Losing a penpal/email-pal

 Hi there

I had been writing my friend in England for 58 years.  We started as young pen-pals, moved on to being email pals, and perhaps two or three times a year we rang each other.  We met once - I stayed with Irene when I visited England the year we both turned 60.  

 Together we'd gone through the psychedelic 60's, the angst of romance, middle age, hobbies that came and went, job restructures, retirement, our beloved pets, back aches, growing old....

I sent her an email a couple of months ago.  She didn't reply.  This wasn't like Irene; she usually answered me within a week.

I sent her another email about three weeks later.  No answer.  Maybe Irene was in hospital; she'd been talking about going in for an eye operation?

I sent her two more emails over the coming month.  Nothing.  Was her computer broken?

I phoned her three times.  Her phone number made a discontinued sound.   I wondered if she'd moved to a rest home, she'd had one or two falls lately.

We had never told each other our in-case-of-emergency contact.   I knew she had relatives in the area so I tried hunting them up.   I looked up obituaries.  At the same time, I searched Wellington souvenir shops for Irene's Christmas present....

I looked up Irene's name on the web.  I found a photo of her, taken a couple of years ago.  It was at a luncheon for a senior group. The photo was of her and a volunteer from that group.

So I emailed the group.

Within hours, I had a reply.

Irene had passed away two months before.  Her dogs were given to her relatives, her house cleared out, and nobody had let me know....

I was devastated.  I don't think I'll ever get over that I didn't know what had happened to my friend for all that length of time.  Someone should have got in touch with me-

But it's come home to me very clearly that both Irene and I are to blame.   We - well, older people, especially - we should be leaving a list of who, and when, and how to contact our friends, to let them know of our passing.

So, everyone out there, please-please-please leave contact addresses, email names, phone numbers in a prominent place, like on a hall table, or with your will, or by the phone, with instructions to please ring these people if something should happen to you. 

I am so sad that I didn't grieve for my friend at the time of her passing...

Life Into Death Into Life    -   by Myra Reeves

It was a broken bird,

Hurt wings folded, forgotten how to fly,

Lost the blue air, the beyond,

Grounded.

Twittering against the healing hold of kind hands,

The voice saying 'Be still',

Be at peace.

So it became at last.

Now they have opened wide

With what sweet grace!

The bird flew straight to the eye of heaven.

It is flying, flying, flying

Into unnameable joy................

R.I.P Irene.   Just you flap your wings like mad to get to that "unnameable joy", you hear me?!!  

See ya!

T

Roller Coaster zipline, Melbourne, Lorne area.

 Hi there

Here is the promised follow-up re the zipline ...

I went on a Roller Coaster Zipline when I went on my Lorne day trip from Melbourne, via www.amazingoceanroad.tours.   I loved it.  Thanks, Kel, for the pictures; you're the best tour guide ever.

Okay, the above three photos are out of order:

top photo:  I'm getting put into harness

middle photo: after the roller coaster zipline.  I'm on the tree walk

bottom photo:  just about to take off on the roller coaster zipline.  I don't look scared at all, do I?  Do I????

More of my Melbourne Holiday

 Hi there

Over a half-dozen years ago I went on a Melbourne day tour along The Great Ocean Road to see the Apostles rock formation.  I enjoyed it all, but it was a 12 hour trip and extremely tiring.  However, just about an hour out of Melbourne that tour bus shot through Lorne, a little seaside village that looked so inviting.  I always wanted to go back to Lorne. I even emailed the Lorne Visitor Information Office to see if there were any day trips from Melbourne city.  There weren't.

But a month ago, after digging through dozens and dozens and dozens of Viator's Melbourne tours , I discovered a day tour from Melbourne to Lorne.  I went for it.

This day tour was relaxing, with stops for wandering, and fun.  It was run by this lovely lady named Kel who grew up in the area around Lorne, so she knew everything about the area.  We stopped off in many places including beach areas, The Great Ocean Road sign, and Erskine Falls.  There was a lovely lighthouse view, rocky cliffs, rural vistas, dead or alive kangaroos - you know how we kiwis count dead possums on motorways?  I think it's what Australians do too, but with kangaroos.

In case, anyone is going to Melbourne, Kel can be reached at www.amazingoceanroad.tours.  Or from overseas, phone +61 481 771 485.  See her card above.

This Lorne day tour wasn't tiring. We got back to Melbourne at a reasonable time.  

The tour went a little way along The Great Ocean Road but very soon we veered off to visit a chocolaterie shop.

This chocolaerie was set on 15 acres of beautiful gardens and with a huge carpark.  The shop plus cafe plus factory gave out brunch, lunch, beautiful pastries, hot meals, cakes.   There was a beanery, and a chocolate workshop.  The complex was huge.  There were stands and stands and stands of all type of chocolate.  There were samplings of light chocolate, dark chocolate, and a new 'breed' of chocolate called Ruby. There was a Vegan chocolate stand that must have had dozens of vegan varieties.

I got myself a hot chocolate drink.  It came as white chocolate, with a little tub of Ruby liquid which I stirred into my chocolate -

above.  we stopped off at Erskine Falls.  One can walk right down to the bottom of the falls.

above:  our shuttle bus reached Lorne.  So lovely.  I adored walking along the beach.  I should have brought my togs and had a swim.  I had a nice wander through the seaside shops and cafes.

Or...

Instead of Lorne, there was the choice to go to a nearby zipline park.  I actually wanted to do both and begged to please-please-please can I just fit in one meagre little zipline, instead of all the different ziplines and adventure park doings that were being offered.

Yes!   I went on the Roller Coaster Zipline.  Now, my four readers will know that I've been on ziplines before, but they've just been in one straight line whooshing across something, or down to something...

This Roller Coaster Zipline zoomed up, down, over, under, around trees.  There were parts where the trees were so close to me that I was sure I was going to crash into them.  Wow, I loved everything to do with this zipline. I ya-hooed and hooray-ed all through the experience.   It really did feel like I was on a roller coaster.   (There may be some photos later on...)

above:  On the Lorne beach area, the cockatoo parrots were like our seagulls; dozens of them flapping around for food.  My goodness, cockatoos!  I couldn't believe it.  There were dozens of them.  I've only ever seen one cockatoo in my life and that was the Farmers Department Store parrot in Auckland , way back in the 1950's.  

I cannot emphasise enough how great I found this tour.

More (or not) of my Melbourne Trip

Hi there

Sorry, I can't seem to insert any photos, so you, my four readers, are going to have to wait with baited breath, until I can call my computer guy in to help me out (sigh).  What annoys me is that it's probably only some little button that needs to be pressed.  When I think that once upon a time, way back in my working days, I used to be good with computers.  But now....?    Grrrrhhhh.

  

I've been to Melbourne!

Hi there!

I returned from Melbourne about an hour ago.  This is a quick blog, there will be much (much) more later (poor you!). As my four readers will remember, I went over to Melbourne to see "Moulin Rouge - the musical".  Wow, what a spectacular show.  The dancing, the lights, the singing, the theatre, the chocolate dip icecream, the Moulin Rouge tote bag that i bought and really shouldn't have because everyone will think I went to the actual night club and not the musical..... 

above:  inside the auditorium of the theatre

Left: me, in the foyer of the theatre.  The screen behind me changed its picture every 30 seconds.  People who wanted to stand in front of the screen had to choose when to go for it. No dithering allowed.  The woman taking my picture snapped the camera a split second before the screen behind me changed its picture.

Sneezes and coughs

 Hi there

I've often wondered why I sneeze and cough more when I'm in two places:

1     the library

2     the bus

Once-upon-a-time I was a bridesmaid.  The bride, as she walked down the aisle, gave a delicate little sneeze - ch-ch...

When I sneeze, it's AHHH-TISH-OOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Dittto for coughing.  My friend goes:  cough, cough....

I go:  COUGH!!!!COUGH!!!!COUGH!!!!COUGH!!!!   COUGH!!!!COUGH!!!!   COUGH!(repeat at least 5 more times). 

Pre-covid, I hopped off many buses because fellow bus passengers stared at me in horror and shuffled in their seats while trying to blend in with the wall -  anything to keep away from me and the germs that I don't have.  Hayfever causes my sneezing, and the cough ....?  My doctor calls it an 'old lady cough"-  I've often wondered if he could have been more gracious and named it an "old person's cough"?

Librarians have never liked me either.  Is it the mustiness of books that causes me to cough and sneeze?  Who knows?

But after covid, everything's got so much worse.  I get glares from all around me.  Over and over again, I've stood up from my seat in the bus and all but screeched, "Hayfever, it's hayfever!"

Oh dear....

I got a black eye. But how....?

 Hi there

Two weeks ago I got a burst blood vessel in my eye and for some reason, I also ended up with a black eye.  My friends had the most hilarious time, making up reasons why I got it.  But, for the life of me, I can't fathom how the black eye happened.  

I did have a nightmare where I dreamed I was being attacked, and I woke up screaming and fighting.  Had I injured myself?  No, that was just too silly.....

I wondered if I should still be taking my Eye Clinic-prescribed eyedrops.  I went to a pharmacy at 9 am-

"Hello, I've got a burst blood vessel in my eye.  And a black eye.  I just want to know if I can still take my eyedrops?"  Easy-peasy for the pharmacist to answer, I figured.

"Um, better ring the Eye Clinic," said the pharmacist.

I rang the eye clinic.  "Someone will ring you back about it," a nurse said.

I waited.  And waited.  And waited for the phone call.  At 3 30 pm, I rang my doctor and got an appointment for 5 pm.

"Oh, I don't know about your eyedrops," said the doctor.  "I'll ring the eye clinic."

"It's Friday," I said.  "They close down early."

But she had the magic way to reach the on-call ophthalmologist.  "Take the eyedrops," the ophthalmologist said.

On Monday, I got a call from the Eye Clinic.  The nurse said, "I forgot to follow-up on your phone call to us.  Sorry." 

What a lot of trouble for such a teeny enquiry....

above:  Hataitai Beach area.  Because of my eye, I didn't swim for a week.  Pity, because the couple of days we've had lately without wind, rain, and storms were the days I burst the blood vessel.

H