Ballina Decision

My new great-niece Erin Valerie Anzin

Catching up with friend Caren and her mother Shirl

Our Gold Coast home for sale...

Hard to believe it is already one month since my last entry. So much has happened, not least of which was a scare my younger sister gave us all recently. She went in for day surgery and as she was coming out of the anaesthetic she had all the signs of a heart attack. Her pulse dropped below 30, she had ectopic ventricular beats and they had trouble getting her blood pressure above 60/45 so kept her in intensive care for 4 days. Her cardiologist and anaesthetist remain baffled. They have searched the internet and talked to their colleagues but no one has experienced anything like what occurred. Thankfully she seems fine now, and her angiogram shows a healthy heart. Hmmm...

Just before the drama with my sister, we had come to the conclusion to finally buy our own place here in Ballina. Our stay here last year was to get a feel for the place and see if it was where we wanted to have our base home during the years of our retirement. We really enjoy the location and the lifestyle, and the people are very friendly - including my sister, brother-in-law and aunt who live here! Now our task is to sell our house on the Gold Coast to have the funds to purchase the new abode. Meanwhile, we are soaking up the local real estate scene, attending open houses, arranging inspections and observing house auctions. Our house goes on the market in late December after the tenants vacate and we get the outside painted. We hope Jan/Feb sees some good offers come in.

Once we made the decision to settle here, I decided it was time for me to join the Ballina community. I enrolled at U3A (University of the 3rd Age - the first being childhood, the second raising a family and having a career, and the 3rd being after the kids have left home and you have finished full time work). You pay an annual fee ($30) and during each school term they hold free classes for a range of activities and learning including but not limited to yoga, table tennis, computer studies, spanish, french, mahjong, cryptic crosswords, art appreciation, book writing, etc etc. I signed up for yoga and table tennis and put my name down as a volunteer for 3 sessions of wrapping Christmas parcels for shoppers in the mall in the week leading up to Christmas. They pay a donation which goes towards U3A funding. Murray already has his fishing plus he helps out at the food kitchen once a week. He has made enquiries about cricket umpiring and he attends his first meeting with them in a few weeks. Meanwhile, the local cricket team was short a player and roped him in to play with them last Saturday. The next day he paid for his field activities and was quite sore all over. He wonders if he really needed to dive for the ball like he did!

As we have been very busy since our return, I try and gain a little balance by attending a weekly meditation session run by my aunt. I walk down to the school on Saturday morning (where the session is held), and 40 mins later walk back home refreshed. One aspect of Ballina that I really like (apart from the beautiful river and the sea) is being able to walk to most of my popular places.

I have just got back from my morning walk with my aunt. She walks down to meet me at 6.30am Mon, Wed and Fri and then I walk her back and return home. All up it is a 45 min walk. The sun was already high in the sky at 6.30am and it was 20 C (68F) going for a high of 32C (90F). I rang my girlfriend Sue in Alice Springs (central Australia) yesterday and she had been working outside in 40 C (104F) and wondered why she was feeling hot! Sort of creeps up on you.

On Sunday Murray & I went to see the movie 'Mao's Last Dancer'. A true story of a Chinese peasant who became a world famous male ballerina. He now lives in Melbourne, Australia with his Australian ex-ballerina wife. Yesterday I was chatting with another girlfriend who lives near Bundaberg, Queensland and I was telling her I had seen the movie. It turns out her sister used to dance with Mary, the Australian wife of the Chinese dancer. Not only that, but my friend's mother used to sew Mary's dancing costumes in the early days when she was still at school! What a small world!

Last week a girlfriend of mine bought her mother to stay in the motel across the road from us. It was nice to just be able to walk across the road and spend time with them. The four of us went to the local RSL for lunch which was very pleasant too. The motel gets a lot of business from our family & friends dropping in to say hello, so the owner gives our visitors a 10% discount. Plus she make me a fresh cappuccino when I drop in, and we have a natter a couple of times a week. On Sunday she wandered down the road with me to check out 2 houses that had an open inspection. One was priced at $900,000 and the other $720,000. A bit out of my price range!

My niece Rosie in Darwin (who I stayed with on my recent trip) had her third daughter on 30th November. Her & Mark named the latest arrival Erin Valerie. She is a cutie as you can see from her photo above.

My kids have been doing interesting things. My eldest son celebrated his recent birthday in Vietnam with his girlfriend, and my daughter moved from Canada to start work at the University of Copenhagen. My youngest son is in Darwin and caught up with my sister who is up there visiting, and is preparing to head south on 19 Dec to join his grandfather, aunt and cousins for Christmas. Sheesh, my kids lead a very grand life compared to mine at the same age!