Proud Grandad with new baby Heath
Eldest grandson Blayke with his parents, aunt, uncle and Grandad
Murray with sister Carmel and Talia
Scott & Monica
Jan & I
Murray with Kent & Gwen
These look good enough to eat - clever craft
Baby chicks in the nest
My Aunt Dympna with 100 yr Ms Meador last year
We had no sooner got over the excitement of Murray's 60th when we flew to Melbourne for a week to meet new grandson Heath Dylan. He is simply adorable and doesn't seem to be giving his mum & dad too much grief. It was also a fabulous opportunity to re-connect and spend some times with 3 yr old (almost) grandson Blayke as well as Murray's 3 kids & their spouses, his sister and her daughter, and his sister in law. The weather was very pleasant and a motel room and a local hire car gave us the flexibility to get out & around and catch up with several friends.
We had a delightful lunch catching up with a colleague of mine and his wife Monica. Scott & I were on a senior RAAF Officer course for 12 months back in 1999, and it was fun dredging up the names and highjinks from the course. Another colleague (Pam) from my health intelligence days was home with her husband Dennis, and we had a pleasant morning tea and exchanged web sites and book titles. Jan, a girlfriend from before my youngest was born (we used to take our kids to the same playgroup 28 years ago) met us with her husband Mark for a delightful afternoon tea in a Victorian country town. Ross, a colleague from my RAAF nursing days lives in Melbourne with his wife Joe-anne, and we catch up with them regularly, but it was so good to see them and hear their stories of recent retirement and the fun they had in their recent travels in the USA. They loved it so much they are going back again - we understand each others' pleasure in travelling through that country. We had so much in common to talk about that we arranged a second dinner together. The first dinner with them was a delicious roast lamb meal in their home, and the second dinner was at a local Thai restaurant - you need a booking to get in any day of the week. Last but not least was a very pleasant afternoon tea with Kent, a colleague of Murray's from his early days in the RAAF 38 years ago. His wife Gwen is very clever with crafts - see her crafted patty cakes - they look so real - all knots were hand made and all beads sewn on one by one. They had a nest of 3 baby Willy Wagtails in their annex - the mother & father bird kept a close eye on their chicks.
We returned to Ballina in time to celebrate the 95th birthday of a family friend. What an amazing achievement. It reminds us of other friends who have reached impressive milestones too...Martha in Florida who recently turned 80 and Joe Bill's mum, Ms Meador, from Arkansas who turns 102 this coming January - she still drives herself into town every day to attend an activity group, and she was filmed playing the organ for a newspaper article several weeks ago. On that high note, I'll sign off till next entry.
