A hectare of olives were planted and the preliminary ploughing was almost completed for the Spring plantings. Alan woke one morning to find his small umbilical hernia which he had managed to ignore was painful but managed to finish the ploughing that day before ringing his favourite surgeon (priorities must be right when you are on the land). By the next evening the hernia was gone and a piece of mesh replaced it to ensure there would be no recurrence. Unfortunately, his favourite surgeon (Vlad Humenuik) lives in Adelaide but Vlad and Pam did a great job both from a surgical and hospitality point of view as usual.
Then in mid May we were driving down the Hume Hwy to Melbourne in separate cars when a car came out from a small side street on the left without seeing Ann in the Peugeot Station Wagon. Although she hit the brakes, there was not time to stop and the impact was amazing.Unfortunately the airbag didn't open and now she has a subluxation of C5 probably due to a damaged interspinous ligament for the medically inclined or a "crook neck" for the others. As she is lucky to be alive, she is not complaining too much but had to go to Greece with a hard collar. (Update end of June: neck almost OK). Many thanks to "Saba" for stocking a wide range of sleeveless poloneck jumpers at the beginning of winter --she bought the whole range!!! Our rule of never driving one behind the other in case of an accident, finally paid off. Alan was at least a kilometre behind, saw the accident and recognised the car, and was able to help, rather than also being involved.
The week in Lesvos staying in the Krallis house at Molyvos was great as usual. Ann is sure that Retsina is a cure for crook necks. There was plenty of rest, a little exploring, and of course plentiful Retsina, sardines and Greek coffee. There was also plenty of inspections of olive groves and discussions with local growers.
Athens is looking wonderful already, especially the Metro stations which are like museums. The new airport is open and very functional although not exciting like the Metro. There was a frenzy of building and roadmaking in the Plaka area near our favourite hotel (Electra Palace) and the route we walk to the Acropolis. It should be fantastic for the games.
The conference in Corfu was excellent. We found Corfu very expensive compared with Lesvos, and not as attractive, although there are very interesting areas. Dr Richard Smallwood described the doctor he would like to have attend him if he was wheeled into the Emergency Department and Ann was pleased to be able to report that she had a doctor fitting that description (Dr Ros Terry) at the Alfred Hospital!
The dogs also had a wonderful holiday. Pirra and Lonnegan went to kennels where, because it was a quiet period, were given the run of the kennels. Livingstone went to temporary dog heaven --to stay with Sue Forrester and Bill Molyneux and six other Airedales. Sue and Bill have recently had a book about real Airedale heaven published called Emma's Journey. Livingstone was allowed to potter around the billabong for as long as he liked --far better than having supervised walks at home. He has shamed us into getting better fencing so he can do the same at home.
More photos
Photos of Bill and Sue's Airedales visiting ours.
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February was a sad month as Alan's Dad, Ivan died aged 88. He had been so happy to reach his 60th Wedding Anniversary last year and after that, every week was a bonus.
March has been busy with more olives being planted. It also saw the arrival of another Alpaca, Ha'unui.
Photos
We had an early "Wise" Christmas lunch in Queensland, the first Sunday in December. Photos
The Alpacas then became top priority as the hot weather was obviously worrying them and they voluntarily came up from their distant paddock to the "dogs" paddock near the house and spent most of their time cooling down in the dam. A shearer was finally found, but in the process of enquiring about local shearers, 2 cute young Alpaca wethers seen and subsequently bought, from the local Alpaca Stud. The 4 Alpacas get on fine and young "Pancho" almost fed out of our hands today after just one week. Zorro is still a bit scared. After shearing we ended up with 4 bags of fleece and 4 skinny and grateful Alpacas. Photos
The highlight of November was sharing the celebration of John Pearce's 60th at the Melbourne Cup. His family shouted him a trip from the USA for the occasion. A great day was had by all. We also enjoyed the Cup Eve dinner with the Pearce family at "Arriverderci".
The rain has continued making it difficult to work on our property but also difficult to get in and out for paid work. The Peugeot 405 managed to wade through half a metre of water one morning but refused to try the 0.8 then 1metre levels that followed that afternoon and a few days later, as the Fjord at the end of the road flooded. It also managed to squeeze under a fallen tree with a bit of minor damage to the roof rack.
In October we managed to have a few days at Highland Waters (Tassie). Although the dogs had never been there, they immediately knew it was their house and had great fun exploring around the lake.
We were very pleased to have Rossa from HK stay with us at the end of Sept when she came to finalise her Aussie medical registration.
Dad suffered a major stroke early in June and was not expected to live, but although unconscious, is still hanging on.
The good news for the month is that one of my first group of HK Medical students passed their final exams and are now doctors. Thank you to Terence Lee Chi Kee for sending me a photo
At the end of June we went to a Radiology conference in Penang for a week and a few days at each end. photos
Last week the Alpacas, Benjie and Rupert arrived. They are 8 years old. Rupert will feed from our hands but Benjie won't yet. He is probably missing his previous human Mum. Benjie and Livingstone touched noses though. Pirra hasn't been formally introduced yet (as he is such a larrikan and we will wait until they are totally comfortable with Livingstone). In a few days we will let Lonnegan meet them. It will be good to have him used to them from babyhood.
We have had our first snow for the season. We had planned a BBQ dinner, but it was very difficult to get the BBQ going in the cold.
Alan is enjoying fresh mushrooms for breakfast which he picks when we give the dogs their morning walk. We also have some very attractive toadstools this month (see Lonnegan's photos)
Our cultural highlight of the month was the Andalusian Opera, Carmen, which is touring Aus at present.
The tennis court is coming on slowly --the rock wall subcontracters being particularly recalcitrant and messy. We have to park the car 50 metres from the house as they have totally churned up our driveway!! photos
Father Christmas has been most generous this year and has brought us many toys, such as mini tractor, chain saw and fire fighting equipment. This has enabled Alan to keep the grass down around the house (we haven't seen the snake again) and keep us supplied with wood for the wood heater. Despite it being summer and generally warm during the day, the nights are cold and most nights we have a fire. Another toy is the telescope so that we can watch the animals more closely. Our resident ducks, (small variety) have had a baby so we hope to see a bit more of it this weekend. The wombat continues to have his drink from the dam each night despite a lot of the bracken around the dam being mown.
The baby 205 Peugeot from HK is finally in operation and the dogs are happy to have their topless car back.
photos
In November we went to the Melbourne Cup with Fiona, one of our many Aussie friends who dog sat in HK.
The house at Tallarook was finally completed and we moved in bit by bit, shuffling furniture so the floor could be sanded. One weekend the resident brown snake greeted us on the front door steps, so that soon ended the dogs chance of having a small run built outside the house. They are restricted to the decks and their hopefully snake free paddock which is kept mown. Alan hired a slasher to clean up around the house so we can walk down to the dam without too much risk. Usually we see the brown snake in November, so we hope we don't see him again this season. Our more congenial visitors are a wombat most evenings, wallabies, and numerous birds including cockies, kookaburras, a cormorant, blue wrens and of course the striking local crimson rosella.
The house which was being built in Melbourne, was transported up to Tallarook (100km north of Melbourne) the last week in September. It should be ready early October.