
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