OCTOBER 2019

With school holidays, the Melbourne grandchildren arrived by train to stay for a week. I took granddaughter to see the aboriginal batik art exhibition, but she spent most of the stay in her room, studying for her coming Year 12 exams.

By the Bendigo Art Gallery

Grandson enjoyed woodwork with John,  helping him build a little garden for my succulents, against a sunny side wall of the house.

A new garden bed

He also had to spend quite a bit of time with me, re-doing a Geography type assignment that his teacher had rejected. It was definitely a problem that he seemed to have little idea of the skills of research, collation and planning – don’t think his school is serving that one very well. He would like to do well, but doesn’t know how to do so.

At the same time, there was an element of karma that I found quietly amusing. The boy’s father had driven me to distraction when he was a student, always leaving work till the last minute, submitting any old thing and then doing poorly. Now father was so frustrated that his son was doing exactly the same thing. Welcome to my world…  The kid got an A for the resubmitted work. One of the few times I wished I was still in Melbourne – but then, doubted I’d have enough contact with the boy to make a real difference.

Son and wife drove up to collect the offspring. Enjoyed having them here to lunch.

Daughter’s partner and her sister went off to Vietnam on a cycling tour, for a couple of weeks. There are so many wonderfully adventurous holidays available these days.

More grandma obligations saw me attend three hockey finals games to watch oldest grandson play, in both Under 16 and Mens B Grade teams. It is not a game I comprehend, so I never know if all that running back and forth by grandson produces admirable outcomes. One of his teams was Runners Up. The impressive new Bendigo hockey grounds are in a bit of a frost hollow, I think. Maybe the suburb location – Garden Gully – is a clue? The Gully part…The last final, a morning one, saw me absolutely freezing for the duration. Went deaf in one ear, from the cold,  for 24 hours after – and then began knitting myself a big scarf and woollen gloves, in preparation for next season!

Bendigo Hockey Centre

At the end of the month, I came down with a really nasty flu type bug, unlike anything I’d ever had before.  Started as a tickly cough, then a massive headache developed, then generally feeling afflicted. Took to bed for a week – most unusual for me. The persistent cough was really annoying. At one stage wondered if I’d broken ribs coughing! Just about everyone in daughter’s family had it. I wondered if the travellers had brought back some bug from Vietnam? Whatever it was really wiped me out – was weeks before any sort of normal energy levels returned. It was an effort just to get out of bed every morning, let alone do normal things like gardening.

Just as I was seeing some signs of recovery, John went down with it. In his case a chest infection ensued and he needed medication. He too took ages to fully recover.

Springtime sunset