Ladies and Gentlemen (who lunch)

It has been a very social week.  Last Sunday 30 September Larissa, Julie (ET), Emmy and I lunched at the London Club in Teneriffe.  We had a great time and I learnt how difficult it is it wheel a wheelchair out of a taxi when it is on a hill - by 'difficult' I mean terrifying!  We adjourned to the deck of the hospital to continue the scrabble until Larissa had to leave to catch her plane.  Sam also stopped by with some lime and coconut cupcakes for afternoon tea.  Delicious!

The last 3 scrabble games went to me for which thanks is due to Emmy for her excellent tile picking :-)

Val and I sneaked a game in on Monday afternoon before putting the scrabble aside until Friday.

Margie and Ralph (Swiss) arrived bright and early on Tuesday morning with coffee to help me through physio.  Ralph was volunteered to act as my "punching" bag: he had to hold his hand at arms length in front of me and I had to try and hit it.  Very tiring work: he had no cause to say "ouch" at any time.  Apparently my career will not be as a boxer.  In the afternoon Ralph was seconded to the Dockside apartment for IT assistance: he fixed the printer so Ron  is out of a free trip to Brisbane. 

On Tuesday evening Margie and Ralph introduced me to a new puzzle which is called "Kakuro". Highly addictive, a whole hour passed without our noticing, I recommend it to all puzzlers.

On Wednesday we went to lunch at the excellent Sono at Portside.  Val and I were joined by Margie and Ralph, Christine Baulch, Julie (ET) and Celeste.  We found time for a spot of shopping after lunch and rewarded ourselves with a late afternoon tea at Max Brenner.  More Kakuro puzzles finished off the evening.

Thursday was Margie and Ralph's last day.  We lunched at Cafe Essence and made it back in time for OT at 1:30.  Margie was volunteered to act as bed tester so I hope Darrel approves of her choice of mattress!  We also spent nearly two hours getting the power chair scripted; sadly now that this is done they will take my current chair away from me on Tuesday.  I am considering bribing the rep for me to keep the chair until my new one is delivered: or perhaps chaining myself to the chair like an environmentalist tree hugger.....

I received a call from Darrel on Friday morning with bad news.  None of the airlines could find his reservation, the booking must not have gone through as planned.  As it was the last weekend of school holidays, it was way too expensive to find new flights.  This disappointment has had a silver lining in that he was able to fix the air conditioner at my place (again!) before holiday guests arrived.  Thank you again Darrel (smooches) I can't wait to see you again soon.

I had my third hydrotherapy session on Friday afternoon.  It is hard work but still my favorite part of physio.

As tuckered out as I was, I managed to prove that I am able to turn a power switch on and off without needing assistance.  As my future power chair will be able to go up and down, this means there is no need for any major changes to the wiring in the Dalgety Apartment.

EV stopped by for a game of scrabble late in the afternoon on Friday, having cycled from Annerley.  This gave us a wonderful excuse to eat chocolates.  I chickened out of playing the word Homager (it's good); I had also chickened out of playing "derivate" against Val earlier in the week", also good :-(   This place is making me lose my 'mojo'!)

We celebrated Helen Maurus's 30th birthday with her and Shane at Sardine Tin and then Movenpick.  I think Shane was relieved we left the scrabble board at the hospital :-). It was great to catch up with them both.  Val predicts wedding bells ;-)

Recently the Hospital has been delivering meals to patients bedsides while the dining room is being renovated.  Most of mine have of course been returned u eaten, particularly with all my eating out.  This prompted a visit by the dietitian who was concerned I wasn't eating, I should have simply directed her to this blog :-)

One of the nurses informed me this morning that Anita and Geoff were here to visit me.  Of course this turned out to be Geetha and Jack from Perth, so now I have another lunch date tomorrow:-)  In the meantime our apologies for worrying Sue about whether daughter Anita was at Tinaroo or in Brisbane!

Belated congratulations to my darling niece Cali for her great success in this year's Townsville Eisteddfod.  Loved the photos!

Thanks again to everyone for all their  love and support. xxx Julie