Val’s Comments (group member since Aug 28, 2019)

Val’s comments from the Beyond Zon group.

I was back at the doctor's today having been feeling a bit below par for the last couple of weeks. I was fully expecting she would send me off for tests and/or x-rays but she said "Stop taking the pills I prescribed three weeks ago and let's see if that makes a difference." I'm all in favour of simple solutions! Fingers crossed I'm feeling better by the time I see her again in a fortnight.

Isn't the news grim? Ours divides between the desperate situation in Ukraine and the awful floods in Queensland and New South Wales. The Wilson River in the city of Lismore rose by 14.4 meters. Can you imagine?

P - I would second Isabella's and Q's verdicts on cataract ops. The thought of anyone coming near my eyes freaks me out but my op was very quick, completely painless and I don't remember a thing - and that's with a very light anaesthetic. I haven't needed glasses for anything for two and a half years now. Best decision I ever made!

Isabella wrote: "Did a couple of hours in the garden, planted out some periwinkle and repotted some hebe cuttings before it got too cold.

The shredder I ordered turned out to be a 'wash and cure machine', whatever..."

I'd be lost without my shredder. It gets used every day. And the resulting shreds go in the compost - win-win!

It's been a busy week. Saturday I was at the Melbourne Theatre Company's production of "Fun Home". It won 5 Tony Awards in 2015 including Best Musical and Best Score. It's the true story of cartoonist Alison Bechdel and relates how (c. 1980?) she came out as gay, almost simultaneously discovering her father was gay, and then his suicide four months later. Which sounds very grim but it is a fabulous musical. "Fun Home" refers to the fact that the family business was a funeral home. The cast, the songs, everything was perfect.. It's had rave reviews here and my daughter and I were very teary by the end. Interesting that there were three children on stage at all times (all super talented) and, likewise, in last night's performance of The Who's Tommy, there were three youngsters - Tommy at ages 4, 10 and 19-21. Again, a fantastic night's entertainment. The cast, the singing, the costumes, the wigs (1958 teddy boys in drape coats and elaborate quiffs) and not forgetting the 8 piece band on stage - all were excellent. I didn't realise the chronology - the album 1969, the film 1975, and then the stage show 1992. The critics here have mainly given it 3 or 3 and a half stars, mainly because they feel the story doesn't convince in the way Ken Russell's film did. They feel the ending (which is a bit different to the film) is a bit wishy-washy. But they did extol the cast, the costumes and the musicians. The audience loved it. There was a woman in the row in front of us who was singing and dancing along to every number. Normally that would have annoyed me but it was impossible not to love her sheer joie de vivre about the whole thing. Great night - masks and all!

P wrote: "Nothing wrong with pen and paper, or a landline or even a calendar you can write appointments on😊...."

My daughter keeps telling me about this app she uses for Christmas presents - she records what she's bought and who it's for. I tell her my single sheet of A4 paper does the job for me. I divide it into 4 with a pen and ruler. On one side birthdays for the 4 grandkids, on the other Christmas presents. However now No. 5 has arrived and No. 6 is on the way, I shall have to divide it into 6. I like to be able to see everything at a glance. And I can keep the sheets to see what I gave last year.

I also keep a large month by month calendar in the kitchen and my 2 year pocket diary (Colplan) goes everywhere with me in my bag.

Isabella wrote: "I think I prefer using pen and paper for puzzles like crosswords and especially killer sudoku as I can make notes as I work through. I'm getting too old to keep proper track of things in my head any more. 🙁..."

I open a Notepad page on the computer and make notes when doing Quordle. For each square I write something like:

P A R ? ?

_ R _ _ _

No way could I do it in my head.

I've just been watching the BBC World News. Winds of up to 90mph!!! I hope you have secured everything outside and that you're all tucked up safely indoors. Let's hope you don't get trees down and power interruptions. Got your torch batteries and candles ready? Good luck everyone!

Isabella wrote: "It's been wet but cleared enough for me to dig out a fair-sized laurel that was insinuating itself into the hydrangea. So far this week, in spite of the wet, I've pulled up several dozen laurel see..."

That's no mean feat Isabella! Laurels seem to enjoy making life difficult. I'm glad the rain has made the task a bit easier. We haven't used the drip feeder hoses on the beds in our front garden much this summer. Consequently they are very dry and the plants are looking half dead. This suits my purpose as I'm hoping the African daisies and gone-to-seed parsley will be easy to pull out so I can put some ground-cover-type plants in there. Both the daisies and parsley will self seed anyway and they're definitely finished for this year so no great loss. I also need to hack a cistus bush back very hard.

It was a lovely day here today (24 degrees) and tomorrow we have a forecast of 27 degrees with the possibility of showers later. Can't complain. The cooler weather saw Mr H out with the lawn mower in the back garden. Later he touched up both the bathroom and kitchen ceilings with a lick of paint. I was doing all the usual stuff - washing out, drying in, dishes, etc. I did have one bit of luck today. Late last year I had a picture frame lying about, one of those collage-type ones with room for five photos. I had filled three of them with 1950s black and white photos of Mr H and myself as children but then I couldn't lay my hands on the photos I wanted to fill the other two spots. Those miraculously turned up last week in the most unlikely spot, one I would never have thought to look in. But then I couldn't find the frame. It had been sitting on a bed in a guest room but then when guests came to stay I had tidied it away. I turned the guest room upside down, raking through wardrobes and drawers without success. Then I had the bright idea of looking in a cupboard where I store many old photographs, and there it was! So now I have married the photos with the frame and it's all ready to hang. Except that we did a blitz on picture hanging last week and I don't think Mr H. is going to be too impressed getting out the drill, measuring tape, hooks, etc just for one. I'm sure he'll come round. Tomorrow we're looking after Number 1 grandson. He's just turned 5 and started school three weeks ago. For all of February, the Preps (maybe what you call Reception?) only attend on 4 days with each Wednesday off so my daughter will drop him off late morning and he will spend the afternoon here. I have a range of activities organised including potting up some cuttings, making knickerbocker glories, reading some old favourite picture books, etc. What's the betting he'll want to do something else?

It's still warm here but at least the nights are a bit more bearable. This morning I was checking on the tomatoes, which I grew from seed and had lovely fruit on but not quite ripe, and what do I find? Well, hardly anything! There was half of a large tomato, chewed away from underneath. I took a photo to ask friends - rats, possums, fruit bats were the suggestions. I had to go out and when I returned a couple of hours later, the top half was gone too! The fact that the remaining tomato had been eaten from below seemed more likely to be rats than anything else. We had chicken wire around them but have reinforced that with a finer gauge wire and have also thrown a net over the lot of them but I think the horse has bolted and, if it is rats, then I don't think any of our measures will help. I don't want to use any bait because I don't want to hurt any possums or bats. But I do hate rats! I doubt we're going to have any tomatoes this summer/autumn.

Hi Duke, thanks for popping by to keep us in the loop re your treatment. It all sounds a bit hairy but what else can be done? We have to put our faith in the professionals and trust they know what's best for us and have our best interests at heart. I join the others in wishing you all the best for the op and a quick bounce back from that before you start on the chemo and radiation roundabout. The workshop will be waiting for you and you'll have plenty of time for planning the work remaining. Keep fighting the good fight and we're all looking forward to hearing how you're going. Best wishes to you and your Mum.

Thanks P. A couple of bottles of soda water would be good. And maybe a packet of salad greens - baby spinach and rocket? That should do me for now.

P wrote: "Not sleeping too well at night folks and Mrs P thinks it’s because i’m using the tablet a short while before going to bed so…i’m trying it out tonight and will be saying goodnight a little earlier...."

Good luck P. It'll be interesting to see if you get some benefit.

Isabella wrote: "Well done Jakara! 🥇(Simple solidarity, Val - I don't even know what a mogul is 😕 - apart from an empire in the dim and distant ...)"

I don't understand half the events at any Olympics but I can describe what I saw in the "moguls". You go headfirst down a mountain with your legs close together and your knees bent. The mountain consists of hundreds of snow domes which you have to twist in and out of at speed (each descent was under 30 seconds) similar to a bending event at a pony club, except the mounds were very close together. There are also two jumps in which you have to do a twisting back flip, as high as you can, while crossing your skis in an X shape behind your back. Some of these movements were referred to as "cork 720 mute" and "backflip mute" - no, I have no idea either. Nor do I know what "snowboard slopestyle" is but Australia won a bronze medal in that. Watching the moguls, I felt my knees were becoming arhtritic.

Moguls:

Well done Jakara! Gold medal.

Gee, the tension is really ramping up. Jakara has qualified first in the Super Final. Six women left, two Americans, one each from France, Russia, Japan and Australia.

Watching the Winter Olympics, not because I have any particular interest, but the niece of a good friend of mine has qualified first in the second final of the women's moguls. Go Jakara Anthony!

It was a beautiful day here today (26 degrees) but thankfully the evenings are a bit cooler this week. Today I went to see my first play of the year - Touching The Void - about the perils of mountaineering (in the Andes in this case). The set was amazing and must have been very challenging for the actors. Fortunately I hadn't read the book or seen the documentary that the play is based on otherwise I might not have enjoyed it as much. Not knowing how things turned out in real life meant the tension was very real for me. The city was still quieter than a normal pre-Covid Saturday although the National Gallery seemed to be doing good business (a Chanel exhibition is drawing the crowds). The theatre was about two thirds full. No interval, masks on throughout, no bars open, and all vaccination status checked at the door. One older gent was having a major barney at the entrance because he either couldn't or wouldn't show proof of vaccination. He felt having a ticket meant he was entitled to see the show. But the policy has been in place for at least the last 12 months for all government buildings and as the Melbourne Theatre Company's various venues come under the Ministry of the Arts, there really was no excuse for him not to know, especially as he claimed he had been attending for the last 10 years.

P wrote: "the joy of getting old includes being used as a pin cushion..."

My 5 year old grandson had his first Covid jab today at a local chemist's. He was really looking forward to it as he wants to fight the virus (I think he has visions of taking on a dragon or something). All went well as the professionals are so good about dealing with children. My daughter tells me the chemist had this nifty plastic device with lots of little spikes. He explained it perks up the nervous system in the skin and thus confuses the pain receptors when the real needle goes in. Now she just has to ask the chemist if he can use it on her wus of a husband when he goes for his booster shot (A has a phobia about needles!).