That's right folks! More than a month has passed since my last blog entry, but I have made it at last. At the end of the previous blog I mentioned that the next morning I was going to get in line to buy the new iPhone 5. I can happily report that when my aunt Dympna and her friend Margaret and I arrived at the Telstra store in Lismore around 7.20am (they opened at 8am) there were only 12 people in front of us. The photo above was taken inside the Telstra shop with our salesperson - we are each holding our new phones. We had a great time - while we were waiting, Telstra kindly gave us a voucher for a free coffee from a cafe next door, and so it was skinny flat whites all around. They were good too!
After a few cloudy days at home, we realised we were needing to turn the kitchen light on during the day to have enough light to cook by - I like a lot of light. In an effort to kept our electricity bill under the radar, we decided to have a skylight installed. Take a look at the before and after photos. We are very happy with the outcome. I'm sure you will agree that it was a very worthwhile addition.
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| Kitchen before skylight |
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| Kitchen after skylight |
Once the dust settled after arriving back home from America, we were keen to go to Melbourne and meet Murray's new grandson Dane, and catch up with his kids and the other two grandsons Blayke and Heath (see family pic below). We stayed with friends Jo and Ross, and had a nice lunch with Pam and Denis. Both couples have retired in recent years like us, and it is interesting to hear their experiences and travel stories. Murray drove over to Melbourne as he wanted to catch up with friends in Sydney and give his golf clubs a work-out on the way there and back, but I flew over and back and Murray did the Melbourne airport pick up and delivery for me.
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| L-R: Adrian with Blayke, Jeremy with Dane, Stephanie, and Murray with Heath |
Two girlfriends Jenny & Leonie came to stay for a weekend while Murray was golfing in Sydney en route home from Melbourne. Our mutual friend Sharyn came down to join us for lunch, and my younger sister Ret also came to catch up as Jenny, Ret & I nursed together in the early 1970's. While they were visiting, we had morning tea at a Tea-Tree plantation where my eldest sister and aunt joined us. We got a nice photo of us three sisters (Gem, me and Ret) out in the garden.
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| Here we are L-R: Leonie, Jenny, Ret, Trish. Having scones on my back patio. |
The weekend after the girls left, Ret and I flew to Sydney to look after her youngest grandson Jethro who is eighteen months old. He was a delight to be around and we had a very pleasant weekend. My son Benn and his girlfriend Daina met Ret and I at Sydney airport and drove us to my nephew Peter and his wife Sam's home and they stayed to have a tasty BBQ dinner with us that night. They left at one-thirty am - yes, it was a enjoyable night! The photo below shows the patio area where we spent the evening.
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| L-R: Peter, Benn, Daina, Jethro, Ret (Sam in kitchen inside) |
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| Ret on Grandma bathing duty with Jethro. |
Murray and I recently had the opportunity to attend our first ever book launch. I mentioned the author Eva Bennett in a blog some years back, after reading the first book she wrote titled 'So What Do We Do Now' about babyboomers retirement issues. Since buying her first book, Eva and I have met a few times and email each other from time to time. Her second book 'As Time Goes By' looks at relationships, redundancy and retirement. Like her first book, I am finding this latest book very easy to read and very pertinent to issues facing all age groups today. It is also very current with several references to athletes who competed in this year's Olympics. At only $20 (includes postage and handling) a copy, it is a worthwhile purchase. The details are on her website which you can access by clicking on the book title above. Personally, I would also recommend anyone considering retirement to also purchase her first book as well. The book launch was held in Kingscliff, about an hour north of our home, and in a stunning location overlooking the ocean. For the duration of the launch I had Eva's camera and I was so busy taking photos with her camera for her, that I never took one of her with my iPhone. So as a last resort, I asked Murray to take one of me with Eva's new book, and I wanted to share the lovely view with you as well. To the left of the photo is a caravan park that is in a prime location just a few feet from the sand and rolling surf. How I would love to pull our RV into that spot for a week or two!
