Wednesday 28th September 2011

These last few days have been a bit of a blur with so much happening.

Following all the rain of last Sunday we had a nice evening at the club at the Dinner Dance that was held regardless of the golf wash out.  We had over five inches of rain these last few days but the golf course managed to recover very well and fortunately in time for the Ladies Foursomes Championships on Tuesday.

Monday 26th September 2011 we were up early for F-Troop.  We were unable to get out on the course so managed to get a lot of work done at the front gardens & I got some plants out of my backyard and into garden areas at the club.   Shane has been doing a lot of hard work on setting up my new computer so I have been spending a lot of time getting my email address book sorted and contact details for my iPhone..  Monday night we went over to the club to witness the voting count for the new incoming club directors.  Peter was re-elected as Vice President unopposed and the two other directors were returned to their positions which was a good outcome.

Tuesday 27th September 2011 I was at the club by 8 o'clock to hit off in the Ladies Foursomes Championships.  My partner was Rosemary Cohen who I have played with in these Championships for quite a few years.  We played with Susan Bourne and Pam Witt and they were great company.  We had some good highlights (and some low lights) but we all played well enough to win a ball.  We had to play 27 holes which was long enough for me.  The Div 1 players had to play 36 holes.   It was a long day but a nice day.  I did not get home until after 4 o'clock to be able to process my photos for the golfer's blog so it was a big rush to get back to the club by 6.30pm to attend the Club AGM.  We did not have time to have dinner so after the meeting Col, Mark & Anne came home for a coffee & snack & we ended up having a very late night with Col staying over as it was too late to drive home.  

Wednesday 28th September 2011 (today) Peter went to golf so I decided that I would have some retail therapy at Erina Fair.  I need to get myself organised for our China trip now.  I managed to get some new golf shorts and 3/4's, some summer tops, my medications and a few other things that I needed for the trip.  I had a phone call from the suppliers of my replacement laptop and they told me that they were going to upgrade the computer because the old one was not in stock.  That was good news as it will not cost me anything.  I only hope that it gets here in time for me to set it up before we go overseas.  The weather has changed for the worse again and we had more rain throughout the day with a forecast of more rain in the next few days.

I am really enjoying my iPhone with all the great applications I can get.  The camera function is good and easy to use and transfer.  The video of Joel swimming (last post) was taken on my iPhone.  I have set up all of my email accounts into the iPhone so that I can access my emails at any time and am in the process of sorting my address book so that I can send out my new email address to all of my contacts.  It is just so wonderful to have fast Internet & efficient IT products to make m life easier.  I am a real gadget person & am having a great time discovering what I can do with my new toys.   Finding enough time in the day is a problem.    

Sunday 25th September 2011

Video of Joel at swimming lessons: click on the arrow to play.

The last few days have been hectic with my new computer being installed, playing with my new iPhone and having some quality time with Joel & Emily.

Thursday 22nd September 2011 I was over at the golf club to collect some donated plants & then met up with Anne, Joel & Emily to have some shopping time at Erina & to take Joel to the play centre for a while.
Joel was tired and behaved badly while Anne was trying to get him some new shoes.  A short time in the play centre settled him down & then a stint in the toy shop where I was able to get a present for him for Christmas that I knew he wanted.  Emily was well behaved and slept through most of the morning.
After lunch Shane came around to install my new computer which was very exciting as I can now have plenty of speed and new technology to move the process along.

Friday 23rd September 2011 I was at the hairdressers at 9 0'clock for a bit of "me" time.  I have changed hairdressers as my old one moved out of town so I am going to West Gosford for convenience.  Kath is my new hairdresser and has done a good job of my colour & cut.  Shane came over in the afternoon & we sorted out a few more things & Sam helped me with my iPhone settings.   Peter had gone to the Hunter Vally for a game of golf & got back just in time for us to go t0 the golf club for dinner prior going to the Laycock Theatre to see Louise Stimpson performing in her Annual Concert which is on each year to give disabled people an outlet for their talents.  The show was very entertaining & the supporting crew did a great job putting it together.  I look forward to this show every year as it is so good to see them all enjoying themselves on the stage.

Saturday 24th September 2011 was busy day with Anne picking me up at 0 o'clock to go to some garage sales and to mind Emily while Anne was with Joel for swimming lessons.  We picked up some lovely clothes for Emily (brand new with tags still on some of them) then stopped for coffee & a play for Joel at McDonalds on the way to swimming.  Joel loved his swimming lessons as the photos and video will show & Emily slept through most of the morning and was very well behaved.   In the afternoon I played with the computer & iPhone downloading software & setting up email accounts.  My email will be changing shortly & I will send out messages to everyone in my contacts.  If you do not hear from me give me a ring & I will give you my new address just in case I did not have you in my address book.  Saturday night we went to Mark & Anne Stimpson's for dinner with Rick & Michelle McGrath to have a "Bonding" dinner leading up to the "Mixed Team Series" due to be played tomorrow.  It started to rain while we were there and has not stopped since.
We had a lovely dinner & a good chat getting home some time after midnight & I was late to bed by the time I did the golfers blog.

Sunday 25th September 2011 (today) was a complete washout for golf.  The course is unplayable so the Mixed Team Series has been postponed until November.  It has rained steadily all day so I am glad we did not get started on the golf and had to keep going.  I am not a wet weather golfer and would not have been happy.  We are going to the Dinner Dance tonight that was to follow the Golf Presentation as it has all been prepaid.  Apart from that the day was a write off.  I cleaned up some of my old files & got rid of a lot of old irrelevant equipment now that I have a new system running.    It is great to have a speedy computer and an iPhone that I can receive & send emails and get some great apps like my golf handicap update.

Wednesday 21st September 2011

There has been lots happening this week along with a lot of garden work.  The weather has been lovely so it has been nice to be able to get outside.

Saturday 17th September 2011 (Graham's 60th birthday that he celebrated while watching the Rugby in NZ) I spent the day in the back gardens while Peter went to golf.  I managed to get just about all the gardens weeded & mulched.

Sunday 18th September 2011 the computer monitor I had been using with my computer spat it's dummy & I could not use the computer without it. I still not have a replacement laptop yet to save me in these situations so I scrambled through the back shed & found an old monitor (of dinosaur era) & plugged it in and to my surprise it worked straight away. That saved my day. We played golf with Des & Yvonne Wilson  at 11 o'clock & had a very nice day - our main highlight being the boys winning the team event.  They beat us girls for the Keno ticket at the 16th hole where Des had a birdie to seal our fate.  We stayed on for dinner at the club with Des & Yvonne & were joined by Mark, Anne, Col, Lauren, Kevin & Lorraine where we celebrated Lorraine's birthday.

Monday 19th September 2011 we had a huge day at F-Troop starting at 7.00am & working through until 2 O'clock.  We were donated some mature plants, a bird bath & a garden seat as well as needing to spread mulch so we worked all morning to get everything into place & to tidy up around the clubhouse & 1st tee for a big Ladies Invitation Day being held tomorrow.  After F-Troop I just had time for lunch & a shower when Ken Gardiner from Megan called in to say hello.  Shane also arrived to take me out to the Telstra Shop at Erina to get my new computer & telephone bundles in place. It took us until after 5 o'clock to get everything organised & in place for us to set up my new system later this week.  I also upgraded my mobile to an iphone4 which was exciting as I have been wanting to learn how to use one.  I had some fun learning to get started. My mobile number is still the same.

Tuesday 20th September 2011 I was at golf at 8 o'clock as we had a big invitation day with over 100 starters with all proceeds going to Breast Cancer Research.  My playing partners were Jan Hoban (from Terrigal Golf Club), Jan Walker and Anne Burgess.  We had a lovely day even if it did blow a bit of a gale later in the morning.  Our highlight was Anne scoring an Eagle on a 4 par hole with two lovely shots.  We did not win any prizes other than Jan Hoban winning nearest the pin on the 8th, in fact I did not even win a raffle prize.  I did buy some cakes from the produce stall so I did not go home empty handed.  It was a big day as I did not get home until after 4 o'clock. Shane was at home installing a new screen for me which was part of the system going in this week

Wednesday 21st September 2011 I had another day in the back garden cleaning up the last of the gardens and my garden room where I keep all the plants in waiting for the golf club. Shane called in after work & cleaned out the fish tank for me & replaced the filter wool.  The fish look much happier.  The weather has been lovely & I enjoyed the day outside. I got all my phone contacts up to date in the iphone which was a bit of a chore to clean up as I forget to delete old unwanted numbers & had a big list to go through.

I am looking forward to getting everything hooked up & in working order.  My old computer is very slow as it is many years old & well out of date.  A firm in Brisbane is supplying my new laptop to replace the stolen one.  I should have it here next week some time all going well.  I should be all wireless by the time we leave for China with new technology available to make everything speedy & easy.

Tomorrow I am going out for the morning with Anne, Joel & Emily which will give me some quality time with them.

Friday 16th September 2011

The last four days have been pretty much all about gardening - my favourite occupation in the spring.
It is a very busy time as everything has to be weeded, fertilized, sprayed and mulched in preparation for the hotter weather to come.   I love this time of year when the garden bursts into colour and all of the roses open up for the first time.  I have been very busy with the golf club gardens as we had to be ready for the garden competition inspection this week.  We have entered into the "Best Commercial Garden" section which encompasses the whole of the golf course.  That inspection happened on Thursday so I am now back finishing off my gardens at home so that they will stay in good order while we are away in China for our golfing holiday.

Tuesday 13th September 2011 I had to fore go my golf in order to be able to finish off the golf club gardens ready for judging on Thursday.  We collected another trailer load of mulch and finished off the native garden at the 6th.  The I cleaned up the wedding garden area which is part of our "Theme Gardens" that are going to be judged on Thursday.

Wednesday 14th September 2011 I was up very early so that I could weed & mulch the garden at the side of the house before we had to leave to attend a funeral at Palmdale at 11 o'clock. My old work colleague Neville Pickering lost his much loved wife Irene after a long illness which was very sad.  The wake was held in the tea rooms at Palmdale where we caught up with a few friends that we had not seen for a while. In the afternoon we had some time at Erina Fair where we took the old 12 year old vacuum cleaner in to be repaired and much to our surprise it was fixable and only cost $100 repair rather than $1400 replacement cost - so that was good news.  We had a wedding gift to purchase from the Bridal Registry at Myers so we took care of that without any problems.  My three year old colour printer/fax/scanner has been spitting it's dummy.  We had a five year warranty on it so the retailers replaced it with a brand new one without even looking at what repair work was required - so that was more good news.  I checked out the lap top computers so that I can select one to replace the notebook that was stolen.  That is still with the insurance company.  Shane is building me a new home computer which I should have in place next week so I should be up and running with all the latest technology by next week.  On the way home from Erina we picked up another five bags of mulch so that I can finish off the home back gardens.

Thursday 15th September 2011 I was up early so that I could be over at the Golf Club by 8.30 am to meet up with the judges of the garden competition.  I took them around the club gardens in a golf cart showing them each of the gardens that we have worked on and also each of the theme gardens that we have created. Hopefully we have done enough work to get a mention on presentation day. I was home by 10.30 am and worked in the back gardens,getting four if the back gardens done.  The weather has been beautiful so it was a pleasure to be out there.

Friday 16th September 2011 (today) it was more of the same.  I managed to get most of the rose gardens done before coming in to watch the Davis Cup Tennis.  I plan on having another full day in the back gardens tomorrow which should have everything up to scratch. I will need to spend some time getting all of my old photos still on my computer organised, archived and backed up on external hard disc so that I will be working with a clean slate when my new computer system takes over.